Who is Wasim Rizvi, and why is he again in News?

Wasim Rizvi has written in his letter that 26 imports recorded in the Quran are going to promote terrorism. He said that these statements cannot be of Allah, so ban should be taught in madrasas. 

Ground Report | New Delhi: Former Shia Waqf Board chairman Wasim Rizvi has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove 26 verses in the Quran. Wasim Rizvi wrote a letter to the Prime Minister saying that these verses of the Quran are being taught to children in madrasas, which is leading to their radicalization. He said that violence has been taught in these 26 verses and any such training which promotes terrorism should be stopped.

Earlier in the capital Lucknow, Wasim Rizvi had said that some verses of the Quran are promoting terror and they should be removed so that Muslim names are not associated with terrorist activities. For this, former chairman of Shia Waqf Board Rizvi approached the court so that rectangles could be removed. However, the result was something else. During this, effigies of Rizvi were burnt in Lucknow. They also received threats to kill them.

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Wasim Rizvi wrote that 26 verses of the Quran mention atrocities, religious hysteria, so he wrote the new Quran and wrote a letter to the Prime Minister demanding that the old one be banned. He wrote that I studied the Quran in which it was found that there are 26 articles (verses) in the Quran-e-Majeed which cannot be the statement of Allah because the said article (verse) promotes terrorism / extremist / fundamentalist mindset. 

He further wrote that because of these Quranic verses, terrorist ideology is coming up in Muslim society. That is why Muslim terrorism is at the height of the whole world. Has been put in the right order and 26 verses promoting terrorism have been removed from the Quran-e-Majid. 

Wasim Rizvi had earlier petitioned the Supreme Court to remove 26 verses from the Quran. Rizvi had said in the petition that bigotry and terrorism are being encouraged by the 26 verses of the Quran. He said that these verses have been added later in the Quran. However, this petition was rejected by the court. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Rizvi. After this step, the Muslim society had expressed a lot of resentment against him.

Who is Syed Wasim Rizvi

Wasim Rizvi is a former chairman of the Shia Central Board of Waqf in Uttar Pradesh. He is known for filing a controversial petition in Supreme Court, as well as producing the Bollywood film Ram Ki Janmabhoomi.

The son of a second class railway employee, Rizvi never completed college. He was elected councillor of the Samajwadi Party (SP) from the Kashmiri Mohalla ward of the old city of Lucknow in 2000 and became a member of the Shia Waqf Board in 2008.

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In 2012, Rizvi was expelled from the SP for six years after an altercation with Shia cleric Kalbe Jawad, who accused him of money laundering. After this the Shia Waqf Board was also dissolved. But later Rizvi was relieved by the court and reinstated.

Controversial comments in past

On January 10, 2018, he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding the closure of all 'madrasas', as he said he produced "terrorists". He claimed that madrasas were used to impart training in making explosives. He also claimed that 'madrasas' promoted radicalism and terrorism in the country. He described 'madrasas' as 'curses' for the society.

He demanded that 'madrasas' be converted into regular schools and affiliated to the CBSE and ICSE boards, in which Islamic education could be an elective subject. In a similar letter to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he described 'madrasas' as the "hotbed" of terrorist ideology.

On 3 February 2018, he went to Ayodhya and made a statement that those who opposed the Ram temple at the Bari Masjid site should go to Pakistan and Bangladesh. He said that such people have no place in India. His statements were described by Shia leaders as a bid to protect himself from the long hand of the law as he is involved in grabbing and illegal sale of Waqf properties.

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