Days after a top Muslim body passed a resolution asking the community members not to recite 'Vande Mataram', a prominent Islamic organisation which had issued 'fatwa' against the national song in 2006, on Monday said the edict cannot be withdrawn.

The fatwa department of Darul Uloom had issued an edict in 2006, describing recitation of 'Vande Mataram' as anti-Islamic.

Darul Uloom's Vice Chancellor Maulana Abdul Khalik Madrasi, however, said: "Fatwa is not an order but a guiding principle. People may abide it or ignore it".

"We issue fatwas only when someone approaches us to seek guidance," he said, adding that the seminary cannot withdraw the edict which was issued three years ago.

The cleric, however, made it clear that his organization has no objection to non-Muslims singing the song. On November 3, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind in its 30th general session in Deoband had passed a resolution asking Muslims not to recite Vande Mataram on the grounds that some verses of the national song are against the tenets of Islam.

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