Soon after Minister for Minority Affairs Smriti Irani, against the backdrop of a representation from the Ahmadiya community, stated that waqf boards does not have the authority to excommunicate anybody, a Hyderabad-based Muslim group objected to her statement.
In a statement, the Majlise Tahaffuze Khatme Nabuwwat Trust TS and AP said that their position had nothing to do with tolerance, but was based on established principles of Islamic theology, and a consensus of Islamic scholars from different sects and schools of jurisprudence. “It is neither the point of tolerance, nor the matter of intolerance, but a matter of believing the fundamentals of Islam or not,” an excerpt from the statement reads, even as it lays emphasis that they should be considered a different community.
It was in 2012 that APSWB of the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh(AP), led by then chairman Syed Ghulam Afzal Biyabani, passed a resolution seeking to remove from the board’s purview institutions belonging to the Ahmadiya community. The board then made the announcement before the media. “We were acting in light of a fatwa issued at that time. We wanted to hand over properties of the Ahmadiyas from the (AP State) Waqf Board to the Endowments Department,” Mr. Biyabani told The Hindu on Thursday.
