On Monday, 11th March, Pakistani author Waseem Altaf waded into the namaz on streets debate. He slammed Indian Muslims for offering namaz on the streets and said that the Muslims deliberately block roads in a show of power.
“Indian Muslims are ‘jahils’, they don’t offer namaz in mosques despite most of them remaining empty, they block roads purposely,” he was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview with Pakistani journalist Arzoo Kazmi.
“In the Delhi’s Jamia Masjid area, the Muslims will not go inside the mosque to offer Namaz. They’ll come down on the streets. They’ll block the roads. The Indian Muslims I think do this as an act of defiance. They purposefully block the roads as if to challenge the state indicating ‘do what you want’,” Altaf said.
He also added that Muslims in Europe purposefully offer namaz in public places as an act of defiance. “They just want to show off their power. This is not at all acceptable. Muslims should understand that when they come to this level, they indirectly force the authorities to take action against them. The authorities must end their ‘jahalat’ at any cost,” Altaf added.
This comes days after a video of several Muslims offering namaz on the road in the Indralok area of Delhi surfaced online. In the video, a cop could be seen arriving at the spot and kicking a man offering namaz and hitting another with his hand and angrily asking the namaz-offering crowd to vacate the rather busy road.
The Delhi Police cop, identified as Manoj Tomar, was then suspended on 8th March after the video went viral in which the enraged Islamists could be heard saying “Maaro saale ko…(beat the scoundrel)”.
दिल्ली के इंद्रलोक में सड़क पर नमाज पढ़ रहे लोगों को पुलिस ने लात मारी.
— Shivam Pratap Singh (@journalistspsc) March 8, 2024
लोगो ने थाना घेरा! pic.twitter.com/6qoDds3DoR
Shortly after, a longer version of the same video surfaced in which it could be seen that the Muslims offering namaz on the road were warned multiple times by the Delhi Police before the said incident took place.
Netizens extended their support to the personnel who was on duty and was doing his job by decongesting the road for free traffic movement. As the new video appeared, it became evident that the Muslim mob was being disobedient in the first place.
जब कम थे तब बोला गया की हटो लेकिन झुंड मे आना और फिर पुलिस को ही मारने की धमकी देना और सोशल मिडिया पर आधी विडिओ डालकर लोगो को उकसाना और पुलिस को गलत साबित करना।
— Cyber Huntss (@Cyber_Huntss) March 8, 2024
देखिए पुरा विडिओ। pic.twitter.com/bVQDYsI18Z
Maulana Mahmood Madani, who leads a faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, took the opportunity to spread hatred against the law enforcement force and called for Manoj Tomar’s dismissal.
He hurled the usual victim card in a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Netizens have come out in support of the Delhi Police and the cop.
The issue of Muslims offering namaz in public places has been heavily criticised several times with the community gathering in large numbers at public places obstructing traffic and movement of good and public.
Several Islamists in the past have purposefully created chaos in Gurugram, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Mumbai, and Delhi by offering Namaz on the streets. In several states like Uttar Pradesh, the government has imposed a ban on offering namaz in public places.
Inderlok is a Muslim-dominated area where a mosque called Bade Masjid is situated. Netizens have been asking why there was a need for the Muslims to offer namaz on the streests at the cost of traffic movement and even life when they could have offered it at the mosque.
Many argued that India has over 6 lakh mosques, which is more than most Islamic countries. Instead of using the mosque premises to offer namaz, Muslims in India have been using public places, blocking roads, and causing inconvenience to others.
And while they have been using public amenities like roads at their disposal, several Hindu processions across Indian cities passing on account of Hindu festivals have been attacked by the jihadis claiming that Hindus were passing through “their locality” and that Hindus were singing or playing religious songs to “taunt” them.
