CLAIM
A viral post on social media claimed that Darul Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa against Muslims to not vote for Bharatiya Janata Party.
The post starts with “Fatwa against BJP” and has a message that reads “It is necessary to defeat the BJP; Muslims, do vote against BJP”. It also asks, “How many Hindus are present who proudly say that their vote will always go to Narendra Damodardas Modi?”
A Facebook page named ‘Modi Government’ had around 442 shares at the time this article was written, with over 800 comments.
Did the Islamic board really issued a fatwa against BJP?
FACT
The seminary did not issue any fatwa against the BJP, neither did it advise Muslims to vote against the political party. The same claim had gone viral in 2018 as well and has resurfaced now.
While talking to The Quint, Mahummadullah Qasmi, coordinator of Darul Uloom Deoband, confirmed that they never issued any fatwa against the BJP. In fact, he said that a fatwa cannot be issued in political matters and is only issued on religious matters.
“Darul Uloom Deoband did not issue any fatwa. In any case, it cannot be a fatwa, it can only be a statement. Fatwa is entirely different and it is issued only on religious matters.”Mahummadullah Qasmi, coordinator of Darul Uloom Deoband
FAKE NEWS RESURFACES
The news of fatwa by the seminary had gone viral before the Kairana and Noorpur bypolls last year and has resurfaced again ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
According to a 2018 The Times of India report, Darul Uloom Deoband had then condemned the ‘fake news’ and had said they would move court against it.
However, Mahummadullah Qasmi told The Quint they had only considered filing a case, but never filed one. “No case was filed, it was only considered. We did not feel the need after that,” he said.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
The TOI report said that the statement was made by Maulana Hashib Siddiqui of Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind. This was not a fatwa either. In his statement, he had only appealed fellow Muslims to “not waste their votes on BJP”.
“The entire country is troubled by the current government and Muslims must not waste giving their votes to BJP,” said Siddiqui’s statement from 2018.
Qasmi denied any official connection with the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and said that the organisation had a lot of people from Deoband, but has no link to Darul Uloom Deoband.
“Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind has a lot of people from Deoband in it, but it is not connected to Darul Ulooom Deoband in any official manner.”Mahummadullah Qasmi, coordinator of Darul Uloom Deoband to The Quint
Qasmi clarified that a fatwa cannot be issued if the matter is not related or based on religious lines and that the seminary refrains from speaking on political issues.
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(With inputs from The Times of India)
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