Indian Muslim outfits slam compulsory yoga in schools, say bowing reserved for namaz

Say making yoga mandatory is unfair as it has Surya Namaskar, which means 'bowing to the Sun God'

Muslim outfits in Mumbai have expressed their reservations over a Maharashtra government order asking schools to mark International Yoga Day, saying that yoga requires bowing, which is a practice reserved for Namaz.

“It is detrimental to our religious freedom. Islam being a monotheistic religion, the followers cannot bow before anyone except Allah, and it is wrong to impose such things on Muslims,” education secretary of Jamat-e-Islami Hind Mohammed Zahoor Ahmed said, according to the Indian Express.

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Muslim organisations have decided to meet the chief minister to request that yoga sessions not be made compulsory.

“Yoga has Surya Namaskar, which means bowing to the Sun God. Muslim students may not be comfortable doing this. Muslims taking up yoga should be a voluntary move, making it mandatory is unfair,” he added.

June 21 was declared as the International Day of Yoga by the UN General Assembly in December 2014, following which, the state government had asked schools to devise programmes to mark the day.

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“We do not mind if they introduce any activities which help students. However, forcing it on them would disturb harmony and peace and damage the very foundation of secularism,” president of Students Islamic Organisation’s Mumbai Chapter Mohammed Salman said.

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Further, All-India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen MLA from Byculla, Waris Pathan, called the move “unconstitutional”.

“This, according to me, is an indirect way of promoting a ‘Hindu rashtra’ by the BJP government. Recently, a Muslim girl won prize for Gita recitation; no Muslim organisation objected to that as it was her decision,” claimed Pathan.

A senior official of the school education department said the office looked at the move as purely a “physical activity”.

This article originally appeared on the Indian Express.