The Gyanvapi Mosque Flashpoint
Gyanvapi masjid: India dispute could become another religious flashpoint
Yahoo News by Shilpa Jamkhandikar / Reuters ~ September 12, 2022
MUMBAI (Reuters) – An Indian court has allowed a civil suit to proceed that challenges the title of a centuries-old mosque in Uttar Pradesh, Gyanvapi mosque, and the land surrounding it.
On Monday, the Varanasi district and sessions court dismissed the challenge by the mosque’s management after five Hindu women filed petitions last year seeking the right to worship on the outer wall of the mosque complex.
The women claimed in their petitions that the mosque premises was once a Hindu temple which was demolished by Mughal emperor Aurangazeb and subsequently a mosque was built on the land.
The dismissal of the challenge by the mosque committee implies that the civil suits will be heard in detail and an examination of evidence will follow.
The mosque is located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in the city of Varanasi, regarded as a holy city by Hindus, and is also the constituency from where the country’s Hindu nationalist prime minister was elected.
In May, a portion of the mosque, a water tank where Muslims perform the wuzu or ritual of ablution before offering prayers, was ordered to be sealed off.
Contesting the claims of the Hindu side, the Muslims alleged that the mosque was built on Waqf (mosque) premises.
In July, the Supreme Court said that before intervening in the matter, it would wait for the Varanasi district court’s decision on the mosque committee’s challenge to the civil suits.
The mosque has emerged as the latest Hindu-Muslim flashpoint in which Hindu hardliners claim some mosques have been built over demolished Hindu temples in the country.
Ahead of the Varanasi court’s order on Monday, security was tightened and prohibitory orders were imposed around the mosque area to prevent any unrest.
“Alert has been sounded in all sensitive areas ahead of the court’s verdict in the Gyanvapi matter. Patrolling is going on to ensure peace. Religious heads have issued statements asking for peace to be maintained,” Prashant Kumar, additional director general of police (law and order) was quoted as saying by The Hindustan Times.
The Gyanvapi mosque dispute has raised concerns that there will be a repeat of the decades-long Ayodhya legal dispute.
In 1992, a Hindu temple was built at a site of a 16th century mosque demolished by Hindu crowds, triggering religious riots in which about 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed across the country.
In 2019, in a major win for the Narendra Modi administration, the Supreme Court allowed the federal government to construct a Hindu temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid, an historic mosque, was demolished in 1992.
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Could such a potential flashpoint be realised and explodes from the “forest of the South?” And from the South it could spread to the North?
Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
46 “Son of man, set thy face toward the South, and drop thy word toward the South, and prophesy against the forest of the Southland.
47 And say to the forest of the South: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned (repeating here “all faces from the South to the North shall be burned” for emphasis) therein.
48 And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’”
49 Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Doth he not speak parables?’”
Ezekiel 21:1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
3 and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My Sword out of his sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My Sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the South to the North,
5 that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My Sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.’
Joel Huan
The Mystery of Ephraim 