J&K Waqf Board takes over uniform Friday sermons

Facing opposition from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Kashmiri Chief Cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti against the J&K Waqf Board’s move to introduce uniform Friday sermons in mosques, BJP leader and board chairman Andrabto206. Tuesday (206) Andrabto206 turned around and said that “such decisions will be made by preachers and not by politicians”.

“There is no order for uniform sermons. In Sunday’s meeting, religious scholars and preachers proposed to collectively fight against social evils. Ulemas (scholars) and khateebs (preachers) will decide the topics of Friday sermons through a council. It is they (preachers) and not politicians who decide such things,” Ms. Andrabi said.

She said the idea was to “raise a strong and united voice on social issues such as drugs, late marriages, waywardness and the recent cases of orchard damage.

The U-turn came two days after Ms Andrabi suggested that a core committee of preachers be set up to pre-decide sermon topics in J&K mosques. Ishtiyaq Mohi-ud-Din, the executive magistrate of the council, informed the preachers of the council’s directive that “only one subject (in the sermons) will be emphasized”.

However, the board’s move sparked public outrage and drew criticism from regional parties including the National Conference, PDP, J&K Peoples Conference (JKPC), Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), etc.

“This is an unacceptable attempt by the BJP to interfere in the religious affairs of Muslims and will not be accepted under any circumstances. The BJP-appointed Chairperson must immediately stop this misplaced attempt to please her masters,” Mr Abdullah said.

Mr Farooq, who also heads the pan-J&K conglomerate of religious bodies, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema, said: “Even the suggestion that a statutory body could determine or regulate what is to be preached from the pulpit is ridiculous and will never be accepted by the Muslims of J&K.”

He said the move represented a “violent state intervention in the religious sphere that is contrary to the law and the principles of freedom of religion.” “The Waqf Board should stick to its administrative responsibility of managing, maintaining and protecting the Waqf properties entrusted to it rather than coming up with such a tricky agenda and unnecessary disputes,” he added.

Former J&K Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti called the board’s move “totally unacceptable”. “This is an interference in our religious affairs. Friday sermons are primarily shaped by the problems and circumstances facing a particular region or locality, while also addressing broader social and national concerns. Imposing a uniform template on these sermons does not take into account the diversity of local realities,” Ms Mufti said.

Ms Mufti said the BJP cannot use Waqf institutions to interfere in religious matters or prescribe what should be preached from the pulpit. “Our religious preachers are well aware of the topics to be talked about. They are the ones who have propagated and protected Islam in J&K. A BJP-run council and a non-Muslim-headed minority ministry cannot decide what should be in the sermon,” Ms Mufti said.

She said it was a bid to push BJP’s agenda in line with the Uniform Civil Code in J&K. “Kashmir has become a laboratory for the BJP. What is used here first is later introduced across the country. Mosques in J&K are built with donations from local residents and are not the board’s personal property,” Ms Mufti said.

It demanded that the Waqf Board be handed over to an elected government. “Let Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who heads the MMU, decide on the sermons. He has a spiritual right to do so,” Ms Mufti said.

Former Srinagar Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu said that the J&K Waqf Board must be constituted by an elected government and not an unelected Lt. Governor. “You cannot impose unelected councils and institutions on the people as a parallel form of political administration and still have the illusion of democracy. Having ten sarkari maulanas on the table is not carte blanche to issue fatwas. If the BJP wanted to decide what our imams say in their Friday sermons, what is left of this pretend freedom of religion,” Mr Mattu said.

JKPC chairman Sajad Lone termed the “preliminary screening and adjudication of Friday sermons by the J&K Waqf Board as a direct interference with religious freedom and the autonomy of the pulpit”. “The pulpit belongs to faith, not government micromanagement. Hands off our mosques,” Mr Lone said.

The AIP warned the committee against “interfering in religious matters”. “The pulpit of the mosque is not an administrative desk and the imam is not a speaker who has to read an approved script,” AIP spokesman Inam Un Nabi said. He said imams must retain the freedom to address injustice, corruption and the concerns of their communities without being confined to a predetermined agenda.

Published – 13 October 2026 16:30 IST