Throughout the dispute over the Babri Mosque - which began when statues were placed in it and was practically converted into a Hindu temple on the night of December 22-23, 1949 - Indian Muslims built their response to the challenge of sometimes spontaneity, and the pursuit of the mirage of the impossible at other times.
After the uproar that arose over the placement of statues, the Muslims of India slept and did not resort to the judiciary until 1961, after which they also left the case dormant forgotten in the courts, until the World Hindu Organization discovered in 1984 that the issue of building a "Rama Temple" (the location of the mosque now) will be decisive and capable. To arouse the feelings of the Hindus, and thus fit for political exploitation.
An insistence not to compromise
From the beginning, the Indian Muslim leadership insisted on not giving up even an inch of the mosque's land when the Hindu party was content with sharing the land, and that the temple should stand side by side with the mosque.
The late Sheikh Abu Al-Hassan Ali Al-Nadwi had reached a settlement with the religious Hindu leaders on this basis, but the enthusiastic Islamic leaders rejected this settlement and insisted that "the mosque will remain a mosque until Judgment Day, and that the mosque's land extends from earth to heaven."
They also rejected another proposal to build the temple architecture over the Babri Mosque building, so that the mosque would remain intact on the ground and the upper building would be used as a temple.
Muslim leaders rejected a proposal to move the Babri Mosque building to another nearby site after cutting it into parts and re-installing it again at the new site.
The Muslim side was told that there are examples in Saudi Arabia of demolishing mosques or moving them to build roads or widening streets. They refused, saying, "The mosque remains a mosque forever and it is not permissible to transfer its place." They rejected a proposal to convert the mosque's land after demolishing it into a garden or museum.
The persistence of Muslims remained in place, at a time when the Hindu movement was getting stronger and stronger in every new election held in the country since the mid-1980s, until the temple preachers gathered about half a million mobs and demolished the mosque on December 6, 1992.
Hindu nationalists in power
After the participation of the extremist Hindu nationalist party (Bharatiya Janata) in the central government during the years 1999-2004, several attempts were made to establish the mosque and the temple side by side on the land of the Babri Mosque, but the Muslims continued to reject any settlement, insisting on restoring the entire land and building a new Babri Mosque on it.
Meanwhile, the case reached the Supreme Court in the city of Ilhabad, which ruled in 2010 to divide the mosque's land into three parts and gave two parts to the Hindus and part to the Muslims.
The Muslims rejected the verdict and appealed the case to the Supreme Court, and in the meantime the extremist party came to power and formed the government in May 2014 headed by Narendra Modi, known for his supervision of the massacres of Muslims in Gujarat state in 2002.
The court rejected the appeal, and it said its word in the ruling issued on November 9, 2019, which gave the entire land of the Babri Mosque to the Hindus, and ordered that Muslims be given a plot of land elsewhere to build an alternative mosque there.
This unfair decision of the Supreme Court came despite its recognition in the merits of the ruling that the place was a mosque for more than three centuries, and that placing idols in it was a crime and that demolishing it later was a crime as well.
Accept the court's decision
Here, the Islamic organizations and leaders had no choice but to accept the Supreme Court’s decision, because they had previously announced that they would accept the ruling, whatever it was.
The Islamic organizations have appealed the case to the Supreme Court, requesting a review of the ruling, but the latter announced that the door of the case had been closed and there was no way to open it again.
The road was now open to build the temple, so the government immediately established an organization to build and manage the temple and opened the public treasury doors for projects to beautify and improve the city to make it a center for the Hindus of the world.
And the Muslim leaders resorted to ignoring this development or recording a slight objection to the establishment of an organization to build and manage the temple, then remained silent on the Prime Minister’s decision to attend the ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the temple.
It can be said that in general, Islamic organizations and small parties affiliated with Muslims remained silent, or issued light statements of condemnation, with the exception of Representative Asaduddin Owaisi, head of the Muslim Union Council, which is a small political party. He said that this is the day the Indian constitution was defeated.
Ironically, Iqbal Ansari, who is one of the main parties in the Babri Mosque case on behalf of Muslims, participated in the ceremony for laying the foundation of the temple, saying that the issue has now been settled and he is participating in the foundation laying ceremony to show that Muslims are not against the temple.
The position of Muslim leaderships
The Islamic Personal Status Council - which Indian Muslims entrusted with the responsibility of managing the mosque issue after its demolition - expressed in a statement after Modi announced his participation in the ceremony for laying the foundation stone of the temple, "The mosque remains a mosque until Judgment Day, and idols are placed in it or demolished or praying there is forbidden for periods Long does not change (the fact that the mosque exists). "
The Secretary General of the Council, Sheikh Muhammad Wali Al-Rahmani, said that the Supreme Court’s decision was an illegal and unjust act, because it issued an unfair judgment despite its acceptance of all the facts related to the mosque.
India's Muslim leaders also issued a joint statement on August 5, appealing to Muslims for "patience, endurance and prudence," and asking them to respect the judiciary despite its prejudice to Muslims.
Indian Muslims believe that their abandonment of the Babri Mosque will open the door wide for the Hindus to demand other mosques, which is what actually happened, as the Hindus renewed their old demands to restore two other mosques.
Hindu extremists have also prepared a list of three thousand mosques across the country that they claim were built after the demolition of their temples, and therefore they must be restored and converted into temples, and this means that the demands of the Hindus will not end with the Babri Mosque.