By RINA,
New Delhi: Reacting over developments following Justice Katju’s remarks on Muslims’ beards and veils, grand Mufti of Malerkotla’s Darus Salam, Maulana Mufti Fuzailur Rahman Hilal Usmani said, “What a pitiable state it is that honorable judges are not only taunting beards and veils in non-standard jargon but also transcending their limits.”
“Calling beards and veils symbols of Talibanization is mental bankruptcy”, Mufti Usmani said and questioned, “Who sanctioned them the right to ridicule our religious tokens and the emblems of Islam?”
He further said, “These are gifts for the Ummah of our beloved Prophet for which every believer should always feel proud. Beards are charms on Muslims’ face and a veil is a symbol of a Muslim woman’s nobility.”
Mufti Usmani said, “Our progress lies in upholding our Prophet’s traditions steadfastly. These emblems are not tokens of backwardness but signs of progress for us.” Expressing dismay over present controversy, he said, “Distinguished Ulema should sit together and think over really and practically intact status of Indian Muslims because now the courts are transcending the limits set in the Constitution and the protectors of the Constitutions themselves are ravaging it.”
Mufti Usmani asked, “Is every bearded man and every veiled woman a Taliban? More than seventy thousand Ulema hanged for the country’s independence, only then you are breathing in the free India. We know the value and worth of freedom and it has never been difficult for us to sacrifice life in protection of freedom” he said.
Bemoaning vanishing distinctive features of the country, Mufti Usmani said, “It has been a part of our political and social culture that we respect each other and pay regards to each others’ religious tokens.” He also said, “Peace is a requirement for us as for all others but no nation can survive in lack of self-respect and sense of worth.”