In a lead editorial in party’s mouthpiece Saamana published Wednesday, the paper said that Javed Akhtar is under threat from Muslim fundamentalists after he criticized the fatwa issued by Islamic seminary Darul Uloom of Deoband based in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, against Muslim women working in offices and companies.
Lavishing praise on Javed Akhtar, the editorial also praised Javed’s one-time partner Salim Khan, father of actor Salman Khan. The paper headline read, “Here is a true Muslim,” and congratulated him for giving a befitting reply to the fundamentalist in the Muslim community. Both Javed and Salim had always been on the forefront of raising their opposition against the fundamentalist Muslims for which Javed has been receiving threats. Javed gave them a tit-for-tat reply and commented that the fundamentalists who issued the fatwa were “stupid and insane and that he was not scared by threats to his life,” the editorial said.
Wishing Javed well in his mission against the Muslims fundamentalists, the editorial said that Salim Khan and his family are totally secular and that he too had slammed the Muslim clerics for their opposition to the Hindu patriotic song “Vande-Mataram” some years ago.
The editorial questioned as to what are the Muslim women supposed to do if they are not to get education and not to work. Only progressive Muslims like Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan are capable to lead the Muslims from darkness to light and from jehad to patriotism it said.
Complimenting and congratulating Javed Akhtar, the editorial further said that the lyricist and writer who is also a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha by giving a befitting reply to the Muslim fundamentalists has given respect to the sentiments of millions of Muslim women. “Fatwas like Muslim women to wear veil and not to work along with men, can only be issued in India. No one pays attention to such fatwas issued in Islamic countries any longer. Slain Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto occupied the post for several years, but no one had ever seen her in veil. Even today there are several Muslim women MP’s and ministers in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and they do not cover their faces or are seen in complete veil.”
“In Malaysia and Turkistan, Muslim women are far ahead in all sectors and fields and they are not veiled. The French government had even enacted a law banning veil. But in India, even today the Muslim clerics here have caged the Muslim women in veil system and have gagged them under the Islamic laws. Those who opposed the Muslim clerics are threatened with dire consequences. The real enemies of the Muslims are the clerics and the political parties which divide the Muslims for their vested interests,” the editorial stated
