Mohammad Asrarul Haque (commonly known as Asrarul Haq Qasmi ; 15 February 1942 – 7 December 2018) was an Indian Muslim scholar and politician, who served as the eighth general secretary of the

Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind or Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind ( ) is one of the leading organizations of Islamic scholars belonging to the Deobandi school of thought in India. It was founded in November 1919 by a group of Muslim scholars including Abdul Bari Fir ...

. He was a member of the

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India (ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The President o ...

, and represented Kishanganj seat. He was also the state president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind.

Biography

Haq was born on 15 February 1942. He was an alumnus of the

Darul Uloom Deoband Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic university and seminary ( darul uloom) in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh, India, at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. Established in 1866 by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Sayy ...

. Haq won from the Kishanganj seat in the

2009 Indian general election General elections were held in India in five phases between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009 to elect the members of the fifteenth Lok Sabha. With a registered electorate of 716 million and a turnout of 417 million voters, it was the l ...

by contesting on an

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

ticket. In the 2014 general election, he contested against

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

candidate Dilip Jaiswal. He retained his seat in the election, polling the highest number of votes in the state. Haq helped found the center of the

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Kh ...

Kishanganj Kishanganj is a city and district headquarters of Kishanganj district in Purnia division of Bihar state in India. History Kishanganj, which was previously part of Purnia district, is part of the Mithila region. Mithila first gained prominen ...

Two Circles TwoCircles.net (abbreviated as TCN) is a non-profit online news delivering organization registered in the state of Massachusetts founded in 2006. It targets news about Indian Muslims, Indian politics and Muslims around the world. Kashif-ul-Huda is ...

, in a report, blamed him for not taking steps for the improvement of government colleges in the area, saying that "the condition of government colleges was disappointing." He was a member of the

All India Muslim Personal Law Board All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in India that represents the interests of Muslims in matters of personal law. It was formed in 1973 with the objective of protecting and promoting the appli ...

and the president of All India Milli Council. Following Syed Ahmad Hashmi, Haq served as the general secretary of the

from 1981 to 1990. Haq addressed a gathering of students and teachers at Darul Uloom Suffah on 6 December 2018. He was pronounced dead at around 3:30 AM, 7 December 2018. The cause of death was a heart attack.

Views

Haq felt that Indians will "strongly resist" any attempt of the government to drop the

Article 370 Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, a region located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and part of the larger region of Kashmir which has been the subject of a dispute between India, ...

which bestows a special status on the state of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

. Citing the fact that the

had secured 31% of the votes in the 2014 general election, Haq claimed the party had no right to modify the Constitution. He criticized the BJP that the party had failed to abide by the promises they made about employment. He also criticized the idea of cashless economy. Haq said that there is an "international

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

conspiracy" which asserts that Islam promotes terrorism. He criticized the

Boko Haram Boko Haram, officially known as Jama'at Ahl al-Sunna li al-Da'wa wa al-Jihad (), is a self-proclaimed jihadist militant group based in northeastern Nigeria and also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. In 2016, the group spli ...

and said the organization was a part of the conspiracy.

Personal life

Haq married Salma Khatoon on 16 May 1965. She died on 9 July 2012. He had two sons and three daughters.

Election contested

1989 loksaba elections

1998 loksaba elections

1999 loksaba elections

2009 loksaba elections

2014 loksaba elections

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Haque, Mohammad Asrarul 1942 births 2018 deaths India MPs 2009–2014 Lok Sabha members from Bihar India MPs 2014–2019 People from Kishanganj district Indian National Congress politicians from Bihar Deobandis Members of the Majlis-e-Shura of Darul Uloom Deoband Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Bihar Samajwadi Party politicians from Bihar