CAA has nothing to do with Muslims, they need not fear it: All India Muslim Jamaat chief
Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, who heads the All India Muslim Jamaat, has appealed to all Muslims to not fear the CAA and to welcome it
Even as the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala condemned the implementation of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and gave a call for a state-wide protest on Tuesday, March 12, the Centre has found an unlikely ally in Bareilly-based Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi.
Barely hours after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government at the Centre notified the controversial law on March 11, the chief of the All India Muslim Jamaat and general secretary All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam, issued a statement on social media backing the law. The Maulana also issued an appeal to the Muslim community to not be afraid of the law.
Welcoming the Centre’s move to implement the CAA, Maulana Shahabuddin wrote on his Twitter handle, “We welcome the implementation of the CAA by the government of India and every Muslim of India should also welcome it. Muslims should not be afraid of it. The law grants citizenship and does not take it away. Muslims have nothing to do with it.
The Maulana also posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, in which he is seen exhorting Muslims to welcome the law.
“The government of India has implemented the CAA law and has also issued a notification. I welcome the implementation of the law by the government because this law has nothing to do with Muslims and Muslims need not to fear it."
There are a lot of misunderstanding among the Muslims regarding the law, he stressed. "This law is for those non-Muslim people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh who have been living in India for years and they have not been granted citizenship. The law intends to grant citizenship to such groups of people. The law will not snatch away the citizenship of even a single individual from among the crores of Muslims living in India,” the Maulana said in the video, reassuring his community members.
While defending the government's move, the Maulana also issued an appeal to Muslims to welcome the law. “Therefore, Muslims need not to worry and fear about it, and I would like to appeal every single Muslim to welcome the implementation of the CAA,” he said in the end of his statement in the video.
Protests over CAA
The Centre had passed the law in 2019, after which there were nation-wide anti-CAA protests for months. Protests first erupted in Assam on December 4, 2019 and soon it spread to major cities, including Delhi. Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi emerged as the symbol of civil resistance against the Centre’s move.
The protests, however, resulted in 27 deaths by December-end, out of which 22 died in UP alone. Over a thousand people were arrested and more than 300 cases registered against the agitators.
The CAA is considered as a prelude to the implementation of the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Union Minister for home affairs Amit Shah has time and again reiterated the BJP-led government’s resolve to implement the CAA, NPR and NCR.
