NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a local order to ban large Muslim prayer gatherings in a high-profile mosque in north India after a survey team said it found relics of the Hindu god Shiva and other Hindu symbols there.
The top court in an interim order stated Muslims right to prayer should not be disturbed, and simultaneously the area where Hindu religious relics were said to be found should be protected.
The disagreement over rights to worship at the mosque follows a decades-long campaign by Hindu activists to show that key Muslim-built buildings in India sit atop older holy sites. A previous dispute 30 years ago led to fatal rioting.
The Supreme Court order comes a day after a local court in Varanasi - Hinduism’s holiest city and the site of the historic Gyanvapi mosque - ruled Islamic gatherings there should be limited to 20 people.
The local court had ordered the survey of the mosque after five women sought permission to perform Hindu rituals in one part of it, saying a Hindu temple once stood on the site.
The Gyanvapi mosque, located in the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is one of several mosques in northern Uttar Pradesh that some Hindus believe was built on top of demolished Hindu temples.
Hardline Hindu groups tied to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have stepped up demands to excavate inside some mosques and to permit searches in the Taj Mahal mausoleum.
Judges of the top court will continue hearing from Hindu and Muslim petitioners this week.
Leaders of India’s 200 million Muslims view the survey inside the mosque as attempts to undermine their rights to free worship and religious expression, with the BJP’s tacit agreement.
The BJP denies bias against minorities including Muslims, and says it wants progressive change that benefits all Indians.
In 2019, the Supreme Court allowed Hindus to build a temple at the site of the disputed 16th century Babri mosque that was demolished by Hindu crowds in 1992 who believed it was built where Hindu Lord Ram was born.
The demolition led to religious riots that killed nearly 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, across India.
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India’s top court revokes ban on large prayer gatherings in mosque
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India’s top court revokes ban on large prayer gatherings in mosque
- Court order comes a day after a local court in Varanasi ruled Islamic gatherings there should be limited to 20 people
- Leaders of India’s Muslims view survey inside the mosque as attempts to undermine their rights to free worship and religious expression
Macron squares up to Trump in rebel shades at macho Davos gathering
- French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, wore sunglasses on stage
- A broken blood vessel has left him with a bloodshot eye since last week
PARIS: Top Gun or Terminator? French President Emmanuel Macron’s sporting of aviator shades at Davos this week tickled the press and inspired viral memes online, while prompting a surge in visitors to the eyewear brand’s website.
Macron, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, wore sunglasses on stage due to a broken blood vessel that has left him with a bloodshot eye since last week, according to the Elysee’s chief physician.
While the French president stood up for European sovereignty and blasted “unacceptable” threats by his US counterpart Donald Trump to impose tariffs on countries opposed to his plans to seize Greenland, it was Macron’s flashy blue sunglasses that grabbed much of the attention.
“Top Gun or Terminator?,” read a headline in Le Parisien daily, highlighting the viral commentary which ranged from memes photoshopping laser beams shooting from Macron’s eyes to his face on the “Miami Vice” film poster.
Other images on social media showed Macron playing the rebel Maverick from the Top Gun franchise, while facing off to Trump.
“These sunglasses were unintentionally a very fitting visual vocabulary for the message he wanted to convey,” said communications professor Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet at Paris’s Sciences Po university.
“It gave a Hollywood-style dimension — cool and masculine at once — that answered Trump.”
Trump mocked the look, stating: “I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened?“
“But I watched him sort of be tough,” Trump added, after Macron said France rejected “bullies.”
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper published the headline “Can Macron’s sunglasses save the West?” in an analysis of the heated and divisive tone taken by largely male world leaders at the summit.
“Testosterone is the primary currency in Davos this year, and the French president’s aviators have placed him at the top of the pecking order,” the Telegraph wrote.
The hype surrounding Macron’s look led to a surge in traffic to the French eyewear maker Henry Jullien’s website, causing it to crash.
“Our eShop website is experiencing an exceptional volume of visits and enquiries” following the “significant visibility” given to the sunglasses by Macron, said a notice on the brand’s website.
It added that it had launched a “temporary page” featuring solely the ‘Pacific’ model worn by Macron, “to ensure stable and secure access for everyone.”
Macron, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, wore sunglasses on stage due to a broken blood vessel that has left him with a bloodshot eye since last week, according to the Elysee’s chief physician.
While the French president stood up for European sovereignty and blasted “unacceptable” threats by his US counterpart Donald Trump to impose tariffs on countries opposed to his plans to seize Greenland, it was Macron’s flashy blue sunglasses that grabbed much of the attention.
“Top Gun or Terminator?,” read a headline in Le Parisien daily, highlighting the viral commentary which ranged from memes photoshopping laser beams shooting from Macron’s eyes to his face on the “Miami Vice” film poster.
Other images on social media showed Macron playing the rebel Maverick from the Top Gun franchise, while facing off to Trump.
“These sunglasses were unintentionally a very fitting visual vocabulary for the message he wanted to convey,” said communications professor Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet at Paris’s Sciences Po university.
“It gave a Hollywood-style dimension — cool and masculine at once — that answered Trump.”
Trump mocked the look, stating: “I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened?“
“But I watched him sort of be tough,” Trump added, after Macron said France rejected “bullies.”
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper published the headline “Can Macron’s sunglasses save the West?” in an analysis of the heated and divisive tone taken by largely male world leaders at the summit.
“Testosterone is the primary currency in Davos this year, and the French president’s aviators have placed him at the top of the pecking order,” the Telegraph wrote.
The hype surrounding Macron’s look led to a surge in traffic to the French eyewear maker Henry Jullien’s website, causing it to crash.
“Our eShop website is experiencing an exceptional volume of visits and enquiries” following the “significant visibility” given to the sunglasses by Macron, said a notice on the brand’s website.
It added that it had launched a “temporary page” featuring solely the ‘Pacific’ model worn by Macron, “to ensure stable and secure access for everyone.”
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