By Rashi Jain-
A lawyer from Kuwait Mijbil Al Shureka through Twitter raised issues regarding the construction of Ram temple at the site of Babri Masjid. Lawyer published a letter denoting All India Muslims Personal Law Board to allow him to contest the case before International Court.
On 9th November 2019, The Supreme Court of India gave a unanimous verdict for handing over the disputed land to build the Ram Janmabhoomi temple. The disputed site has a very rich history for both the religions. It is said that the disputed site is the birthplace of Lord Rama, which was demolished by Mughal emperor Babur in 1528 and later on he constructed Babri Masjid over the disputed site. While once again the demolition of the disputed site was done in 1992 by a large mob of Hindu activists and allied organizations.
Kuwaiti lawyer through Twitter offered his legal services for taking the case to International Criminal Court at Hague, Netherlands, and asking for support from Indian Muslims and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to appoint him as their lawyer for the case.
In one of his Twitter posts, he attached a letter addressed to “The President, AIMPLB, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi,” in which he claimed to address this letter on behalf of all the Muslims and the Arab World. The letter also accused the AIMPLB and the Babri Masjid Action Committee of ‘very meek and half-hearted defense.’ He also demanded the board to give him the authority to take the Babri Masjid case to the International Criminal court.
In response to his letter, Zafaryab Jilani, lawyer of the Babri Masjid Action Committee declined his offer through a letter while informing him that the Babri case is a ‘civil matter and not a criminal one’ and asked him “Kindly tell me the provision of law under which such a judgement of the Supreme court of India can be challenged in any International court (Criminal or Civil)”
Jilani also reminded him in the letter that, “the silence and meek protest of the entire Arab world on the tragic incident of demolition of Babri Masjid which had taken place on 6-12-1992 and till now no country or the people of any country have taken up the issue with the Government of India for the last of about 28 years.”
He also wrote in the letter that “if the said lawyer really meant business, he could have contacted people pursuing the Babri case personally and discussed with them the merits of the case. Babri is not just a legal case.”
Dr. SQR Ilyas, Co-convenor of Personal Law Board’s Babri Action Committee in response to his Twitter offer told, “Who is stopping him? Let him do whatever he wants. But we cannot be a party to this. India is not a signatory to the International Court of Justice. The Babri case cannot be taken there. We fought the case to the best of our ability. We have expressed our disagreement with the ruling. But we cannot go beyond the Supreme Court. He should know our system.”
While in response to Jilani’s letter, Al Shureka posted another tweet accusing the Muslim Law Board of RSS- Backed Muslim institution and said “Lawyer Zafaryab Jilani won’t agree that Babri Masjid belongs to International Community. I appeal to Indian Muslims to join us in the appeal to ICC. We can reclaim and rebuild the Masjid”