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Let Hindus build temple if one originally existed at Babri site: Kaaba mosque imam

Imam Maulana Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al Subhait of Mecca's Kaaba mosque -- the holiest shrine in Islam -- has asked Muslims to shun violence over the Babri Masjid issue.

''If it could be proved with substantial evidence that a temple originally existed at the site of the razed Babri Masjid, then Muslims must relinquish their claim over it. If, however, it is found that the Babri Masjid was not erected on the foundations of a temple, then that would be a valid ground for the reconstruction of the mosque.''

Addressing the media after a two-day international Islamic meet at the Darul-Uloom Nadwatul Ulema, the internationally acclaimed university for Islamic studies in Lucknow, the Imam declined to equate the Babri Masjid case with the historic Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Israel. ''There is a lot of difference between the two issues,'' he said. The Al Aqsa mosque issue, however, evoked sharp response from representatives of other Islamic nations.

Urging the Islamic world to wage a war against Jewish forces, Sheikh Mohammad Bi Al Siyan, Imam of the the Al Aqsa mosque, said, ''I have reason to believe that the Al Aqsa mosque will meet the same fate as the Babri mosque.'' He, therefore, asked ''Islamic forces to liberate the mosque at the earliest''.

The controversy over Muslim women offering namaz at a mosque in Lucknow was also brought to rest by the Kaaba Imam. He said there was nothing wrong with the practice, provided it did not interfere with the prescribed purdah and the desired security for women.

Asked why the question of Iraq had not come up for discussion at the two-day meet, he pointed out, ''The matter may not have been raised here. But the entire Islamic community is with Iraq... For that matter with every such nation that is facing oppression form Jewish forces.''

Some of the other speakers gave detailed accounts of ''anti-Islamic practices'' in their respective regions. Top Bihar Imam Maulana Nizamuddin criticised some Muslim sects living on the Indo-Nepal border for ''retaining their Hindu names even after conversion to Islam.'' The meeting resolved to call for unity among Islamic nations to wage a war against anti-Islamic forces.

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