MUNIR VOWS TO CHALLENGE SPEAKER
…in court for alleged religious discrimination
By GIDEON NYENDWA
The decision by the Speaker of the National Assembly to boot, Lumezi Member of parliament Munnir Zulu for religious dressing is to be challenged in court.
Mr. Zulu has decided to challenge the Speaker
because his religious rights were infringed upon.
Mr. Zulu was sent away from Parliament for wearing an outfit that allegedly breached parliamentary dress code on December 16, 2021 after a point of order was raised against him.
Mr Zulu, a Muslim, was wearing an outfit known as the thobe. The thobe is a long robe worn by Muslim men.
He said that he did not take the order to be booted out of parliament lightly because it sent a particular message to people of certain religious groupings.
Mr. Zulu said that there were a lot of reforms that needed to be made at parliament because some rules and regulations were crafted a longtime ago and needed to be changed.
“The people that crafted the dress code are old and have moved on,” he said.
Mr. Zulu said he had faith in his beliefs and he was going to defend them at all cost because the Muslim community outside the country watched what had happened and now did not know whether they had space or not.
Mr. Zulu also said that some of the rules and regulations used at parliament were not created to accommodate people today’s generation.
“They were crafted to accommodate colonial thinkers,” he said.
Mr. Zulu said there was need to do away with some ancient rules that do not add any value if applied now because the dressing had nothing to do with the debate in parliament.
