Indian university segregates Muslim students over diet

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Dozens of Muslim foreign students studying in the Hindu-majority home state of India’s prime minister are being segregated against for their "eating habits," local media reported Thursday.

After some 300 students studying at Gujarat University complained of "unhygienic, cramped" accommodations provided by the institution, at least 35 Afghan Muslim students were "shifted" against their will to a Muslim-majority area some 10 km from the university's campus in Ahmedabad, according to a report by the daily The Indian Post.

Adding that the university cited the "eating habits and culture" of the students for the transfer, the daily reported that they were held by the school administration to sign an undertaking that they would not contact the media or police over their treatment.

If any of those transferred were to do so without the prior knowledge of a university official, the report said, they would face "immediate expulsion" for violating the school’s "code of conduct" as well as deportation to their country.

In India, eating non-vegetarian food is prohibited in most Hindu families.

One Afghan student quoted by the daily said none of the Afghan students ate non-vegetarian food.

"Provide me with a hostel near my college I will not eat non-vegetarian food," he said.

Another student claimed that he could not show the "condition" of his accommodations to his family.

An official told the newspaper that the university had received complaints about the “non-vegetarian” diet of the foreign students.

The official also said the non-Indian students also complained that they could not "get non-vegetarian food easily," confirming that the university did indeed take the students’ signatures for their non-disclosure.

In 2002, when Modi was chief minister of the Gujarat state, at least more than 1000 people were killed in anti-Muslim riots.