India: fatwa against national song celebrating motherland

Or in other words fanaticism begets a flurry of fatwas......

Ranchi (AsiaNews) – 7 September passed uneventfully without any inter-faith clashes: this was the day when the Sanskrit song ‘Vande Mataram’ [I adore my motherland] was sung in India despite warnings of possible tensions between Hindu nationalists and the Muslim minority. Numerous fatwas were issued by imams in the country against the song lyrics and protests followed.

Some days before the celebration, the government decreed that the song should be sung in all schools of the Union: the text clearly refers to the Hindu pantheon and describes India as a “god to adore”. For this reason, Islamic clerics pronounced themselves in no uncertain terms against the decision and they banned their followers from committing “such a sacrilege against Allah, the one god”.