Statement on Passage of India’s Waqf Amendment Act of 2025

Justice For All expresses deep concern over the passage of India’s 2025 Waqf Amendment Act and its implications for Muslim-owned properties. This bill weakens protections for waqf properties making them vulnerable to potential seizure by India’s majority Hindu community. The Waqf Amendment Act is part of a broader pattern of escalating discrimination and suppression of Muslims under the Modi-led BJP government.

Waqf properties–endowments made by Muslims for religious, educational and charitable purposes–have supported both Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Under Islamic principles, once designated as waqf, these properties are considered sacred and cannot be sold or repurposed. Waqf properties generate income that supports mosques, schools and other institutions for the public good. India’s waqf boards, responsible for managing these assets, oversee nearly a million acres of land across 32 states and union territories, making them one of the country’s largest trustees of charitable land.

Article 26 of India’s Constitution allows religious minorities the right to form and run their own religious and charitable institutions, including waqfs. Until now, waqf boards were required to be Muslim-run, ensuring these properties remain in the service of their intended religious and community purposes. Several properties that are centuries-old are automatically considered as waqf because they are under Muslim religious use and are of an age where proper documentation does not exist.

The new amendments are concerning:

• Removal of the Muslim-only requirement for waqf boards, potentially enabling non-Muslim control over these religious properties.
• Reclassifying century-old properties waqf properties, questioning their legal status and opening them up to acquisition.
• Bringing waqf tribunals under the state court jurisdiction, further eroding independent Muslim governance of these properties.
• Expanded government authority over waqf lands, increasing the risk of state appropriation for non-religious purposes.

Scholars of Indian waqf law, such as Syed Mahmood Akhtar, who was instrumental in framing the previous amendments of 2013, warn that allowing non-Muslims and government to control waqfs will jeopardize many properties. Declaring them as state-owned lands opens the possibility for the state to usurp or even sell them, directly contravening the meaning of waqf, or in perpetuity charitable endowment.

This newest legislation marks a dangerous shift from targeting individual Muslims and small groups to economically crippling the entire community by stripping them of their religious and institutional autonomy. It is a direct assault on India’s constitutional principles of religious freedom and minority rights. Justice For All stands in solidarity with India’s Muslims and calls on the international community to hold the Indian government accountable for its continued suppression of marginalized communities.