Community Round Up

The recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Wakf have stressed the need of freeing the Wakf properties from illegal occupations and utilizing their income for the welfare of the Muslim community. Delegates from 28 states and 6 union territories deliberated on the issues concerning the Wakf administration. The idea was to identify modalities for implementing the recommendations made by the joint parliamentary committee on Wakf. The committee has presented its IXth report on October 23 2008, in both Houses of Parliament. Inaugurating the conference attended by delegates from all over the country, vice- president of India, Hamid Ansari said that it is a matter of great concern for the community that a vast property of Wakf properties are lying useless or generating very little income. Minister for minority affairs, A. R Antulay suggested that if Waqf properties were freed from illegal occupation, the community would need no help from others.
(Reported by Andalib Akhter)

The Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) will now offer distance education programmes for its students over state owned All India Radio (AIR). To start with, an half-an-hour long programme will be broadcast every Sunday at 5 p.m. by 31 AIR stations in seven states - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka , Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The programme was scheduled to go on air on January 9, 2009 which is the foundation day of MANUU.

The Tamil Nadu Relief Committee (TNRC), a service organisation of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, handed over 38 houses to the victims of Tsunami in the village of Kottaikuppam near Puducherry on January 3, 2009. TNRC has been doing relief and rehabilitation work in the state since Tsunami hit the Indian coastlines on December 26, 2004. Soon after the disaster, TNRC sprung into action and established 100 temporary shelters in Nagapattinam, which was the worst affected town in Tamil Nadu. It also provided Relief Kits comprising of rice, food grains, bucket, utensils, soaps, blankets, mattresses etc, to 7000 families.

Darul Uloom Deoband, has decided to tighten the admission rules in a bid to save its reputation and academic excellence. The decision has been taken following reports that students from some of madrasas which are under cloud of suspicion want to enter the renowned madrasa for ulterior motives. The latest guidelines for the admission proposes to make it mandatory for every entrant to submit his identity proof, including birth certificate, a copy of the ration card, details about family and certificate of conduct from the previous school or madrasa in case the candidate had enrolled himself in one. From now separate files for each student would also be maintained. More specifically those students who come from the border areas of West Bengal and Assam will have to produce attested copies of identification documents, which include transfer certificate of any government school, ration card or passport, at the time of admission. Other foreign students wishing to get admission in Darul Uloom have to take education visa from Indian embassy in their country. Now Darul Uloom will not admit students on the basis of tourist visa. (Reported by Andalib Akhter)

After the Sachar Committee report which exposed backwardness of Muslims in India in every sphere of life including education, a comprehensive study conducted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) has now established the fact that the largest minority of the country has lagged far behind in higher education. The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education is the highest for Christians at 19.85% followed by Hindus at 13.13% but the Muslims are at the lowest – among religious communities – at just 7.7%, reveals the 293-page report titled “Higher Education in India: Issues Related to Expansion, Inclusiveness, Quality and Finance.” The study which began in the middle of 2006 took almost two years to complete and was made public in November 2008.

The report, which examines socio-religious disparities in higher education enrollment for the first time in such detail, will form the basis of the 11th Five Year Plan strategy for higher education. Among the religious communities, Sikhs are at No. 3 with 12.69% in GER, while Christians are ahead of all religious groups in overall enrolment in higher education as well as at graduate level.
If we see rural-urban divide among the religious communities in higher education, we find urban Christians and urban Hindus have registered about a three-fold rise in GER, but this is not the case with Muslims. The total GER of urban Muslims is 10.49% and their rural counterparts are at 05.78%.

The Unive-rsity Grants Comm-ission (UGC) has decided to establish Maulana Azad Benches in different univer-sities across the country.

Chairperson of the UGC, Prof. Sukhdev Thorat said, “The UGC has decided to establish Maulana Azad Benches in six universities of the country. The research in these Benches would include subjects like journalism, literature, higher education, religious studies, secularism and co-education. Other research areas include Maulana Azad’s contribution in the Indian Freedom struggle, values and ethics”. Meanwhile, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has decided to start a certificate course in Persian language in the current academic session with the cooperation of Iran Cultural House, New Delhi. The Iranian embassy will conduct interviews for admission to the course. The course is designed to help students in acquiring in-depth knowledge of Iranian history, culture and literature.

A study of diphtheria cases between 2003 and 2006 in the city of Hyderabad found that rate of the disease is higher among children of 5-19 years of age, women, and Muslims than other social groups. The study conducted by the National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai is published in the July 2008 issue of peer reviewed journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases. Published since 1995, journal Emerging Infectious Diseases is published by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States.

In 2005, 71% of the 4,161 Indian cases of diphtheria came from Andhra Pradesh. The study found that between 2003 and 2006 there were 2,685 patients admitted to Hyderabad hospitals for diphtheria cases. The fatality rate was low at 1.2% but the study saw increase in the rate of incidence over the years. Diptheria cases were lowest among infants, but increased with age and reached a maximum among children of 10-14 years of age. The study found that 70% of 2,685 patients were Muslims. This was found to be 3 times higher than other communities. Incidence of diphtheria was higher in predominantly Muslim populated areas of the city.

Diphtheria is a contagious disease affecting upper respiratory tract and nervous system. One reason for higher diphtheria rate among Muslims is lower coverage for later doses. Rate of coverage for non-Muslim and Muslim children under primary vaccination was same but it dropped significantly for the fourth and the fifth dose. Since children are getting the primary dose equally, it indicates that parents and community leaders are not opposed to the idea of vaccinations, but as children age, proper health care needs are not met. (Twocircles.net)

Muslims have joined hands with Hindus to lay the foundation of a new temple, dedicated to the sun god, in a Bihar town.

The two communities got together to lay the foundation of a temple at Manikpur Bazar in Kurtha in Arwal district, about 80 km from the state capital. “Like Hindus, Muslims also brought a brick from their houses to lay the foundation for the new temple,” Sudama Yadav, who is associated with the construction of temple, said. According to police officials in Kurtha, Hindus, along with Muslims from surrounding villages, presented a show of harmony when each of them donated a brick for construction of the temple.

The perception created by media that Islam is associated with violence and terrorism is totally wrong, said Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama at the World Religions Congress held at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi on January 17. In his keynote address at the three-day global congress on World’s Religions after September 11: An Asian Perspective, Dalai Lama said that people irrespective of their faiths are doing irreligious things as soon as they are out of their places of worship. They try to show themselves as sincere followers of their religion when they are in temple, church, mosque or synagogue, he said. The three-day Congress has been organised by the Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions and Civilisations, Jamia Millia Islmia and the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, Canada.

The UPA government at the centre has revived its plan to establish a Central Madrasa Board to regulate education in madrasas. The proposal was dumped two years ago amidst opposition from Muslim groups. The madrasa chiefs feared that the government would interfere in the functioning of madrasas through such a Board. According to reliable sources in the ministry of human resource development, a cabinet note for a Central Board for Madrasa Education has already been drafted. The note clearly specifies that affiliation to the Board will be voluntary. It also made it clear that the proposed Board is aimed to standardise the Madrasa system of education. However top ministry officials are still in the process of screening the note and having consultations with madrasa chiefs in several states. The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions has also recommended setting up of a Central Madarsa Board through an Act of Parliament.

(Reported by Andalib Akhter)

Over 200 Muslim youth who were acquitted of terror charges in different states have united to seek justice from the government. These “tainted” youths will jointly place their demand to the government to rehabilitate them with jobs or fund their studies. They also want severe punishment for the police and other officials responsible for the arrests and the media leaks. These youth have not only lost their prestige, but also their jobs and careers after being wrongly held as terror suspects. The youth from Delhi , Mumbai, Hyderabad , Calcutta and Azamgarh, have been acquitted, and the rest freed on bail, after months of detention and interrogation and alleged torture.Talha Amir was picked up from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, by the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad last month on suspicion of being a conduit between the Indian Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Toiba. He was also accused of involvement in the Delhi blasts and the Mumbai attacks. When he got bail two weeks later, after the police failed to find any evidence against him, he had lost his IT job in Hyderabad . The Uttar Pradesh Ulema Council and the Muslim Political Council ((MPC) are backing the proposed rally. “The government must rehabilitate the youth who have been acquitted of terror charges in Hyderabad and other parts of the country because their detention has destroyed their career,” said a member of the Muslim Political Council. (Reported by Andalib Akhter)

Contrary to the perception that Muslims, particularly the women from the community live in cocooned traditions, two women of West Bengal, have proved otherwise.

The women not only jumped into politics, but also won the recently held by-polls by huge margins.
An early school drop-out, Feroza Bibi, 60, has not only won the well-known Nandigram Assembly seat, but also the hearts of thousands of locals who see her as their messiah.

Feroza Bibi of Trinamool Congress defeated her closest rival, Paramananda Bharati of the CPI by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes. Trinamool chief, Mamata Banerjee described Feroza’s victory‘ as a “sign of change.”

About 170 km south-east of Kolkata, at the confluence of the Hooghly and the Haldi, Nandigram occupies a place in the Indian political lexicon as the symbol of political violence and the pan-India debate on using farmland for industry.

Since 2007, Nandigram remains the theatre of political violence when the government tried to acquire farmland for a chemical hub that it ultimately had to shift from the area.

Feroza Bibi, despite losing her son Sheikh Imdadul alias Raja in the battle with police to protect the farmland, continued her struggle against the state govern-ment.

Feroza Bibi, a member of the Bhoomi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), which had led the Nandigram struggle was seen during the election campaign as the “good woman from Sonachura” (which witnessed some of the fiercest CPM-Trinamul clashes over two years), who lost a teenage son to police bullets.

The poor woman, a mother of three, had seen her youngest son Raja being killed on March 14, 2007.

Voters were not bothered about her CV while casting their votes in her favour, however when somebody asked as to how she will present Nandigram and its need for development in the Assembly, Feroza shot back: “My people have brought me this far. I am sure they will teach me the things to do in such a big place (the Assembly).”

Another young Muslim woman, Mausam Noor has also reached the state assemble by trouncing her rival, CPM’s Haji Ketabuddin, by over 21,000 votes. Niece of late veteran Congress leader, A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, Mausam Noor, retained family bastion Sujapur, in Malda district. Her mother Ruby Noor, who passed away was the previous Congress MLA. Mausam is a social worker and lawyer in Kolkata.

Minister for Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav seems to be implementing his promises to minorities, particularly the Urdu loving people. The latest example of his promise is to conduct Railways competitive examination in Urdu. Recently Railways conducted group D examination in which questions were asked in Urdu, much to the pleasure of Urdu students. The competitive test was conducted in Patna in which hundreds of candidates from Bihar,, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh participated. Candidates for the first time saw questions in Urdu apart from Hindi and English. This initiative helped several students from Madrasas to participate in the examination. The script of the question was not only in Urdu, but the questions were also asked in pure and simple Urdu. It may be recalled that Lalu Prasad while presenting the Railway Budget for 2008-09 in the Lok Sabha said that instructions have been issued to permit Urdu as a medium of examination for Group ‘D’ posts in states where Urdu is the second official language.

The Maharastra government recently approved eight schemes for the welfare of minority communities. The government has sanctioned Rs 110 crores for these schemes. These schemes aim to benefit Muslims, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhist and the Parsis. Under one of the schemes, the state will distribute school uniforms free of cost to students from these communities. The state plans to provide financial aid of Rs 2 lakh for infrastructure development to schools which have over 70% of students from the minority communities. To check high drop-out rates among students, the state will give Rs 2 per day as incentive to parents for ensuring that their children attend school regularly. Those aspiring for courses like engineering, medicine, chartered accountancy and MBA will receive a scholarship of Rs 25,000 under the scheme.

Darul Qaza which delivers speedy justice following the Sharia law, has so far solved more than 350 cases in Gujarat since its formation in 2004. The court, established by All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), saves time and money compared to regular courts. It basically deals with family issues like marriage, divorce, inheritance and maintenance. It solves the cases with the general consent of both the parties.

The people believe in unbiased justice delivered by the Chief Qazi, who plays the role of a judge. Qazi Maulana Abdul Qayyum said: ‘’At the Darul Qaza, we are not bound with caste or creed matters. We follow our norms as per the Islamic laws, which are equal for all. We have solved more than 350 cases. On an average, we get around 40-50 cases every year. The other courts do give decisions to the cases, but problem arises with the implementation. Here we give attention to both sides and deliver justice.’’ Saleha Bano, a petitioner, who filed for a divorce from her husband, said she knocked on the Darul Qaza’s door with the hope of getting speedy justice. She could not get justice from the local courts earlier despite spending a hefty amount. ‘’It took years in local courts to get justice despite paying the police and the courts, but nothing happened. Here, at Darul Qaza, I am expecting a speedy justice through the means of Islamic laws at minimum expense. This place is better than a regular court,’’ she said.

(Reported by Abdul Hafiz Lakhani)

Under intense pressure to stem the alienation of the minorities, especially Muslims who are around 13% of the population, in Maharashtra, former chief minister, Vilas Rao Deshmukh founded the minority department on February 21, 2007 with Rs 176 crore at its disposal. Shockingly, almost two years after the department’s inception, its investment has been zero. Deshmukh launched the department with much fanfare and a plethora of promises. It was to be a nodal agency that would approve and implement schemes to help arrest the numerous ills facing the minorities. Scholarships to poor and deserving students, girls’ hostels in Muslim-dominated districts, and strengthening the Maulana Azad Financial Corporation, Urdu Academy and Minority Commission were some of the plans. All of them today remain on paper, thanks to the apathetic attitude of bureaucrats and politicians who refused to take the department seriously. Not a single paisa from the Rs 176 core has been spent. Muslim politicians failed to persuade the government to take the scheme seriously. Even Muslim politicians had treated the minority welfare department as just another tool to assuage the frayed feelings of the minorities. The government was also criticized when it set up a study group, headed by Mehmoodur Rahman, chief of Bombay Mercantile Bank, to recommend remedies for Muslim backwardness in the state. The committee was seen as a diversionary tactic since the Sachar Committee had already identified the reasons for Muslim backwardness. The Mehmoodur Rahman Committee submitted its second and final report recently and a six-member sub-committee, headed by minority affairs minister, Anees Ahmed, has been set up to study it.

Of the 70-odd central ministries and departments from which the Ministry for Minority Affairs has collected information on minority recruitment for 2006-07 and 2007-08, at least half-a-dozen had not taken any initiative on the direction given by Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) for giving special consideration to minorities for recruitment in government services. Announced in June 2006, the New 15- Point Programme for minorities was aimed at plugging the loopholes in the system identified by the Sachar Committee Report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India. As part of the programme , the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) issued revised guidelines in January 2007 to all Central ministries and departments for giving special consideration to minorities for recruitment in government service. The departments which did not take any initiative include Ministries of Steel, Overseas Indian Affairs, Civil Aviation, New & Renewable Energy, Tribal Affairs, Chemicals & Fertilizers, Food Processing Industries, besides the Departments of Heavy Industry and Drinking Water Supply.

Madrasas in West Bengal are attracting an increasing number of Hindu students with the shift in focus from Islamic education to science and technology. Hindu students now outnumber Muslims in four madrasas of the state.

These include Kasba MM High Madrasa in Uttar Dinajpur district, Ekmukha Safiabad High Madrasa in Cooch Behar district, Orgram Chatuspalli High Madrasa at Burdwan district and Chandrakona Islamia High Madrasa at West Midnapore district.

‘The percentage of Hindu students vary from 57 percent to 64 percent in these institutes, which stand out as proof that madrasas and secularism are not anachronistic,’ says West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education president Sohrab Hussain. He said 618 out of the 1,077 students in Kasba, 554 out of 868 students at Orgram, 201 out of 312 at Chandrakona and 290 out of total 480 students at Ekmukha are Hindus.

‘Muslims are a minority in all these districts,’ Hussain said.

Denying that madrasas impart only Islamic education, he said the institutes lay more stress on modern subjects. ‘It’s a misconception that our students only learn Islam-related subjects at madrasas. Time is changing and so are we. Now, we lay more stress on science and technology than religion.

‘Already 42 madrasas have computer laboratories, we will increase the number by another 100 labs in 2009. Over 100 madrasas offer vocational training in not only tailoring, but even mobile applications technology,’ Hussain said. He said an increasing number of Hindu students were choosing madrasas over other schools because madrasas had more credibility. ‘Madrasas have been successful in winning the confidence of students and guardians. Mostly first generation learners from backward classes come to study here as they know they won’t be looked down upon. Besides, madrasa certificates are at par with other national-level examinations,’ said Hussain.
There are 506 madrasas in West Bengal and 52 more will come up by the end of 2009. Overall, 17 percent of the students and 11 percent of the teachers in these institutions are non-Muslims.
‘All students are treated equally... there is no religious bias in the madrasas. Even the syllabus of the madrasas is no different from the Madhyamik - the state secondary examinations.

‘The only difference is our students have to sit for a 100-mark extra paper on Arabic and Islamic studies, which in a way is good for Hindu students too. They can learn a new language at the same time,’ Hussain said.

Golum Mustafa, headmaster of Kasba madrasa, said all students study and play together irrespective of their religion. ‘If anyone asks me why Hindu students study at madrasas, I ask them, ‘Why not?’ Be it school or madrasa - they are meant for imparting education. There are many Hindu students who passed out from Kasba and are well-established in life,’ he adds.

Lifetime Achievement Award for Zoologist Prof. Shameem Jairajpuri
Guwahati: Renowned Zoologist, Prof. M. Shamim Jairajpuri of Aligarh Muslim University has been conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award in Zoology by the Zoological Society of India at the National Congress of Zoology held in Guwahati. Governor of Meghalaya, Moosaharry presented the award. This is for the first time that anyone has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Zoological Society of India. Moosaharry also presented him the eminent Indian Zoologist Gold Medal together with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Academic Excellence Award for Prof Rashid Khan
New Delhi: Prof. Rashid M. Khan of Department of Anaesthesiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh has been conferred upon the “Academic Excellence Award-2008” by the Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists, Bhopal. The Award was conferred during the recently concluded 56th Annual Conference of Indian Society of Anaestrhesiologists at Jodhpur (Rajasthan). The award carries a certificate, a medal and a cheque for Rs 5000.

A group of Muslims who prayed in front of the Colosseum during a protest march against the Israeli offensive in Gaza was accused of threatening behaviour by centre-right polit-icians. Around 50 Muslims knelt with their backs to the Roman amphitheatre and prayed towards Mecca during the march. ‘’The pseudo-prayers in Milan and in front of the Colosseum are nothing to do with religion - they are threatening and intimidatory acts towards the Italian people,’’ said Maurizio Gasparri, Senate whip for Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party. ‘’Those who take part should be identified by the police and possibly expelled from our country. People mustn’t use prayer as a political weapon’’.

The head of the Association of Moro-ccan Women in Italy, PDL MP Souad Sbai, described the Muslims’ act as ‘’a provocative demonstr-ation against the West, Christians and mod-erate Mus-lims organ-ised by extremist groups’’. But Milan Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi refused to condemn the mass pray-in, describing prayer as an ‘’inalienable right’’.