India: Muslim women’s group under police scanner, for trying to “motivate girls towards Islam”
Posted: April 2, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: GIO, India, Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Shintre, Special Branch Comments Off on India: Muslim women’s group under police scanner, for trying to “motivate girls towards Islam”01/Apr/2013
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com(By Mateen Hafeez)
MUMBAI: Intelligence agencies in the state have sent letters to all police stations in Mumbai asking them to monitor the activities of the Girls Islamic Organization (GIO). The organization is trying to “motivate girls towards Islam”, the letter warned.
GIO is girls’ wing of Jamaat-e-Islami in India. The letter stated that the GIO is trying to recruit young women and girls. It also mentioned names of two women, Swaleha Baji and Smaiyya. While the former has been referred as the Maharashtra chief of GIO, Smaiyya is said to be recruiting people.
“People are now attracted towards science. These women are trying to ask girls to wear a burqa and study Islam. We have asked police stations to monitors their activities,” said Sanjay Shintre who heads the special branch’s intelligence wing.
According to Shintre, male activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami had come under the scanner and now women were coming to the fore. “Many male functionaries of the Jamaat are on our radar so they are now focusing on girls. Muslim girls who are educated are not inclined towards religion,” Shintre said.
When asked whether there was any case against the GIO in the state or preaching a particular religion constituted any wrongdoing, Shintre said, “No. But we are monitoring them.” A Jamaat activist said they contacted special branch chief Nawal Bajaj. “Bajaj told us he will inquire into the matter,” he said.
Mumbai Police circular says girls being trained for Jihad at Islamic organisation
Posted: April 2, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Azad Maidan, Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Kerala, Law, Maharashtra, Mumbai Police, Quran Comments Off on Mumbai Police circular says girls being trained for Jihad at Islamic organisation1/Apr/2013
Source : .hindustantimes.com
Mumbai Police has kicked up a controversy following its circular which says the women’s wing of an Islamic organisation is “brainwashing and training girls for Jihad”.
The outfit has threatened legal action if no apology is tendered by the police.
The “internal circular” said the Girls Islamic Organisation (GIO) of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, one of the country’s largest Islamic organisations that runs 40 high schools and three junior colleges in Maharashtra, has been operating with the objective of “brainwashing college and school girls and train them for jihad”.
The document, meant for internal circulation, got leaked and has invited the wrath of Jamaat with its Maharashtra spokesman Mohammad Aslam Ghazi threatening to sue the police department if it does not apologise.
Ghazi alleged it was a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of the socio-religious organisation.
“The circular was leaked with vicious intentions. The allegations against GIO are false and baseless,” he said.
“The Mumbai Police either has to prove the allegations or apologise for the error. Otherwise, we would sue them for defamation,” said Ghazi, adding their organisation worked for “peace, justice and to fight against prejudice of the state machinery”.
Mumbai Police spokesman Satyanarayana Choudhary said “the circular was meant to be only for the department and not for public.”
Earlier, Mumbai Police had got embroiled in a row over a poem by a traffic police inspector Sujata Patil published in an issue of the force’s in-house journal Samwad where she had described last year’s Azad Maidan protesters as “snakes” and “traitors” whose hands should have been “chopped off”.
Amid threat of legal action and mounting anger of Mulim organisations, Patil had apologised in writing. The apology was published in the next issue of Samwad.
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