Shia Waqf Board head Waseem Rizvi threatens suicide at Ram Temple gates if Modi doesn’t become PM again

Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi said on Tuesday that he will commit suicide at the gates of the Ayodhya Ram Temple if Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not return to power for a second term. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Rizvi said, “If Narendra Modi does not become the country’s prime minister again in 2019, then I will self immolate in front of the gate of Ram temple in Ayodhya.”

An open supporter of the construction of a grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Rizvi further said that he would prefer to die with dignity than being killed by traitors. “If a leader of another political party becomes the prime minister with the help of the traitors in 2019, then it is better for me to commit suicide and die with dignity instead of being killed by the traitors.”

“Narendra Modi is loved by the nationalists and hated by the traitors. He is a skilled prime minister of the country,” Rizwi added.

Rizvi’s statement comes amid criticism over his letter to the Prime Minister in January asking the government to shut down madrassas across the country as they “propagate the ideology of the ISIS”. Rizvi had come in for severe attack from religious leaders over his stand. In his letter to the PM, Rizvi had warned that “more than half of Indian Muslims would turn supporters of ISIS ideology in 15 years if madrassas were not shut down immediately.”

In his statement, Rizvi said he place nation above religion and is attacked by fanatics for this very reason. “The nation is above every religion. Whenever I talk about national interest, the fanatics threaten to kill me. They say let the Modi government go and we will cut you off piece by piece.”

Rizvi’s recent controversies
Rizvi is known for his controversial comments and has openly supported the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

In September 2018, Rizvi was ‘excommunicated from Islam’ by Muslim clerics after he rejected a fatwa on Babri Masjid by prominent Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Sistani, who is a religious authority among Shias around the world.

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In March 2019, a case was registered by Youth Congress leader Sharad Shukla against Rizvi for his sexist comments on Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, Times of India had reported.

In January this year, the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board chairman had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to order a shutdown of all Madrasas in India as he feared that they are promoting the ideology of militant organisation, ISIS.

In the letter Waseem Rizvi had said that if madrasas in the country are not shut down immediately, half of India’s Muslims were at the risk of being influenced by Islamic State ideologies in the next 15 years.