Hyderabad: Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband, the biggest seminary for Islamic education in Asia, has issued a fatwa against Trinamul MP Nusrat Jahan for wearing a bindi to Parliament.
The seminary, based in Deoband of Saharanpur district in UP, also objected to her marriage with a non-Muslim recently. Ms Jahan had married Mr Nikhil Jain, a businessman.
As the issue exploded on social media, Ms Jahan posted on her Twitter handle: “Paying heed or reacting to comments made by hardliners of any religion only breeds hatred and violence, and history bears testimony to that.. #NJforInclusiveIndia”
In a hard-hitting reply, she said: “I represent an inclusive India... which is beyond the barriers of caste, creed and religion. As much as I respect all religions... I still remain a Muslim and none should comment on what I chose to wear. Faith is beyond attire... and it is more about believing and practising the invaluable doctrines of all religions.”
Back at the seminary, Mufti Asad Qasmi said: “We have come to know through media that she was wearing ‘sindoor’ and mangalsutra and has married a person of the Jain faith. She has violated Islam as a Muslim can marry a Muslim only,”
“I want to say that Nusrat Jahan is an actor and these actors do not care about religion. They do what they feel like doing,” a news channel reported him as saying.
“She came to Parliament with sindoor and mangalsutra, so it is a waste of time to talk about this. We cannot interfere in her life. I just told her what Shariat says with the help of media,” he added.
Ms Jahan, interestingly, had been trolled by the BJP and others for wearing a western outfit when she first came to Parliament to collect her papers after her election.
When she took oath, after her marriage, she arrived in Parliament wearing a saree and sporting the sindoor, bindi and a mangalsutra. She took oath as Ms Nusrat Jahan Ruhi Jain, in the name of Ishwar and chanted Vande Mataram.
Now, she found support from BJP leader Sadhvi Prachi.
She said if a Muslim woman marries a Hindu and wears bindi and mangalsutra, Muslim clerics call it haraam. “I feel sorry for their intellect but many Muslim men trap our Hindu daughters in the name of love jihad and ask them to wear burqa, then that is not haram. That is justified for them,” she said.
