By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,
Bangalore: The issue of Muslim male students sporting a beard has forced into limelight again, with city’s St. Germain PU College asking one of its pupil to shave his beard to attend classes.
M Zeeshan Ali, a class 12 student was told by college authorities last week, that he could not attend classes sporting a beard as it is against the rules of Archdiocesan Board of Education, which runs the college.
Speaking to TCN, Zeeshan’s father Iqbal Ahmed said: “The college had raised this issue even last year, when Zeeshan was in class 11, however, this time they told him to either attend classes clean shaven or take a transfer certificate.”
Though the young student tried to reason with the college vice-principal on how people from the Sikh community are allowed to wear their turban and beard and Muslim students’ beliefs should also be accommodated in the same manner, the college refused to relent, stating that allowing such a thing would hamper its ‘secular’ credentials.
On Friday, a complaint was raised in Bharathinagar police station by Tipu Sultan United Front president Sardar Qureshi, alleging religious discrimination by college authorities.
“According to the constitution of this country, discrimination based on one’s religion is an offence, but this college seems to follow rules contradictory to this,” says Qureshi. After being bent into pressure, the college has now allowed Zeeshan to attend classes, however, he is been told to trim his beard short, he further added.
This sort of refusal to allow Muslim students to publicly practise their religious beliefs in conjunction with their education is not new in the country. In 2009, Mohammad Salim a class 10 student was expelled from school for sporting a beard in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh. When the student moved his plea to the apex court, a bench consisting of Justices R V Raveendran and Markandey Katju dismissed it, saying they would not allow the "Talibanisation" of the country.
A Muslim girl in Mangalore was not allowed to enter college wearing a headscarf in 2012. The college went out to even publish a new prospectus which read - "Students must be neatly dressed in accordance with the rule of approved etiquette. Girls are not expected to wear burqa in classrooms and in examination halls. The decision of the principal in this regard is to be accepted."
