If reports in the press are to be believed several Hyderabd city-based muftis issued a fatwa asking Muslims not to admit their children in schools where Vande Mataram is sung every morning. Muftis, including All India Sunni Ulema Board president Moulana Syed Shah Badruddin Qadri Aljeelani, Moulana Mohammed Hasnuddin, Moulana Mohammed Mastan Ali, Nazima Aziz and Rizwana Zarreen of Jamiat-ul-Mominath, jointly issued the fatwa when some parents approached them seeking a shariah ruling on Vande Mataram and decreed that children who are already studying in such institutions must be immediately shifted to other schools.
Fatwa decreed that Muslims cannot compromise on Kalma-e-Tayyaba, the basic pillar of Islam, which says there is only one God and Mohammed is the Prophet. Also. I recall the statement of Maulana Waheeduddin Khan, Director of Islamic World Center, New Delhi, who mentioned, ?Muslim temper is extremely volatile and they are hyper sensitive, and have become a perennial problem for the law enforcing authorities, the need of the hour is to learn how to live in harmony and understanding with non-Muslim community.? He further says ?If we marshal all facts, we see that in every case, the situation has been aggravated more by the Muslims in question and it is noteworthy that wherever Muslims are to be found living together in any concentration, this over sensitiveness is very much in evidence; sooner or later, it is the Muslims themselves who have to pay dearly for it.? (Quoted in Muslim India, January 1988).
The need of the hour is for minorities to remain faithful to their commitment to their faith while at the same time lead lives as loyal citizens of their countries where they live? Muslims can provide an alternative model of society in which religion is reconciled with the modern society. In doing so, Muslims can provide new vision of how Islam can be lived in modern society to the full extent, and how religion can be reconciled with social living without relapsing into the medieval way of life.
(The writer can be contacted at Raghavendranagar, Secunderabad-61)
