11-08-2006, 12:17 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Time to reign in the clergy</b>
Dr MI Husain Farooqi, Lucknow, India
November 1, 2006
It is high time that the renowned Islamic scholars, Maulana Rabe Nadvi and Maulana Dr Kalbe Sadiq, suggest ways and means to curb the activities of self-styled ulema who are in the habit of issuing irrational and unwarranted edicts (fatwas) in print and electronic media, thereby becoming the objects of ridicule themselves and ruthlessly damaging the image of Muslims.
They transgress their limits and create hatred and malice amongst different sections (sects) of the society. There must be some laws in Shariah to check hate mongers.
Long back, Sir Syed, the great Muslim reformer, was humiliated and declared kafir by these very people.
First it was Imrana, then Sania Mirza dress code, Gudiaâs marriage and <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>now annulment of nikahs (marriages) of two hundred men belonging to Barelvi sect, in a village of Moradabad who participated in funeral namaz led by a Deobandi Muslim scholar.</span>
These incidents and the resulting fatwas are also a blessing in disguise because Muslim intelligentsia has started realising that the authority of the so-called Muslim clerics over illiterate masses all these years has only harmed the cause of Muslim society.
Religion on one hand has been highjacked by extremists and on the other by these elements. A sustained movement against obscurantism and bigotry has to be launched to keep Islam as the progressive religion.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Pakistani effect on Indian muslims.
Dr MI Husain Farooqi, Lucknow, India
November 1, 2006
It is high time that the renowned Islamic scholars, Maulana Rabe Nadvi and Maulana Dr Kalbe Sadiq, suggest ways and means to curb the activities of self-styled ulema who are in the habit of issuing irrational and unwarranted edicts (fatwas) in print and electronic media, thereby becoming the objects of ridicule themselves and ruthlessly damaging the image of Muslims.
They transgress their limits and create hatred and malice amongst different sections (sects) of the society. There must be some laws in Shariah to check hate mongers.
Long back, Sir Syed, the great Muslim reformer, was humiliated and declared kafir by these very people.
First it was Imrana, then Sania Mirza dress code, Gudiaâs marriage and <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>now annulment of nikahs (marriages) of two hundred men belonging to Barelvi sect, in a village of Moradabad who participated in funeral namaz led by a Deobandi Muslim scholar.</span>
These incidents and the resulting fatwas are also a blessing in disguise because Muslim intelligentsia has started realising that the authority of the so-called Muslim clerics over illiterate masses all these years has only harmed the cause of Muslim society.
Religion on one hand has been highjacked by extremists and on the other by these elements. A sustained movement against obscurantism and bigotry has to be launched to keep Islam as the progressive religion.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Pakistani effect on Indian muslims.