Self-styled mufti opposes concert of Zubin Mehta
30 Aug 2013 4:53 AM IST
Kashmir’s self-styled grand mufti, Bashir-ud-Din, has joined the chorus against the world-renowned Bombay-born conductor Zubin Mehta’s music concert scheduled for 7 September in Srinagar, the summer capital of the state.
The German embassy in India is organising the event with the help of the government as part of its wider engagement.
The mufti said that the concert would send out a wrong signal as Jammu & Kashmir ‘is a disputed area’, while asking German ambassador Michael Steiner to reconsider their plan to hold the concert in the valley.
He asked Germany to instead support education and healthcare in the state.
The self-styled chief clergyman had earlier drawn flak for issuing a decree against a Kashmiri girls’ rock band which forced them to quit. He had also asked a Christian priest to leave the valley after accusing him of engaging in religious conversions.
A Kashmiri human rights group had, in February, threatened to file a case against the mufti for issuing unsolicited fatwas (decrees).
The state government has chosen silence over the mufti’s official status and the legitimacy of his sharia court.
The German embassy in India is organising the event with the help of the government as part of its wider engagement.
The mufti said that the concert would send out a wrong signal as Jammu & Kashmir ‘is a disputed area’, while asking German ambassador Michael Steiner to reconsider their plan to hold the concert in the valley.
He asked Germany to instead support education and healthcare in the state.
The self-styled chief clergyman had earlier drawn flak for issuing a decree against a Kashmiri girls’ rock band which forced them to quit. He had also asked a Christian priest to leave the valley after accusing him of engaging in religious conversions.
A Kashmiri human rights group had, in February, threatened to file a case against the mufti for issuing unsolicited fatwas (decrees).
The state government has chosen silence over the mufti’s official status and the legitimacy of his sharia court.
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