Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Member of Legislative Council (MLC), Haji Iqbal seems to have become the latest citizen to have drawn the ire of Islamists.
As per media reports, some Muslim leaders have got miffed after he performed a Yajna at the Glocal University in Uttar Pradesh, which he owns. This Yajna was part of Dhanwantari Puja, which was performed at the university in Saharanpur district on 18th October.
Haji was reportedly present at the ceremony and the trouble started when its video started getting circulated on social media. It turns out that this Yajna was held at the University thanks to a directive by the Modi government, which required all Ayurvedic institutions to hold such a program.
Be that as it may, Haji drew the ire of Mufti Zulfikar, the state President of the All-India Imam Association. As per Zulfikar, it was un-Islamic on part of Haji to organise the Yajna and he should seek forgiveness from Allah. He also claimed that each religion has a certain code which should not be flouted.
Such an adverse reaction by Muslim hardliners when some members for their faith take part in Hindu customs, is nothing new.
We had recently reported that a Deoband Ulema had proclaimed that Muslim women who had performed Aarti of Lord Ram on Diwali eve, had ceased to be Muslims. It was later instructed that they re-read the Kalma to get readmitted into the faith. Now it seems that things have worsened for the women after it has been reported that their marriage too has been deemed annulled as a result of this act.
A similar fate had beckoned Bihar minister Khurshid Alam soon after he had publicly chanted “Jai Shri Ram” in Bihar assembly premises. After the news became popular, a mufti (cleric) named Suhail Ahmed of Imarat-e-Shariya, an influential Islamic organisation in Patna issued a fatwa expelling Alam from the Muslim community. Later Sajid Rashidi, the chief of All India Imam federation had claimed that an individual’s marriage gets annulled after being ostracised from Islam so Alam was advised to retake his wedding vows as soon as he was inducted into the Islamic faith again.
It remains to be seen if the Muslim community and the Indian society takes a stance again such decrees which clearly are providing a blow to the much publicised “composite culture” of the nation.
