COMMUNITY ROUND UP

The passage of Migrant Property Act will enable the present heir to reclaim his palace and other properties from the tenants

The government on introduced a legislation in the Parliament on November 15 that gives Indian Muslims - if they are legal heirs - a right to claim the properties of relatives who migrated to Pakistan during the Partition in 1947. The bill, introduced by Home Minister P. Chidambaram amid a din over the 2G Spectrum scam, in fact, seeks amendment to an over 40-year-old legislation called the Enemy Property Act, 1968. The changes to the Act were cleared by the Government last month but they need Parliament’s approval before becoming law. The bill, titled the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Second Bill, 2010, proposes that the enemy property, as it is legally called, “could be divested only to the owner or his (or her) lawful heir”. According to the original law, the Government as the custodian of all such properties had the right to rent them out to anybody. The change, if approved by Parliament, would ease the way for an Indian Muslim who is a legal inheritor of such property to get ownership rights. But the claimant will have to legally prove his or her inheritance and should be an Indian citizen by birth. Chidambaram had attempted to table amendments to the Act in the monsoon session of parliament. He couldn’t because of repeated pleas and lobbying by MPs, including some ministers, from various parties who thought that the interests of Muslim heirs were not being protected.
There are over 2,000 such properties in India, mostly in Uttar Pradesh, that have been vested in the custodian of enemy property in India under the provisions of the Enemy Property Act, 1968, promulgated following the war with Pakistan in 1965. The custodian of enemy property comes under the Home Ministry and has powers to appropriate and look after such properties which are now occupied either by tenants or serve as government offices. The changes come in the wake of a series of judgments by various courts that eroded the powers of the government over these enemy properties. But the government through the new amendments has made it clear that “no court can order divestment from the custodian or direct the government to divest any such property”. In other words, it prevents family members of those who migrated to Pakistan from going to court to regain possession of the property of their ancestors.
The government is authorised to direct the custodian to sell or dispose of enemy properties in such manner as may be prescribed, the bill says. The amendments also say that if such property was divested without the government’s approval before July 2, 2010, it shall stand transferred and continue to be vested with the custodian. But if the property was divested as per a “valid order” approved by the government prior to July 2, 2010 or was returned to the owner or his or her lawful heir by an order of the court, such property will continue to remain with such person, according to the amendments. The bill also asserts that the transfer of any such property shall not include any transfer or any claim of transfer made through “oral will or oral gift or if it has been done without the permission of the competent authority”.
The government had declared the properties left behind by people who
migrated to Pakistan during the 1947 partition as “enemy properties”.(IANS)

Gajanfar Chamanshaikh, a medical firm employee in Mumbai, is facing religious discrimination at the firm. His immediate boss has been accused of using a pejorative Marathi word for him that is a derogatory term used to refer to Muslims. He was not allowed to celebrate Eid this year and now is being prevented from Eid-ul Azha. Shaikh has approached National Human Rights Commission for protection of his rights.
Chamanshaikh, who is employed with Abbott Healthcare Pvt Ltd in Mumbai, has approached the NHRC seeking its help to protect his rights that are constantly being violated by Jaydeep Patil, Area Business Manager and his immediate boss at the firm.
In his complaint to NHRC on November 13, Shaikh, who holds the post of Technical Representative, gave details of the discrimination he has faced at the firm in the last one and half years.
In the complaint, Shaikh alleges that Patil uses “foul and abusive language. Besides, Patil engages in “unnecessary conversation totally unconnected with my job duties as field Medical Representative or his job duties as ABM whereby he constantly and pointedly starts telling me that Muslims engage in each and every type of Crime under the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” says Shaikh.
He also alleges that he was deliberately not given “casual leave on the occasion of Idul-Fitr (Ramzan) on September 10-11 which had been intimated well in advance, though he had ample casual leave and privilege leave to his credit. The petition said: “The Motive behindseems sheer communal targeting of myself perhaps to pressurize me to resign from services.”
He complains that he is being sent on assignment in a way that he could celebrate Id-ul Azha either.
Shaikh, who is also President, Goa Medical Representatives Association (GMRA), a registered Trade Union Affiliated to Federation of Medical Representatives Association (FMRAI), affiliated to CITU, has urged the national rights watchdog that his firm be directed to ensure communal harmony in the organization and appealed to the NHRC to directly reprimand/admonish Mr. Patil.

Gujarat civic polls

Congress is emerging as a major loser in Gujarat and has become more and more dependant on the Muslims. A pointer to this is available in over representation of Muslims in the party. The Congress won 37 of the 192 seats in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Of the 37, twenty members are Muslims. Consequently, Badruddin Sheikh, a 58-year-old advocate and real estate developer has been appointed as leader of opposition in the city body.
Sheikh was elected as councilor on Congress ticket from Behrampura ward of the city during civic polls on October 10. Sheikh has been in politics since 1975 and during 2000-2003, he was appointed as chairman of AMC’s standing committee, the powerful body empowered to take decisions regarding developmental projects.
Opposition leader’s post considered to be an important assignment was given to Sheikh because of the crucial role played by Muslim voters in getting elected Congress councilors in the civic polls.
Muslim voters also played a significant role in winning the remaining 17 seats for the Congress.
Sheikh, who took over the assignment on October 31, when the newly elected body met for the first time, said that though BJP is in power in the civic body, he would try to do his best to ensure that proper civic amenities were provided in Muslim areas as well. Muslim areas have been badly neglected by the BJP in the last 10 years since Narendra Modi took over as chief minister.
Muslim candidates are also likely to be appointed as opposition leaders in Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Surat as well where the elections were held simultaneously with AMC but the new civic bodies would be formed in December when the term of the present bodies comes to an end.
In Jamnagar, Surat and Bhavnagar, a good number of Muslim candidates won on Congress tickets. In Jamnagar, out of 16 Congress candidates who won, six are Muslims. One of them A. A. Chaki is a chartered accountant. Chaki has been winning Jamnagar civic elections for the last seven terms, and was appointed opposition leader in 2005 and continues till date. He hopes to be re-appointed as opposition leader by the party because of the crucial role he played for ensuring victory of Congress candidates.
In Surat, five of the 14 Congress candidates having won the polls are Muslims, including a woman. According to local Congress Muslim leaders, even the remaining Congress councilors won from areas where there is sizeable presence of Muslim voters. They have taken up the matter with the state party leaders to ensure that the opposition leader be appointed from among the Muslims.
Likewise, in coastal Bhavnagar, four of the 10 Congress councilors elected are Muslims. Out of a total of 57 seats, Muslims were fielded from five seats and four of them won the polls. In Bhavnagar as well, Muslim voters supported the remaining six Congress candidates wholeheartedly leading to their victory. (Twocircles.net)

With an excellent performance in the Kerala local body polls, Congress ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) edged out the Communist Party of India (CPI) to become the third biggest party in the state in the civic elections held around end of October. IUML won 1,443 seats in the village panchayats, 190 at the block level, 32 at the district level, 234 in the municipalities and five in the four corporations. and their tally is all set to increase as counting in one of their strongholds - Kozhikode district - is to be taken up Sunday.
The CPI, which was earlier at the third position, has got only 979 seats in the village panchayats.
“We have proved that we are a truly secular party by winning seats across the state. The CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) has time and again been levelling baseless allegations and even questioning our secular nature,” said senior IUML leader P.K. Kunhalikutty.
“On one hand, they blame us for being communal but in the recent polls it became quite clear that it was the CPI-M who joined hands with parties like PDP, SDPI (formerly Popular Front of India) and Jamaat-i-Islami,” he said.
“Our presence now spans across the state and we are a dominant force all over. We have hugely improved our position in districts like Wayanad, Palakkad, Trissur and Ernakulam. The only place we did not do as expected was in Thiruvananthapuram,” said Kunhalikutty.
“This election also proved that the minority community does not see the CPI-M as their saviour as always claimed by them,” said Kunhalikutty.
Jamaat Munnanis score is just 9: The host of Vikasa Munnanis floated by the Jamaate Islami in Kerala’s civic polls could only muster nine wins. Jamaat’s political secretary Hamid Vanimel attributed the defeats of its candidates to LDF and UDF working together to ensure the defeats of the Jamaat candidates. Curiously, all the nine elected members are women. The Munanis had put up nearly 1,500 candidates under several names and projected the local development issues before the electorate.

Child marriages are prevalent among Muslims in Kerala, and the custom can be combated only by creating awareness, the state’s Women’s Commission chairperson D. Sreedevi said recently.
‘We are doing a lot of awareness programmes to change the mindset of the people and that’s all what we can do. We do get help from the NCW (National Commission for Women) to this effect and we will continue our efforts,’ Sreedevi said.
She said that precise figures were not available, though the state administration has identified the regions where the practice was prevalent.
‘This is happening in districts of Kasargode, Malappuram and Kannur. Even though we have not done any survey to this effect and do not have the actual numbers, it is for certain that this is happening,’ she said.
Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), said the Commission has been going around the country to find out people’s views on the issue, and will submit a report to the Supreme Court on the ideal age for marriage. ‘We are of the view that the present age of 18 for women and 21 for men should stay, but then we will insist in our report that registration of marriages be made mandatory,’ said Vyas, who was attending a conference here. ‘We chose Kerala to have a dialogue because in this state, the rate of child marriages is the least. We will submit our report in three months,’ she added. ‘According to Muslim law, the marriage of a minor is valid,’ said Vyas.
Community leaders, however, said instances of child marriages might have been common in the past, especially in north Kerala, but such marriages were merely a ritual since the bride and the groom do not live together till they attain maturity.
Saifudeen Haji, state secretary of the Muslim Jamath Coordination, explained: ‘Look, what happens now, is that if a minor’s parents want to marry off their daughter, they conduct the ‘nikaah’. This ceremony is attended by the boy’s and girl’s relatives, two witnesses and a person well versed in Muslim rituals.’ ‘After this ceremony, the girl and the boy are technically husband and wife, but they don’t live together. The marriage is solemnised only after the girl turns 18. Maybe this is being interpreted as child marriage.’ Muslims constitute 24 percent of Kerala’s population of 3.2 crore, according to government figures.

Fate of international Urdu meet appears sealed

The sudden dissolution of the Karnataka Urdu Academy has raised umpteen eyebrows in the State.  The decision was taken by the Karnataka Government on November 10 announcing the dissolution of the 12-member Academy and removal of its Chairman Mr. Khaleel Mamoon, a former IPS officer from the State Police and an Urdu poet. The dissolution has put in doubt the Alami Urdu Conference proposed to be held in Bangalore between December 24 and 27 this year.
Surprisingly, the announcement to the dissolution was made by Prof. Mumtaz Ali Khan, Minister for Minority Affairs, Wakfs and Hajj.  The Academy is an autonomous body under the Kannada and Culture Department and the announcement should have come from Mr. Govind Karjol, the minister who hold the relevant portfolio.  Minister Khan has though talked about postponing the Conference, but no fresh dates have been announced. Mr. Khan told Islamic Voice that the name for the new chairman has been decided and would be announced soon. He however was not categorical about holding the Alami Urdu Conference. He said the Urdu schools in the State were rotting and they needed to be attended on a priority.
The Karnataka Urdu Academy was constituted in November 2008 after the new BJP Government in the State appointed Mr. Khaleel Mamoon as the chairman of the Academy in August the same year.
Reacting to the dissolution of the Academy, Mr. Khaleel Mamoon told Islamic Voice that his removal and dissolution were politically motivated, and the decisions to this effect were taken at the behest of Minister of Minority Affairs.
Prof. Khan had said that decision to dissolve the Academy was taken by chief minister Mr. B. S. Yedyurappa after several complaints were received against the chairman. Apparently, the bypassing of the Kannada and Culture Department—under whose aegis the Academy works—while preparing for the Conference irked the authorities who went for Mamoon’s scalp.  Designating former Karnataka CM Dharamsing, a Congressman as the chairman of the reception committee too seems to have got the adverse notice from the BJP Government.  However Mamoon justified this saying that there were no Urdu-knowing ministers in the current government and they had anointed Vikram Patil and Namoshi from the BJP in the reception body.
Mamoon said he had kept the CM informed about the preparation for the Alami Urdu Conference and had even invited him for the conference. He even justified bypassing the Kannada and Culture Department saying the Urdu Academy was an autonomous institution and was well within its right to hold an international conference.
The Chairman and several members of the Academy had even called upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few months ago asking him to inaugurate the conference. Several delegates from the US, the UK, Mauritius, Pakistan and other countries had confirmed their participation in the conference.  As of now the fate of the conference seems to be sealed as the mega event entailed expenses to the extent of Rs. 3.5 crore.  However Mr. Mamoon said he was trying to mobilize support from various quarters to hold the Conference without the participation of the state functionaries.

Believe it or not when it comes to gender inequities India fares worse than Pakistan. In fact, the country fares lower than all other countries in South Asia except Afghanistan. These are the findings of the 2010 Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme on Nov. 4 as per its Gender Inequality Index.
So while Pakistan may be in the news for its treatment of women and might have become a hot bed for international women’s activism, it certainly seems to know how to take care of its mothers better. On maternal mortality, India -- with its abysmal record -- trails Pakistan.
Reproductive health is the largest contributor to the inequality
index. The other indicators, based on which it is calculated, include women’s participation in the labour force, their level of empowerment based on educational attainment and parliamentary representation. For maternal mortality, the figure for Pakistan is 320 deaths per 100,000 live births. In India, the corresponding figure stands at 450. The country also falters on adolescent fertility rate, another indicator of reproductive health.
As per this data, in India the adolescent fertility rate is 68 births
per 1,000 live births as compared to 45 births per 1,000 live births in Pakistan. The figures illustrate that Pakistan has fewer younger mothers.
India, however, does better in female participation in the labour
force, with the figure being 36% for the nation as opposed to 23% for Pakistan.
However, the country has been really found wanting on the health front. India ranks 122 among 138 countries for which the gender inequalitymeasure has been calculated. Pakistan is at 116, and Bangladesh is a notch higher at 112. (Aradhana Sharma’s report)

Islamic banking practices

Kuala Lumpur: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Reserve Bank of India to look into Islamic banking practices in Malaysia, amid pressure on the central bank to introduce such a system in India. “There have been from time to time demands for experimenting (with) Islamic banking. I would certainly recommend to RBI, which is looking into the question, to look at what is happening in Malaysia in this regard”, he said when asked whether India would like to learn something of Islamic banking from Malaysia. Singh, who was on a visit here on October 27, earlier held wide-ranging talks on economic and strategic issues with his Malaysian counterpart Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak. The pressure has been mounting on the RBI to introduce Islamic banking, a kind of interest free banking system, in the country. The move could fetch billions of dollars in investments from countries in the middle-east. Currently, close to USD 1 trillion is being managed by about 400-500 Islamic banks worldwide and by 2020, the figure is expected to touch USD 4 trillion.
According to projections by global consultant McKenzie, investment surplus in the West Asian region is expected to be around USD 9 trillion by 2020. Currently the investment surplus is around USD 1.5 trillion. Recently, Muddassir Siddqui, Partner and Head of Islamic Finance, Middle East, SNR Denton and Company urged the Indian government to open interest free banking on pilot basis. “We held close interactions with finance ministry and RBI officials. We hope the ice is breaking. There was no time frame for setting up Islamic banking. We are hopeful permission would be granted very soon,” Siddqui had said. The judiciary, however, is not favourably disposed towards Islamic banking institutions in India. The Kerala High court had in April this year directed the state government and its institutions not to participate financially or otherwise in the financial company modelled on the lines of Islamic bank.

The Islamic Fiqh Academy has announced scholarships for Indian madrasa students seeking admission at International Islamic University Malaysia. The Delhi-based Academy will take responsibility for all expenses on lodging, food and tuition at the university. However, to avail the scholarship, the students will have to first get enrolled at the Islamic University Malaysia. Forms and other admission details are available on the website of the university: http://iiu.edu.my/. Applicants have been asked to send a copy of admission form to the academy also. Eligibility criteria: Alim or Fazil from any madrasa; able to speak, write and understand English language, similar ability in Arabic also, certificate from TOFEL or IELTS. Islamic Fiqh Academy can be contacted at: 011-26981779, 26983728.

Hafiz Amjad Hussain has been appointed as the new chairman of the Karnataka Urdu Academy. Hailing from Shikaripur, electoral constituency of chief minister Yeddyurappa in Shimoga district, Amjad
Hussain has been running a network of schools and Zubeidah Composite PU College and a degree college in the area and has been a social worker of repute. Nearly a dozens institutions have together nearly 3,500 students on its rolls. He had mobilized support for the election of Mr. Yeddyurappa. He assumed office on November 13. He has been writing Urdu poems for children and also edits a children’s magazines. Former chairman Khaleel Mamoon was unceremoniously removed from the post earlier in the month.

Ajmal Perfumes, leaders among perfumers in the Middle East market, launched a mobile promotional van in Colaba in Mumbai on November 3. The van would educate the people about various Indian perfumes and their social value. The Ajmals have presence in markets of 32 countries and have of late been opening showrooms across cities in India.
Ajmals root can be traced to Hojai, the village in the verdant foothills of Assam. Haji Ajmal Ali Abdul Majid established the perfumery 50 years ago and the business has been carried forward with modern packaging and marketing techniques by his sons and grandchildren. Sirajuddin Ajmal, the company’s India Head described the promotional van as an innovative effort. The van was inaugurated by Mr. Chhagan Bhujbal, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.

SDPI Urges Union Government

The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has demanded the release of innocent Muslim youths accused of bomb blasts, who are languishing in jails, wherein investigating agencies have now revealed that Hindutva activists are the real culprits and have even filed charge-sheets in court of law in some cases against them.
SDPI national general secretary A. Sayeed in a statement on November 15 said that if Congress is sincere in condemning the saffron terror, it should then also work for the release of innocent Muslims put behind bars on mere suspicion. In incidents such as bomb blasts in Ajmer shrine, Makkah Masjid (Hyderabad), Malegaon etc. the probing agencies have now unraveled the nodes and hands of saffron terror network are visible in these heinous crimes. Thus, by corollary the Muslim youths, who have been slammed with fabricated charges, stand fully exculpated, the statement said.
Sayeed said that the Congress leaders are making use of the new revelation of the investigating agencies just to retaliate against RSS leader who raised allegation against the All India Congress Committee, (AICC), President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. On the other hand, it seems that, they have forgotten the innocent people lying behind the bars for years. Congress leaders should bring pressure on the party’s governments to set free Muslim youths so that their careers which are at stake are not ruined permanently. The nation-wide tendency of finding easy targets in Muslims is to be checked, he appealed.
He pointed out that the AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh’s statement at Nagpur that all Hindus arrested for their alleged involvement in terror activities across the country are linked to RSS will remain mere political game if he fails to speak up for innocent Muslim youths demanding their release forthwith. The AICC has been blaming BJP and RSS for the Babri Masjid demolition but taking no legal action against them, he added.
Meanwhile, it may be pointed out here that a new report on violent extremists in the United States have found that terrorism plots by non-Muslims greatly outnumbered those attempted by Muslims, and that Muslim-American communities helped foil close to a third of Al-Qaeda-related terror plots threatening the country since September 11, 2001. The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a not-for-profit organization advocating for the civil rights of American Muslims, commissioned the report. (Parvez Bari’s report in TwoCircles.net)

Renowned mathematician and founder of Super 30 coaching institute, Anand Kumar has been selected for ‘Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Shiksha Puraskar-2010’, the award given by Bihar government forpeople promoting education.
He has been named for the award because of his tireless contribution in education sector. It was 2002 when he established Super 30 to tutor children of underprivileged sections for the IIT-JEE and so far, 212 students from his coaching centre have cracked IIT-JEE and got admission at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). At Super 30 students are not only coached without fee but they are also provided with food and accommodation free of cost. The award carries a citation and Rs. 2 lakh cash. It will be conferred on Anand by Governor of Bihar Devanand Konwar at a function on November 11, which was celebrated as 122nd birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The award was instituted in 2008 by Bihar government.(TwoCircles.net)