Arshad Madani (born in 1941) is an Indian Muslim scholar and the current Principal of

Darul Uloom Deoband The Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic seminary ( darul uloom) in India at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. It is located in Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. The seminary was established by Muhammad Qas ...

. He succeeded Asad Madni as the eighth president of the

Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind or Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind () is one of the leading organizations of Islamic scholars belonging to the Deobandi school of thought in India. It was founded in November 1919 by a group of Muslim scholars including Abdul Bari ...

.Maulana Arshad Madani addresses an Eid gathering on jamiatulamaihind.com website
, Published 12 March 2016, Retrieved 17 July 2017 The organization split around 2008, and Madani continues to serve as the president of its Arshad faction.

Career

Madani was appointed as the Principal of Darul Uloom Deoband on 14 October 2020.

Political approach

Arshad Madani has criticized the partition of India and espoused

Hindu–Muslim unity Hindu–Muslim unity is a religiopolitical concept in the Indian subcontinent which stresses members of the two largest faith groups there, Hindus and Muslims, working together for the common good. The concept was championed by various persons, s ...

, stating: "Our elders from Hindu and Muslim communities went ahead on the path of unity and liberated the country from the slavery of the British, but unfortunately partition also took place. This partition has become a cause of destruction and ruin, not just for a particular community, but for both Hindus and Muslims." He suggests that secularism is the only path to a cohesive and united India.'Arshad Madani of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind says Owaisis are traitors'
dnaindia.com newspaper website, Published 17 January 2015, Retrieved 17 July 2017 He asserts that the current prime minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

is not acceptable to all Muslims of India. Muslim hostility to Modi is not softening recently at all as some circles in the Indian news media have suggested. He questions whether Indian Muslims can forgive Modi for his assertion that he initiated and condoned the

2002 Gujarat riots The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hin ...

and the ensuing

violence against Muslims in India There have been several instances of religious violence against Muslims since the partition of India in 1947, frequently in the form of violent attacks on Muslims by Hindu nationalist mobs that form a pattern of sporadic sectarian violenc ...

, which Madani calls a mass murder of Muslims.

was the

Chief Minister of Gujarat The Chief Minister of Gujarat is the chief executive of the government of the Indian state of Gujarat. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. The chief minister's term ...

at that time.Indian TV interview of Maulana Arshad Madani on Headlines Today program
indiatoday website, Published 19 February 2013, Retrieved 17 July 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madani, Arshad Indian Sunni Muslims Indian Islamic religious leaders 20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Deobandis 1941 births Living people People from Deoband Darul Uloom Deoband faculty Presidents of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind