MMU-affiliated Imams read resolution against Waqf Act in J&K mosques

Imams in Kashmir reject Waqf Act, demand withdrawal, sparking protests and opposition from religious and political leaders.

Several Imams on Friday (April 11, 2025) read out a joint resolution against the Waqf Act during congregational prayers in Srinagar, even as Kashmir chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was put under house arrest.

The Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also hit the streets in Srinagar to express their displeasure over the Waqf issue.   

According to a spokesman of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulama (MMU), Imams and religious leaders of the MMU “publicly read out the resolution prepared by the council in major mosques, khanqahs, shrines, and imambaras throughout the Kashmir Valley, the Chenab region, Jammu, Leh, and Kargil”. 

“The resolution received overwhelming public support and endorsement. In the resolution, the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025, was categorically rejected with a strong demand for immediate withdrawal,” the MMU said.

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The six-point resolution reads in the religious places claimed that the Act “reduces the powers of Muslim-led Waqf Boards, assign greater role non-Muslim officials, removal of the provision of the Chief Executive Officer to be a Muslim, transfer of key decision-making powers to district collectors and repeal of Section 40 of the Waqf Act, 1995, that empowered Waqf Boards to determine the status of properties.

“The removal of the concept of ‘Waqf by long-standing use’, which protected mosques, graveyards, and other Islamic sites used for generations without formal documentation, may result in the loss of such properties simply due to lack of official records,” the MMU resolution reads.