BeyondHeadlines Staff Reporter
New Delhi: While the world responded the killing of Osama bin Ladin with unprecedented jubilation and celebration but when it comes to Indian Muslim leaders, the reaction was completely different. Talking to BeyondHeadlines, Syed Ahmad Bukhari, shahi imam of historic Jama Masjid, Delhi, who had highly opposed the US attack on Afghanistan in 2001 and later on Iraq in 2003, still thinks that Osama was not a terrorist.
“I don’t believe that Osama was a terrorist. To call someone ‘terrorist’ the evidences are needed before the court of law, but a single court of the world declared him a terrorist. It is the assertion of the United States and NATO that he was a terrorist. Why should we believe them,” asked Bukhari.
“I want to ask to those countries, including India, which were expressing grief on the 9/11 incident that what are their views about those thousands of innocent Muslims who were killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and now are being killed in Libya,” said the cleric.
“I will strongly say that the United States and Israel are biggest terrorists, which are involved in the killing of humanity across globe,” he argued.
However, there was some resentment about the fact that he was in Pakistan. Imam Bukhari said it proved the contention that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) gave shelter to terrorists. “I am not saying Osama was a terrorist, but the fact that outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have bank accounts in the United States show that the United States and ISI jointly sponsor the acts of terrorism in India.”
“I don’t think that he is killed in Pakistan. If it is true, why he does not caught alive. It is a conspiracy against a Muslim country,” Bukhari said.
Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, executive president of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an umbrella body of Indian Muslim organizations, termed it a drama staged by the United States.
“It was nothing but a drama. It might end the issue of the US terrorism because they were using Osama to justify their activities in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the United States can leave Afghanistan on the pretext that it has achieved its goal by killing Osama. It will proudly say its citizens that it has won the so-called war against terror and it will also facilitate the reelection of Mr Obama,” Khan pointed out.
Khan also has suspicion on this killing.
“I think he was died 10 years ago when the United States invaded Tora Bora in Afghanistan,” Khan said.
Maulana Arshad Madani, president of one faction of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, also disagreed that Osama was a terrorist. He told BeyondHeadlines: “I do not believe he was indulged in terrorism. The question to be asked is why did the United States come into Afghanistan in the first place? Who created Osama? Americans did to exterminate the Russians. Now that their need has been fulfilled, they term Osama, who was at one point their best friend, a terrorist. It is symptomatic of the American way of functioning of their constant use and throw policy with countries and people.”
Sharing the same vies, Jamaat-e-Islam Hind Chief Maulana Jalaluddin Umri said: “It is the contention of the United States only that Osama was a terrorist. There is no reason for us to take their words at face value. As for his having been killed inside Pakistan by the US forces, that is something Pakistan should get worried about.”
Mufti Mohammad Mukarram, shahi imam, Masjid Fatehpuri, said: “I think the trend to equate Islam and Muslims with terrorism will end, and from now on the name of Osama and innocent Muslims would not be used to hide the faces of real perpetrator of many terror activities carried out every other day.
“Whatever is being done by the United States in Afghanistan and Israel in Palestine is also terrorism, but when this will end,” questioned Mukarram.
Answering a question about role of Al-Qa’ida after death of Osama, he said that he did not believe that Al-Qa’ida exist.
