The Bahujan Samaj Party’s plan to hold a national convention on the “Problems of Muslim Community in India: Its Causes and Solution” in Lucknow on Monday has not gone down well with some Muslim clerics.

The convention will be held a day before Muslim clerics from all over the country will meet at Delhi’s Jama Masjid to discuss the issue of terrorism.

Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Ahamed Bukhari, who is organising the Delhi gathering, however, claimed Chief Minister Mayawati had hurriedly planned the convention “in desperation”. According to him, Mayawati decided to hold the convention after getting to know of the Delhi meet, for which invitations had been sent out in September.

Bukhari said he had invited clerics from across the country, including Lucknow, Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Deoband, Varanasi and Azamgarh.

The common invitees at the two functions include the chairman of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) Maulana Rabe Hasni Nadwi, Naib Imam of Lucknow’s Aishbagh Eidgah and AIMPLB’s member Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali, prominent Shia cleric Kalbe Jawad and the head of Darul-Ulm-Warsia Maulana Iqbal Quadari. Maulana Nadwi may not be able to attend either because of his illness. BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra had called on him on Saturday and requested him to send his representative at the party’s convention.

Common invitee like Rashid Farangi Mahali, however, is not ready to link the two functions. “While BSP’s convention is siyasi (political), the meet that Bukhari has organised is an attempt to unite the Muslim community members. Thus, I plan to participate in both the functions. At present, Mayawati needs the Muslim community. We hope she will take steps for the betterment of the Muslim community after our discussion,” he said.

... contd.