Aligarh Muslim University drops books by Maulana Maududi, Sayyid Qutb from its syllabus
Muhammad Ismail refuted their claim and said that these books contained “nothing objectionable”.
Aligarh: In order to avoid controversy, Aligarh Muslim University has dropped books by two Islamic scholars from its syllabus. The varsity decided to drop the books by Abul A’la al-Maududi of Pakistan and Sayyid Qutb of Egypt, after learning that over a dozen “fence-sitters” and “Rightist ideologues” had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a ban on the duo’s books on Indian campuses.
Muhammad Ismail, chair of the department of Islamic Studies at AMU, told that the “Right-wing ideologues” alleged that these two scholars’ writings promoted “terrorism and fanaticism”. However, Muhammad Ismail refuted their claim and said that these books contained “nothing objectionable”.
The Telegraph quoted him as saying, “Both authors have described Islam in the light of democracy and advocated it in its purest form, but some countries under monarchies had banned them in the past”.
He added, “A democratic and a non-democratic country can’t treat a book in the same spirit. However, I would like to emphasise that we don’t want any controversy.”
Maulana Maududi (1903-79) was the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Qutb (1906-66) was convicted of conspiring to assassinate Gamal Abdul Nasser, the then President of Egypt, and hanged.
