As far as Mufti Azaam Bashir-ud-din is concerned, CM Khanna has some ‘splainin’ to do. He has allegedly been converting young Muslims to Christianity, and you know what the prophet of the Religion of Peace said about that: “If anybody changes his religion, kill him.” Can you imagine the outcry if a Christian priest or minister in Europe or the U.S. summoned a Muslim cleric and demanded that he explain why Christians were converting to Islam?
Islamic Tolerance Alert: “Kashmir’s ‘mufti azam’ summons Christian priest to explain alleged conversions,” by M Saleem Pandit for the Times of India, October 28 (thanks to PM):
SRINAGAR: Mufti Bashir-ud-din – J&K’s official ” mufti azam”, or head Muslim clergyman – issued fresh summons to a leading Christian priest, CM Khanna, on Friday, asking him to appear before his court to explain his activities of reported conversions of young local boys and girls at his church in Srinagar. Khanna said the mufti was annoyed with him because he had expressed his inability to help the mufti in the admission of a boy to a Christian missionary school.
Talking to TOI, Mufti Azaam Bashir-ud-din said: “Our shariat court had summoned the Christian priest, CM Khanna, to appear personally today at 11am but he failed to appear. Now we have issued fresh summons to him for personal appearance on November 12.”
A shariat court has existed in J&K since the early 1960s; Mufti Bashir-ud-din is the judge of the court and the appeal against this court lies in the civil court. Mufti Bashir said that the court was recognized by the state government because of the majority Muslim character of the state. The shariat court, however, has no enforcing agency like police to implement its judgments, he said
Mufti Bashir-ud-din said: “I have received the complaint that the said priest, CM Khanna, is involved in converting young Muslim boys and girls to Christianity. This warrants action as per Islamic law. So we summoned him to appear before the shariat court to explain his position.”
The mufti claimed to possess a video cassette purportedly showing Reverend Khanna urging young Kashmiri Muslims to embrace Christianity and asking them to take a dip in a pond inside the church near the cricket stadium in Srinagar.
“I will take all necessary measures in exercise of the powers vested in me by Islamic shariat,” the mufti said when asked what course he would take if the priest failed to appear in his court.
Threat noted.
“It is a matter of grave concern that Christian missionaries active here should be running an organized and integrated campaign to convert young Kashmiri Muslims to Christianity,” he said….