Backlash in Kashmir over proposal for uniform Friday sermons across mosques

A proposed move by the Waqf Board in Indian-administered Kashmir to introduce uniform Friday sermons at mosques across the region has drawn backlash from politicians and religious leaders, who have accused the government of trying to assert control over Muslim religious spaces.The Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board is headed by Darakshan Andrabi, a local leader associated with the Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government stripped the region of its previous semi-autonomous status in 2019. Jammu and Kashmir was also partitioned into two federally governed territories, instead of functioning as a full-fledged state as it used to.The board, which oversees Muslim religious endowments as mandated by Islamic laws, announced the controversial move last weekend, prompting a political controversy as the region’s top Muslim scholars slammed the proposal as “irresponsible interference into the religious affairs of Kashmiri Muslims”.While defending the imposition of the uniform sermons, Andrabi told a leading Indian newspaper that a proposed committee formed under the board’s auspices “will be solely responsible for identifying the issue...