Maulana Saad won’t take part in Biswa Ijtema: Home minister

Indian noted Islamic scholar Maulana Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi will not take part in the Biswa Ijtema, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Thursday.

The Biswa Ijtema, the second largest congregation of the Muslim community after the holy hajj, will be held in two phases from January 12-14 and January 19-21 on bank of the river Turag amid tight security.

On Wednesday, the followers of a Tabligh Jamaat faction gather on the Airport intersection protesting against the arrival of Maulana Saad for the Biswa Ijtema. The Airport Road was blocked for several hours.

Despite the protest, Kandhalvi reached the local Tabligh headquarters without hindrance in the capital’s Kakrail.

In 2016, Darul Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa (decree) against Kandhalvi accusing him of “misinterpreting Islamic shariah and insulting prophets and messengers of the Almighty.”

The demonstrators are under orders from Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh leader Shah Ahmed Shafi, who is a follower of Deoband school of thought and does not want the Indian preacher and his followers to attend this year’s Ijtema.

On January 7, a meeting was held in Jamiya Islamia Darul Ulum Madaniya Madrasa in Jatrabari, Dhaka in presence of 21 people, including Tabligh’s Shura [executive] members and a visiting delegation from India, where everyone present voiced their opinion against Maulana Saad’s visit during Ijtema.

Maulana Saad is the grandson of Mawlana elias (R) who was the founder of Tablighi Jamaat.

At present he serves as ‘Murabbi’ of Biswa Markaj of Nizamuddin in Delhi.

He led the final Munajat of Biswa Ijtema last year.