[Reader-list] Two sides of the same fundamentalist coin?

[Rohan DSouza]

As has been discussed on this group before, fundamentalists acting as
opinion and behaviour enforcers, of various religious persuasions,
ultimately feed off each other. One cannot exist in the absence of the
other. The response of the Muslim law board to the Sir Ram Sena and other
Hindutva group's moral policing in Karnataka (in the article below), only
reinforces this belief!

Rohan

http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/09/stories/2009020959480600.htm

*Muslim law board member backs moral policing * Staff Correspondent * Abdul
Rehman Quereshi says violence shouldn't be used *

BHATKAL (UTTARA KANNADA DISTRICT): Assistant general secretary of the
All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) Abdul Rehman Quereshi has
defended the stand of the Hindutva outfits on what they deem to be "moral
violations."

Although Mr. Quereshi condemned the use of force to enforce a moral code, he
identified with the interventionist strategies of vigilante groups in
coastal Karnataka.

"There is nothing wrong with demanding ethical behaviour from people of your
community. But these demands should be made by employing skills of
persuasion and not through force," he told *The Hindu* on Saturday.

Referring to members of Hindutva vigilante groups, he said: "We agree with
them. We are also opposed to pub culture. We also dislike free inter-mixing
between sexes," Mr. Quereshi said.

Averring that it was all right for Muslim men to mix with Hindu men as also
for Muslim women to mix with Hindu women, he said: "But, it is not proper
that men and women from different religions mix freely. In fact, it is not
proper for men and women from the same community also to freely mingle with
each other."

He also advocated marriages within the community even as he stressed that he
saw no place for "romance" between men and women. "Every person – Hindu or
Muslim – will have to answer their maker after death. There is no place for
inter-religious marriages. How will they justify their deviation from their
religion to god?" he questioned.

Dismissing human rights groups that have described vigilantism as a social
evil, he said: "it (vigilantism) is aimed at controlling social evils."