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Indian, Pakistani Muftis Argue Over Muslim Compliance With Indian Law

By Howard Friedman

Wednesday's Pakistan Daily Times reports on competing declarations by Muslim clerics on the propriety of Muslims in India slaughtering cows and eating beef. Mufti Habibur Rehman, head of India?s large Darul Uloom Deoband madrassa, told a resident of the Indian town of Muzaffarnagar that while eating beef is legal under Islamic law, it is prohibited by Indian law because of the beliefs of the predomninant Hindu population. Therefore, Rehman said, for Muslims in India, it is not right to secretly slaughter and eat the meat of cows. Pakistan's Mufti Abdul Rehman Al Rehmani (head of Darul Ifta wa Al-Qazzath of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa Pakistan) however disagrees. He argues that telling Indian Muslims to comply with Indian law in this regard will encourage them to accept Hindu beliefs. He says that if democratic India's minorities fear to follow their own religions, "then the peace of the whole world will be in great danger."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on May 06, 2008 (boomark / email).