Muslims in Bihar donate land and money for Hindu temple

Muslims in Bihar, in a display of communal fellowship, have donated land to help the fundraising efforts for the massive new Hindu temple in the northern Indian state of Bihar.

The land, in the East Champaran district near Patna, was donated in exchange for a nominal amount. Acharya Kishore Kunal, secretary of the Patna-based trust undertaking the project, stated that without the help of the local Muslim community, this dream would not have been realized any time soon.

The construction of the temple will commence in June of this year. It will cost over Rs5,000,000,000 (£50,000,000) to build and will have the capacity to seat 20,000 people. It will be the biggest Hindu temple in the world.

Acharya Kishore Kunal said “It is usual for Hindus to donate land for a temple, but it is unusual for Muslims to donate land for the construction of a temple.” He added that Muslims should be praised for joining hands with Hindus to donate land for a religious purpose.

This is also a show of tolerance, since more than three dozen Muslim families have their land in the middle of the proposed location of the temple and other Muslims families have land along the main road that connects to the project site.

Earlier, Muslims had helped build a Hindu temple dedicated to Goddess Durga in another district.