New Delhi: Actors, lawyers and activists are among 130 prominent personalities who have issued a statement to condemn the recent murders in France committing in the name of religion. Actors Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Swara Bhasker, Zeeshan Ayyub, lyricist Javed Akhtar, lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, writer-activist Tushar Gandhi and others have slammed the outrageous statements by some Muslim political and religious leaders “rationalising” the murders.

“We are deeply disturbed by the convoluted logic of some self-appointed guardians of Indian Muslims in rationalising cold-blooded murder and deplore the outrageous remarks of some heads of state,” the statement said.

Writer-director Feroz Abbas Khan, director Kabir Khan, screenwriter Anjum Rajabali, documentary film-maker Anand Patwardhan, retired IPS officer Julio F Ribeiro and industrialist Abdul Aziz Lokhandwala were others included in the 130 signatories who “unequivocally and unconditionally” condemned the recent killings in France by “two fanatics in the name of faith”. Others include writer-producer Danish Jawed, theatre personality Mallika Sarabhai, National Alliance of People’s Movements’ Medha Patkar and retired JNU professor Mridula Mukherjee.

The statement further read, “We reject any ifs and buts in the justification of heinous crimes in the name of religion, any religion. No god, gods, goddesses, prophets or saints may be invoked to justify the killing and/or terrorising of fellow human beings.”

“We stand in solidarity with the ‘French Council for the Muslim Faith’ for strongly condemning the attacks and issuing an appeal calling on all Muslims in France to ‘cancel all celebrations of the birthday of the Prophet as a sign of mourning and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones’,” it said.

The original piece may be read here