MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 24: A religious instructor invited from Kenya for Moharram discourses has been deported to Nairobi after she enraged members of the Shia and Khoja-Shia community.

Issued a three-month tourist visa, Taheera Yasser (58) was sent back on February 22 by the Mumbai police after she was accused of ‘‘disparaging’’ Moharram traditions of the city’s Shia community.

  Of Pakistani descent, Yasser told a gathering of 400 Shia women that many religious customs were redundant.

Among her suggestions: Do away with Shia customs like the carrying of alam (symbol of a hand on a road covered in silver zari) and donating gold and silver at shrines

‘We decided to deport her to avoid tension in the city,’’ said N.D. Pawar, Senior Inspector of Dongri police station. ‘‘She was scheduled to give lectures all over the city.’’

‘‘We did not expect her to make vulgar comments about our traditions,’’ said Safdar Karmali, vice-president of the Khoja Jammat, which invited Yasser here. ‘‘She said something about not ‘mourning’ during the festival.’’