Celebrations in Mumbai on Thursday. Nirmal Harindran Celebrations in Mumbai on Thursday. Nirmal Harindran

Even as celebrations began across the country after the apex court verdict on Section 377, Muslim clerics, cutting across sects and organisations, came out in strong protest, terming homosexuality against religion and humanity.

Senior functionaries of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board did not rule out approaching the court on the matter.

Maulana Mahmood Madani, general secretary of Jamiat Ulama i Hind, the largest socio religious organisation of Muslims in the country, said the verdict would lead to higher incidence of sexual crimes and the apex court would have done well to have stuck to its 2013 verdict that had reinstated gay sex as a criminal offence after four years of decriminalisation following a Delhi High Court order.

“Homosexuality is against the law of nature, it will lead to moral decay and disorder in the society and will increase sexual crimes and violence as we are witnessing daily. This shameful act will destroy the family system and will have a cascading effect on the progress of human race.You cannot push the whole society into sexual anarchy and moral decadence for the sake of a few people who championed homosexuality as fundamental rights, “ Madani said. He added that “every divine book” has described homosexuality as “unnatural sex”.

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Kamal Farooqui, a lawyer and a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board said, “Criminalisation was bad, police cannot have a say on what one does in one’s own bedroom. But at the same time if it destroys society, if it destroys the culture of my country, the personal law board certainly has a role to play, not just for Muslims but for all citizens of the country.”

He added, “We will come out with a response to this soon, we may go to court too. I want to make it very clear that homosexuality is against Islam and there is a whole chapter on Quran on this. If this becomes the norm, then 100 years later, humanity will be wiped out. It is against the very essence of nature,” Farooqui said.

He cited examples of the celebrations after the Delhi High Court judgment of 2009 as among the things that “destroy society. “All this enjoyment, hugging, same sex marriage is against the culture of my country. It needs to be restrained and controlled,” he clarified, even while saying that personal liberty and right to privacy are paramount.

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Shia scholar and social leader Maulana Kalbe Rushaid said, “If a man gets into the habit of something and then that habit becomes a necessity, it does not prove that habit is a necessity for the whole of humanity. I do not want to give this a religious colour but to my mind, homosexuality is against the rights of women — if men perform the role of women what will women do? Law moves with humanity and I have no qualms in saying that till Indian culture is alive, homosexuality is not just illegal but a grave sin.”

The Jamaat e Islami Hind too talked about “destruction of families and sexual anarchy”. Its secretary general, Muhammad Salim Engineer, said, “Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is dismayed and disappointed over the Supreme Court verdict to legalise homosexual behaviour between two consenting adults.”

“We sincerely hope and pray that the country will be rescued from the dark precipice it is rushing headlong into,” he said.

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