india

Updated: May 04, 2019 20:17 IST

The Kerala police on Saturday registered a case after the head of the Muslim Educational Society (MES), who banned wearing niqab, the face veil, on campus of his institutions complained of receiving a death threat.

“I received a call on my mobile phone on Friday evening threatening to kill me. He was very agitated and heaped abuses on me. He told me not to fiddle with religious issues,” said MES president Dr Fasal Gafoor. “I tried to reason with him but he was not willing to listen.”

But Gafoor insisted his group will go ahead with its decision to ban the veil.

The police later found that the threat call came from one of the countries in the Middle east which has a sizeable non-resident Indians. The police did not name the country.

The MES had issued the circular on Thursday citing a recent Kerala High Court order to ban hijab which covers a woman’s head in all its institutions. The MES runs 150 institutions.

While many progressive Muslim outfits have welcomed the decision saying face veil was nothing to do with the religion but many traditionalists opposed it vehemently dubbing it “an incursion on religious freedom”.

Samastha Kerala Jemiayathul Ulema president Muthukoya Thangal criticized MES’s move saying: “The MES has no right to dictate terms to believers. Burqua is the identity of Muslim women and nobody can deny this,” and demanded the withdrawal of the circular. Jammat e-Islami has also criticised the move.

But the dominant Muslim political party, the Muslim League, is yet to comment on the issue. The ruling Left Democratic Front has welcomed the move. “Even while performing the Haj pilgrimage women never cover their face. It is nothing to do with religion and we should promote such saner voices from the community,” said K T Jaleel, state minister for local administration.