Maulana Sayyid Arshad Madani, president of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and senior teacher at Darul Uloom Deoband, rejected descriptions of Muslims as terrorists during a special Independence Day event at Qasemi Maidan in Deoband on August 15. He said no one had the right to label Muslims terrorists and asserted that those attempting to eliminate Islam had themselves been destroyed, while Islam would endure.

Madani described India’s independence and democracy as great blessings and called for resisting any effort to undermine the country’s secular foundation. He said India’s freedom struggle could not be fully written or understood without the sacrifices of Darul Uloom Deoband, religious scholars, madrasas and Muslims. He cited the establishment of Darul Uloom Deoband in 1866 after the mass killings of 1857.

He alleged that efforts were under way to distort the history of the independence movement and associate madrasas with terrorism. Referring to the Reshmi Rumal movement and the imprisonment of scholars in Malta, Madani highlighted clerical resistance to British rule. He also said communal forces were seeking to remove the word “secular” from India’s constitution and could not erase the sacrifices of scholars and Muslims.