oppn parties Zawahari Video: Taking Advantage Of A Conflict

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Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Zawahari Video: Taking Advantage Of A Conflict

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-04-07 08:16:21

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The release of an al-Qaeda video in which the outfit's chief Ayman al Zawahiri praises Bibi Muskan Khan and her family for standing up for the hijab and not getting cowed down by Hindu students at her college and asking India Mulsims to unite has added a new twist to the ongoing hijab controversy in Karnataka. While state home minister Araga Jnanendra was quick to see an 'unseen hand' in the hijab row which he said was proved by Zawahiri's remarks, Muskan Khan's family distanced itself from the video by saying that they do not know who Zawahiri is and they condemn his remarks as they appear to be "aimed at sowing discord and creating divisions among us Indians".

The Karnataka government should realize that international terror groups often feed on local Muslim discontent in India. Hence, the chance of them having instigated the hijab row is negligible. The fact is that once the hijab row started and was highlighted in the international media, al Qaeda has jumped in to create further discontent and perhaps win a few recruits from India. There is no harm in the government keeping an eye on the developments and track things in this connection but it will be wrong if it makes up its mind only on the basis that al Qaeda or any other foreign terror group was behind the row.

It sometimes happens that sympathizers of international terror groups in India use simple Muslim families as pawns. But the way the hijab row started, the chances of that are slim. The girls were suddenly stopped from wearing hijab by invoking Section 133 (2) of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983 which bans the wearing of "clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order" to schools and colleges. They protested and it spread like wildfire. Hindu students complicated matters by staring to wear saffron duppattas. It was a local matter that was politicized by the involvement of interested groups from both sides. If the old rule was not invoked, the row would not have started in the first place. 

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