Child rights body cherry-picking fatwas to target Madrasas: SIO

New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI) The Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) on Sunday hit out at the NCPCR for seeking action against Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband, calling it yet another attempt at targeting Madrasas and their education by cherry-picking some fatwas and sensationalising them.

The SIO said fatwas are personal views of some religious scholars and followers are not compelled to abide by them.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had on Saturday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to probe Darul Uloom Deoband’s website for allegedly publishing unlawful and misleading fatwas.

It had asked the state to block access to the website until such content was removed.

In a statement, Fawaz Shaheen, national secretary, SIO, said, Fatwas are nothing but personal views of religious scholars on various matters pertaining to personal and social life. In fact, on a given issue, the scholars often have differing opinions and none of them carry any legal sanctity or institutional approval. People are completely free to act according to their own understanding of the religion.

The SIO said it is a settled position of law in India that issues of inheritance, marriage, divorce and other personal matters including adoption are covered by the respective customary laws of different communities and religions.

The officials at NCPCR must no doubt be aware about this settled position of Indian law, which is protected by the constitution. Their targetting of the well known Muslim seminary for discussing their position on adoption is a shallow and shameless attempt to defame not just the institution but the entire Muslim community by association, it stated.

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