The Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Wasim Rizvi has written a letter to the Union Home Minister of India, Amit Shah, asking him to include the Shia Muslims from the Muslim countries within the ambit of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019.
Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Wasim Rizvi (in file pic) has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting the minister to include Shia community in #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019. pic.twitter.com/2u0TKAl8m3
— ANI (@ANI) December 9, 2019
In a letter addressed to the Union Home Minister, Rizvi has claimed that the Shia Muslims are being harassed in Sunni dominated Muslim countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria etc. and has asked him to include the Shia Muslims within the purview of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, in order to grant Indian nationality to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, who come to India because of religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan even if they do not possess proper documents.
”It is true that Shias are one of the weaker sections of the Muslim community which have always been oppressed by the majority Muslim community because Shia sect refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of rabid caliphs succeeding Prophet Muhammad. Shia community parted their ways as the succeeding caliphs were unworthy of representing Islam and were primarily responsible for murdering the family of Prophet Muhammad,” Rizvi said.
Rizvi further claimed that Shias have been exploited by the dominant Sunni community from the last 1400 years and the exploitation still continues.
“With the aim to relieve the Shia community from the cruelty and excesses meted out by the majority Sunni, it is my humble request to the Union Minister to consider Shia Muslim community alongside other persecuted minority communities which are considered to be included in the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019,” Rizvi has stated.
It is notable here that Sunnis make the majority sect in many Muslim nations. But Shias are in the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and as per some estimates, in Yemen too.
