KOLKATA: A day after she offered prayers to Goddess Durga, played the dhak (drum) and matched steps with its rhythm in a south Kolkata Puja pandal, newly elected Trinamool Congress MP Nusrat Jahan is in the firing line of a Muslim cleric.
“The fact is that Islam orders its followers to pray only to Allah. What she has done is sinful. She had also married outside the religion. She should change her name and religion. Islam doesn’t need people who assume Muslim names and defame Islam and Muslims,” said Mufti Asad Qasmi, a cleric associated with the Darul Uloom Deoband.
Jahan, a first time MP from Basirhar constituency, had visited the temple with her husband Nikhil Jain.
“We celebrate all festivals together and I enjoy being part of the celebrations. I don’t bother about controversies,” she said, when asked whether it would set off a row.
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Jahan was trolled by several Muslim clerics for taking oath as MP on June 25 while wearing a saree and sporting sindur and mangalsutra, with Qasmi and some others calling it ‘un-Islamic.’
Reacting sharply to the Deoband cleric’s comments, chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board Waseem Rizvi said Jahan was free to wear symbols of Hindu marriage.