New Delhi, 06 Sep 2015: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has strongly condemned the use of religion-based census data for drawing political mileage and creating communal rift in society. “The Religion-Census Data is being used by divisive forces to drive a wedge between communities by creating a bogey of Muslim hegemony and projecting their population growth as a threat to the country,” said Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, Ameer (National President) of Jamaat while addressing the monthly press conference at Jamaat’s headquarters here on Saturday (5^rd Sep). Maulana Umari was accompanied by top Jamaat leaders including Nusrat Ali, Vice President, Mohammad Salim Engineer, Secretary General, Mohammad Ahmed, Secretary and Arshad Shaikh, Media In-Charge.

 

Jamaat commended higher sex ratio in the Muslim society.

 

“The higher sex ratio (number of women per thousand men) in Muslims can be attributed to the lower prevalence of female foeticide in Muslims which is an outcome of the great respect and honor given to the girl child by Islam,” said Jamaat.

 

It also demanded the government to release the caste based data as soon as possible.

 

Jamaat also condemned the murder of renowned Kannada writer MM Kalburgi, renaming of roads for ulterior political motives and expressed concern at the proposed Israel visit of President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 

“Jamaat-e-Islami Hind condemns in the strongest possible words – the murder of veteran social activist, ex Vice-Chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi, noted epigraphist and Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi on 30^th August in Dharwad, Karnataka…He is the third high profile leader to be killed after veteran anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune and veteran CPI leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur…Jamaat feels that all these murders are pre-planned and are meant to exterminate and intimidate all those who challenge and criticize the fascist forces in the country,” said Jamaat and demanded immediate arrest of and exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

 

Jamaat denounced the renaming of cities and roads on communal grounds including the recent decision by NDMC of Delhi to rename Aurangzeb Road after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

 

“The campaign to rename historical places and roads is an attempt to rewrite history and project historical personalities of a particular community as villains and enemies of the country. This communalization of history, twisting of facts and trying to create hatred against a particular community will damage the secular fabric of our country and harm the plural ethos of our country. The government should come out with a law banning the change of names of cities and roads.”

 

While expressing concern at the proposed Israel visit of President and Prime Minister and condemning the government’s decision to abstain from the UN Human Rights Council vote against Israel over Gaza in July this year, Jamaat said these decisions are “causing great damage to India’s image as a secular and democratic nation and will embolden Israel to continue its occupation of Palestine, discrimination against its own Arab citizens and repeated terror attacks against civilian populations.”

 

Jamaat has appealed to both the President and Prime Minister to cancel their proposed visit to Israel.