Maulana Arshad Madani goes full Taliban

Like Taliban, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani holds that co-education is bad for Muslim women as it leads them to keep away from Islam.

New Delhi, Jan 12: The whole world is witnessing how the Taliban ruler in Afghanistan has banned women from all kinds of education. In fact, the latest diktat from the Taliban regime says that no women should visit a male doctor. India is finding similarities in Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani, who holds that co-education is bad for Muslim women as it leads them to keep away from Islam.

The statement has not shocked many as he has been of this view for decades. Not only he but several of his Maulana brothers are advocates of the fact that women should be kept away from education. He did not stop at it, he also thinks that co-education is being used as a part of conspiracy, in a planned way to dissuade Muslim women from Islam.

Maulana of regressive mindset

The regressive mindset could definitely be traced back to the fundamentals of the Maulana's religion. However, implementing these ideas in a secular country is absurd and abhorring. Maulana Madani claims that if immediate and effective measures are not taken to prevent the temptation of co-education, the situation may become explosive in the coming days.

The temptation according to the extremist Maulana is being strengthened and requires an urgent solution. Needless to say, Maulana knows that his statement will be lambasted and that is why he admitted and clarified that he is not against education but does not want girls and boys to study together. Maulana Madani leads Deobandi school that also prohibits co-working culture.

Therefore, it is least shocking to know that the Maulana is also opposing co-education around the world, not just in India. Whereas the fact is that even the Islamic State of Pakistan has schools where boys and girls study together.

Maulana of controversial fatwas

Madani is someone who is always in the news for all the wrong reasons. The principal of Deobandi school, his organization issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie in January 2012. Then the organization had called for banning the British author from entering India as, according to him, the author had offended Muslim sentiments.

Similarly, in May 2010, he with other clerics from the Deoband seminary issued a fatwa wherein they asked not to allow men and women to work together as, according to them, it is 'Shirk'. Needless to say, Deobandi School also banned photography in September 2013, dubbing it as 'un-Islamic' and hence, must be shunned.