Muslims salute ‘true friend’ Uddhav Thackeray

Mumbai: Various Muslim organisations led by the All India Ulema Board have welcomed Shiv Sena (UBT) President and ex-chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s stance on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, recently passed by Parliament and awaiting the President’s assent.

The All India Ulema Board (AIUB) General Secretary Allama Bonai Naeem Hasni, Imamul Hind Foundation (IHF) President Maulana Naushad Siddiqui and others addressed the media on various aspects of the new law.

They specially lauded Thackeray’s recent statements that the lands under the control of different Waqf authorities could now be released for other purposes, including handing them over to big industrialists and builders.

Besides, SS (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut and other party leaders have also opposed the new ‘Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 2025’, and solidly stood behind the Muslim community.

Hasni said that they are planning to give a legal challenge to the new law in due course, though most political parties’ leaders have indicated they may not contest it.

“We are grateful to Thackeray saab for adopting a right step in opposing the bill. Muslims across the state, who had wholeheartedly supported the SS(UBT) in the last elections have also appreciated it,” declared Hasni.

He pointed out how the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was first tabled in Parliament in August 2024, but it was sent to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) after the Opposition parties and Muslims red-flagged many issues.

The new version has incorporated several changes suggested by the sharply divided committees, and then it was cleared by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, said Siddiqui.

The duo explained that Waqf properties include mosques, madrassas, mazaars, educational institutions, shelter homes, orphanages, other social-cultural bodies on thousands of acres of lands willingly donated by Muslim and which are managed by the Waqf Boards.

“However, now it appears that the objective of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is to undermine the institution of Waqf, weaken and make it ineffective,” said Hasni.