The Sawai Madhopur unit of Students’ Islamic Organization (SIO) and other social organisations have demanded action against the authors and publishers of a Rajasthan Government textbook and a reference book published by a private publisher, which has linked Islam with terrorism in one of its chapters.
In a chapter titled ‘Terrorism, Criminalization of Politics and Corruption’, the class 12 Political Science textbook published by Rajasthan State Textbook Committee, Jaipur has two questions that use the term ‘Islamic Terrorism’ – a subjective question asking ‘What do you understand by Islamic Terrorism?’ and an objective question ‘Which among these is not an objective of Islamic Terrorism?’.
The responses to these questions were published in another book published by Sanjiv Prakash, which directly linked Islam with terrorism. ‘Islamic terrorism is nothing but a form of Islam’, the book has falsely claimed.
SIO along with other organisations have submitted a memorandum to the education minister Govind Singh Dotasara through District Collector of Sawai Madhopur seeking strict action against everyone involved in publishing and bringing out this book including writers, textbook committee, editors and publishers of the misleading text.
In the memorandum SIO has objected to the falsification of religion and submitted, “Linking Islam with terrorism and using term ‘Islamic terrorism’ creates an atmosphere of hatred towards Islam, maligns the religion and hurt sentiments of Muslim students and the community. It’s also a danger to the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country.”
Earlier, representatives of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Rajasthan met with the publisher Sanjiv Prakashan and conveyed their objection to the text. They also met government and police officials to initiate criminal action against the publishers.
Soon after, the publisher issued an apology to JIH Rajasthan and informed that they have stopped the sale of the book. They said that they will recall the copies of the books from wholesalers and pulp them.
Meanwhile, the office of Sanjiv Prakashan was vandalised in Jaipur by unknown people. According to reports, three persons have been arrested in connection with the incident.
