Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, the National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, issued a fatwa discouraging Muslims from participating in New Year celebrations. He urged the community to focus on religious practices that align with their faith instead.
According to Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi, the fatwa, issued by Chashme Darfta Bareilly, called on young Muslim men and women to refrain from participating in New Year festivities. "The young men and women who celebrate New Year have been instructed in this fatwa that celebrating New Year is not a matter of pride and neither should this celebration be celebrated nor should it be congratulated," Razvi said, stating that the New Year marks the beginning of the Christian calendar, or the "English Year." He further stated that such non-religious practices are strictly "prohibited for Muslims."
Razvi further sid that young Muslims should refrain from celebrating the New Year, urging them to focus instead on religious practices that align with their faith. "Young boys and girls have been instructed not to celebrate the New Year. Muslims should avoid participating in such celebrations," he stated. In a separate matter, amid reports that Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses was being sold in the country over three decades after its "ban," Bareilvi expressed his opposition, asserting that the ban should remain in place. He suggested that there should have been a dialogue with those advocating for the ban before allowing the book's sale.
"There should have been dialogue because there is a Muslim perspective," he said. Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, also echoed similar views.