Why is it illegal to offer Namaz in a park but not hold a Gobardhan Puja in the same park and for a longer duration? The question cropped after Gurugram administration withdrew permission for Muslims to offer Friday prayers in 16 designated public spaces this week and reduced the number of such spots from 37 to 21. The administration however allowed a group, which had been objecting to Friday Prayers in Gurgaon, were allowed to conduct Govardhan Puja on Friday at a park where Muslims had been praying on Fridays for an hour or so,Participating in a web discussion, Dr Tasleem Rahmani and Delhi High Court lawyer Shahid Ali demanded that the Government should allow the re-opening of 78 mosques in the NCR to enable Muslims to offer Friday prayers there. “On the one hand the Governments are shutting down mosques and taking over Waqf land while on the other they are restricting Muslims from praying in the open,” complained Dr Rahmani of the Muslim Political Council.He claimed that the Khirki mosque in Delhi, where thousands congregated for Friday prayers, had been shut down by the administration. Muslims, he alleged, have been denied access to as much as 16,000 ‘bigha’ of Waqf land (one bigha is equal to 2,990 square yards or 37 Kottahs) in the country, which encompassed mosques, cemeteries, madrasas and Imambaras. On the one hand access is being denied to Muslims to mosques and madrasas, while on the other the administration is restricting their right to offer Friday prayers.
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