Amendments in Wakf law not acceptable: Mirwaiz Umar

SRINAGAR — Jamia Masjid’s head cleric, Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir Molvi Umar Farooq on Friday said that the amendments proposed by the Government of India (GoI) in the new bill cannot be tolerated.

Addressing the large Friday congregation at historic Jama Masjid Srinagar, Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir said that any such decision will be opposed tooth and nail.

In a statement issued to the news agency KNO, Mirwaiz said that the Government of India introduced a bill in the parliament seeking to amend the Waqf Act and bring sweeping changes to how Waqfs are governed and regulated, causing great anguish and concern to the Muslims in India and naturally in Muslim-majority Jammu & Kashmir, where most of our mosques, shrines, Khanqas come under the Waqf Board.

Many controversial provisions have been proposed, including changing the composition of the board. Non-Muslims will now be made part of the board, and a non-Muslim can even be made the CEO of the board, which is a direct interference in religious matters, he said.

Mirwaz said that in the proposed bill, one has to be a Muslim for at least five years to Wakf his/her property, which is ridiculous.

Further, a district collector will now make the decision in case of dispute on the final status of the Wakf land – whether it is Wakf property or government land. And since this government has come to power, many disputes have been raked around mosques, and till the dispute is settled, the land will be deemed to be government land, he said.

It also wants to remove the concept of “Wakf by use”. Hundreds of Wakf mosques are centuries old, and some don’t have documents to prove it; all those will then be deemed to be on government land, Mirwaiz added.

Mirwaiz said that, unfortunately, the agenda of this government seems to persist in disempowering Muslims and using them as polarising agents for electoral purposes.

Mirwaiz said, “As Muslims, we need to remain alert to these tactics and to safeguard our interests as much as we can. If the government goes ahead with these discriminatory laws, it will be resisted by the Muslims of J&K.”

“We are closely monitoring this issue and will take it up in the next Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU) meeting,” he added.