Signatories to the appeal include actors Aamir Khan, Sanjay Khan and Javed Jaffery, cricketers Mohammed Azharuddin and Syed Kirmani, filmmakers Aziz Mirza, Abbas Mastan, Sayeed Mirza, poet and writer Javed Akhtar, script-writer Salim Khan and senior editor M J Akbar, along with a large number of other personalities from theatre, journalism, police and sports.
The appeal has been endorsed by a number of Muslim clerics including those from All India Organisation of Imams of Mosques, Dar-ul-uloom Wariseya, Lucknow, and the Ameen-i-Shariat Education Trust, Gujarat.
'As a mark of protest, we the Muslims of India call our community to come together to mark a symbolic protest on Eid ul Zoha on Tuesday (December 8). This is a day that celebrates sacrifice. This year, let us turn this celebration into a commemoration,' a joint press release issued by them said.
'Let all Indian Muslims wear a small black arm band while going to pray in the morning, let this be a silent protest against the mercenaries who spread terror in our janmabhoomi,' the appeal said.
'We the Muslims of India condemn terror in every land. We condemn terror in every divisive form. We condemn terror in every appalling manifestation. We condemn it, we denounce it, we damn it. Each act of terror on Indian soil does not just injure our motherland, it also besmirches the name of Islam,' the signatories said.
One of the signatories, Maulana Kalbe Rosahir Rizvi, said, "We implore Muslim clerics and imams of mosques all over India to request their congregation during the Friday prayers to wear black bands on Eid."
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