After the Uttarakhand Waqf board chairman announced that the state government will modernize the madrassas by bringing a dress code and NCERT books, a Muslim cleric has made a controversial statement saying the governments dared to touch the private madrassas, the country will burn.

Speaking to ANI, Muslim cleric Maulana Sajid Rashidi said, "Every state has a madrassa board which comes under the government. In those Madrassas, they (the government) can order dress codes, they can play movies or songs, they can do whatever they want, and nobody is stopping them. (But) We won’t let you do anything in our private Madrassas, hear this out. Because Indian Muslims keep 4% of children from private madrasas to become maulvis and maulanas, If they try to interfere in that 4% of madrasas, all the Indian Muslims will stand against it. We won’t let them do this."

Adding further Rashidi said, "We don’t take anything from the government. These are the foolish people who gave their madrassas to the government for the sake of earning the government's income and now they are suffering the consequences. That’s why our big Maulavi and Ulemas tell others not to take any money from the government for Madrassas."

"We don’t need anything from anyone... Do whatever you want to do in the Madrassas under the government. But don’t try to touch the private Madrassaa, (otherwise) India will be set ablaze," the Muslim cleric told ANI.

Uttarkhand to modernise madrassas in state

The Uttarakhand government is planning to rejuvenate the madrassas and various steps are being taken for their modernization in the state, Waqf Board Chairman Shadab Shams said on Thursday.

Shams said that the government will modernize the madrassas phase-wise under which seven such institutions will be made modern.
“There is a preparation to run madrassas along the lines of modern schools. In the first phase, 7 madrassas will be made modern, two in Dehradun, two in Udham Singh Nagar, two in Haridwar, and one in Nainital,” Shams said.

As part of the rejuvenation of the institution, the government will also implement a dress code from the next session in all 103 madrassas under the purview of the Waqf Board in Uttarakhand.

“NCERT books will also be implemented in all madrassas,” he said.

The Uttarakhand government had earlier ordered the madrassas to get themselves registered with the education department of the state.

The move comes after Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in September underlined the need for a survey of all madrassas in the state.

“Survey of all madrasas will be done in Uttarakhand too. Many types of things come up from time to time, so it is very important to conduct a proper survey of madrassas at once. We will get them surveyed, these institutions should also be fine for us, so the survey is very important,” CM Dhami had told ANI.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government also had declared to conduct a survey in unrecognized madrassas to ascertain information on the number of students, teachers, curriculum, and affiliation with any non-government organization.

References:

republicworld.com