DNA

Lucknow, Sep 21: Salman Khan is in the news again. A a much-revered Muslim seminary in Bareilly in west UP has issued a fatwa against Salman for attending a Ganesh puja.

The fatwa says that the actor ceases to be a true Muslim after worshipping Lord Ganesha in Mumbai recently. The order was issued as Islam prohibits all kinds of idol worship.

“A Muslim guilty of but-parasti (idol worship) ceases to be a true Muslim… he would have to recite the kalma in the name of Allah again, and publicly ask for forgiveness to become a Muslim,” said Maulana Farooq Barelvi, mufti at the “Darul Ifta Manzar-e-Islam” at Bareilly Sharif

Salman Khan, whose mother is a Maharashtrian, had participated in the Ganpati festival as he has been doing every year. 

However, the fatwa is seen as “unjustified” by some clerics. Renowned Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Kawwad said:“If one ceases to be a Muslim just because of respecting another religion, it means he was not a true Muslim in the first place.”