Prayers at open space trigger tensions
MUSLIMS praying outdoors in Gurgaon have become the latest flashpoint of sectarian tensions in India.
Gurgaon, a modern satellite city of the capital New Delhi, is home to around 500,000 Muslims who either live there, have migrated to the area for work or labour there during the day.
The city has 15 mosques for them, but the local government has refused permission to build more – even as the number of Hindu temples has grown. This has forced the community to hold Friday afternoon prayers – the most important of the week for Muslims – in open spaces.
In recent years, Hindu groups have sprayed cow dung at Islamic prayer sites and called worshippers terrorists and Pakistanis.
The local government, meanwhile, has steadily cut the number of approved outdoor worship sites.
Last month, the Haryana state chief minister, a member of prime minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, declared that outdoor prayers in Gurgaon “will no longer be tolerated”.
Undermining their argument that religion can be practised only indoors, Hindu groups celebrated last month by setting up a makeshift temple and community kitchen to feed hundreds as devotional music blared.
Across town, hundreds of Muslims queued to take turns to worship at one of only six remaining prayer venues still available. At another site, Muslims were heckled and forced to chant slogans such as “Hail Lord Ram”.
“If the government doesn’t find a solution to the issue... it will become more complicated and serious,” Sabir Qasmi, a Muslim cleric at the prayer meeting, said.
Hindu protesters in Gurgaon say outdoor prayers pose a “security” risk, cause traffic problems and prevent children from playing cricket.
Arati R Jerath, a political commentator, said there is an agenda to convert India from a pluralistic and secular nation into a “Hindu country”.
“Whether it is economic spaces or spaces for worship, or spaces for the food and customs or anything with a Muslim identity, that is going to be part of the project,” Jerath said. Last month, the head of a Hindu umbrella group proposed a solution: Muslims should convert. (AFP)