Bail for Siddique Kappan, Hijabi Karate champion to fight for India, Demolition of madrasas continues in Assam
Issue-40 | September 09, 2022
SC says hijab is different from practices of other religions, Family & rights bodies seek urgent medical care for jailed Muslim activist, Muslim teenager shot dead in UP, HC refuses to quash terror charges against young Kashmiri academic, UP Muslim scholars vow to protect madrasas
- A Weekly Read on Issues, Struggles & Positive Trends. From Empower India Foundation.
Hijabi Karate champion from Hyderabad to represent India at Commonwealth championship
A hijab-wearing young Muslim woman will represent India at the Commonwealth Karate Championship, scheduled to be held in UK’s Birmingham this month. Syeda Falak of Hyderabad, also a law student and a member of the All Indian Majlis-e- Ittihad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party, has already won 20 national and 22 international titles. Falak is known as the “golden girl” of Hyderabad. “I was introduced to Karate by my elder sister, and initially it was just about learning self-defence and enhancing fitness,” the hijabi Karate champion told the media.
Karnataka hijab ban: SC judge Hemant Gupta says Sikh practices “well ingrained in Indian culture … can't compare with hijab”, also dismisses comparisons with Christian, Hindu practices
A judge of the Supreme Court said practices in Sikhism and Islam cannot be compared because Sikh practices are “well ingrained in Indian culture”. Justice Hemant Gupta’s remarks came during the hearing of petitions challenging the official ban on hijab at educational institutions in Karnataka. Advocate Nizam Pasha, a lawyer representing the petitioners responded by saying “Islam is also there for 1400 years and the Hijab is also present". Justice Hemant Gupta also dismissed any comparison of hijab with Hindu practice of wearing Rudraksha or Christian practice of wearing Cross. During the hearing, the petitioner also submitted that India follows "positive secularism" and hence, government must exercise "reasonable accommodation" and allow the Muslim students to wear hijab. The hearing will continue next week.
Journalist Siddique Kappan gets bail after nearly 2 years of detention
The Supreme Court granted bail to Siddique Kappan, a Muslim journalist from Kerala who has been jailed in Uttar Pradesh for nearly two years. Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit said that the “Supreme Court will grant Kappan bail,” and asked the Uttar Pradesh government what conditions it wished to impose. The bench, also comprising Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, said that Kappan will be taken to the trial court within three days and shall be released on bail on conditions which include the stipulation that he has to stay within the jurisdiction of Jangpura in New Delhi for the first six weeks. Kappan will also be required to record his presence at the local police station every Monday for that duration, after which he can go to Kerala, where too he will be required to report to the local police station every Monday.
Fourth madrasa demolished in Assam in one month, but this time by mob
A group of men from Assam’s Goalpara district demolished a madrasa, claiming that the Muslim institution was a “hub of anti-national and jihadi activities”. This is the fourth madrasa to be demolished in Assam in the last few weeks with the first three being pulled down by BJP government authorities. A police officer said “the residents of the area were agitated over the alleged anti-Indian and ‘jihadi’ activities” in the madrasa after a cleric associated with the madrasa, Jalaluddin Sheikh, 49, was arrested for ” his role in ‘jihadi’ activities”. Now, the students of the institute are facing an uncertain future, and this ‘voluntary demolition’ of a madrasa by Muslims themselves says something about the status of Muslims under Assam’s Hindu extremist government. In August, the state’s BJP government demolished three madrasas. Assam’s Muslim lawmakers wrote to the National Commission for Minorities over the government’s demolition of madrasas.
UP Muslim scholars vow to protect madrasas from government actions
A top Muslim scholar body condemned a proposed survey of “unrecognised madrasas” in Uttar Pradesh. Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind said the UP government’s move is “a malicious attempt to disparage the madrasa education system”. At a meeting convened by the organisation in New Delhi, a pledge was also taken by rectors of more than 200 madrasas “to safeguard madrasas at any cost”. The organisation also decided to set up a helpline for any madrasa facing problems following the government’s announcement that it would “examine unrecognised madrasas” in Uttar Pradesh. The UP is governed by Yogi Adityanath, an Islamophobic Hindu right-wing leader.
'His left side paralysed', say family of jailed Muslim activist-scholar Atikur Rahman
Muslim activist-scholar Atikur Rahman, 28, who was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in October 2020 along with three others (his fellow activist Masud, journalist Siddique Kappan and driver Alam) has become “partially paralysed” and “highly disoriented”, said his family and lawyer. Rahman, a heart patient and a member of the Muslim student group Campus Front of India (CFI), is presently admitted to Lucknow’s King George's Medical University (KGMU) hospital. “He can’t move his left side, and he is even struggling to recognise me. He sometimes remembers who I am but then soon forgets again. It’s a very scary situation,” his wife Sanjida Rahman told ‘The Quint’. Several activists raised their concerns over the lack of medical attention to Rahman by the UP authorities. Amnesty International, a global rights advocacy group, demanded the “immediate release” of Rahman. “It is a travesty for the Indian authorities to keep Atikur Rahman in detention for almost two years on bogus charges solely for peacefully exercising his human rights. It seems the authorities are on a vindictive quest to further crush him by making his life unbearable, including by denying and delaying his medical treatment. Rahman should not have been detained in the first place. His arbitrary detention must end,” said Aakar Patel, chair of the board for Amnesty International India. US-based advocacy group Indian American Muslim Council also asked the Indian government to “immediately provide urgent medical care to activist-scholar Atikur Rahman”.
In affidavit, former RSS worker claims top Hindu right-wing leaders involved in terrorism
Sixteen years after a bomb exploded at a residence of Maharashtra’s Nanded-based Rashtriya Swayansevak Sangh (RSS) worker, a former senior functionary of the Hindu militant organisation has moved an application before a special CBI court claiming that several senior right-wing leaders were directly involved in the incident. RSS is also the parent body of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The applicant, Yashwant Shinde, was an RSS worker for close to 25 years and also had associations with other Hindu extremist/violent groups like the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal. He has claimed that over three years before the blast, a senior VHP worker had informed him about a terror training camp that was underway to “carry out blasts across the country”. Observers noted that the bomb blasts carried out by Hindutva terrorists were “part of a long-term strategy” and helped the BJP-RSS capture power in New Delhi.
Every institution under attack from Hindu nationalists: top opposition leader Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi, a senior opposition politician and leader of the Congress party, said the tricolor, which forms India’s national flag, belongs to “every religion, state and language”, but “is under attack today by the BJP and the RSS”. Gandhi said the influential Hindu right-wing groups, which control the government in New Delhi and many states, “are dividing India along religious and linguistic lines”. Speaking at the launch of his party’s nationwide ‘Bharat Jodo’ journey, Gandhi also said “every single institution of the country is under attack” from the Hindu nationalists.
Supreme Court will soon hear pleas against Modi government’s discriminatory citizenship law
The Supreme Court will hear on September 12 a bunch of petitions filed challenging the constitutional validity of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, which discriminates against Muslim refugees and refugees from countries other than Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit will head the bench. The discriminatory law came into effect on 10 January 2020. More than 200 petitions are currently pending before the Supreme Court which challenges the 2019 Act. A key argument of the petitions is that the law, which liberalises and fast-tracks the grant of citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, promotes religion-based discrimination.
Muslim teenager shot dead in Uttar Pradesh
A 19-year-old Muslim teenager was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district. Shahrukh, a resident of Muzaffarnagar and a labourer, was returning from work. Two men, Dharamveer and Ompal, have been arrested based on a complaint from Shahrukh’s family. Shahrukh was branded as a thief by a Hindu mob before he and his friend were targeted by the assailants, according to his family, which denied the theft claims. “My brother was a labourer who used to do the work of tying iron rods. He was returning from Miragpur village on Wednesday night. There were some people already standing on the way, carrying weapons. They stopped Shahrukh and his friends and started abusing them. One of them opened fire too. There were two men who opened fire,” Dilshad, Shahrukh’s cousin, told the media.
Offering funeral prayers of killed militant not anti-national activity: J&K&L High Court
The Jammu & Kashmir & Ladakh High Court recently ruled that offering of funeral prayers of a killed militant by the public at large cannot be construed to be anti-national activity of that magnitude to deprive them of their personal liberty as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, which deals with the ‘protection of life and personal liberty’. A bench of Justices Ali Mohammd Magrey and MD Akram Chowdhary was hearing two appeals filed by the government challenging orders passed by a lower court, which granted bail to the applicants in two separate cases. The HC upheld the trial court’s orders in favour of a few villagers in Kulgam, including the Imam of a local masjid, who were booked under the controversial UAPA for offering funeral prayers in absentia for a slain militant.
J&K: HC refuses to quash terror charges against young Kashmiri academic, says he spoke against oppression
The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court refused to quash a case registered against an assistant professor in a government college. The young academic, Abdul Bari Naik, has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), India’s controversial anti-terror law that is being widely used against government critics. Abdul Bari has been accused of trying “to provoke citizens to use force against state institutions like the army, police, and administration”. A High Court bench headed by Justice Sanjay Dhar examined video clips submitted by the police, following which the court ruled that professor Abdul Bari, 41, was “trying to promote enmity between residents of Jammu and Kashmir and those living in other parts of India”. Abdul Bari submitted before the court that the police booked a case against him because he is also an RTI activist and he raised the issues of corruption. The young academic also said his acts may amount to violation of service rules but should not attract police action. Abdul Bari was arrested in March last year. His family said the professor was arrested because of his public interest activism. They said he had exposed corruption in the government as well as encroachment of village land by the Indian Army.
J&K administration suspends Muslim official for comment on non-veg in Hinduism
A senior Muslim employee of the Jammu & Kashmir administration was suspended for saying that a Hindu religious text allows eating meat. According to the J&K administration, the statement had the potential to create law and order problems. Rajouri district magistrate Vikas Kundal suspended Abdul Rashid Kohli, assistant commissioner (panchayat), for making “objectionable remarks about a particular religion”. According to Rashid, he had gone out for lunch with four of his juniors -- two Muslims and two Hindus. “Four of us, including a Hindu VLW, ordered non-veg food but one ordered vegetarian food. There was a discussion whether the Rig Veda allowed the eating of non-veg food,” he said. “I had read on the Internet that the Rig Vega allows non-veg food, and asked why two of them (the Hindus) differed. After that, we parted peacefully,” Rashid added. “I never realised that he (one of his Hindu juniors) had felt offended. Had he told me, I would have apologised. I never intended to offend him and never asked him to eat non-veg food. But late in the evening, I learnt that he was registering a complaint,” said Rashid, who is also facing a probe for his remarks. He was suspended after the local BJP leaders took up the matter with the administration and sought action against him.
SC on deportation of Rohingya girl: “How can minor girl be sent to Myanmar border?”
How can a 14-year old minor girl be sent to the Myanmar border, especially when her parents who have sought asylum in Bangladesh want her back, the Supreme Court asked the Narendra Modi-led Union government while hearing a petition filed by an NGO seeking permission to provide foster care to the girl, a Rohingya refugee. "To leave a minor girl at the border of Myanmar, is that an option? When somebody wants the girl back?" the court asked the Union government. At the same time, the bench was also not fully convinced about entrusting the girl’s custody to the petitioner, an NGO named Global Peace Initiative. The Court had earlier issued a notice after the NGO filed a petition against the deportation of the girl from India to Myanmar. The NGO also seeks permission to foster the girl who, it says, is about to be transported to Myanmar from an orphanage in Assam while her parents are stationed in Bangladesh.
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