Namaaz on road shouldn’t inconvenience others: Cleric

Lucknow, July 29 (IANS) All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member and well known Sunni cleric Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali has said that prayers should not be offered by causing inconvenience to anyone.

Reacting to a controversy over namaaz on roads, he said, "Namaaz is prayer before Allah. It is not right to offer prayers by causing inconvenience to anyone."

He said namaaz on roads was not a daily affair and happened only on Friday due to the rush.

"In some mosques, when there is no space left for people, they offer prayers on the road on Friday. But if anyone has any objection to it, then the people should make an extra effort to reach the mosque in time for it," he said.

The cleric, while referring to recent incidents of non-Hindus being forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram', said: "As far as Hinduism is concerned, there is no scope for force."

"Lord Ram has not said anywhere that his followers should forcibly get slogans raised for him. Lord Ram is known as 'Maryada Purshottam'. How anyone can behave in an undignified manner in his name?" he asked.

General Secretary of the AIMPLB, Maulana Wali Rehmani, however, said that it was not wrong according to the Shariat to offer namaaz on an open place.

"Let people read into what I have said," he said, adding that it had become a habit of some 'saffron-clad people' to behave in an arbitrary manner against Muslims.

In Hathras, some Hindu organizations had objected to namaaz on roads and had organized the recital of Hanuman Chalisa outside the Hanuman temple in Sikandararau area as retaliation.

In Aligarh, the district administration has banned all 'religious activities' on roads without prior permission.