Muslim groups denounce diktat

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 9. With just a day left for the deadline for implementation of the `burqa' (veil) diktat of militants in Jammu and Kashmir, Muslim organisations today denounced the use of ``coercive tactics'' to make women wear veils, saying Islam did not permit the use of force to implement even good things.

Although supportive of the idea of women wearing veils, Muslim organisations denounced the method of ``coercion'' to implement it, saying that it even affected the image of Islam.

A hitherto unknown militant outfit, the Lashkar-e- Jabbar, has asked all Muslim women in Kashmir to wear a `burqa' after Monday and to demonstrate its seriousness about the diktat, its activists threw acid on three girls recently.

Although the diktat may have brought good business to tailors in Kashmir, it has found almost no takers within various sections of society, including Muslim organisations who advocate the use of persuasion rather than force to make women wear veils.

``Shariat prescribes that all women wear veils. But the method should be to convince them and not throw acid,'' said Maulana Mahmood Madani, general-secretary of the Jamiat-Ulema Hind. Women should follow the dress code on their own as ``a Muslim woman is supposed to wear a veil. But use of force to make women wear veils is inhuman and is not allowed in Islam,'' he said, adding, ``even if they wear the `burqa', it will be due to fear only. So what purpose will it serve.''

Maulana Ajaz Ahmad Aslam, assistant general-secretary of Jamiat-e-Islami Hind, termed the use of force by militants to enforce the practice as ``un-Islamic, anti-social and undemocratic. If any change is to brought in society, it should not be through force but through persuasion and by educating people.''

Maulana Madani said Islam had prescribed modesty for both men and women. ``Moving of Muslim women without a veil is `haram' (prohibited). But throwing acid to enforce something is against humanity and Islam.'' Denouncing the acid-throwing incidents, he said, ``Allah has created the face and destroying it is against Islam.''

The All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat president, Syed Shahabuddin, said, ``Islam does not permit such tactics. Islam prescribes `hijab' (veil) not `tezaab' (acid).'' He saw the tactic as an attempt to defame Islam and asked, ``What percentage of Muslim women around the world wear burqa?''

- PTI

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : 6 Armymen killed in Udhampur blast
Next     : Muslim League warning