Firdosh, a 6 year old Muslim girl had made the news in May, after it was reported that she had secured the first position a Bhagwad Gita recital competition. A total of 56 students had participated in the sub-junior category in the Sovaniya Sikhyashram school in Kendrapara.
According to the headmistress, the students recite Sanskrit shlokas from Bhagwad Gita every day at school and Firdosh being a quick learner had memorised many of them and had articulately recited them at school.
Such an incident might have been cited as an example of the “composite culture” which is said to be prevalent in the Indian society but now months later it turns out that her family members and the Muslim community didn’t take kindly to her achievement.
According to reports, the girl, Firdosh was taken out of her school by her parents who were reportedly pressurised to do so by the clergies. According to Arifa Bibi the mother of the girl, the clergies had issued a diktat that they do so, after they had come to know that the girl was reciting Gita instead of learning the Koran. Even their relatives had expressed unhappiness.
Firdosh and her brother were reportedly the only Muslim students in that school before they were pulled out to join another school. A moulvi of a local mosque has even called the decision to be correct, as according to him moral education and not religious education should be given at schools.
This isn’t the only time Muslims have faced backlash from their society for indulging in “Hindu practices”:
- It was reported how two Muslim sisters from Kerala (one of who later topped Madras University’s course in Bharatanatyam), used to face regular exclusion from the Muslim community because they preformed “Hindu dance forms”.
- A Muslim couple in Kerala had faced social boycott from their community for taking care of a Hindu snake temple for the last 17 years which was a part of the land given to them by their ancestors. They worshipped the temple in secret for 13 years after which their community members came to know about it via their daughter-in-law. As a result they were reportedly criticised during Mosque speeches and were also ostracised from the community.
- Recently Bihar minister Kuhrshid Alam was reportedly asked to remarry his wife as him chanting Jai Sri Ram had meant that his marriage had become void. This was because, he was first ostracised from Islam because of a fatwa issued by a Muslim cleric which according to other experts also meant, annulment of his marriage.
- In the past a fatwa was also issued against Salman Khan’s family for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi at their home which they had telecast live.
