Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s Ameer Dr. Shafiqur Rahman has issued the following statement on 8 August 2020 expressing deep concern as the construction work of a temple began in the place of the historic Babri Mosque in India.

“Like the Indian Muslims, the entire Muslim communities around the globe are deeply shocked as the Indian authority laid the foundation stone for a Hindu temple in a place of Mughal-era mosque. Babri Mosque is 460-year-old structure. Whoever is claiming that there had been a temple before the establishment of this mosque, their stance is untrue and confusing. The year-long excavation found no sign of such Hindu establishment in that place. Even the Indian Supreme Court admitted in their last verdict that, it is not proved that this historic mosque was built after the temple had been demolished.

The basis of this latest construction work is nothing but a controversial verdict of the Indian Supreme Court. A former chief justice of India and several other justices of Kolkata high court asserted that, it is not the judicial duty of a court to construct or re-construct history. The court gives verdict based on evidences and specific documentations. But the Indian Supreme Court failed to give the order on Babri mosque based on such evidences. This verdict also violates the law and the constitutional spirit.

Indian government’s move to construct a Hindu temple by utilizing this perverse judgment, has stunned the world communities. Undoubtedly, it is an exposition of the ultra-communal mentality of the ruling authority. We hope that the Indian government will show due respect to the UN endorsed religious and human rights convention and the religious sentiment of the Muslim Communities in India and elsewhere across the globe and simultaneously will be refrained from the continuation of the construction of a Hindu temple in the place of historic Babri mosque.