Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi has again ruffled feathers by writing a controversial letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking for all primarly-level madrasas to be shut down claiming they promote the ISIS ideology.

In the letter, Rizvi said if the madrasas are not shut down, half of the Muslims in the country will be supporters of IS ideology in the next 15 years.

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The Islamic State (which was earlier known as ISIS) is one of the most dangerous terror organisations in the world.

Rizvi, who has supported the demand for Ram temple in Ayodhya and uniform civil code, said Muslim children if they want, can take admission in madrasas after completing high school.

“It can be seen that children are soft targets for running any mission and at this point of time ISIS is a dangerous terror organisation which is gradually getting hold over the Muslim population across the world... In the rural areas of the country also, the primary madrasas, in the name of donations, are harming the future of our children and promoting fundamentalist thinking...this is damaging both to the country and the Muslim children,” Rizvi said in the letter.

Rizvi also claimed that the support to the ISIS is clearly visible in Kashmir where, through the monetary support for children attending madrasas, they are being alienated from people of other religions in the name of Islamic education.

Rizvi has said that taking admission in madrasas after schooling will not only help them take normal education till the high school level along with children of different sections of society and religion but also will deter them from getting easily influenced by fundamentalist thinking. He has previously supported the building of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.