VHP demonstration against dictum of Muslim clerics on Vande Mataram

November 6th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) staged a mass protest here against the Muslims clergy for issuing fatwa, asking the Muslims not to sing India's national song Vande Mataram. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind passed the fatwa on Vande Mataram during its 30th general session held at the Islamic seminary in Deoband on Tuesday by contending that some of the verses of the song are against the tenets of their religion.

November 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, which issued a fatwa (legal pronouncement in Islam) against singing of India's national song Vande Mataram by Muslim community, down played the issue on Wednesday. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind passed the fatwa on Tuesday during its 30th general session at the Islamic seminary in Deoband, saying that some of the verses of the song are against the tenets of their religion.

November 4th, 2009 more images more imagesNEW DELHI - Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday clarified that he was not aware that a resolution had been passed against the national song 'Vande Mataram' by Muslim clerics at a gathering at Deoband attended by him.

November 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - No resolution was passed during Home Minister P. Chidambaram's visit to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) conference at Deoband on Tuesday.

November 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's national song 'Vande Matram', which came under attack Tuesday at the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, evolved from being just a poem into a cry for freedom from British rule. According to historian Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, the Sanskrit poem was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the early 1870s.

November 3rd, 2009 DEOBAND - Urging terrorists and Maoist rebels to lay down arms, an Islamic cleric Tuesday assured them the community would help them take up their cause. "If terrorists and Maoists agree to give up violence, they are welcome to join us and I would like to assure them that we will fight for them," said Maulana Mehmood Madni, the convenor of the annual convention of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind organised at Deoband seminary here.

November 3rd, 2009 DEOBAND - Renowned yoga guru Swami Ramdev Tuesday sought to promote his method of keeping fit and dispel misconceptions about it at the gathering of clerics and followers at the historic Islamic seminary here. Ramdev was the first non-Muslim cleric to address the annual convention of Islamic seminaries under the auspices of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind at the seminary, known for its influence over bulk of the Sunni Muslims across the country.

November 3rd, 2009 more images more imagesDEOBAND - Terrorists and Maoists were urged Tuesday to give up arms by a mass gathering of Muslim clerics at India's oldest Islamic seminary here, prompting Home Minister P. Chidambaram to applaud the move "as a call to duty ...

November 3rd, 2009 DEOBAND/LUCKNOW - The Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind Tuesday supported a decree against the national song "Vande Mataram" on the grounds that some of its lines were "against the religious principles of Islam". The move drew fierce criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which termed the move "anti-national".

November 3rd, 2009 more images more imagesDEOBAND - The Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, one of the largest organisations of Muslim clerics in India, Tuesday supported a decree against the national song Vande Mataram on the ground that some of its lines were against the religious principles of Islam. The resolution asking Muslims not to sing the "Vande Mataram" was passed at the national convention of the Jamiat held at Darul Uloom, Deoband, one the largest Muslim seminaries in South Asia, about 150 km from the national capital.

July 3rd, 2009 MORADABAD - A day after the Delhi High Court overturned ban on gay sex, Muslim clerics in Moradabad have issued a fatwa against homosexuality. The Delhi High Court on Thursday had ruled that gay sex was not a crime, a verdict that will bolster demands by gay and health groups that the government scrap a British colonial law.

June 23rd, 2009 LUCKNOW - Muslim clerics in Lucknow on Tuesday expressed their displeasure at the French President Nicolas Sarkozy for terming the burqa as an index of subjugating women, and said Muslims must be given complete freedom to practice their religion. "It's an attack on freedom of humanity and the people who profess secularism are talking just in contrast to that.

April 18th, 2009 KOLKATA - Different political parties in West Bengal evolve and churn out innovative, hard-hitting and impressive slogans to woo the voters as the key to their election campaigning. The resounding cry of 'Vande Mataram' (homage to motherland) or 'Inquilaab Zindabad' (long live workers' revolution) has the power to activate the adrenalin in one and all.

March 17th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Bollywood actor and Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Lucknow Sanjay Dutt sought the support of Muslim clerics. Dutt visited a mosque and termed it as 'personal' visit.

December 26th, 2008 NEW DELHI - After celebrating its victory in three of the five states that recently went to the polls, the Congress party will celebrate its 123rd foundation day Sunday. Party president Sonia Gandhi would be joining office bearers and party workers in the celebration.