Survey of Madrassas

Survey of Madrassas is Systemic Targeting Of Muslims: Owaisi

After the Uttar Pradesh government ordered a survey of Islamic educational institutions or Madrassas in Kanpur, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday alleged that the government is targeting Waqf property which is a “systematic targeting of Muslims”.

Attacking the Uttar Pradesh government, Owaisi alleged that there is a conspiracy behind the madrasas’ survey.

While addressing the media persons in Hyderabad, he said, “Why are you (UP Govt) conducting a survey of Waqf properties only? Do it for Hindu Endowments Board properties too. I was saying there’s a conspiracy behind madrasas’ survey. It’s coming to the fore. UP govt is violating Article 300 (Right to property).”

“If someone has illegally registered Govt property as Waqf property, fight it in Court, go to Tribunal. UP Govt is targeting Waqf property & trying to snatch it away. Such a targeted survey is absolutely wrong. We condemn it. It’s systematic targetting of Muslims,” he added.

In light of the Uttar Pradesh government’s order, the survey of Islamic educational institutions or Madrassas has started in Kanpur.

According to the government order, the survey will be on the basis of 12 aspects. The teams of officials for the Madrassa survey have been constituted by District Magistrate (DM) as per government order.

“The survey of Madrassas has started. We are checking certain points such as land records, syllabus, cleanliness, housing facilities etc. Some Madrassas have been identified to be checked. There are 25 Madrassas in the city area. The rest are the in surrounding villages,” said Sub Divisional Magistrate Himanshu Nagpal.

Earlier this month, the Uttar Pradesh government started the process of conducting a survey of the Islamic education institutions.

Earlier, the UP government declared to conduct a survey in unrecognised madrassas to ascertain information on the number of students, teachers, curriculum and affiliation with any non-government organisation.

The survey of unrecognized Madrassas is conducted to ensure the basic facilities of the students of Madrassas.

Danish Azad Ansari, Minister of State for Minority Welfare, Muslim Waqf and Waqf Department said that the order also holds to give maternity leave and child care leave to women employees working in Madrassas in the light of the rules applicable in the Department of Secondary Education and Basic Education.

All the District Magistrates (DMs) in Uttar Pradesh have been issued instructions regarding the survey. The government has also ordered holding a survey of unrecognised Madrassas by October 5. The teams will constitute officials of the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Basic Shiksha Adhikaris (BSA) and District Minority Officers.

Once the survey is conducted it has also been instructed to hand over the report to the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) after which ADM will present the consolidated statements to the District Magistrates (DMs).

Moreover, it has been ordered that in case of a disputed management committee or in case of the death of any employee in an aided Madrassas, a post-facto approval for appointment by the principal Madrassas and District Minority Welfare Officer in the dependent quota of the deceased and the existence of a valid management committee has to be sought.

Meanwhile, a convention of madrassas of Uttar Pradesh was held in Darul Uloom, Deoband on the survey of unrecognized madrassas by the state government on Sunday. The convention was attended by over 250 madrassa representatives.

After the convention, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani said there is no objection from the madrassas on the issue of the survey of unrecognized madrassas by the state government.

“There is no opposition among us regarding the survey. We have instructed the Ulemas to give correct answers to whatever questions are asked to them and people should cooperate fully in the survey,” Madani said.

He said the madrassas are instructed to keep their rules and accounts correct and conduct audits from time to time.

Madani said that the madrassas will not take help from the government for day-to-day religious affairs adding that the government can help in building schools and colleges.

Madani said if a madrassa is on the land of the government, then the government has the right to demolish it, but “if the madrassa is on its own land, then we are against it.”

He said the convention appealed to all Islamic madrassas to cooperate with the survey team. (ANI)

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‘Bulldozer Is The New Symbol Of Oppression, With A Communal Agenda’

Suman, the editor of Jan Morcha, an independent, cooperative Hindi daily published from Faizabad, UP, says BJP’s political persecution has also galvanized resistance from people

For the BJP, bulldozers are the new brand of oppressive and polarizing politics. Obviously, the target is once again the Muslim community, and, that too, the poorest of the community.

After Jehangirpuri and the Ram Navami assaults on a mosque out there by an unruly mob with a communal agenda, they have now targeted Shaheen Bagh near Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi, which was the epicenter of the peaceful and protracted anti-CAA protests led by the mothers and daughters of the area amidst direct communal attacks in public discourse by top BJP leaders and ministers.

That the resilient people of Shaheen Bagh were able to stop the demolitions now is a sign that both the attacks and the resistance are going to build up in the day to come – and, seemingly, there is a hidden narrative behind this all.

It must be mentioned that during the recent elections in UP, the current chief minister mentioned in his public speeches that the bulldozers have been sent for repairing and they will be out soon to do their work. There were hoardings put up by the BJP with bulldozers, as if the lotus has been replaced as its party symbol. Even in Madhya Pradesh, reportedly, similar tactics have been used. More so, BJP workers were seen celebrating on top of bulldozers after the party won the assembly elections in UP.

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This has become a new political card for the party, and, sadly so. There are encroachments all over the country, including in UP, so why this sudden celebration with bulldozers now? Significantly, the rich are left to their game, even if they encroach on public land or footpaths, but the poorest are hit so badly, including roadside vendors and those plying humble carts to earn a daily livelihood.

Suman (inset) feels when oppression grows, so will people’s resistence as happened in Shaheen Bagh

It seems that behind all this there is a sinister plan. The plan is to create polarizing fissures in the social fabric and thereby up the political ante in support of the Hindutva plank of the BJP. Now, they are even planning to use the same tactics in Ayodhya.

Unfortunately, this could lead to a situation of serious conflict on the ground. Mobs might take over public spaces. And for how long can the people, especially the poor, endure these brazen and repeated acts of injustice, targeted so blatantly against one community, and for no rhyme or reason?

People will come out and protest — peacefully as always, one hopes — as in Shaheen Bagh now and as it was in Shaheen Bagh two years ago. I think the protests will intensify. My hunch is that the BJP think-tank wants the people to come out on the streets so that they can they use the plank of law and order and claim, ‘Look, the encroachers are flexing their muscles, and thereby need to be taught a good lesson’. The hidden agenda behind that is clear: push the Muslim community to the edge, and when they peacefully protest, manufacture a dangerous situation on the ground so as to consolidate and build the Hindutva vote base. This is dangerous and diabolical, and I fear for the worst in the days to come.

Hijab Ban In Karnataka

A Headscarf Lifts The BJP Veil

First it was Love Jehad. Then, mob-lynching and beef. Then it was Romeo Squads. This was followed by blocking inter-faith marriages, harassing and humiliating adult couples.

If she is an adult Hindu woman wanting to have a consensual marriage with a Muslim or Christian man, then a thousand hurdles will be created for them. Reminds of the gory honour killings of yesteryears. Reminds more grotesquely of how Dalits are degraded and brutalised if they choose to have a relationship with an upper caste woman or man.

If this is the dominant narrative in modern India, that too in a pluralist, secular, democracy, then it is a major civilisational crisis. An entire country is being dragged into a retrograde and regressive abyss, a ghetto from which it will take great guts, resilience, enlightenment and the will to finally transcend into wisdom, love and hope.

As of now, every attempt is being made to turn this unhappy abyss in bad faith, as the principal adrenaline of our civil society, however unsuccessful. And lead protagonist in this horrible public spectacle, being celebrated routinely and ritualistically, is the BJP, the Sangh Parivar, and the states where it has its ruling regimes.

The latest thorn in their flesh are the hijabs worn by innocent and hardworking Muslim school girls in Karnataka, chasing a dream. The Karnataka government has declared that “clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn”.

Hijab has been banned in classrooms, though, clearly, it is not a violation of fundamental rights as inscribed in the secular Indian Constitution. Clearly, it is a wilful attack on law-abiding Muslim citizens, Muslim students, and, especially, Muslim girls seeking education and higher aspirations in an unequal, male dominated society.

It is a method followed in a certain predictable and clichéd pattern. In an oblique and yet brazen signal, this implies that it is an attack on Muslim youngsters attaining education, enlightenment, modernity, higher aspiration levels, and thereby finding their rightful time and space in a democratic India. It is therefore yet another signal that if you are inclined for education, then you better follow our repressive and regressive Hindutva rules, and it does not matter what were the values of the Indian freedom struggle.

No wonder, observers are certain that the hounding and prolonged imprisonment of brilliant Muslim scholars such as Umar Khalid on allegedly cooked up charges, is a sharp pointer, that, no, you have no business to reinterpret Indian history and politics, and, surely, you have no business to express dissent, or dream of a better society, and that if you do so, you will rot in jail for no rhyme or reason. This is the short, nasty and brutish message to all concerned, especially dissenters, especially youngsters, especially enlightened Muslim scholars, both men and women.

The banning of the Hijab, therefore, is part of this predictable and sick pattern. And, pray, how can wearing a headscarf ‘‘disturb equality, integrity and public law and order’’?

In that case, dupattas should be banned, and so should turbans, caps and hats. In that case, no one should wear a ‘tilak’ on his or her forehead, nor any sign or ornament depicting their religious identity. In that case, youngsters with shaven heads, mourning the death of their loved ones, should not be able to attend schools.

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And what if a Brahmin boy comes with a shaven head, what is called a ‘boddi’ in the Hindi heartland? Will he too be so unfortunately banned from attending school? Will sacred threads too be banned? And what if brothers flaunt their rakhis on the day of the festival, tied so lovingly on their wrists by their sisters?

And what about parents and guardians? Will they be allowed to participate in teacher-parents meetings wearing a burqa, a skull cap or a turban?

The example of France is too far-fetched. Barring fanatically defending the Rafael deal, the fanatics or their mentors in the Sangh Parivar are clueless about anything that is French, including its early 20th century staunch secularism, if not the narratives of the heady French revolution which inspired the world, the Paris commune run by the communists and anarchists, and an entrenched value system derived from fraternity, equality and liberty. Surely, they have no clue about its literature, art, architecture and culture, its cinema and music, and its great academic scholarship.

The French are fanatics about secularism, not communal polarisation, hate politics and xenophobia, which it hates compulsively. They only refuse to accept religious dresses in public institutions, including in schools, of all religions.  They do not discriminate. The French government allowed, for instance, Charlie Hebdo, to publish those extremely controversial cartoons, for which the newspaper, its journalists and cartoonists, had to pay a heavy and tragic price.

The Karnataka government would do well to learn a few lessons from the civil society and democratic government of New Zealand, including its police force. After 50 innocent people were massacred at two mosques in Christchurch, women wore headscarves all over the country, in solidarity with their fellow Muslim citizens. It was a heartwarming signature stamped across the faces of the women of New Zealand, including its Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, who wore a headscarf too, and much earlier, as a leader of a secular nation where all communities are respected and are allowed to live with freedom and dignity. She was wearing a black scarf in solidarity, while meeting and hugging the mourning members of the Muslim community.

“I wanted to say: ‘We are with you, we want you to feel at home on your own streets, we love, support and respect you’,” a doctor in Auckland said. She was the inspiration behind the popular idea, reported Reuters in March 2019.

“Why am I wearing a headscarf today? Well, my primary reason was that if anybody else turns up waving a gun, I want to stand between him and anybody he might be pointing it at. And I don’t want him to be able to tell the difference, because there is no difference,” said Bell Sibly, in Christchurch.

Indeed, what became a celebrated image all over the world, a woman police officer on duty guarding the Christchurch cemetery, where the victims of the massacre were buried, held an automatic weapon, with a weapon in her hands, while wearing a headscarf.

Hijab or no hijab, it is the quest for humanity, enlightenment and pluralism which was celebrated in New Zealand by its people, its women across all communities, and its compassionate government. And that is how a civilized, pluralist and modern democracy should conduct itself. Not like what the Karnataka government is doing these days, targeting young school girls, with stars in their eyes, clutching onto their school bags, hounded and humiliated, denied their right to freedom and education. Indeed, and instead, they should celebrate them, as they do in those fake ads called ‘Beti Padhao…’

Pray, how much more fake can it get, really!