BJP, Sangh Parivar communalising social fabric -- Shahi Imam
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, OCT 20: Newly appointed Shahi Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid Syed Ahmad Bukhari today accused BJP and Sangh Parivar of communalising country's secular social fabric and asked Muslims to be united to defeat "opportunistic secular" as well as communal forces in the country.

Addressing a Friday congregation for the first time after succeeding his father Syed Abdullah Bukhari last week, the Shahi Imam assailed RSS Chief K S Sudarshan's call on Indianisation of minorities and said the party should clarify its stand on Ayodhya and Common Civil Code issues.

Muslims in India, he said were attached to the country constitutionally, legally, socially and geographically, but as far as their attachment with religion was concerned "it is with and only with Islam".

"I want to make one thing clear that one who is not faithful to his country cannot be faithful to his faith," Bukhari said.

He also condemned the tendency to dub Muslims, their educational and religious centres as agents of ISI and asserted that Muslims have nothing to do with the Pakistan Intelligence Agency.

Bukhari asked Pakistani military ruler Parvez Musharraf not to make anti-India statements as it adversely affects Muslims in India.

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