Bounty of Rs 1,00,786 announced on Muslim cleric's head who called Shiva 'messenger of Islam'

Mufti Muhammad Ilyas of the newly-formed Muslim body Jamaat Ulama-e-Hind — who had claimed that Lord Shiva was the “first prophet of Islam” and Muslims are “followers of Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism)” — seems to be in trouble with a religious group announcing a bounty on his head.

According to a Times of India report , “Bareilly-based All India Faizan-e-Madina Council, a socio-political group, has announced a bounty of Rs 1,00,786 on his head. The ’national president’ of the outfit, Mooen Siddiqui Noori, on Monday said the cash award would be given only to a Muslim. An “Islamic” sword would also be presented to the killer.”

The report says Ilyas is a champion of communal harmony in Ayodhya. Firstpost   correspondent Tariq Anwar had earlier quoted him as saying, “We are all Indians and children of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati and there should be no reservations in accepting the truth.”

As part of a delegation of clerics that visited Ayodhya last Wednesday to garner support for a communal harmony seminar — National Qaumi Ekta Conference — to be organised by the group on 27 February in Balrampur, Ilyas had told journalists, “Lord Shiva was first prophet of Islam and Muslims are followers of Sanatan Dharma.”

Noori, the leader of All India Faizan-e-Madina Council that reportedly helps the underprivileged and young girls to meet their marriage expenses, was not happy with Ilyas’s statement and said that he made the statements on the insistence of the RSS.

Times of India quoted Noori as saying , “For teaching such people a lesson so they never make such remarks again, I have decided that any Indian Muslim who gives me the head of Qasmi will be given a cash reward of Rs 1,00,786. He will also get an ‘Islamic sword’.”

Noori was not alone in dismissing Ilyas’s remarks. Firstpost had earlier reported that while Muslim intellectuals had rubbished Ilyasi’s statements as his personal view that were “baseless and have no proof”, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) hailed the cleric’s words. The Bharatiya Janata Party too had termed it his personal comments.

“The Holy Quran asserts that every community has its prophets, but mentioning the name of (Lord) Shiva as a prophet of Muslims has no proof. We condemn and completely disagree with the comments made by Ilyasi,” Jamaat-e-Islami Hind secretary general Maulana Nusrat Ali had told Firstpost.

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JuH) had also made it clear that Ilyas had no association with it and none of its delegation had visited Ayodhya. “First, be clear that it is not Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind but Jamaat Ulama-e-Hind, which was formed by some maulvis (clerics) with vested interest before 2014 Lok Sabha elections with an aim to improve Narendra Modi’s image in the Muslim community. It was used for Modi’s PR theatrics before the general elections and now, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is using it to spread a false message,” JuH chief Maulana Mehmood Madani had said.