The new Palestinian year: A mixture of myths and hope

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For many Palestinians, 2022 is a very special year as it marks the beginning of the “downfall” of the Israeli occupation. This belief is widely spread by some Muslim religious scholars, Palestinian and non-Palestinian, especially the well-known Sheikh Bassaam Jarrār. Jarrār delivers his speeches at a local mosque in the outskirts of Ramallah in the West Bank. He was among more than 200 Palestinian leaders deported to south Lebanon by the Israeli occupation authorities in the early nineties.

Upon the orders of the Israeli prime minister, then Yitzhak Rabin, they were rounded up, put on buses and taken across the border to Lebanon, where they were thrown, in the middle of the chilling winter, under the eyes of the watchful international media. They stayed in a camp made of tents and insisted on returning to their homeland. For months, their tragedy was widely covered by major media agencies and represented a huge embarrassment for Israel, until finally, Israel had to take them back.

Jarrār claims that he could decipher one of the Holy Quran secrets foretelling the approximate date of the liberation of Palestine and the end of Israel. However, he does not claim it as a certainty; he claims that his inferences are logical, supported and 97 per cent true. His theory is, indeed, not new. He started voicing his ideas in the nineties, based on an old mathematical calculation system known as Hisāb alJummal, which is thousands of years old. It is a numerical system used by Arabs before the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and known by other civilisations and religions, including Judaism.

According to a specialised website: “The Abjad numerals, also called Hisab al-Jummal, are a decimal alphabetic numeral system/alphanumeric code, in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values,” better known in English as Arabic Geometric Numerology. According to Jarrār’s calculations, based on many Quranic texts, 2022 represents the actual beginning of Israel’s downfall. On 5 March, 2022, according to Jarrār, a huge event will mark the beginning of the “Israeli downfall”. How it will happen is not yet clear.

READ: The extinction of the PLO, if Palestinians let it happen

Another well-known Muslim scholar, this time from Iraq, Sheikh Mohammed Ahmed Al-Rashed, listed seven reasons why Israel will collapse this year. One of them is a story narrated by an old Jewish lady who was his neighbour when he was a child in Baghdad in 1948. According to him, the lady rushed into their house wailing, and his mother asked her what was wrong. The old lady told her that Jews had declared a state in Palestine, and there is a Jewish prophecy that stated that if Jews established a state, it would be a sign of their destruction and would not last more than 76 years.

I heard a similar story from an old lady who was a friend and neighbour of my grandmother in the seventies. The old lady claimed that when she was living in Tiberias before the Israeli occupation forced them out of their homes, an old Jewish paddler told her that there would be a state for Jews in Palestine, but it would only last for 78 years.

Al-Rashed bases his theory on Sheikh Ahmad Yassin’s prediction in an interview with Al Jazeera news channel, where Yassin said Israel will cease to exist in 2027. Yassin claims that this is based on the story of 40 years of wilderness wandering mentioned in the Holy Quran and Torah. This tells us that there is a generation change, consisting of two phases. Each phase is forty years, and upon the completion of two generations, Israel will lose its foundations and collapse.

Al-Rashed links his conclusions to Jewish astronomy and astrology, indicating that Jewish rabbis attach much importance to astrological events. He references Halley’s comet, which occurs every 76 years, as its appearance in 164 BC signalled the destruction of the Jewish presence in Palestine. Yet, the celestial event is supposed to happen in 2061, so I am not sure how it would relate to this case.

READ: Ending security coordination will help end the occupation

These stories are so common that some people even wrote books on them, such as Mohammed Al-Nobani, a Palestinian engineer I once met in Malaysia. He discusses certain Quranic calculations made by an Islamic scholar who lived in the 12th century, Ibn Barrajan Al-Andalusi, one of the greatest Sufis of Andalusia and a hadith scholar. He is most famous for his prediction of the conquering of Jerusalem from the crusaders by Salahudeen Ayyubi. Al-Nobani claims that he applied Ibn Barrajan’s methodology, and the result was the year 2022. This event, alleged to start the downfall cycle, is supposed to occur between March and June.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials and media frequently talk about normalising their relations with more Arab and Muslim countries. Gaza’s situation is becoming worse by the day, and the Israeli occupation is snapping up the status quo in Jerusalem, contrary to international law. Al-Aqsa Mosque was stormed by 63,000 Israeli settlers last year, and discontent in West Bank is simmering, waiting to explode. Hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives trying to illegally immigrate to Europe.

How these prophecies might affect the attitudes and behaviours of the people who believe in them could be the right question. Yet, we will find many in the traumatised Arab World who would wait for them to come true.


SOURCE:
Middle East Monitor

Anti-Muslim sentiment spreading in Asia at alarming pace — seminar

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Experts at a two-day seminar in Istanbul expressed concerns about the worsening conditions of Muslims in Asia, with India and Myanmar being the two glaring examples of violence against Muslims being normalised.
Political leaders in Asia are exacerbating the problem of anti-Muslim sentiment by giving incendiary speeches for electoral gains, said Hassan Abdein, head of Muslim and Minorities department at OIC, at a two-day international seminar on Muslims and human rights in Istanbul.

Abdein said Asia is capitalism’s new home, and despite it being far more diverse than elsewhere, hosting hundreds of ethnic peoples, it is suffering from dark electoral populism, one of the exploitative effects of globalisation.

Under the garb of national security, he added, Muslims are being targeted and criminalised across the continent.

“Both in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, we see one particular group mobilising hate speech,” said Abdein, referring to Buddhist monks who have openly given calls of genocide against Muslims.

The academic said that since Buddhists have become a minority in the Hindu dominated subcontinent, they have engineered the narratives of victimhood to mobilise Buddhist populations in Buddhist-majority countries like Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Abdein urged the audience to find ways to stand against this religious warfare, as ignoring anti-Muslims sentiment will only provide aggressors with more space and opportunity.

We need to celebrate the leadership that took concrete steps after the Christchurch Attack, Abdein said. He also applauded the Emergency Meeting held in Istanbul in 2019 to discuss the terrorist attack on the two mosques in New Zealand.

Ambassador Zamir Akram, Former Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the UN, said that despite more than 200 million Muslims living in India, a version of fascism is taking place at the hands of Hindutva.

Millions of Muslims are suffering from religious and racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide.

An esteemed panel of experts, diplomats, community leaders, and activists addressed “The Situation of Muslims in Asia” at the two-day seminar on human rights violations faced by Muslims in Istanbul, February 16-17 2022.

Explaining that the Modi government has been “seducing India on the basis of hate and envy when it comes to Muslims”, Ambassador Zamir said Muslims are facing problems on the pretext of “the slaughter of cows and eating beef, marrying Hindus”, while “attacks on mosques, forced conversion to Hinduism, removal of Muslim names from streets, sale of Muslim women on mobile apps and open call for genocide against Muslims” have been normalised in the country’s national discourse.

Zamir said that the Modi government is using the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as a weapon to disenfranchise the Indian Muslims and force them out of the country.

Although the largest Muslim population is living in Asia, Muslims suffer from social and economic discrimination, and in some Asian countries like Myanmar and India, there is an escalating trend of systemic targeting of Muslim communities, said El Habib Bourane, Director of Muslim Communities and Minorities of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Habib said the OIC has been engaging in constructive dialogue with China for the past three years about the Uighur and Kazakh and Uzbek Muslim minorities.

Explaining that the Uighur’s are not left alone in their plight, Habib also urged the OIC member states to build consensus on specific issues.

“The OIC delegations have visited the region twice to understand what is really going on. Until now, the UN has not been allowed to visit the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China,” said Habib, highlighting the importance of building on this dialogue.

Habib also highlighted the OIC’s efforts in Myanmar during the past 20 years, and the steps they have taken, together with the UN and European Union, to advocate for the Rohingya Muslims’ cause.

“Myanmar must fully comply with the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice,” Habib said, referring to the case of genocide brought against Myanmar by The Gambia at the UN court.

The people of Rohingya have been suffering for almost half a century now, said Reza Uddin, the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee and Council Member of the Arakan Rohingya Union.

“Restriction on religion, marriage, land ownership, deprivation from education and health, gang rape and human trafficking… all these violations are a blueprint of genocide,” he added.

Reza pointed out that Myanmar has been killing hundreds of their own people since the military overthrew the democratically elected government on February 1 2021. This is partly because of the government’s tendency to comply with the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the Rohingya case.

Why do we need to talk about Kashmir?

“Kashmir was known as the paradise in the world, renowned for its extraordinary beauty, but has become a hell for its people,” said Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary-General of the World Kashmir Awareness Forum. He described Kashmir as “the most beautiful prison on earth.”

“Today Gregory H Stanton, the founder and president of Genocide Watch, warns that Kashmir is on the brink of a genocide,” Fai said.

Fai said Modi’s rhetoric on foreign tours is entirely out of step with the reality in India. Giving an example from Modi’s 2019 visit to Texas, Fai said Modi lied to the American people by calling India the world’s “largest democracy”, whilst the headlines from places like Kashmir tell a different story.

Fai gave an example of an article titled “As Kashmir Is Erased, Indian Democracy Dies In Silence”, published by The Huffington Post when Kashmir was under a strict military curfew.

Fai said the human rights situation has deteriorated to dangerous levels in the disputed region, referring to restrictions on freedom of speech under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a draconian law used by the Indian state against civilians, especially journalists and human rights activists.

The UAPA legislation allows the Indian government to jail an individual for six months without a trial or bail, stonewalling any judicial intervention. The state often justifies the UAPA by saying the law is used to “prevent terror-related activities, unlawful associations, and activities that may endanger the sovereignty and integrity of India.”

The UN has said that the UAPA utilises “imprecise criteria, contains a vague and overly broad definition of ‘terrorist act’, allows people to be held in lengthy pre-trial detention and makes securing bail very difficult,” and that the UAPA does not meet international human rights standards.

Khurram Parvez, a well-known human rights activist from Kashmir, was arrested on November 22 2021, under the draconian UAPA. Mary Lawlor, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, called Parvez’s arrest “disturbing.”

Fai said the news media in Kashmir has been brought to extinction in order to silence dissent, urging the OIC members to initiate a solution. He also demanded the immediate release of political prisoners and the protection of the Kashmiri people before a full-scale genocide takes place.

SOURCE: TRT World

الصين وباكستان تحثان العالم على تجنيب أفغانستان “كارثة إنسانية”

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رئيس الوزراء الباكستاني والرئيس الصيني أكدا أن إحلال السلام والاستقرار في أفغانستان من شأنه تعزيز التنمية الاقتصادية والتواصل في المنطقة

إسلام أباد / الأناضول

دعت الصين وباكستان، الأحد، المجتمع الدولي إلى مساعدة الشعب الأفغاني بصورة بعاجلة وتجنب “كارثة إنسانية” في أفغانستان.

جاء ذلك خلال لقاء جمع رئيس الوزراء الباكستاني، عمران خان، اليوم، مع الرئيس الصيني شي جينبينغ، في العاصمة الصينية بكين، بحثا خلاله جملة من القضايا ومنها الأمن الإقليمي والتعاون الاقتصادي.

وذكر مكتب رئيس الوزراء الباكستاني، في بيان أن هذا أول لقاء يجري بين الزعيمين منذ زيارة خان إلى الصين في أكتوبر/ تشرين الأول عام 2019، حيث يزور خان الصين، منذ الخميس لحضور افتتاحية الألعاب الأولمبية الشتوية لعام 2022.

وجاء في البيان، أن كلا الزعيمين أكدا على أن إحلال “السلام والاستقرار” في أفغانستان من شأنه تعزيز التنمية الاقتصادية والتواصل في المنطقة.

وحثا المجتمع الدولي على مساعدة الشعب الأفغاني على وجه السرعة وتجنب “كارثة إنسانية” في البلد الذي مزقته الحرب.

ووفق البيان “استعرض الزعيمان سلسلة كاملة من التعاون الثنائي الباكستاني الصيني، وتبادلا في جو ودي وجهات النظر حول القضايا الإقليمية والعالمية ذات الاهتمام المشترك”.

وأضاف أن “الشراكة التعاونية الاستراتيجية في جميع الأحوال بين باكستان والصين صمدت أمام اختبارات العصر ووقفت الدولتان بحزم جنبًا إلى جنب في تحقيق رؤيتهما وتطلعاتهما المشتركة للسلام والاستقرار والتنمية والازدهار”.

وأشاد خان بدعم الصين المستمر ومساعدتها للتنمية الاجتماعية والاقتصادية في باكستان، “التي استفادت بشكل كبير من التنمية عالية الجودة لمشروع الممر الاقتصادي الصيني الباكستاني (CPEC) الذي تبلغ تكلفته مليارات الدولارات”.

كما رحب بزيادة الاستثمارات الصينية في المرحلة الثانية من الممر الاقتصادي، والتي تركز على التصنيع وتحسين سبل عيش السكان.

كما تطرق خان إلى “الفظائع التي ترتكبها نيودلهي بحق مسلمي كشمير في جامو وكشمير”.

وقال إن “الفظائع التي تُرتكب” في الجزء الخاضع للإدارة الهندية من كشمير” ويطلق عليها جامو وكشمير، إلى جانب “اضطهاد الأقليات في الهند” تشكل “تهديدًا للسلام والاستقرار الإقليميين”، بحسب بيان رئاسة الوزراء الباكستانية.

وختم البيان بتأكيد خان مجددًا على دعم باكستان الكامل للصين في جميع القضايا التي تمس “مصلحتها الجوهرية”، وجدد دعوته الرئيس الصيني لزيارة باكستان.

المصدر: وكالة الأناضول

“التعاون الإسلامي” تدين اعتداءات إسرائيل بحق حي “الشيخ جراح”

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وتحث الهند على وقف الاعتداءات المستمرة التي تستهدف المسلمين وأماكن عبادتهم، وتقديم المحرضين ومرتكبي أعمال العنف وجرائم الكراهية ضدهم إلى العدالة.


أدانت منظمة التعاون الإسلامي، الإثنين، الاعتداءات الإسرائيلية على الفلسطينيين في حي الشيخ جراح في مدينة القدس المحتلة.

وأفادت المنظمة في بيان، بأنها “تدين بشدة الاعتداءات الإسرائيلية ضد الفلسطينيين ومحاولة الاستيلاء على منازلهم في حي الشيخ جراح”، مؤكدة أن ذلك “انتهاك صارخ للقانون الدولي”.

وحذرت من خطورة تلك السياسيات الإسرائيلية، داعية المجتمع الدولي إلى التدخل الفوري لتوفير الحماية الدولية للشعب الفلسطيني.

وشهد حي الشيخ جراح في القدس توترا أسفر، الأحد، عن إصابة 31 فلسطينيا واعتقال 12، جراء ممارسات المستوطنين وقوات الشرطة الإسرائيلية.

في سياق آخر، أعربت المنظمة في بيان ثان، عن “قلقها العميق إزاء استمرار الاعتداءات ضد المسلمين في الهند”.

وأشارت إلى “دعوات للإبادة الجماعية للمسلمين بولاية أوتارخاند وتقارير تفيد بوقوع حوادث مضايقات للمسلمات بمواقع التواصل ومنع الطالبات من ارتداء الحجاب في كارناتاكا”.

وحثت المنظمة الهند لـ”تقديم المحرضين ومرتكبي أعمال العنف وجرائم الكراهية للعدالة، داعية لمجتمع الدولي لاتخاذ التدابير اللازمة.

وفي 10 فبراير/ شباط الجاري، استدعت باكستان القائم بالأعمال الهندي في إسلام أباد، سوريش كومار، على خلفية منع طالبات من حضور فصولهن الدراسية في بعض الكليات الهندية لارتدائهن الحجاب، وسط احتجاجات بالهند وباكستان.

المصدر: وكالة الأناضول

Harsh Mander: Recalling the heart-wrenching suffering and helpless fear of the Covid-19 second wave

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Harsh Mander

For those who have not lived through the 1947 Partition riots and the Bengal Famine of 1943, the summer of 2021 when the coronavirus tore through India was the most calamitous nation-wide tumult of our lifetimes.

It was a time of heart-wrenching suffering, helpless fear and uncertainty. Everything you needed to save the lives of loved ones was suddenly in impossibly short supply – hospital beds, oxygen, essential medicines, vaccines, intensive care units and ambulances. Black markets thrived and even the price of wood for funerals and priests’ prayers spiralled.

People died in hospital corridors or parking lots, sometimes in intensive care units, choking to death because there was no oxygen. Smoke from burning bodies clouded the skies for days on end as funeral pyres spilled out onto pavements and parks in cities and towns across the country. Anonymous bodies were lowered into crowded mass graves. Rotting bodies were washed ashore on river banks, half eaten by dogs and fish.

It was also a time of profound loneliness, a time when you died alone, your corpse was dispatched alone, you were left to mourn alone.

An unspoken fear

Then it waned, for many months, as suddenly as it started. The country re-opened and cars, buses, bicycles, motorcycles, Metro trains crammed the streets again. People returned to work. Masks and closed schools were merciless reminders that the nightmare could recur. An unspoken fear hung in the air like opaque, clammy smog on a freezing winter night.
Questions lingered: Will the tempest stir once more? Will we be struck again? Will the storm savage us even more than the last time? We were struggling for answers even as the third wave of Covid-19 had begun.

But already, political leaders claimed in Parliament and from election pulpits that there was never any oxygen shortage during the second wave, that the numbers of those who died were much lower than the apocalyptic estimates of scientists and statisticians, that we are breaking all global records in vaccinating our people, that the government had responded splendidly to protect its people.

If people had suffered a little – a little, maybe – it was the fault of the virus and of people themselves for irresponsibly letting their guard down.

After the pandemic ends – and one day it must end – as the years pass and generations move on, how will we remember its rampage, especially the turmoil, dread and loss left in the trail of the second wave? Our wounds today run so deep and spread so far. Will they fester far beyond the possibilities of healing in a single lifetime?

Will there be rage? Where will people allocate responsibility and culpability? Will they accept the official chargesheet that laid all blame on the wily virus and the people? Or will they recognise that they reaped the poisonous harvest they themselves had sowed: of electing governments spectacularly bereft of both competence and concern? Leaders who displayed no remorse, accepted no blame and made no plans to prepare the country for the next onslaught. Leaders preoccupied, even in this time of calamity, in managing optics instead of solutions, of toppling opposition state governments and winning elections, of encouraging mega-religious gatherings as long as these were of Hindus and of further stoking hate.

Will people see that they were abandoned by the state when they needed it most? Will they see that the greatest humanitarian crisis of our lifetimes was caused by leaders with a pathological lack of compassion?


From Turkey to Tata Group: Who Is Ilker Ayci, the New CEO and MD of Air India?

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Mehmet Ilker Ayci, on Monday, was appointed the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Air India by the Tata Sons. He will assume his responsibilities on or before 1 April 2022.

He was, until recently, the chairman of Turkish Airlines.

Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, said, “Ilker is an aviation industry leader who led Turkish Airlines to its current success during his tenure there. We are delighted to welcome Ilker to the Tata Group where he would lead Air India into the new era.”

SOURCE:
THE QUINT

India bans 54 Chinese apps on security concerns: Report

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By Bijou George and Sudhi Ranjan Sen

The move comes as a long-running dispute between the two nuclear-armed nations remains unresolved.

India has banned 54 Chinese apps in a new order citing security concerns, according to a local newspaper report, in the latest instance of tensions between the two neighbors locked in a protracted border dispute impacting business dealings.

The South Asian nation’s ministry of electronics and IT has banned apps including those belonging to large China tech firms such as Tencent, Alibaba and NetEase, that are re-branded versions of apps already banned by India in 2020, the Economic Times reported Monday.

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A spokesman for the Home Affairs ministry did not immediately comment on the matter.

The latest move comes as a long-running dispute between the two nuclear-armed nations remains unresolved, after boiling over in a bloody 2020
skirmish that left soldiers from both sides dead, and drew tougher laws in India for investments from China, including the original app ban.

India and China share an unmarked 3,488 km (2,170 miles) long border along the Himalayas, where thousands of troops, tanks and artillery guns from both countries have been massed since then.

Tensions remain between the two countries remain, with India’s army chief citing the risk of Chinese aggression as recently as last

.SOURCE: BLOOMBERG

Hijab Row: Narendra Modi is Pushing the Country Into Civil War, Says Lalu Prasad

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Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversy surrounding ‘hijab’ in Karnataka, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and former Bihar Chief Miniser Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday warned that the country is heading towards a civil war under Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.

Yadav blamed BJP for the communal tensions between religious groups and added that the party is talking about Ayodhya temple and Varanasi, while real issues like poverty and inflation are rarely addressed by them.

“The country is heading towards a civil war under PM Modi’s rule. They are not talking about inflation, poverty but about Ayodhya and Varanasi. They have got the feeling that by doing this they will get Hindu votes,” RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said while talking about the Karnataka hijab row, according to an ANI report on Wednesday.

“The people of the country are tired of the propaganda of BJP and Narendra Modi,” the former Bihar chief minister said.

“BJP is losing Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. They have referred to the protesting farmers as “terrorists”. Since a majority of the farmers are from the Jat community, the BJP will be wiped out from Jat dominant western Uttar Pradesh and rest of the state as well. Due to ill health am not able to campaign in Uttar Pradesh but am appealing to people of the community to ensure BJP’s defeat in this election,” Lalu Prasad said.

Lalu Prasad Yadav also drew comparisons between British rule and the BJP-led government. Lalu said that British rule has returned to the country after 70 years of Independence in the form of the BJP government and now the ruling party is frustrated as they will lose Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Yadav also backed Samajwadi Party in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Lalu Prasad arrived in Patna on Tuesday evening to participate in the RJD national level meeting to be held on February 10.

(Source: Clarion India)

Gujarat: ‘Upper’ Caste Men Attack Dalit Wedding Procession Over Members Wearing Turbans

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A Dalit man’s wedding procession was attacked with stones in the Mota village of Gujarat’s Banaskantha district on Monday, February 7, because members of the procession were wearing safas (traditional turbans), the Deccan Herald reported.

The Banaskantha police subsequently booked 28 individuals, including the village sarpanch, who belongs to the ‘upper’ caste Rajput community, late on the night of the wedding and charged the attackers under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The first information report (FIR), filed at the Gadh police station, included charges under IPC Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 506 (criminal intimidation) as well as several sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (SC/ST Act).

Thereafter, the case was handed over to the deputy superintendent (DySP) of the SC/ST cell of the police, said the DySP of Gadh police station Kushal Oza, according to news agency PTI.

Details of the incident

The FIR was filed on the basis of a complaint made by Virabhai Sekhalia, the father of bridegroom Atul Sekhalia, which detailed the events leading up to Monday’s incident.

According to the complaint, several members of the village, including village sarpanch Bharatsinh Rajput, had objected to the family’s plan of having the bridegroom ride a horse during the procession, threatening them with “consequences” if they went through with it.

The family reportedly remained resolute, which led to the sarpanch calling a public meeting of villagers on Sunday where they, once again, threatened the family and told them that the a member of the Dalit community cannot ride a horse because it goes against a supposed centuries-old tradition, according to Sekhalia’s complaint.

In order to avoid any confrontation on the day of the wedding, the family decided not to have the bridegroom ride a horse. Before the wedding, the family also sought police protection.

When the procession began on Monday amid the presence of police personnel, some of the attackers reportedly took objection to members of the procession wearing safas and began hurling casteist remarks at the family. Some “unidentified” individuals began pelting them with stones, injuring one of the bridegroom’s relatives, according to the FIR.

The police were able to usher the procession away to the bride’s village. Once the family returned after the wedding, Sekhalia filed his complaint with the police.

(Source: The Wire)

No Interim Relief to Students, Karnataka HC Refers Hijab Matter to Larger Bench

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The Karnataka high court has referred petitions filed by Muslim college students who were barred entry into classrooms as they were wearing hijabs to a larger bench. The court did not provide the students interim relief.

“I feel this matter requires consideration of larger bench. The wisdom emanating from neighbouring High Court judgments needs to be treated,” the Justice Krishna S. Dixit said.

The Karnataka high court pronounced this at the end of a two-day hearing on the petitions filed by five girls studying in a Government Pre-University College in Udupi, against the hijab restriction in their college.

Bar and Bench has reported that senior advocate Sanjay Hegde urged the court to ensure that the girl students were not deprived of their education due to the ban.

“They have only two months (of the academic year) left. Do not exclude them…we need to find a a way that no girl child is deprived of education…Today what is absolutely important is that peace comes, Constitutional fraternity returns to the college. No heavens will fall for two months..,” he said.

However, the judge said that too merited a larger bench, according to LiveLaw‘s live blog of the hearing.

“Even interim prayers merit consideration at the hands of larger bench that may be constituted by CJ in his discretion and therefore the arguments advanced on interim prayers are reproduced here,” Justice Dixit said.

Protests against the hijab have intensified in various parts of Karnataka and turned violent in some places. In some colleges, mobilised rightwing crowds heckled women wearing hijab. Tension prevailed at some educational institutions in Udupi, Shivamogga and Bagalkote, forcing police and authorities to intervene.

To tackle this, the Karnataka government has banned agitations, protests or gatherings within a 200-metre radius from school and college gates.

The Basavaraj Bommai government has declared a holiday to all high schools and colleges in the state for three days in an attempt to contain the situation.

Last week, the government had issued an order making uniforms prescribed by it or management of private institutions mandatory for its students at schools and pre-university colleges across the state.

(Source: The Wire)