Crowdfunding for Ayodhya mosque to conform to Sharia norms: Trust

Crowdfunding for the proposed mosque project at Dhannipur village in Ayodhya will strictly conform to the Sharia norms, a senior official of the trust mandated for the project has said.

According to the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), the trust created for building the mosque, the crowdfunding for mosque and other public utility facilities, such as hospital, community kitchen, library, Indo-Islamic Cultural Centre etc would be dealt with separately.

“There are certain kinds of income that cannot be utilised to build a mosque, such as interest income, profiteering, hoarding of stocks etc,” IICF secretary Athar Husain told Business Standard.

He said the foundation was in the process of creating its portal, which will have the payment gateways for taking donations for the mosque and the public utility construction as part of the mosque project.

“Once the portal is ready, it would provide separate payment gateways for the mosque, conforming to the Sharia norms,” Husain added. The foundation has already opened two bank accounts in Lucknow for facilitating the proposed crowdfunding. The accounts have been opened in ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, he informed.
 

 

Last month, the foundation was handed over the land for the proposed mosque at Dhannipur after measurement by the local revenue department officials. Earlier, the Adityanath government had allotted 5 acres of land in Ayodhya for the construction of the mosque on the directive of the Supreme Court.

In November 2019, the SC had paved the way for the construction of Lord Ram temple, while asking the Centre to allot a 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque in the temple town.

Yesterday, the foundation appointed Prof S M Akhtar, founder dean, Faculty of Architecture, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi as consultant architect of IICF, masjid complex project.

Meanwhile, the construction of the proposed Lord Ram temple has been witnessing steady progress. On August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the temple. The soil of the temple site is being tested to ascertain the depth of the foundation in order to ensure the temple's longevity.