Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 24, 2005
URL: http://cities.expressindia.com/archivefullstory.php?newsid=118981&creation_date=2005-02-24
A female religious instructor invited
from Kenya for Moharram discourses was deported to Nairobi after enraging
members of the Shia and Khoja-Shia community.
Issued a three-month tourist visa,
Taheera Yasser (58) was sent back on February 22 by the Mumbai police after
she was accused of ''disparaging'' Moharram traditions.
Of Pakistani descent, Yasser-herself
a Shia-told a gathering of 400 Shia women that many religious customs were
redundant.
Among her suggestions:
* Do away with Shia customs like
the carrying of alam (symbol of a hand on a road covered in silver zari)
and donating gold and silver at shrines.
* Avoid donations of gold and silver
at shrines to have boons fulfilled. Instead, Yasser said, give charity
to the poor.
''We decided to deport her to avoid
tension in the city,'' said N D Pawar, senior inspector of Dongri police
station. ''She was scheduled to give lectures all over the city.''
The police said Taheera had little
scope for dissent after a mob of women protested against her speech at
the religious hall, Mahosila Khatoon-e-Janaat.
''We did not expect her to make
vulgar comments about our traditions,'' said Safdar Karmali, vice president
of the Khoja Jammat, which invited Yasser here. ''In her lectures she said
something about not 'mourning' during the festival.''
Rizwan Hyder, president of the Muslim
Association for Peace and Harmony, said the ''maulavin tried to unnecessarily
corrupt our faith''.
Hyder said: ''We told the police
that younger members of our community would react strongly if she continued
with her lectures.''
Calling preachers from other countries
is common during Moharram in Mumbai. But religious heads have now agreed
that organisation must consult them before future invitations.
