On Tuesday, controversial poet Munawar Rana delivered a very strange statement saying that Muslims that came from outside India can’t give a guarantee about their mother’s religion. Rana who has written several poems about his mother throughout his life said that he knew that his father belonged to the Muslim religion, but can’t guarantee that his mother was a Muslim. However, he was talking about Muslims in general.
He was speaking at an event organized by BJP in Uttar Pradesh to connect the Pasmanda Muslims. When he was asked about the term ‘Pasmanda Muslim’, he went on to describe that it means backward Muslims. Rana further explained that in the Muslim world like in Arabic countries, there are no forward or backward Muslims, as they all belong to the same community, all are Arabs. “Pasmanda has no meaning in Islam. Even in Arabia, no one knows about the caste”, he said. But things got changed when Muslims came to India as they got mixed with Indians, he said.
Munawar Rana explained that when Islamic invaders came to India with their army, they didn’t bring their wives with them. Because soldiers don’t bring their wives to the battlefield. They invaded India and took Indian women as their wives. Therefore, he can’t say for certain if his mother was Muslim or not.
“I honestly state that my father was a Muslim. But I can’t verify whether my mother was also a Muslim. Because my first father arrived in India with the army, whether from Samarkand, Africa, Arab countries, or anywhere, and the army does not carry wives. It cannot be assured in such a case that my mother was also a Muslim”, Rana said while talking to ABP news. Notable, although he was speaking in first person, it is apparent that he was talking about his community as a whole.
He added that Muslims obtained high positions in Indian society through their knowledge and good behaviour. Locals saw that there was no caste discrimination among them, and people started to accept Islam, Munawar Rana claimed.
“मेरा बाप मुसलमान था, इसकी मैं गारंटी लेता हूँ। लेकिन मेरी माँ भी मुसलमान थी, इसकी गारंटी मैं नहीं लेता”@MunawwarRana pic.twitter.com/ETyvg078KK
— SANJAY TRIPATHI (@sanjayjourno) October 18, 2022
This is not the first time that poet Munawar Rana has issued unusual and controversial statements. Earlier during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election, he had said that he would leave the state if CM Yogi Adityanath returned to power. He had said that there was extreme fear in the minds of Islamists residing in the state.
Also, in May this year, he used abusive language for the judge who delivered the verdict regarding the survey in Gyanvapi case. “The judge has spoken what he had to say, there is no one bigger than the judge, Mahadev is younger, the judge is bigger”, he had said sarcastically. “When a s**** judge can spoil the decision, what remains after that. Had I been the king, the prime minister, I would have got the judge arrested, who had done the case arrested”, he was quoted.
In the year 2021, he was also booked for by the Uttar Pradesh Police for his derogatory comments against Hindus. He had hurt the religious feelings of Hindus by comparing Maharshi Valmiki, the author of Ramayana, with the Taliban, who took over Afghanistan. The FIR was registered under Sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth etc.), 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 505(1)(B) (with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public) and the SC/ST atrocities prevention act.
