It becomes slightly trying for a blog that stands for freedom of expression to defend religion in any way or on any count. Given the backdrop that most attacks on freedom of expression both in India (primarily from the Hindu right) and cross the world (primarily from the Islamic right) come from those steeped in religion. And, of course, it is ironical that an unrepentant atheist has to write all about it. The other day there was a report in the Hindustan Times about the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) advocating the restriction of religious and spiritual television channels.

Now, an Islamic militant outfit in Manipur has asked Muslim girl students to refrain from wearing frock and skirt or any western dress in educational institutions in the state from next year. The 'information and publicity' secretary of the People's United Liberation Front (PULF), Belal Khan wants that all Muslim girl students should wear the dress accepted by Islamic law. Huh. The statement issued by the militant said that anyone violating the diktat of the outfit would be punished. Wait, there's more. Khan said that civil society, school authorities, and students should not not appeal to PULF to relax its diktat. The man said those who violated the diktat would be punished from January 2008 onwards.

The Supreme Court has upheld the Guruvayoor temple’s decision to allow entry of women wearing churidar, the Hindu has reported. A bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justices RV Raveendran and JM Panchal Monday dismissed a special leave petition challenging the August 23 Kerala High Court order, which upheld the temple’s decision. Manoj V. George, counsel for a devotee K. Mohandas, argued that the change in the 5,000-year-old practice of allowing only women wearing the traditional sari hurt the sentiments of a section of worshippers. He said the Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee, running the temple, had no right to interfere in spiritual matters. “Today it is the dress code, tomorrow it may be something else.”

Guruvayoor temple authorities are reconsidering their decision to change the old dress code that allowed only saree-clad women to come to pray, says a Daily News & Analysis (DNA) report. On July 26 this year, the temple authorities decided to allow women dressed in salwar-kameez also to pray at the temple. Thsi volte face would be because preists say the deity is real, real angry at non-sari clad women. However, during the eight-day ashtamangalaya devaprasanam (astrological consultations) ritual that was held at the temple from Oct 31 to Nov 7, priests found that the change in dress code apparently annoyed the temple deity. Thottathil Raveendran, chairman of the Guruvayoor Devasom that oversees the daily functioning of the temple, told IANS that the ritual was held for the first time in 17 years at the temple to find solutions to the various problems the temple has faced this year.

Activists of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), led by three legislators, attacked Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad on Thursday while she was releasing the Telugu translation of her Bengali novel Shodh (Revenge). Nasrin escaped unhurt as the organisers pushed back about 100 protesters, including the three bellicose Islamist lawmakers. In the melee, one of the protesters slapped her. A journalist, Innaih Narisetti, was also injured oin the melee. The protesters burst into the local Press Club shouting slogans describing Nasrin as "anti-Muslim" and "anti-Islam." They ransacked the venue, throwing chairs in the air and overturning the tables. the marauders were led by MLAs Afsar Khan, Ahmed Pasha and Mouzam Khan.

The president of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, has the cheek to defend his party MLAs for attacking Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen. “When the Bangladesh government has shunted Taslima out of the country, why is the Indian government protecting her?” he asked. Well, Nasreen has been living in Kolkata for the last two years. What was Owaisi doing all this while? Sleeping in the House? And come to think of it, this Owaisi's party is an ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. With such progressive allies, Manmohan Singh's... whatever; you know better. Akbaruddin Owaisi, MIM’s leader in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, said his party was not worried about the case against its MLAs and activists. “She brought disrespect to Islam and we taught her a lesson,” he said.[Link]

It's Pune again. But this time, it is the turn of the Islamists. A group of youths tore down posters of Hindi film Awarapan and carried out demonstrations at Victory theatre in Pune Camp, where the movie was screened on Saturday afternoon, claiming that the film has scenes hurting religious sentiments. Following the incident, the police provided security to 13 theatres in the city, where the film is being screened in this Maharashtra city. The culprits this time out were members of the Indian Muslim Front, Samajwadi Party, Madina Muslim Committee and others, who ordered the assistant manager of the theatre to stop the screening of the film. Jaladi told the Times of India that during the matinee show about five youths entered the cinema hall and shouted slogans. They demanded that the show must be stopped immediately. "I requested the viewers to leave the theatre. The youths tore down posters pasted in the foyer and the banner outside."

It is now the turn of the Students Islamic Organisation of India to tighten the screws on whosoever talks about sex education. The organisation does not have even 10,000 members across the country, but is big enough to be a mischief-monger. Its activists have already staged demonstrations in a number of cities/towns. Listen to (I mean, read) these quotable quotes: Sex education is teaching pornography and instigating. free sex. When the Indian Constitution declares that a person is an adult only at age 18, then why should an adult subject like sex be taught to 11 and 12-year-olds. Sex should be permissible only after marriage. If you teach it in schools it will be akin to making them hungry and taking away the food. Those were from some SIO activists who, you aill agree, are in dire need of some sex education classes.

That's what the Madhya Pradesh government tends to think when it comes to the issue of imparting sex education in schools. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state has stopped sex education classes for high school students after it found that illustrations in an instruction manual for teachers were "obscene". The sex education classes were part of the Adolescence Education Programme (AEP) for Class IX and above, aimed at creating AIDS awareness among students. The "objectionable" illustrations were diagrams of male and female bodies in four pages of the manual. The BJP government found it too much to take. "The chief minister (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) has instructed the school education department to stop imparting sex education and informed the union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh about it," an official said.

Medievalism rules supreme these days. So, when Kerala minister AK Balan made an off-hand remark in the state Assembly last week that "gods are depicted in temples without clothes on," it predictably created a furore — both inside and outside the House. Balan said he was "at a loss to know as to why an issue was being made out of sex education as there was no temple without murals and sculptures depicting scenes from Vatsyayana's 'Kama Sutra' and gods are depicted without clothes on." That got the goat of all you-know-who. The Opposition said it would boycott him in the House during the current session till he apologised for "hurting the sentiments of believers." Uff, what are we going to do with these hypersensitive sentiments. So, everyone is entitled to an opinion except non-believers. And everyone has the right to free speech except non-believers. And all non-believers must do and speak they way believers would want them to.