Setting An Example Of Peace & Harmony, Hindus Give Land To Make Way For Masjid In UP

About 150km from Ayodhya¡¯s disputed site of Ram Janmabhoomi/Babri Masjid, in eastern UP¡¯s Sant Kabir Nagar district, a unique example of communal harmony and peaceful coexistence has come up, as Hindus gave away land to make way for a mosque.

The gesture was extended to make it easier for Muslims to reach the mosque to offer namaz.

For 20 years in the small village of Thawaipar of Semriyawan development block, Muslims were using a narrow lane with several pits always filled with dirty water to reach the mosque.

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Munawwar Hussain, a teacher, said, ¡°The mosque was built in 1963 on the land of then-village pradhan Insaan Ali. For about three decades, members of the Muslim community would reach the mosque after crossing vacant pieces of land belonging to different people. However, after the increase of the population in the village, owners of many plots earmarked them with boundary walls. This led to closure of the path for the Masjid.¡±

¡°Muslims were facing this problem for 20 years, but never had a dispute with the Hindu community regarding this. However, the problem did exist and we took positive steps to solve it so that there was a proper path to the mosque,¡± said village Pradhan Urmila Devi.

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¡°With the efforts of pradhan Urmila Devi and former pradhan Brijesh Singh, four Hindus¡ªRajendra Singh, Mahendra Singh, Kapil Singh and Nakched Singh-¡ªcame forward and donated their land for the way for the masjid and a 100-meter-long path for the mosque was constructed,¡± said Ashfaq, a local.

¡°This step will promote Hindu-Muslim unity and brotherhood and give an example of religious tolerance to society,¡± said Nakched Singh. Imam of the mosque Hasimuddin Ansari said, ¡°People with kind hearts understood our problem. This step has given relief to Muslims.¡±