Osama not a Muslim if Wahabi: Ulema

The religious followings of Al Qaeda leader and international terror mastermind Osama bin Laden came under scanner on Tuesday after an ulema declared he could not be termed as a Muslim if he followed the Wahabi sect.

Talking to reporters in Lucknow to clarify his fatwa on declaring the marriages in a Moradabad village as void, mufti-e-shehr, Mufti Abdul Mannan Kalimi said people who follow the Deobandi or Wahabi sect within the Muslim community are not Muslims.

He said this after a section of the media a reported Osama bin Laden as a Wahabi.

Incidentally, Mufti Kalimi had issued a fatwa, declaring people who had attended a 'namaz-e-janaza' led by a Deobandi sect Maulana as non-Muslims. He had also termed their marriages as void.

He said his fatwa was in the light of a similar decree issued a 100 years ago by Maulana Ahmed Raza, a respected leader of the Sunni sect of the Muslim community.