An observation by a Supreme Court judge that he does not want to have Talibans in the country while turning down a Muslim students plea to sport a beard in school has triggered outrage among Muslim groups and some of them are planning to meet Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan to register their displeasure. While Muslim groups are divided on the ruling per se,they are united in saying that Justice Markandeya Katjus observation was unwarranted. While the Jamaat-i-Islami-Hind is mulling the option of meeting the Chief Justice to raise the matter,the All-India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM) is planning to appeal after studying the order. We accept and respect the ruling that the particular schools rules do not allow students to sport beard. But to link beard with Taliban is stretching it too far. If that is the case,then we would like to know whether Karl Marx,Abraham Lincoln,Tagore,Shakespeare and Shivaji Maharaj were Taliban, Jamaats political secretary Mujtaba Farooq said. Muslim leaders like Mushawarats Zafarul-Islam Khan and Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hinds Mahmood Madhani argue that wearing a beard is a basic tenet of Islam and not a symbol of Talibanisation. Expression of such opinions from the bench of the Supreme Court is a very serious matter as it is a clear infringement of the religious,civil and human rights of millions of Muslims and others who have kept beard and observed purdah,a tradition continuing for over a thousand years in our country,long before anyone heard of the word Taliban or its current connotations, Khan said. By this logic,he said,all similar manifestations by believers of other religions like sporting of turban and kirpan by Sikhs,choti by Hindus and wearing of crosses by Christians should be banned. He said the AIMMM is consulting legal experts and may decide to appeal soon. While Madhani,a Rajya Sabha MP,said he had not seen the order yet but made it clear that the observations if true were unacceptable. If somebody says Muslims wearing a beard are Taliban,then I proudly say I am a Taliban, he told The Indian Express. Justice Katjus observation has revived the debate over beard among the Muslim community,which had objected to the Defence Ministrys affidavit in the Supreme Court in January defending an Indian Air Force policy that forbids Muslims recruited after 2003 from keeping a beard. Katjus observation that we dont want to have Talibans in the country came on Monday while hearing the appeal of Md Salim of Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School,a government-recognised minority institution in Madhya Pradesh. He approached the apex court after his petition seeking quashing of the school regulation requiring students to be clean-shaven was dismissed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
