Arrest former Shia waqf chief for demanding change in Quran, breach of peace: Shia-Sunni clerics

LUCKNOW: General secretary of Majlis-e-Ulama-e-Hind Maulana Kalbe Jawad and Imam of Aishbagh Eidgah Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangimahali on Friday condemned former Shia waqf board chairperson Waseem Rizvi for making controversial statements against the Quran.
Both the senior Shia and Sunni clerics unanimously demanded that Rizvi be arrested for insinuating unwanted inter-community sentiments between the two communities. Rizvi, recently approached the Supreme Court for elimination of 26 verses of the Quran.
As per Rizvi's petition, these verses incite violence and were allegedly added on in the Quran later in the period of the first three Caliphs.
However, both Shia and Sunni clerics have said that not a single word has been altered or tampered with in the original Quran in the last 1400 years.
"Rizvi should be arrested immediately for rabble rousing. He is an agent of anti-Muslim forces and with the CBI investigating corruption in the waqf board, he is doing all in his imagination to hold on to their support," said Maulana Kalbe Jawad.
"If the government does not arrest him, it will be clear that it wants chaos and rioting too. Rizvi is neither a Shia nor a Muslim," he added.
Addressing people before Friday prayers at the Eidgah, Maulana KHalid Rasheed Farangimahali said that the court should dispose of Rizvi's petition which has hurt Muslims across the world.
"Allah has taken responsibility of his Holy book and said that not even a letter or punctuation in it will change till Qayamat. Who is Rizvi then to make such tall claims? His petition should not be entertained, strict legal action be taken against him and the government arrest him for breaching peace," he said.