The Indian state bans the government run by Islamic schools from teaching religious scriptures

The Indian state bans the government run by Islamic schools from teaching religious scriptures

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Every Islamic school in Assam, locally known as madrassas, will be converted by April, Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma confirmed on Twitter on Wednesday.

In a speech to local politicians the same day, Sarma positioned the law as a step towards empowering the Muslim community. He said it would ensure a right to equal education for all children and facilitate the path to higher education. ‘

Madrassas provides an education system in which students are taught about the Koran and Islamic history, along with general subjects such as mathematics and science.

According to the 2011 government census, Muslims make up 34.22% of Assam’s total population.

Once the law is approved, the mattresses will become ‘secular schools’ that do not teach about the Koran, officials said.

Opposition politicians criticized the move, saying it was a reflection of the hardening of the anti-Muslim stance in the country of the Hindu majority.

Senior state opposition leader Debabrata Saikia claims the new law was passed by the BJP to ‘consolidate more Hindu votes’.

“It’s a polarization tactic,” Saikia said. “(The BJP) is trying to do this in an official capacity. There is no need for a law.”

Opposition politicians from the Indian Congress Party and the All India United Democratic Front went on strike during the discussion of the bill.

According to the chairman of the Madrassa Education Council of Assam, Imran Hussain, about 700 schools will be affected.

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“If parents sent their children to mattresses for just theological studies, they could have a problem,” Hussain said. “But I believe in good education, and if general education is given to students, it will be good. It is not a reduction of the (Muslim) community. It is not a policy aimed at Muslims. .

“I hope that (the government) with the new law will increase the infrastructure in the mattresses.”

Religious discrimination in Assam became a topic of debate last year when nearly 2 million people in the state of 33 million were not included in the country’s National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Supporters of the registry argued that the NRC would filter out illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. But critics rejected the action, saying it was an attempt by the BJP to target the Muslim population of the state who had been there for generations but could not prove it with the required documentation.

.Source