Maulana Madani’s effigy beaten with shoes, burnt in Bhopal:Bajrang Dal, VHP protest; had said, ‘Whenever there is oppression, there will be jihad’

Protests against Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind chief Maulana Mahmood Madani’s statement, ‘Whenever there is oppression, there will be jihad’ — intensified in Bhopal on Sunday. Workers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal held a demonstration at Roshanpura Square, calling the remark anti-national and against Hindu society. Effigy garlanded with shoes burned During the protest, the demonstrators garlanded Madani’s effigy with shoes and slippers. They also threw shoes at it before setting it on fire. Participants held posters reading ‘Down with Maulana Madani,’ marked crosses over his images, and displayed messages such as ‘If you want to live in India, you must say Vande Mataram.’ The organisations demanded legal action against Madani, alleging his statement encourages unrest. See visuals of the protest.. VHP, Bajrang Dal question Madani’s claims VHP’s Provincial Co-Secretary Jitendra Chauhan said the protest was in response to Madani’s remarks. He questioned Madani’s statement linking oppression and jihad, asking where oppression was currently taking place. Chauhan added that before Independence, the country was partitioned to create Pakistan, and questioned why similar demands were being encouraged again. He accused Madani and like-minded leaders of repeatedly opposing Vande Mataram and the Supreme Court, alleging they were misleading Muslim youth and paving the way for ‘jihad and civil war.’ Allegations of misleading Muslims VHP’s national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said that elements like Madani were attempting to influence Muslim youth using terms such as “oppression, heaven and jihad.” He alleged that some fundamentalist groups were trying to undermine the justice system and national pride. Bansal said the Muslim community should distance itself from such elements. He further alleged that money collected through halal channels was being misused to promote terrorism, claiming that this would no longer be possible. Madani’s original statement A day earlier, at the governing body meeting of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in Bhopal, Maulana Mahmood Madani said attempts to spread hatred against Islam and Muslims had increased. He stated that the word ‘jihad’ was being deliberately linked to terrorism and violence. According to him, terms such as ‘Love Jihad’, ‘Land Jihad’, and ‘Spit Jihad’ were coined to defame Muslims. Madani asserted that in Islam, jihad means a struggle against injustice and oppression, and ‘whenever there will be oppression, there will be jihad.’