Sources told rediff.com that in a latest communication, the new leadership of the Lashkar has directed its cadres across the country to impose laws similar to those advocated by the Taliban.
Cadres have been instructed to monitor the way people (especially Muslims) dress, behave and worse, to keep a tab on viewing of television.
A couple of days back there was a complaint by some residents in Jammu and Kashmir that some of the LeT cadres had beaten them up for watching television. The Lashkar activists termed it as 'anti-Islamic activity' and hence issued a warning that viewing television will be dealt with very stringently in future.
Sources say that the LeT has its new gameplan in place. They realise that their goals to take control over the Indian masses will be incomplete if they continue to carry out terror attacks.
The new leadership believes that there is a need to change the mindset of the people and hence there is also a necessity to impose rigid laws.
Of course the Lashkar has no intentions of carrying out this job in the open. It would be carried out secretively and with the same amount of patience that they carry out the rest of their operations.
The Lashkar intends to address the concerns regarding the dress code and also the viewing of television by Indian Muslims at the earliest.
While this television issue of the Lashkar is becoming a headache, it may be recalled that they had issued a similar fatwa against viewing of cricket. According to the Lashkar, people waste an entire day watching cricket, but are not ready to sacrifice one day for the cause of jihad.
While viewing television is being made out to be a big issue by terror groups who claim to be the protectors of Islam, a very reputed Imam in Bengaluru clears the air as to what Islam exactly says about this issue.
The Imam, who did not wish to be named for this report, says that these groups have misinterpreted jihad according to their liking.
"Before getting into this television issue, I would like to add here that Islam does not preach that one has to impose the religion on someone forcibly, and worse, with an Ak-47 pointed to the head," the Imam said.
The Imam also said that there has been a lot of debate among clerics about viewing television. It is definitely against the religion to view vulgarity and romantic scenes on television.
"While the rules regarding this are very rigid, there has been a softening of stance in the recent past. According to the religion, there is a lot of vulgarity that appears on television and hence the general rule is to ensure that that true followers do not view such content. Moreover the fact that women are being shown in poor light is not acceptable by the religion," he added.
Speaking of the softening of stance, the Imam said, there has been a meeting of the clerics worldwide where it has been decided that television can be used as a medium to get information regarding the religion. It has been noticed that it is difficult to spread the message of Islam to each and every person and hence, channels which spread the correct message of the religion are permitted to be viewed.
