08, Sep 2015

Written by Syed Khalique Ahmed | Ahmedabad | Updated: September 8, 2015 10:20 am
Posters have CM picture and quote a verse which clerics say is a misquote. Javed Raja
Billboards with pictures of Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and the Islamic symbol of the crescent moon and star have come up in an Ahmedabad locality with a message from the Gauseva and Gauchar Vikas Board of the Gujarat government, quoting a verse it claims is from the Quran to back its case for the protection of the cow. The billboards appeared in Bapunagar, greeting Muslims on the occasion of Janmashtami.
The verse on the billboard “Akramul Bakra Fainaha Saiyedul Bahaima” has been translated as “Show respect to cows as it is the leader of all bovines. Its milk, ghee and butter have therapeutic properties and its meat is the cause of several diseases’’.
But Mufti Ahmed Devlavi, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said there is no such verse in the Quran. “I have never come across such a verse in the Holy Quran. It is possible that it may be an Arabic statement, wrongly attributed to the Holy Quran. It appears to have been used to mislead Muslims,’’ Devlavi said.