Source: The Milli Gazette/Council of Indian Muslims Press Release

http://www.milligazette.com/IndMusStat/2006a/949-CIM-Babri_masjid_ayodhya-6dec06.htm

LONDON: British Indian Muslims have urged the Indian Government to handover the Babri Mosque site to Indian Muslims and let them rebuild the mosque there. Marking the 15th anniversary of the demolition of the 14th century historic Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, Britain’s two leading Indian Muslim organisations, Council of Indian Muslims­ UK (CIM) and Indian Muslim Federation (IMF) have issued a joint statement here today.

“The demolition of the Babri Mosque was not only a serious blow to Indian secularism and the fundamental rights granted by the Indian Constitution to the religious minorities, but it also symbolised the virtual subjugation of Muslim identity in the post-1947 India.” CIM’s Chairman Mr Munaf Zeena said.

“Babri Mosque is an inseparable part of the Indo-Islamic heritage, which grew and flourished for almost a 1000 years. It actually redefined the meaning of religious tolerance and cultural cohesion in the Indian Sub-continent. However, the continuous denial of justice to Muslims, letting the perpetrators go scot-free and Government’s failure in handing over the Mosque site to Muslims, the rightful owners, is a threat to that precious Indo-Islamic heritage, the symbol of peaceful coexistence in India.” He added.

Zeena also said, “While hundreds of Muslims implicated in the Bombay blasts of 1992 were still suffering from the discriminatory policies of the police, the arrests of Muslim youths in Malegaon for bombing a mosque is the cruelest joke played with the victims.”