New Delhi: Ruling that a Muslim girl can marry as per her choice at the age of 15 years if she has attained puberty, the Delhi High Court has held the marriage of a minor girl valid and allowed her to stay in her matrimonial house. "This Court notes that according to Mohammedan Law a girl can marry without the consent of her parents once she attains the age of...
10:54 PM, Jun 05, 2012
London: Over two decades after 'Satanic Verses' sparked a never-ending controversy and provoked a 'fatwa' for his head, author Salman Rushdie has only one thing to say to his detractors: 'I did not write it for the mullahs'. The India-born controversial writer who has lived for years under the shadow of his 1988 book, now liberally jokes about the whole issue. Speaking at the Hay Festival of Literature and the...
09:20 PM, Jun 04, 2012
Bangalore: The Karnataka government has set up a high-level committee to look into encroachment of Wakf properties, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said on Tuesday. The committee would submit its report in four months time, Gowda said in a release. The government had constituted a panel in November last year following complaints and media reports on the role of politicians and Wakf Board officials in the illegal sale of...
12:47 PM, May 22, 2012
HYDERABAD: In view of the fifth anniversary of the Mecca Masjid bomb blast on Friday, police have beefed up security in various parts of the old city Police said they were stepping up the security at the mosque, Charminar, other monuments, places of worship and other public places.Vehicle-checking and patrolling will be intensified. Stern action will be taken against history-sheeters and extremists. Some Muslim organisations are planning to organise protest...
08:57 AM, May 18, 2012
Hyderabad: "Mar ke bhi chain na paya to kidhar jayenge? (If there is no peace in death, then where will I go?" This Urdu couplet from Ibrahim Zauq aptly sums up the problem of the dead in Hyderabad. In this booming metropolis, where thousands struggle for a place to live in, even death offers no solution. Rapid urbanisation, burgeoning population, escalating land prices and shrinking graveyards due to encroachments have...
12:58 PM, May 15, 2012
Thanks to Aamir Khan's show 'Satyamev Jayate', the spirited discussions and even outrage have not stopped since Sunday morning when the inaugural episode on female infanticide was first telecast. While Khan himself met Rajastan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to petition his government to act against the social menace, the Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday terminated the license of 65 Medical Termination of Pregnancy centres in order to check the Sex...
05:30 PM, May 09, 2012
HYDERABAD: Haj is the journey of a lifetime for all practising Muslims. As such, the Supreme Courts order that the government should phase out Haj subsidy over the next 10 years has some Muslims worried in the city. Though the ruling wont affect the Qurrah or draw of lots that will be held on May 10 to select the pilgrims, a few are concerned that if they miss it now,...
08:39 AM, May 09, 2012
New Delhi: Welcoming the Supreme Court order to strike down the Centre's policy of giving Haj subsidies, Muslim Members of Parliament on Tuesday sought an arrangement which will directly benefit the pilgrims and improve standards of the minority community. "The Haj subsidy of Rs 600 crore is given to Air India and not pilgrims... Under this garb of subsidy, it (money) is going to Air India which is a sick...
12:52 PM, May 08, 2012
New Delhi: The CBI has told the Supreme Court that the trial of BJP leader LK Advani in the Ayodhya demolition case has to be carried on without dropping the conspiracy charge against him as the razing down of the medieval monument was part of a "single larger conspiracy". The agency, in its recent affidavit, opposed the separation of trial of eight accused leaders - Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma...
11:14 PM, May 07, 2012
Hyderabad: Indian Muslim Relief and Charities (IMRC), a US-based organization, has built 60 schools in the remote villages of coastal Andhra Pradesh and plans to construct 40 more to provide education to Muslims. Under its platform, Rural Educational and Economic Development (REED), the organization has not only constructed the buildings of basic multipurpose one-teacher schools but also appointed trained Telugu-speaking teachers. "We will run these schools for two years and...
01:09 PM, May 07, 2012
Jaipur: The Centre's move to carve out 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities will double the job opportunities for Muslim community, Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday said. "The 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities would increase two fold the job opportunities for Muslims, who must get their rightful share in the fruits of development," Khurshid said. The demand for reservation in employment and education for Muslims was not...
02:29 AM, May 07, 2012
My first reaction on reading the news that St Aloysius College in Mangalore had restricted the use of burqa was that it was unnecessarily provocative. ...
06:46 PM, Apr 28, 2012
Washington: A US lawmaker has asked the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to reconsider the government's decision against issuing a diplomatic visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, drawing strong reactions from the Indian American Muslim community in the US. , a right wing conservative Republican and a tea party favourite has written a letter to Hillary, requesting her to consider granting a diplomatic visa to Modi. The letter attracted...
12:53 PM, Apr 25, 2012
New Delhi: For the last few months, reservation for minority communities, particularly Muslims, is a subject of fierce political debate in India. The approval of 4.5 percent sub-quota in government jobs and educational institutions for minorities was presumably to improve their economic and educational backwardness. However, as the data on the enrolment of Muslims in elementary schools shows, reservation in jobs and in higher educational institutions cannot be the only...
02:54 PM, Apr 17, 2012
Kolkata: With an eye on next year's panchayat polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday showered more sops on the Muslim community including new loan schemes, creating an employment bank and promising official stamp on 10,000 madrasas. The announcement comes days after she declared a monthly honorarium and housing subsidy for imams in the state. Outlining schemes undertaken for uplift of Muslims in the state, she said her...
09:01 PM, Apr 09, 2012
Lucknow: Alleging that Samajwadi Party is acting against national interest, the BJP on Thursday termed as "politics of minority appeasement" the move to introduce a bill in Uttar Pradesh to revoke false cases lodged against Muslims. "The move to leave those who are held for their involvement in terror activities is against the national interest. It is an act of Muslim appeasement for vote bank politics," BJP state president Surya...
03:54 AM, Apr 06, 2012
Kolkata: The BJP on Thursday slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for announcing sops for Muslims ahead of next year's panchayat polls and said the state government had no right to distribute public money "to gather Muslim votes". "If this cash-strapped government has so much money, why is it not providing it to the poor and even poor Muslims?" BJP's state President Rahul Sinha said. The BJP leader described...
12:24 AM, Apr 06, 2012
HYDERABAD: The Regional Passport Office, Hyderabad, on Tuesday, conducted a Passport Adalat in connection with Haj passport applications. Another adalat will be held on Wednesday too. Speaking at a press conference after handing over passports, K Srikar Reddy, regional passport officer, said, the Hyderabad Haj committee had made a total of 1,400 applications last week, of which 139 passports have been dispatched already last week and 264 more have been...
08:22 AM, Apr 04, 2012
El Cajon: Shaima Alawadi and her family fled Iraq nearly two decades ago as Saddam Hussein crushed a Shiite uprising, settling in the US so they would no longer face persecution, a family friend said. Alawadi, 32, grew up in the country's largest Iraqi enclaves, wore the Muslim headscarf and volunteered at the mosque. Now, after her body was found severely beaten in her suburban San Diego home, police, the...
07:46 PM, Mar 27, 2012
Bangalore: Muslim organisations in the city held a protest on Sunday demanding release of journalist Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi who has been arrested for his alleged role in the February 13 bombing of an Israeli diplomat car in New Delhi. The agitators led by the Muslim welfare organisation 'Idara-e-Faizul Islam', staged a peaceful protest in front of town hall carrying banners and shouting slogans demanding immediate release of Kazmi. "We...
03:06 PM, Mar 25, 2012
