Enraged by the Gujarat ‘pogrom’ and in search of retribution, an 18-year-old college student’s existential crisis had crystallised in a battle over his beard.
For more than a year, Syed Muhammad Arshiyan Haider had allowed his facial hair to grow, convinced Muslims were unable to confront their oppressors because of their inadequate commitment to the faith. Haider’s parents, alarmed by their son’s growing involvement with neoconservative religion, demanded he visit the local barber.
The young man, though, was more convinced by the argument of a cleric he’d met one evening in 2003: “You should not anger Allah to please people.”
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Source: The Print
