BENGALURU: The Jamaat-i-Islami Hind (JIH), Karnataka has urged the State government to resolve issues that “infringe upon the Constitutional rights of Muslims in the State”, said Dr Muhammad Saad Belgami, JIH state president.
Speaking at a press meet in Bengaluru on Monday, Belgami referred to the ongoing issue of wearing of hijab by some Muslim students at the Girls’ Government PU College, Udupi, which has run into controversy, and said the “right to choice of dress, practice of one’s religious belief is a fundamental and constitutionally guaranteed right, which cannot be denied to any individual.
Hijab is an age-old form of modest dress practiced by Muslims and also by various other groups in different names. It has never been an obstacle to identity and progress. To deny the same to the girl students at Udupi and as a result deny them dignity and right to education is highly deplorable,” he said.
On the instructions from the Centre on Surya Namaskar on the Republic Day celebrations, Belgami said, “It is a devotional Yoga practice involving prostration to the sun and chanting of hymns. Muslims have been asked not to perform Namaz at the exact time of dawn or dusk to avoid any doubt of resemblance to sun worship. The government should not enforce religious practices of one community,” he argued.
JIH has also condemned violent incidents at Nargund and elsewhere, and has urged the administration not to allow fringe elements to “politicise and disturb the communal harmony in our state.”