A priest performs aarti on the bank of the Ganga in Varanasi. File picture

March 13: From Hyderabad to Lucknow, the anger against the Varanasi blasts is turning into revulsion against terrorism within the Muslim community.

Fatwas are pouring in from religious seminaries that had so far desisted from commenting on the cult of violence and concentrated on affairs relating to property, marriage and divorce.

Firangi Mahal of Lucknow, the country’s oldest and perhaps most conservative Islamic order, today came forward to slam terrorism and protest against evoking Islamic religious symbols and terminology in what it described as “crimes against humanity and Islam”.

On Saturday, several leading clerics of Hyderabad had issued fatwas (directives) asking militant outfits not to name themselves after Prophet Mohammad.

A little-known outfit that calls itself Lashkar-e-Qahar (the Army of the Subduer ? a word that traces its roots to one of the names of the Prophet) had claimed responsibility for the widely-condemned Varanasi blasts.

Today, Sajjad Umar, a resident of Khadra in Lucknow, sought a fatwa from Firangi Mahal’s “Darul-Ifta (House of Fatwa), seeking the Shariat’s stand on the attack on a place of worship.

While issuing a page-long fatwa, clerics Maulana Khalid Rashid and Naim-ur-Rahman Siddiqui quoted Quranic verses and instances from Prophet Mohammad’s life to dub the attack on the Varanasi temple a “crime against humanity”.

The scholars said there was no provision for killing innocents or attacking any place of worship. “All those indulging in such activities are acting against Islam,” the fatwa said, quoting relevant Quranic verses and instances from the Prophet’s life.

The fatwa called upon all Muslims to remember that the Prophet never sought revenge, and, during his lifetime, even holy fighters were told not to destroy any place of worship or kill innocent.

“This decree was issued even during jihad,” said Maulana Khalid, who is also a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

Siddiqui, the secretary of the Islamic Centre, Lucknow, said Islam viewed unprovoked attack on a place of worship as “satanic”.

It is equally wrong to use words and phrases drawn from the life of the Prophet for terrorist activities. “This is something that is against religion. We call upon everyone to refrain from using them,” he added.

This is the first time that so many Muslim clerics in India have come out together against militant outfits misusing the names of the Prophet. The collective response comes in the wake of the militants striking outside Jammu and Kashmir and picking out places of worship as their targets.

At a recent meeting of the personal law board executive in Bangalore, the mood among the clerics was to go public with their outrage and condemn terrorism.