Rizvi for ban on hoisting of green flag by Muslims
LUCKNOW: UP Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on the green-white flag with halfmoon and star emblem, similar to the national flag of Pakistan.
Waseem Rizvi has claimed that the flag has nothing to do with Islam as has been wrongly portrayed by a few Muslim clerics. He has sought a ban on the ground that the flag in question closely resembles the national flag of Pakistan and is a source of communal tension and discord between members of Hindu and Muslim communities.
The petition says the flags being hoisted by Indian Muslims resembled the flags of the Pakistan Muslim League and belongs to the “enemy country”.
Tracing the flag’s origin, Rizvi in his petition has claimed that the crescent-star logo in green colour was designed by Muslim League, a political party founded by Nawaz Waqar Ul-Malik and Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1906, but in the present day, it was being used by Indian Muslims who were treating it as an Islamic flag.
Rizvi had recently drawn flak from Muslims when he had sought a ban on madarsas, dubbing them a breeding ground for terrorists.
He was also slammed by the community for his initiative to settle the Ayodhya imbroglio out of court by handing over the disputed land to the Hindus and construct the masjid in Muslim dominated locality of Lucknow.
“Such flags are being regularly hoisted in Muslim-dominated areas with impunity,” Rizvi said adding that the crescent and star in a green backdrop were not part of any Islamic practice and did not have any role or significance in Islam.
“Hoisting of enemy flags by persons under wrong belief that it is a religious flag, require immediate attention of the government agencies,” he pointed out.