Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has expressed serious concerns over growing climate of hate against places of worship of Muslims and Christians in the country.

The Muslim group in a monthly press meet at its headquarters in national capital Delhi on Saturday, demanded a strict action against Hindutva elements who disrupted Muslims’ friday prayer in Gurgaon and attacked church and Christian clerics in Karnataka.

The Muslim body said it has “a grave concern over the recent attempts by some well-organized groups to oppose the offering of Friday prayers in Gurgaon, Haryana.”

JIH leaders also alleged that there is a well-planned and systematic effort by some vested interests to divide people on religious grounds by targeting the places of worship of minorities.

“Muslims have been forced to offer prayers in open public parks and government lands because the government has not allotted them land for a mosque in the New Gurgaon. As many as 19 mosques big and small are under illegal possession of others since 1947. All efforts by the Haryana Waqf Board to get them vacated have failed so far. Local Muslims feel that the police and administration are not interested in restoring the mosques to the Muslims,” JIH leaders said.

Last week, a delegation of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind visited Gurgaon and met the people who were opposed to the namaz to arrive at a durable solution to the problem. The Muslim group said they had also visited Sikh leaders and some Hindu men who offered their premises and places of worship to Muslims for Friday prayers.

“Few days back, there was an attack on a Church in Belur, Hassan district of Karnataka. This politics of hate is practiced to divert the attention of people (especially when elections are around) from the real issues so that the performance of the government and ruling establishment is shifted from development to other emotional issues,” JIH leaders said.