Secular India Protests Over Hijab Legislation to France, on Behalf of Sikhs but not for Muslims By Ghulam Muhammed (Al-Jazeerah)
Op-Ed on Al-Jazeerah complaining about India's exclusionary protest to France regarding France's new law banning religious head-gear in schools and colleges. According to the author, India's protest is limited to allowing Sikhs wear their turbans and ignores the Muslim community's issues with the same law.
Can India represent all the Muslims in France? No. Can it represent all the Sikhs there? Yes. Case closed.
Posted by Harshal at August 30, 2004 03:40 PMSecular India's intervention with France is not religion based, but represents the interests of its citizens, be that Sikh or Muslims or Hindus. Indian Muslims are overwhelmingly concerned about French restrictions on Islamic Hijab and would have liked their government to take up their concern with friendly countries. Both Dixit and your website editors are demonstrably prejudiced against Indian Muslims. Case is still pending and will remain so, till Indian Muslim get equal citizenship rights from their government in the full meaning of the term.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai, INDIA
Posted by: Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai on August 31, 2004 11:33 AM