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Summary Debate on Bollywood stars visits to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Dargah rages in India.
I have only visited the place once. I had gone because I believe in worship and god. Whenever we go to such a place, it is not because we want to promote our film. We go there for peace, the 26-year-old said here.The shrines dewan, Syed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, who is also the sajjada nashin (current head) of the Chishti order and claims to be a descendant of the saint, said in a statement Sunday that prayers by actors, directors, producers and musicians at this 12th century shrine for success of their films and TV serials are intolerable.Meanwhile, when asked if she is in talks for starring in Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Ram Leela, Deepika said, This is not true. The only film that I am working on currently is Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, which is the most important for me right now because we have aBollywood stars, these days have started resorting to the two DIs: Digital Imaging and Divine Intervention. While for the former, there are a million studios that are at it, but for the latter, the stars have suddenly started flocking to the Ajmer SharifDargah, which has become the Mecca of the tinsel stars, who come there for praying for their films success. This is something that has not gone well with the management of the dargah.Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, the Dargah Dewan reasoned that a holy place must not be used as a platform for anything that is forbidden and against Islamic law. In lieu of this, Khan issued a statement on Sunday stating, Dance and films are taboo in Islam. Cinema today, in general, is promoting obscenity, which is a major reason behind the rapid degradation of moral values in the society.Film stars come here repeatedly to seek blessings for their films and, in the process, promote their film through the media. Such kind of promotion of their work at the religious place is highly intolerable. He reasoned out his stance stating that he is not against the film stars coming in the Dargah.All that they are objecting is that the stars leave behind the CDs of their films. He said, how can he know that if the CD left behind by the stars doesnt contain any explicit content. He summed it up saying that Khwajaji isnt here to make their films a hit.Meanwhile, the religious head of the Dargah has called upon all the Islamic scholars and Ulemas to look into this issue. He said that it was very surprising for him to see that the Islamic scholars are quiet on this issue. He also added that they should express their views as strongly as they do in other cases.He cited the examples of Himesh Reshammiya who had come in a burqa and Katrina Kaif in a skirt. He questioned this by asking why dont these stars go to Shankarcharya Math or to a gurudwara before the release of their movie. They come here for publicity and land up spreading obscenity.On the other hand, Qutubuddin Sakhi, Dargahs Khadim, who disagreed with Khan reasoned that be it a common man or a celebrity nobody comes for sheer publicity. He also added that those who are announcing the ban have no authority to say so and that its their personal grudges against khadims.In the same breath, he said that the Dargah Dewans statement is nothing but a gimmick to earn publicity. He added that Bollywood celebrities have been coming to pray and seek blessings of Khwaja Saheb since the past 23 years and none of them came here to get publicity.Meanwhile, Syed Afsar Ali Nizami, the in-charge of Nizamuddin dargah said that the Dargah Dewan is trying to mislead people in the name of Islam. He stated that to issue a statement like stars, directors and producers are using the holy place for commercial purposes and for degrading moral values is completely wrong.He added that he saw northing wrong in the stars visiting the shrine as its not wrong for the stars to pray for the success of their films. He also explained that while a masjid is for Muslims, a dargah is open for all. Anyone can come and seek blessings at a dargah.He added that if the authorities were so worried about the commercial misuse of the holy shrine, then how come they allowed movie shoots (Namastey London) inside?
