First Monetary Contribution For Mosque That Would Replace Babri In Ayodhya Comes From A Hindu

LUCKNOW || While the Babri mosque and the Ram Janma Bhoomi imbroglio remained at the core of communal frenzy and acrimony between Muslims and Hindus for decades, the Ganga-Jamuni culture of Lucknow has had the better of it.

Or so it seems as the first contribution made towards the construction of the mosque that would replace the Babri maszid in Ayodhya has been made by a Hindu.

On Saturday, Rohit Srivastava, an employee of the Faculty of Law, Lucknow University made the first contribution of Rs 21,000 to Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), the Trust that would oversee the construction of the mosque at Dhannipur in the temple town of Uttar Pradesh.

This first donation to the Trust was accepted from Rohit Srivastava at Trust's Lucknow office in presence of Secretary, Athar Husain and Trustees Mohammad Rashid and Imran Ahmad. Athar Hussain told The News Agency that the move only goes on to "exemplify the spirit of Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb of Indo-Islamic culture".

The Dhannipur Mosque Project includes a Hospital, an Indo-Islamic Cultural Research Centre which will have a library, museum and publication, a Community Kitchen and Masjid.