Uttarakhand Madrasas to teach Lord Ram's story & values

Dehradun: Madrasas in Uttarakhand are going to teach the values of the Hindu god Lord Ram, and this will be added to the curriculum of four Madrasas from March this year, Uttarakhand Waqf Board, The Indian Express reported.

Waqf board chairman, Shabad Shams, said that later this year, this will be extended to all the 117 madrasas operating under the board. The said pilot run of the new addition will be started with one madrasa each from Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, and Nainital.

Shams said that since the entire country is celebrating the consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, they thought that they should teach their students in their "modern madrasas" about the Hindu god. Lord Ram has been mentioned by Allama Iqbal in one of his quotes where he mentions the god as 'Imam-e-Hind (Leader of India)'. Indian Muslims should follow Ram because we are not Arabs, Shams suggested. According to him, Indian Muslims are converted.

"We are converted Muslims who changed our way of worship, but we cannot change our ancestors," TIE quoted him.

Further, the Waqf board chairman said that Ram belongs to everyone. The modern Madrasas will not teach Aurangazeb "at any cost"- since he killed his brother and jailed his father- but Sri Ram. He wondered who would not want a son like Ram, who left everything to fulfil his father's promise, a brother like Laxman or a wife like Sita.

Last year, he said that the Waqf Board had said that it would teach Sanskrit in madrasas under it and implement strict uniforms for students.