New Delhi, June 14: Several Muslim groups have asked community members not to oppose inter-caste and intra-caste marriages, worried over the increasing instances of khap diktats against such matches.
Zakat Foundation of India (ZFI) has issued such an appeal, signed by all major groups representing the community, saying Muslims have been asked to take the side of religion and not caste because Islam does not restrict inter-caste and intra-caste marriages.
“The Holy Quran has given clear guidelines about marriages with relatives. Any restriction beyond Quranic teachings has been created by people themselves,” said the foundation president, Zafar Mahmood.
Of late, there have been several instances when Muslim-dominated khap panchayats — traditional caste councils with no official standing, yet influential — had issued such diktats.
Recently, a khap panchayat in Haryana annulled the marriage of Ikhlas, a 22-year-old Indian Reserve Battalion policeman, with Anjum, who is from Rajasthan. They were told the marriage was illegal because their families were part of the same clan nearly 125 years ago.
The panchayat’s argument was that the girl’s family had migrated from the boy’s village nearly 100 years ago.
The families of Ikhlas and Anjum were socially boycotted after the marriage. The couple moved court against the decision. The khap head, Ramzan Chaudhary, defended the decision saying that Haryana’s khap panchayat culture was as important to Muslims as their religion.
Muslim community leaders are also planning to hold a series of meetings in Muslim-dominated rural belts. They have held three meetings in Haryana, where they urged the Muslims to follow the Shariat, the doctrines that regulate the lives of those who profess Islam, and not any “un-Islamic culture”.
According to Zafar, Islam does not permit any caste or gotra system: “Nikah is permitted between any believing man and believing woman.”
Muslim leaders are of the opinion that khap panchayats are “un-Islamic”. “A true Muslim should always follow the Shariat and not these un-Islamic cultural practices,” said Anwar Jamal of Jamiat Ulema.
-Agencies