On Sunday (January 8), the President of the Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, courted controversy for claiming that co-education is leading to ‘apostasy’ (renunciation of Islam) in Muslim girls.
He made contentious remarks during the executive committee meeting of the Islamic organisation. “It has been started against Muslims in a planned way, under which our girls are being targeted,” Maulana Arshad Madani was quoted as saying.
“If immediate and effective measures are not taken to prevent this temptation, the situation may become explosive in the coming days and this temptation is being strengthened due to the co-education system,” he remarked.
“And that is why we opposed it, and then the media presented our point in a negative way and advertised that Maulana Madani is against the education of girls, while we are against co-education, we are not against girls’ education,” he brazened it out.
While calling for segregation on the basis of both gender and religion, the chief of JuH said, “If we have to defeat this silent conspiracy and achieve zenith of success, then we have to establish separate educational institutions for our boys and girls.”
In a tweet on Monday (January 9), Arshad Madani claimed, “This game of religious extremism and hatred will destroy the country: Muslims are being politically and educationally marginalized.”
“Save Muslim girls from the temptation of apostasy, Muslims must open their schools and colleges,” he further added, suggesting that co-education and mingling with people of other Faiths are bad.
In July last year, two warring factions of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) announced their plans to join hands to fight ‘rising communalism’ and supposed ‘discrimination’ against Muslims in India.
The Islamic organisation had pinned the blame on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its members for fanning religious fanaticism and insulting religious leaders (an indirect reference to the Nupur Sharma case).