BJP Minority Morcha roots for ethnic identity, opposes politics over religion

GUWAHATI, June 26: The BJP Minority Morcha has objected to the use of the word ‘Muslim’ for identifying people. Instead, the Morcha wants people to be identified by their ethnicity.

“We are opposed to use of the word Muslim. We want ethnic identity instead of religious identity. Islamic people in Assam should specify their ethnic identity, like Goriya, Moriya, Desi, Jalha and Mymel. If the word ‘Muslim’ is used then even Bangladeshi immigrants will be included. So to protect the indigenous Islamic people of the State, stress should be on ethnic identity,” said BJP Minority Morcha State president Muminul Awal at a press conference in Guwahati on Thursday.

He further said, “During the Ahom rule many people came to Assam from different places. They took up Islamic religious faith and settled down in Assam. They are the indigenous Islamic people of Assam. But when the word Muslim is used, it includes Bangladeshi immigrants also and because of this the indigenous Islamic people are subjected to harassment.”

Awal said that BJP’s 2011 election manifesto had mentioned using ethnic identity for identification in the State and the BJP Minority Morcha demanded that this should happen soon.

He lamented that fact that too much of politics had been done in the name of religious minorities and many sections of people had taken advantage of this. “By religious minority we mean Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and indigenous Islamic people,” he said.

Awal said that the State BJP Minority Morcha would conduct workshops in every district of the State to bring more and more indigenous Islamic people closer to the paty.

The State BJP Minority Morcha has also demanded that the government should ascertain the market value of the Wakf Board property, land owned by the Wakf Board should be made encroachment free, the Board should be re–constituted with indigenous Islamic people and irregularities in the Minority Development Department should be probed.

“The government must work for overall development of indigenous Islamic people. Funds released by the Centre for minority development have not been properly utilized. This must be probed,” said Awal.

(Source) The Sentinel Assam — The Largest Media group of North-East India — focused on news publishing. Combined circulation of the group is over 120,000 newspapers per day, making it the largest newspaper group in the region. The Sentinel is the only English daily in the Northeast India with five editions published simultaneously from Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Shillong, Silchar and Itanagar. For all local, news from Assam, national and international news please visit http://www.sentinelassam.com/