Vijayapura, Jun 22: Moulana Tanveer Peeran Hashmi, a Muslim cleric from Karnataka, whose recent remarks on animal slaughtering sparked a nationwide uproar, has accused the media of twisting his statements to mislead people.
Replying to a statement of lyricist Javed Akhtar who took exception to the cleric’s statement given during his Eid-ul-Fitr public address, the cleric said that he did not make any statement against the law or with the intention of creating communal divide. “I never gave any statement against any individual or any community,” he said.
With regard to his remarks on slaughtering cow on account of Bakrid or Eid-ul-Adha, he said that Karnataka has a law that allows killing of unproductive cows for consumption.
“The Karnataka law allows people to slaughter unproductive cows; thus I did not make any comment that is against the law,” he said.
Regarding the usage of the word devil, which many felt was directed towards some individual, he said that in his view anyone who creates trouble between two communities should be treated as devil.
Asked if he was indirectly referring to BJP MLA Basanagouda patil Yatal, he said that he did not name any individual but he believed that anyone who created communal divide is equal to the devil as it is the devil who does the job of creating divide between people.
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