Jehangir Ali 
Srinagar: A prominent conglomerate of social and religious outfits in Jammu and Kashmir have called for an investigation into a “mischievous attempt” at a prominent Sunni mosque in the heart of Srinagar where a group of Shiite youth recently held a mourning ceremony amid the ongoing Islamic month of Muharram.
In a statement, Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulama (MMU), a grouping of more than dozen outfits headed by moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, termed the event, which was held on July 18 at Srinagar’s Khanqah-e-Moula, as “a planned attempt to hurt the sentiments” of Kashmir’s Sunni majority population.
The MMU urged the J&K Wakf Board, a governing body of the government that manages the affairs of Muslim shrines in the Union Territory, to “unearth the truth”. Wakf chairman and BJP leader Darakshan Andrabi said stern action would be taken and no one would be allowed to “create sectarian division” in Kashmir.
Following the MMU statement, the Cyber Police in Kashmir also warned the social media users on Saturday, July 20, that it had “taken cognisance of some sectarian/inflammatory content being shared online.” Sources said the Wakf board has also set up an inquiry team to probe the incident but no legal action has been taken so far.
‘No elder with them’
Located in the heart of downtown Srinagar, Khanqah-e-Moula is one of the oldest Sufi shrines in Kashmir which was raised in 1935 to honour the renowned Persian preacher and saint Mir Syed Ali Hamdani, locally also known as Amir-i-Kabir (the great commander), who is credited for spreading Islam in Kashmir.
A member of the shrine’s managing body said that a Muharram procession is carried out from downtown Srinagar’s Fateh Kadel every year which culminates in Shamswari locality. “After the procession is over, some elderly Shiite mourners normally come to the shrine along with some youngsters and pay obeisance there. In the past, they were even served drinks,” he said.
Speaking with The Wire on the condition of anonymity, the managing body member said that this year some dozen youngsters visited the shrine on Muharram 12, Saturday, when the main mourning period of Shiite Muslims was over.
“There was no elderly person with them. They sat in the main hall of the shrine and started reciting nauha. The managing body told them to stop and they obliged but someone had filmed the recital and it was later shared on social media,” he said.
‘Nauha’ is a form of Persian poetry of mourning which is sung like a song to commemorate the sacrifices of Imam Hussain (PBUH) and his followers in the lunar month of Muharram during the Battle of Karbala in 680.
‘You guys are hypocrites’
Apni Party leader and former mayor of capital Srinagar, Junaid Mattu, was among the first who shared the video on social media, warning that it could “potentially disturb sectarian harmony”.
The video triggered uproar with some X users questioning how the youngsters, who were reciting the poetry, could “disturb sectarian harmony”. “What’s wrong here? They are quitely doing majalis and leaving not like bombing or beheading…. You guys are so hypocrite (sic),” Anjum Shayk replied to Mattu on X.
The member of Khanqah-e-Moula’s managing body said that the ‘nauha’ is performed at Imam Bara, a shrine where Shiites gather to mourn the Karbala martyrs, “Such a ceremony can’t be held even in a Shia mosque, so holding it in a Sunni shrine looks suspicious. Some people seem to be looking for fame but Islam doesn’t allow any divisions in our faith,” he said.
The row over the recital of ‘nauha’ at Khanqah-e-Moula coincided with Srinagar witnessing its biggest Muharram procession in decades which passed through the city centre Lal Chowk last week amid tight security arrangements.
After more than three decades in 2022, authorities in Kashmir lifted the ban, which was imposed on Muharram processions following the eruption of armed insurgency in Kashmir in the early 1990s.
Also read: How Kashmir’s Medieval Persian ‘Tarikhs’ Were Mined for Modern Politics
Many political analysts saw the move as an attempt by the Bhartiya Janta Party-led union government to reach out to Kashmir’s Shiite Muslims who make up some 20 percent of J&K’s population and whose identity has been politicised in the past for political gains without much success.
Politics at play
A Shiite scholar based in Srinagar, who did not want to be named, said that the incident at Khanqah-e-Moula “didn’t look organic or innocent”, “Something murky seems to be behind it. With elections around the corner, the politics of polarisation seems to be ‘good’ for some people, given the debacles suffered (by the BJP’s allies in J&K) in the recent Lok Sabha election,” he said.
With the controversy far from over, several Islamic scholars based in Kashmir have appealed for calm. In its statement, the MMU said that Kashmir’s “unique identity and composition” was “based on unity, sectarian harmony and mutual solidarity”.
“The people of J&K should not allow any group or agency to disrupt this legacy for their vested interests,” the MMU said, adding that it has set up its own committee consisting members from both sects to “investigate and identify the elements involved in this incident”.
Last week, the police in Srinagar filed a case for “posting of sensitive content against religious sentiments of a particular community” on social media platforms “by some individuals”. This came after Ishfaq Kawa, a popular Kashmiri singer, was trolled on Instagram and X while facing accusations of denouncing a Sunni Muslim caliph.
A case (FIR No 29/2024) has been filed at Shaheed Gang police station under sections of 299 (insulting someone’s religious beliefs), 196 (promoting enmity between different groups) and 353 (statements conducing to public mischief) in connection with the incident and Kawa, who has apologised for the comment, has been reportedly arrested.