A Special Reserve Police commandant who went to offer namaz at a mosque in Gondal, some 30 km from Rajkot, was turned away. The reason: the mosque is controlled by those subscribing to the Barelvi school, while the commandant follows the Deobandi ideology. Earlier, a police sub-inspector and a judge were turned away from prayers at another Barelvi mosque in the town.

After the 2002 riots in Gujarat, Muslims of all sects and ideologies had united to rebuild their lives, their homes, their mosques. But of late, differences between followers of the Barelvi and Deobandi schools have come to such a head that Barelvi mosques in the Saurashtra-Kutch region have put up boards asking non-Barelvis not to enter. Those who turn up nevertheless are asked to leave.

Followers of the two schools have never got along well. About a year and a half back, followers of the two sects in Halol and Kalol, some 30 km from Godhra, fought pitched battles over trivial issues. In another incident about a year ago, in Boru village, some 40 km from Godhra, villagers closely related to each other but adhering to different sects fought a bloody battle.

Even so, it is unusual for a group to prevent members of another from prayers, for Islam says no one is to be turned away from a mosque.

Though both groups are Sunnis, the essential points of difference are that the austere Deobandi school considers the Barelvi attribution of omnipresence to the Prophet and its belief in the power of Sufi saints to intercede with Allah on behalf of human beings a corruption of strict Islamic tenets.

... contd.