Lucknow: Top Sunni cleric and a member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, on Thursday, said that there was no issue with Muslims participating in International Yoga Day celebrations, as long as it didn’t involve any kind of ‘puja’.
In conversation with News18, he said, “Yoga is good and should be practiced. Only thing Muslims should refrain themselves from is being involved in any kind of puja involved in the Yoga celebrations.”
As per news reports, around 300 Muslim men and women, along with 55,000 other people, will be participating in the International Yoga Day celebrations to be held on June 21st at Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan in Lucknow, with PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath in attendance.
On being asked whether the Maulana himself will participate in the event, he said he was definitely thinking about it.
“I’ll think about it, if and when I get an invitation,” he said.
On May 14th, Union home minister Rajnath Singh and the UP CM reviewed preparations for the event. LED screens will be installed at different parks in the city so that locals are also able to participate in it simultaneously.
The Union AYUSH ministry had proposed Lucknow as the venue for the main function this year. The other places being considered were Bhopal, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Ranchi and Bengaluru.
The United Nations General Assembly, after a call by PM Modi in 2014, announced June 21 to be celebrated every year as International Yoga Day.
The first International Yoga Day event was organised at Rajpath in New Delhi on June 21, 2015, in which representatives of more than 190 countries had participated. Last year, the International Yoga Day celebrations took place in Chandigarh.
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