India is collecting detailed information on mosques in Kashmir, sparking fresh concerns about surveillance, Residents say the police initiative feels less like a routine data-gathering exercise and more like an effort by the state to assert control over the region’s religious institutions.
Mohammad Nawaz Khan wishes his father, Sanaullah Khan, a retired government employee, had never agreed to lead the managing committee of their neighborhood mosque in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.
Khan’s concerns grew earlier this month when police began distributing a four-page document titled “profiling of mosques” to religious administrators, raising fears of heightened monitoring and accusations of discriminatory policies in the Muslim-majority disputed region.
One page of the form requests information about the mosque including its “ideological sect,” founding year, funding sources, monthly expenses, congregation capacity, and the ownership status of the land on which it stands.
The remaining three pages demand personal information about mosque staff including imams, muezzins and khatibs such as their phone numbers, email addresses, passport numbers, credit cards, bank accounts, and more. Other questions ask whether they have relatives overseas, which “outfit” they are affiliated with, and even the model of their mobile phone and their social media accounts.
A similar form has reportedly been issued to those running local madrasas (religious schools) in the region.
“This is not a place where you can live in peace. Every now and then, we are asked to fill one form or another,” said Nawaz, 41, speaking to Al Jazeera from his grocery shop in Srinagar’s Jawahar Nagar area.
