The Karnataka college student, who stood up to hecklers for wearing the hijab, Muskan Khan’s father, Mohammad Hussain Khan, reacted strongly after a video showing Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri praising his daughter surfaced online.
Mr. Khan maintained the comments of the terror group leader were ‘wrong’, and he and his family are living peacefully in India.
‘We don’t know anything about it (video), we don’t know who he is. I saw him today for the first time. He has said something in Arabic…..We are all living here with love and trust like brothers,’ news agency PTI quoted Khan as saying.
‘Who is he, why is he speaking about issues of my country’ he further questioned, while saying the police and Karnataka government can initiate any inquiry.
Zawahiri, presumed dead in 2020, resurfaced in a nine-minute video released by As-Sahab media, the official media wing of Al Qaeda, on Tuesday where he is seen offering his two cents on the hijab row that caused a stir in India.
In the video entitled ‘the Noble Woman of India’, praised Muskan, who became the face of the pro-hijab protests when she shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ slogans to counter a group of boys who were chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’.
Calling Muskan ‘sister,’ Zawahiri said in the video that Indian Muslims should ‘react to this oppression,’ even penning a poem for the college student.
Zawahiri has also called out other countries in the past that had banned the hijab and slammed Pakistan and Bangladesh for being ‘Western allies.’
Karnataka Home Minister Mr. Araga Jnanendra said, it proves the involvement of ‘unseen hands’ in the debate, whilr adding that law enforcement was keeping a close watch on all such activity.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said Al Qaeda will never understand the importance of wearing uniforms in educational institutions.
Supporting the Karnataka High Court ban on wearing hijabs in schools and colleges, Sarma said they will ‘become a platform for the display of religious clothes.’
Mr. Khan added ‘It is wrong to drag Muskan. I request them, do not to drag the matter any further. We do not want him to talk about us. Why is he talking? Muskan saw the video today. Talking about her is wrong. She is a student, and she is interested in her studies.
‘We were born and brought up in Mandya. We are happy and peaceful here.” “There are rumours spread about crores of rupees given to Muskan which is false.’
‘She does not want all this,’ he signed off.
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