The issue of difference of opinion over religious beliefs between two Muslim sects has reached the Gujarat High Court after a follower of one sect was arrested following a criminal complaint filed by a follower of another sect.

This happened in Bhuj early this year when the petitioner was arrested and now out on bail. The petition has been filed for getting the FIR quashed.

The petitioner, Ibrahim Bhachu Maman, a resident of Bhu, follows the Ehle Hadis school of thought among Muslims. Maman said in the petition that the police had arrested him in January this year following a complaint by one Haji Juma Haji Ibrahim Raima, who professes the Ehle-Sunnat Val Jamaat sect.

Raima had in his police complaint accused Maman of insulting a religious head of Ehle-Sunnat Val Jamaat, Saiyed Haji Ahmadshah Bava.

The religious head had received a letter from one Maulana Suleman Siddik, also a follower of the Ehle-Hadis sect.

The letter by Siddik had allegedly directed some provocative and controversial queries to Bava and sought to know his stand regarding the questions raised in the letter.

Raima in his complaint alleged that the queries were insulting for the religious head and that they were provocative enough to hurt religious feelings of a certain religious group. He also alleged that the queries have potential to provoke sectarian clashes.

The petitioner’s counsel Hashim Qureshi said, “Following the FIR, the Bhuj police had arrested Maman on charges of abetting the alleged act of hurting religious feelings of a particular sect. After his arrest, he was remanded for one day and has been out on bail since then.”

... contd.