india

Updated: Apr 21, 2015 20:50 IST

Muslim clerics in Rajasthan are planning to mobilise minority community students to boycott their classes and school, “if Surya Namaskar programme is not rolled back by the government”.

Surya Namaskar was recently introduced by the government in schools across the state.

About 120 Muslim clerics, who assembled in Ajmer on Tuesday to discuss the issue, decided to take the government head on over the issue.

The clerics are also considering mobilisation of the minority community members against the programme through sermons from mosques and other religious assemblies.

“We will educate Muslims through maulanas (clerics) of different mosques in the state that Surya Namaskar is against the religious beliefs of Islam,” said Mohammed Hanif, vice president, Jamiat Ulama-e-Rajasthan.

Hanif, who comes from Mewat, said, “We will ask the community students to boycott their school if Surya Namaskar is not rolled back by the government.”

“It is more important for us to save our religion than education at this juncture,” he added.

“We have made several requests to the government saying ‘please do not enforce policies or programmes which are against the religious tenets of minority community’, but the requests have fallen on deaf ears,” alleged Abdul Wahid Khatri, general secretary, Jamiat.

Khatri accused chief minister Vasundhara Raje of misleading people by saying that Surya Namaskar has nothing to do with religion. “It is a blatant lie,” he alleged.

“We have filed a writ petition in the high court against the issue, which will come up for hearing on April 29,” he said.

Read: RSS throws its weight behind Surya Namaskar

Read: Kataria defends govt decision on surya namaskar

