Forget the beard and burqa: Focus on essential teachings of Islam

While we may nonetheless ponder over the wisdom of Justice Katju’s reference to the Taliban, should we not simultaneously be asking some other questions too: Who is drilling into the heads of Muslim teenagers that their Islam is in deficit without a beard for the male and a head-to-toe burqa for the female? What is one to make of the ethical and intellectual integrity of the clean shaven retired judge, B.A. Khan, who appeared for Salim to argue that sporting a beard was an “indispensable part of Islam”? ... The next time you run into a Muslim obsessed about the burqa or the beard, ask what happened to the essential teachings of the Prophet: “To seek knowledge (in Islam all knowledge is sacred) is the religious duty of every Muslim man and woman”; “The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr”; “To obtain knowledge travel to China if necessary”.