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| Madrasas veto Vande Mataram | | | Wednesday, August 30,
MADARSAS REACT: Madarsa kids speak in one voice against the singing of Vande Mataram.
New Delhi: Oblivious of the controversy surrounding Vande Mataram and the opposition by Muslim clergy to make it compulsory in madrasas, nine-year-old Sikander Ali is busy reading the Quran.
Sikandar and his classmates joined madarsa Dar-ul-Qalam to study the teachings of Islam.
And while all of them recite the verses of the Holy book at different paces creating slow murmur, they speak in one voice against the singing of Vande Mataram.
"It asks us to worship the earth which we neither do and will never do," says a student.
"The law of the land gives us freedom to choose what we sing and what we don't," another one pipes up.
"Islam teaches us to love the country we live in, which we do," adds a third student.
Patriotism is not an issue with these children. They are ready to sing Sare Jahan Se Achcha Hindustan Hamara everyday if required. But the BJP insists that the song to be sung has to be Vande Mataram.
Says the founder of madrasa Dar-ul-Qalam, Maulana Y A Misbahi, "Forcing a community to sing this song is a form of terrorism. It is against out fundamental rights."
The tension between the Muslim clergy and the BJP is an old one. The Vande Mataram controversy is just a new dimension. But the madrasa students don't want the rhythm of their classes to be disrupted and just want the dispute to blow over.
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