Too many mosques in god's own country

The Kerala High Court's verdict passed on Friday upholding a decision of the Malappuram district authorities to deny permission for establishing a new mosque in a locality which already has 36 mosques within a 5-km radius has caught the attention of the entire country. Reports say that a Muslim organization sought permission to convert a commercial building into a mosque; the district administration denied it, citing the above-mentioned reason. The organization then approached the Kerala High Court. While the Court found the district administration's decision to be justified, Justice PV Kunhikrishnan, in his order made certain observations which hold a lot of significance, especially for those states where the mushroom growth of mosques has become a serious problem. According to the court, though mosques are important to Muslims, "it is not stated in the above verses of the Holy Quran that a mosque is necessary for every nook and corner." The Kerala High Court also said that "it is not stated in the 'Hadis' or in the Holy Quran that a mosque is to be situated adjacent to the house of every Muslim community member. Distance is not the criteria, but reaching the mosque is important." Moreover, according to Justice Kunhikrishnan, Kerala is known as 'God's own country because of the peculiar geographical situation of the state. "But we are exhausted with religious places and prayer halls, and we are not in a position to allow any new religious places and prayer halls except in the rarest of rare cases," the judge observed. The High Court also referred to a study on religious structures of Kerala, based on the 2011 Census report, which showed that the tiny state with 38,863 sq m area (half of Assam's area of 78, 438 sq km) has 10 times the number of religious structures as villages and 3.5 times the number of hospitals. In view of this, the High Court said that Kerala was "exhausted with religious institutions and prayer halls" and that "if every devotee... Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Parsi, etc., start to construct religious places and prayer halls near his or her residence, the state will face the serious consequence, including communal disharmony." The Kerala High Court's verdict throws up several questions for a state like Assam where, on one hand, the percentage of Muslims is on the rise (thanks to infiltration), and on the other hand, mosques are being increasingly used for jihadi, terrorist and anti-national activities. One also wonders whether in Assam one requires to obtain permission to set up religious institutions, including mosques. The question of the use of loudspeakers is another pending matter.