Muslims need not fear CAA: Jamaat chief

Bareilly: Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi the Bareilly-based national president of All India Muslim Jamaat, has said that “Muslims in India have no reason to fear CAA”.

This comes days after government agencies announced that rules of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 will be notified before the Lok Sabha elections.

“After a detailed analysis of the provisions in the Act, we found that the law has nothing to do with Indian Muslims and will not affect them but benefit immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh who seek Indian citizenship,” the Mufti said.

Reacting to the recent remarks by Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Shafiq-Ur-Rehman Barq, in which he had stated that the situation will become serious if CAA is applied in the state, Razvi said,

“Barq is trying to frighten and mislead the community. Before issuing an explosive statement, he should first read the law and understand the reality. Such statements do not show an MP in good light.”

"This law will in no way spread love but only hatred. To run the country, we need love. Things will deteriorate in the coming days," he added.

The introduction of CAA triggered large-scale protests in several cities in the country in 2019 leading to many deaths.

Protests first erupted in Assam on December 4, 2019, when the bill was introduced in Parliament.

Soon it spread to major cities, including Delhi.

The protests resulted in 27 deaths by December-end, out of which 22 died in Uttar Pradesh alone.

Over a thousand people were arrested and more than 300 cases registered against the agitators.

According to reports, the rules are now ready and an online portal is also in place.

The entire process, reports said, “will be online and applicants may apply from their mobile phones as well”.