No problem with that either. Look god is subjective anyways. Sorry if it differs from your belief. I am speaking from my perspective.
Most if not all Hindus and some Muslims (not sure if they would qualify as practicing ones because of this) worship Sai Baba who is a great Muslim origin saint. He was technically a prophet/saint but is worshipped as a god.
I understand if there is a cultural disconnect here with you guys.
What is a prophet anyways? A messenger or a personification or representative or symbol of god. My understanding of Allah is it translates to god. So if it translates to symbol of god not sure what is the debate.
In Islam a prophet is a messenger of God. In the Times of India article mentioned in the Original Post, the Muslim devotees stated that "Shri Ram is our Paigambar". Paigambar means prophet, so that's why i mentioned prophet was the intent.
The point of the thread was to see if it was offensive, as i saw mixed reactions on social media, and the answer that i got from this thread is that it basically it depends on the person then.
I am in fact appreciating this harmless in fact praise and embracing of Indian culture and is a huge positive step by Indian Muslims.
Indian Muslims have been doing stuff like this for a long time. Various Sufis have mentioned the same concept.
Indian Muslims participate in Holi and Diwali. You can actually go back to the Nawabs and Mughals they used to participate in this as well.
Not sure why some of you guys are trying to make this an offensive statement.
Well most Pakistanis i dont think have ever heard of the term Imam-e-Hind. I only heard about it by reading it in a few Indian newspapers, and there was mixed opinion on whether this was offensive or a sign of respect.
As far as the Pakistanis on this thread, there is also mixed opinions on whether it is allowed or not.
Trust me have one of your army chiefs/PM minster tweet something like this because Ram has a close connection with Pakistan after all Lahore is named after his son, one such tweet might solve 90% of the issues between both countries on the auspicious week of building the grand temple
This is where Pakistan needs to do a much better job. Our culture has some elements of Persian and Central Asian culture but this is
mixed with Indian culture. The Indian portion does not get enough emphasis.
Now for political reasons the Indian elements might have to be called south asian, or subcontinent culture. But there needs to be more emphasis on it.
I dont think its possible right now for a PM to tweet something like Lord Ram is Imam-e-Hind, but the following should happen.
You can have a statue of Lava in Lahore like Athena has in Athens.
You can have the Mahabharata taught in Pakistan. Not as a religious text, but how like the Greeks learn about Greek mythology, Pakistanis can learn about the various Hindu Gods. They can call it Razmnama for political reasons.
Holi and Diwali can be celebrated as cultural holidays. Holi is already done in Sindh, but expand to other provinces.
