Aligarh: Books authored by Pakistani and Egyptian writers were banned from the syllabus in the Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University as the books authored by Maulana Abdul Ala Maududi and Sayyid Qutb had preached "Islamic extremist ideologies" that talk of turning India into an "Islamic state", says Professor Mohammad Ismail, Chairman, Dept of Islamic Studies, AMU.
The decision came after a bunch of Academics, Public Intellectuals wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27 and brought the issue to his notice. The letter mentions that Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Jamia Hamdard have adopted, effectively, an anti-India/anti-national course curriculum as part of the undergraduate and postgraduate study programs in their Departments of Islamic Studies.
It is a matter of deep concern and worries that the writings of Abul Ala Maududi, widely recognized as the authoritative fountainhead of Islam, who has openly called for genocide of non-Muslims everywhere in the world are part of the course curriculum of the above-mentioned three Islamic universities.
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Professor Mohammad Ismail, says that after the board meeting, the decision to remove Maududi's and Syed Qutub's literature from the syllabus was taken. Although the books of these authors were being studied at AMU for a long time, he added.
Maulana Abul Ala Maududi was born in 1903 in Hyderabad and is known as the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami-e-Hind (JIH), an organization committed to the total Islamisation of India. Between 1942 to 1967, he was sentenced to many jails in Pakistan. While, in 1953, on the basis of his book Qadiani issue, the military court sentenced him to death. However, it was later turned into life imprisonment. Maududi has written more than 100 books that have been translated into various languages in 40 countries. Maududi died in 1979 in New York.
On the other hand, Sayyid Qutb was a resident of Egypt and was born in 1906. He is considered the father of "Salafi Jihadism''. He has also written more than 40 books out of which Al-Adala al-Ijtima'iyya fil-Islam (Social Justice in Islam) and Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (In the Shade of the Qur'an) have been widely discussed. In 1966, he was convicted of plotting to assassinate Egyptian President Jamal Abdul Nasser and sentenced to death in the same case.
