Letter: India divided, a mosque destroyed

Sir: The demolition of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya in India by Hindu militants (report, 7 December) is the most uncivilised and barbaric way of solving the dispute over the mosque. The mosque has been there for hundreds of years without any problem.

The problem about the siting of the mosque started in the late Forties, when Hindus forcibly occupied the mosque. Muslims tried to resolve the issue legally and they have been waiting for decades for the Indian court to give a ruling on the issue. But the court decision never came, and this only favoured the militant Hindus.

This incident shows once again the failure of the Indian government to protect the rights of the minorities in the country. India claims it does not discriminate in favour of any particular religion. The Indian government should have taken steps to stop this action by the militants, who made no secret of their intention to destroy the mosque.

Instead, they have allowed the militants to take the law into their own hands. The Indian government may think the problem of the mosque has been solved for them in allowing this to happen. But this will create more problems than it solves between the different religious communities in India and elsewhere.

Yours sincerely,

S. A. MABUD

The Islamic Academy

Cambridge

7 December