MUMBAI, January 29: The Muslim clergy seems to be taking a leaf from the Hindutva brigade on attacking Christians. A fatwa issued against Christian institutions in Thane district by the Devbandi Ahile Adis community's Jamiya Asharfiya from Mubarakpur, Uttar Pradesh, has asked Christian schools in Thane to stop insisting on ``ties and mini-skirts'' in school uniforms with immediate effect.The fatwa threatens: ``The community will have to devise its own ways of treating this problem if the schools don't fall in line.'' A written communique from the community says: ``Use of such uniforms is wrong as they propagate Christianity.''The decision to send the fatwa was taken ``following a complaint by United Parents' Federation (UPF),'' adds the communique. UPF secretary Mohammed Iqbal, who had complained to the imams, told Express Newsline: ``Ties and skirts, besides being obscene and un-Indian, are used by schools to propagate Christianity by the use of the crucfix motif on them.'' Healleged the local Symbiosis convent school was forcing students to wear such uniforms.Altaf Hussain, imam of the Darul Ulum Garib Nawaz Asharfiya in Mumbra said: ``This step should've been taken long ago.'' He said the local Asharfiya would take all steps to see the fatwa was respected and added, ``I'm sure the community will be more than happy to help enforce it.''However, Kamal Raj, principal of Symbiosis convent school dismisses the `order' as a well-timed media stunt. ``First of all, we're not a Christian institution. So where's the question of the crucifix?'' he asks. Why is the school called convent then? ``There's a craze for convent schools, and people used to send their kids all the way to Thane for schooling before we started this school in 1985. We thought it would be right to have convent in our name to attract parents. It has worked wonders.''``In Mumbra it's not unusual to come across institutions which have nothing to do with Christianity but still have Christian-sounding names.Like a school run by Dawoodi Bohras here, which is called Queen Mary school,'' he informed.Of the 1,600 students in his school, he said, almost 80 per cent are Muslims. ``We allow girl students in the secondary section to wear a burkha on their way to and from the school in deference to parents' wishes,'' he explained, adding, ``In any case, most girl students wear a salwar along with their grey ankle-length pinafores.''This hasn't stopped parents and school authorities in other schools in Thane, Dombivli and Kalyan from panicking. ``The fatwa is utter madness,'' complained a priest who heads an institution in Kalyan. The principal of St John the Baptist in Thane expressed surprise and disbelief over the fatwa. ``After all these years, during which these uniforms have been used by both Christian and non-Christian schools, who would have thought this was coming?'' he asked. ``Anyway it's not easy to change uniforms just like that,'' he said. Secretary, Archdiocesean board of education, Fr DennisPeriera, was not available for comment.The in-charge of Mumbra police station J Gajre said he was unaware of any problem as neither the school nor the imams had infomred them about the fatwa. ``We will monitor the situation and take all preventive steps necessary,'' he said.
