Thread by @Rammyyyyy_

— Two days ago, on Monday, May 17, a mosque in the central UP town of Barabanki was demolished by the administration in defiance of an order of the Allahabad high court. The Gareeb Nawaz Al Maroof Mosque had been around for at least six decades,...1/n

#RebuildGhareebNawazMasjid

according to electricity bills held by its committee members, and was registered with the UP Sunni Waqf Board. "They demolished our century-old mosque. Thousands of people used to offer namaz here,” Maulana Abdul Mustafa, a mosque committee member said. #RebuildGhareebNawazMasjid

— But there is a backstory to the demolition which explains the relative ease with which this act of erasure planned several months ago was eventually accomplished...3/n

#RebuildGhareebNawazMasjid

On March 20, a day after protests broke out against the administration’s plan to demolish a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki, 180 people were booked under serious charges. Everyone named in the FIR is Muslim...4/n
#RebuildGhareebNawazMasjid

— At least seven FIRs were filed on March 20, a day after Muslims protested the demolition plans. People were booked under sections of the Arms Act. Other charges, such as rioting, unlawful assembly, attempt to murder & causing grievous hurt to deter a public servant, of the IPC.

On April 12, many of them were granted bail in a district court. On April 11, nearly 3weeks later, Barabanki police also arrested one Ishtiyaq alias Sonu in this case under the NSA, considered to be a draconian law often used to target dissenters...6/n #RebuildGhareebNawazMasjid

Five weeks later, the mosque was demolished with the administration claiming the mosque’s supporters “ran away” and chose not to contest the demolition order. The fact is that the indiscriminate arrests made in March weighed heavily on the community’s mind, say locals...7/n

— No Muslim “dared” to protest on the day of the demolition. “They did not even dare to go close to the mosque while it was getting demolished because of fear of the police,” Maulana Mustafa said...8/n

#RebuildGhareebNawazMasjid

Dozens of people in the area have left their homes so far and the rest live in fear, a resident said. Syed Farooq, another Barabanki resident said, “People got scared. They were worried that more people would be implicated in fake cases and left the place as soon as they could.”

Babri Masjid Demolition itself should be the limiting incident for the Muslim's consciousness. But it doesn't wake up the masses and these incidents will not stop unless& until it starts affecting the "ghairat" of the Muslims. So wake up Muslims..10/n

#RebuildGhareebNawazMasjid