Hyderabad: No variant of viruses can eradicate the cultural feuds which exist in the mindsets of many people in the country. Giving ignition to a controversy, an MLA of the BJP has come forward to tell Muslims to sacrifice their children rather than animals on Eid-ul-Adha, one of the religious festivals of Muslims in the world.
This obnoxious suggestion has fuelled the already deteriorating relations between people of different religions after the Delhi protests.
The shocking statement came from Nand Kishore Gurjar, a BJP MLA belonging to the Loni Constituency of Ghaziabad. Apart from urging people to “sacrifice their children instead of animals”, he also went on to claim that “meat spreads coronavirus” and hence this tradition should be stopped as ceasing this will save innocent animals from being sacrificed. Centre’s ruling party’s MLA also added that he will ensure that people within his constituency neither eat meat nor drink alcohol.
According to ANI’s report, Nand Kishore said, “People who want to sacrifice on Eid should sacrifice their children. I will not let people consume meat and alcohol in Loni. We will not let people sacrifice innocent animals because meat spreads coronavirus.”
He mentioned that the measures which have been put into action by people of all religions-like not going to holy places to carry out their daily prayers- should be further encouraged by stopping the animal sacrifice as well.
“The way people have followed the guidelines of the government by not offering prayers and namaz at temples and mosques to contain COVID-19, in the same way, they must not offer the sacrifice of animals on this Eid,” he said.
“Earlier, sacrifices of animals were offered in Sanatan Dharam as well. However, now coconut is offered instead. I request the Muslim brothers not to give ‘Qurbani’ of animals. We will stop those who will perform the ritual animal sacrifice. We will not let this happen in Loni,” the MLA said.
Meanwhile, a senior Muslim cleric and Imam of Aishbagh Eidgah, Maulana Khalid Rashid FirangiMahali, had written a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on July 9th to allow the goat markets to be set up at specific locations within the city for EidulAdha.
He said that the use of masks and sanitizers should be made compulsory while people buy the goat as this tradition holds a lot of value and importance in Islam. The cleric requested that the market should be allowed to function as the tradersbreed these animals the whole year for this one day. The entire livelihood depends on this market. He further asked for an assertion that there will be no interruption or religious issues during the transportation of these animals from their respective farms.
Muslims will be celebrating EidulAdha this year on the 1st of August.
