Barelvi cleric to go on indefinite fast to save cows!

BAREILLY: Cow protection activists across the country and abroad have an unexpected supporter in the form of Sunni cleric from the house of Barelvis, Maulana Tauqeer Raza. He has called for closure of meat factories and threatened to go on a fast-unto-death at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi if this is not done. 

Terming the meat factories as the biggest killers of cows in the country, the Maulana told TOI, "Islam states that the milk of a cow is like 'amrit' (nector) but it's meat is 'zeher' (poison) but look the factories exporting meat. They are not even sparing the Neelgai (blue bull) which is being captured from forests and slaughtered at these meat factories. Even the calves are not spared by unscrupulous meat exporters who do not care that in their bid to meet the target of exporting meat, they are destroying the future generation of this animal." 

Pressing for closure of meat factories, Tauqeer Raza said he feels stopping the slaughtering of cows would reduce price of milk by half and "preserve our cattle wealth which is vanishing fast with the mushrooming of meat exporting units feeding the markets of countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and China". 

He said it is a wrong notion that Muslims in India consume cow meat because it is prohibited by Shariat, which explicitly states that it should not be consumed as it is full of diseases. "But for filling the coffers of a handful of people, day is not far when cow milk would become history and we will be telling our future generations as to how milk tasted like." 

When asked what made him take up the issue of cow slaughter, the cleric said, "This region (Bareilly -Rohilkhand) has become notorious as red meat corridor of the country with almost daily seizures of cattle for illegal slaughtering in the meat factories at Rampur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bijnore and Meerut. Initially, I thought that the matter should be raised by some Hindu organization to which I would lend my support. 

"But then I realized, that there is a general perception that Muslims are the ones who slaughter and consume meat which I wanted to remove from the minds of people who are, perhaps, oblivious to the fact that a majority of meat producing and exporting factories in India are owned by Hindus. Among them, many of the community which doesn't even consume onion and garlic and are strict vegetarians," he claimed. 

However Tauqeer Raza accepted that maximum number of such factories are located in Uttar Pradesh owing to state government's policy of granting indiscriminate licences. The jails of UP are full of people who are referred to as pashu taskar (cattle smugglers) whereas the fact remains that they are acting as conduits of factory owners who exceed their daily quota of animal for slaughtering from 500 a day to somewhere around 2,600. 

In this connection, the cleric said he would hand over a memorandum addressed to the CM and PM on Thursday and if action is not taken, he will sit on an indefinite fast at Jantar Mantar. 

Welcoming the decision, regional convenor, People for Animals (PFA), Dheeraj Yadav said, "It will be immensely beneficial for those waging the campaign against cow slaughter and will send a strong message among the masses that the cow is venerated by both Hindu and Muslims alike."