GUWAHATI: Forty-six Muslim clerics in Assam have issued a fatwa against up-and-coming singer Nahid Afrin who was the first runner-up in the 2015 season of a musical reality TV show, asking her to stop performing in public.
According to reports, the fatwa has been issued against her keeping in view an upcoming event that was to be held on March 25. Since the venue of the event was in the vicinity of a mosque and a graveyard, the clerics have announced to boycott her singing programmes and have asked her to stop performing in public.
Police said they were investigating whether the fatwa was a reaction to Nahid recently performing songs against terrorism, including the Islamic State terror group. “We are looking at this angle as well,” ADG (special branch) Pallab Bhattacharya said.
Leaflets bearing the fatwa in Assamese and the names of the clerics were distributed across Hojai and Nagaon districts in central Assam on Tuesday. According to the fatwa, a March 25 programme at Udali Sonai Bibi College in Lanka, Assam, where Nahid, 16, is scheduled to perform is “against the Sharia”.
If anti-Sharia acts like musical nights are held on grounds surrounded by masjids, idgahs, madrassas and graveyards, our future generations will attract the wrath of Allah,” it said.
The young singer, a Class X student who lives in Biswanath Chariali, broke down on hearing news of the fatwa. “I am speechless. I think my music is God’s gift to me. I will never bow down to it (such warnings) and never leave singing,” she said.” The young singer was shocked when she first heard of the fatwa against her.
“I was shocked and broken from inside at first. But, many Muslim singers gave me inspiration to not quit music. I will never do so,” she said.
“I think my music is God’s gift to me. I believe it must be properly utilised; not doing so is ignoring God,” she added.
Her mother added, “The organisers of the musical night told us that the programme on March 25 will not be cancelled.” Police said Nahid and her family would be provided security cover.
Nahid, who made her Bollywood debut singing for Sonakshi Sinha in the 2016 film ‘Akira’+ , first rose to stardom after her successful innings on reality TV . Her beautiful renditions of songs written and composed by the Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva have made her especially popular in Assam.
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The clerics have got it wrong and have no business issuing fatwa in a democratic country. Chances are that the poor girl will succumb to the threat if the police do not arrest those mullahs for causing threat to peace (or any excuse) India is secular country and whether the mosque is near a venue where music is performed is none of their business. What about them issuing a fatwa against excellent Pakistani singers like late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his nephew who thrives on Bollywood support? I think the reason is as reported the girl dared to sing against IS and its really true awakening of a community abused by their own religious fanatics in supporting terrorism. I think the mullahs are irked somewhat to realise that rather being radicalised by IS propaganda, the young Muslims are taking a stand against Daesh