The executive body of the 135-year-old Anjuman-e-Islam, a premier educational institution in Maharashtra, elected noted radiologist Dr. Zahir Kazi, 54, as it Presidents in place of Sami Khatib.
Kazi has been associated with Anjuman for the last two decades, the last four years as its general secretary.

Khatib, was persuaded to resign as majority of the executive body members were not satisfied with his authoritarian style of functioning. Unlike other trust and public institutions the power transfer was smooth and without involvement of muscle power and dirty politics.

The transition indicates the robust democratic fabric and healthy practice of accepting the difference of opinion within Anjuman-e-Islam. In fact even the detractors of Khatib avoided any criticism in public of the outgoing president.

He was persuaded to resign because of his arrogant nature. Khatib is the founder and chairman of 'Medley Pharma', one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies. Being a successful entrepreneur, managing his own empire was too much for him to manage a large group of people with diverse opinion and interest who were equal in status within the Anjuman.

Khatib lost the presidentship because people compared him with Dr. Isaac Jamkhanawala. The same executive body had thrown out Dr. Jamkhanawala, inspite of his two decades of association with the Anjuman on the same grounds. Jamkhanawala's open door policy made him very popular amongst the masses. He was replaced by Khatib who was reserved in nature, hence comparison with Jamkhanawala made him look arrogant.

Also Khatib was elected to replace Jamkhanawala with the mandate that Anjuman could be managed by the group rather than an individual so that transparency in functioning of the trust could be maintained. Because of his reserved nature he could not maintain the faith of the executive council.

Managing a giant trust like Anjuman-e-Islam is a daunting task. There are stalwarts from various fields such as education, business, medical world, politics etc. Lack of proper delegation of work espouses a sense of hurt and being ignored among the high and the mighty who figure in the executive and creates feeling of alienation.

Khatib failed to take into confidence the diverse shade of opinion and interests into confidence and lost the faith of the majority inspite of doing a fairly decent job as the president of Anjuman. His greatest achievement was to streamline the functioning of the various institutions.

His successor Dr. Zahir Kazi is competent and well experienced. The greatest strength of Dr. Kazi is his amicable nature. He was elected as the new president unanimously. In fact, Dr. Kazi is the current unifying force within the Anjuman.

Dr. Kazi's unanimous election indicates his popularity. He is one of the Anjuman stalwarts who gives maximum time, inspite of his lucrative practice, to manage the affairs of the trust. When asked about his immediate focus, he said, “We have to concentrate on improving the educational standard of the Urdu-medium schools.

Anjuman-e-Islam is too important an organization for the Muslims. What is needed is the people with the vision who don't get entangle in the petty politics and power struggle. Considering the state of affairs of Muslims in the field of education, downtrodden Muslims look towards the Anjuman-e-Islam for enrolment of their kids.

Also the current management of Anjuman-e-Islam need to rise above the petty interest of different ethnic groups such as Konkanis, Memons, etc so that interest of the organization in particular and welfare of the Muslims reign supreme under all circumstances.

The Marwar Sharia Cooperative Credit and Savings Society here has enrolled over 200 shareholders and raised a capital of Rs. 12 lakh in the first month of its operations. The Society, an offshoot of the Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society, was inaugurated on September 18 by Maharaja Gaj Singh, the scion of the former princely family of Jodhpur. The date coincided with the last Friday of the month of Ramazan.

According to Mr. Mohammad Atique, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Society will function on the basis of participatory banking principles of Sharia. Maharaja Gaj Singh is himself one of the first shareholders of the Society. Except for Amanat Deposits, all depositors will be participants in the 'profit and loss sharing system' (PLS) of the Society.

Prominent shareholders till now include architect Anu Mridul, Messrs Surendra Chaudhury, Yogish Birla, Chandan Dev, Anil Mehra, Dr. Iqbal Khan, Haji Abbadullah Qureshy, Abdul Rauf Ansari etc. Mr. Shaukat Ali Ansari, former chairman of the Rajasthan Wakf Board is the chairman and Dr. Kumar Rajiv is the financial advisor. Mr. Abdul Haseeb, former official from the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur is the chief administrator.

The Sharia Coop Society will launch various financial products on the basis of musharikah (PLS) , marabaha, ijara (leasing) etc. It intends to invest in real estate, infrastructure projects, joint venture projects, equity investments funds and commodities investment funds.

The Society organized a 2-day seminar on the eve of the launch of the operations. Participants included Arshad Ajmal from Al-Khair Coop Society, Patna; Shariq Nasir, director, Taqwa Advisory and Sharia Investments, Bangalore; I. H. Zaki of Muslim Fund Najibabad and Islamic investment expert Muhammad Hussain Khatkhatay from Bangalore. Address: Marwar Sharia Cooperative Credit and Savings Society, Muslim School Campus, Pal Link Road, Jodhpur-342003, Rajasthan. Ph. 0291-2752850, 2709836, CEO Mohammad Atique 094141-27387, www.marwa rimuslim.org

The proposed visit to India by a delegation of leading British Muslims was cancelled. The team was to visit Bangalore, Bhopal, Mumbai and Delhi beginning from November 8. It appears the members of the delegation approached the Indian High Commission in London only a day earlier to the departure. The High Commission apparently clueless about the visit's objective, could not process the visa in time, hence the cancellation. The British High Commission in Delhi had made elaborate arrangements in the four cities to set the meetings with Muslim and non-Muslim VIPs, women and Muslim religious figures. The cancellation caused huge disappointment among Muslims.

Muslim youngsters in Mumbai run a campaign to educate about safe disposal of animal waste and respecting others’ sensitivities.

A group of Muslim youngster since last one month is striving to persuade Muslim living in Mumbai to change their mindset and behavior. They are asking just one question to the Muslim community, what is the objective of Eid Al-Adha? Is it necessary to sacrifice the animal within the city limit where the basic infrastructure to make safe disposal of the animal waste does not exist?
The basic objective of Eid Al-Axha is to convey to the world that a true Muslim’s love for his Lord overrides all others’.

If Eid Al-Axha celebration can bring happiness and welfare for the deprived sections of the Muslim community, then why bring bad name to Islam in general and Muslims in particular by not disposing off the animal waste properly, which cause major health issue and nuisance to the followers of other religion.

‘SAHARA’, is a small group of Muslim youth, initiated by Yusuf Shaikh and his friends to bring about change in the attitudes of Muslims with respect to slaughtering of animal during Eid Al-Azha. Yusuf, 26, is working as product manager in a multinational company. He decided to launch SAHARA, with the sole intention of suggesting alternative to slaughtering of qurbani animal in their housing societies, mohallas or on roads and public places.

“The blood, wastage, the filth which Muslim creates during the sacrifice of animals suggests the ignorance about the basic teachings of Islam as well as quintessential objective of Eid Al-Azha.
Why Muslim insists on performing the qurbani in their mohallas or housing societies, asked Yusuf? “The meat from the sacrifice of Eid al-Azha is mostly given away to others. One-third is consumed by immediate family and relatives, one-third is given away to friends, and one-third is donated to the poor. The act symbolizes our willingness to give up things that are of benefit to us or close to our hearts, in order to follow Allah's commands,” said Yusuf. “It also symbolizes our willingness to give up some of our own bounties, in order to strengthen ties of friendship and help those who are in need. We recognize that all blessings come from Allah, and we should open our hearts and share with others”.

SAHARA is taking this message of qurbani to the Muslim masses. It is very important to understand that the sacrifice itself, as practiced by Muslims, has nothing to do with atoning for our sins or using the blood to wash ourselves off sins. This is a misunderstanding by those of previous generations: "It is not their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah; it is your piety that reaches Him." (Qur'an 22:37)

‘ SAHARA’, had launched a multimedia campaign to educate Muslims about the hazard of draining off the blood of the qurbani animal into the common drainage, which clogs the entire drainage system The reason is not far to seek, due to lack of civic sense amongst most of the Muslim families.

The posters by SAHARA in the Muslim dominated areas educate the masses about the consequences of leaving the waste of the animal in the open. Posters say that this practice converts Muslim mohallas into a perfect breeding ground for pathogenic bacteria leading to the outbreak of epidemic.’

SAHARA came up with alternative solutions to avoid such recurrences. For this Eid Al-Azha they persuaded more than 500 families to agree to undertake qurbani in remote villages where disposal of waste is not a problem. The Sahara group has collected a nominal amount from these families and arranged for the qurbani animal in a village. The group has negotiated with an owner of goat farming and got a decent deal saving enough money.

Explaining the details about their initiative, Yusuf said that, “we took pain to plan our animal buying well in advance to save substantial money so that we can deep freeze the meat in large quantity and donate it to orphanages and madrasas so that they can store the qurbani meat as well as sadaqa meat which they receive throughout year”.

"We have launched a coordinated multi media campaign. We intend to educate the Muslim that in the plural society like India it is imperative that Eid Al-Azha is celebrated in such a way that it not only respect the sensitivity of the non-Muslim but also promotes the unique feature about Islam," said Yusuf.

Since Sahara group has arranged for qurbanis in a thoroughly professional way and have created the infrastructure, they easily manage the waste and protect the environment, added Ahmed.

Besides SAHARA group, several Muslim social organizations in Mumbai are promoting the option of "combined Qurbani’ as it helps them to meet their budget for various social and welfare activities.
Sahara and other groups also offer the facilities of providing the beef to the individuals who have booked their shares. "While booking, we ask the person if they want their share of beef, what part and how much quantity. Then we pack it accordingly and ask them to collect it from our city office on the appointed day and time," Yusuf added.

The benefit of combined qurbani is saving time and achieving the social objective of helping the most deprived section of society in addition to been environment-friendly.

mhliv2@yahoo.co.in

The Union Ministry of Culture has included Patna-based Khuda Bakhsh Khan Oriental Public Library in the list of 17 institutions for the 'National Visiting Fellowship'.

It is a two-year scheme in which scholars will be offered attractive fellowship for carrying out independent studies and projects. Eight out of the 17 institutions are based in Delhi, four in Kolkata, two in Mumbai and one each in Allahabad, Bhopal and Patna.

According to the Ministry's circular, the Scheme has been introduced in order to revitalise the various institutions under the Ministry of Culture. This is sought to be achieved by encouraging scholars/academicians to affiliate themselves with these institutions to work on important projects.
Many institutions under the Ministry of Culture are the repositories of manuscripts, documents, artifacts, paintings and other scholarly resources. For instances, museums display a small percentage of their entire holdings. The public can not view the rest, but the scholars can use them for research projects, a spokesman from the Ministry informed. He said the scheme would offer the best terms, emoluments and facilities to draw the best talent available for the academic and research institutes.

A serving professor would be compensated with pay, house rent, allowance and additional Rs 3.5 lakh each year. Retired academics or researchers with established credentials would be entitled to honorarium of Rs. 80,000 per month in addition to other financial and logistical support.

Tanzeemul Muhsinath, a women's NGO organized marriages of eight couples on November 18 in an initiative to settle eligible boys and girl into life. Tanzeem secretary Sajida Begum, a social worker of repute, said a single individual financially sponsored the marriages. She said the Tanzeem had been working among downtrodden people in the D.J.Halli and K.G.Halli areas for the last one decade and realized the financial constrains hindering marriage of poor people, especially the parents of the eligible girls. Social workers Ayesha Wajid, Farrukh Khaiser, Shameem Khusro and Shakira Begum, Abdul Azeem MLC participated in the ceremony held at Shadab Mahal in the Tannery Road Eidgah. The couples were gifted with essentials to start a life.

The King Fahd Quran Printing Complex will soon publish the Telugu translation of the Holy Quran. The translation has been carried out by Dr. Abdur Raheem Muhammad of Mahboobnagar of Andhra Pradesh. Dr. Raheem has been working with the King Abdul Azeez Hospital for the last 34 years. The Telugu translation has been done with the help of English translation by Taqiuddin Hilaly and Abdul Muhsin Khan. It took Dr. Raheem 12 years to complete the work.

The King Fahd Quran Printing Complex has so far published translation of the holy Quran in 50 languages since its establishment in 1984. It has so far distributed nearly 220 million copies of the various translation of the Quran to the people and institutions.

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