Muslim organisations here have condemned the alleged ouster of a Class X Muslim student from an English-medium school run by the Thiruvalla-based Believers' Church at Gurupuram in Alappuzha district for wearing a headscarf.
Muslim Aikyavedi district chairman Khan Shahjahan said the school management's act amounted to neglect of the secular, democratic, pluralistic culture and tenets of the nation.
Missionaries hailed
He said nobody could sideline the contributions of the missionaries to education and healthcare in the State as well as other parts of the country. However, the religious activities and functioning of certain new-generation churches had been creating a social divide, which might gradually undo the social services rendered by various mainstream churches, he said. He called upon the government to conduct an inquiry into the activities of the new generation churches and their sources of income.
Juma-at-e-Islami district president T.K. Syed Mohammed said no individual or institution could question the right of a Muslim girl to wear a headscarf in a secular democratic nation like India.
He alleged that certain school quarters had issued misleading statements saying that the school had never imposed any restriction on Muslim girls wearing headscarf as part of their religious custom. He demanded that a probe be ordered into the entire issue.
