LETTERS

Your editorial 'Jamiat's Posturing' (Islamic Voice, December 2009) has aptly commented on the politics being played from the madrassa platforms in Uttar Pradesh. Would the divines who mount these mega affairs bother to clean up the streets and mohallas of Deoband, Saharanpur, Pilibhit, Meerut, Aligarh and all such cities of Uttar Pradesh which are awfully unclean. Deoband has seen construction of a huge mosque fully dressed in marble a la Taj Mahal. But its streets are infested with gutters carrying frothy sullage, cattle, flies, butcher shops that hang carcasses of slaughtered animals in a manner that would hurt the sensitivities of any normal human beings. What are our ulma doing? Is not cleanliness half the faith? Don't they look at such monstrous violations of Islamic norms of hygiene? How come they abandon these basic duties and indulge in politics from madrassas and pulpits?

I hail from Ahmedanagar (Maharashtra) and have now settled down in France for the last 35 years. I am writing a book in Marathi on Chand Bibi, Deccan queen between 1547 and 1600. I understand that a that a book titled Cand Bibi (Chand Bibi) authored by Bhatta Ji Es has been published by a publisher known as Bengaluru Aibiec Prakashana in 1978. I will be grateful if some of your readers could help me procure this book or guide me as to where it would be available. They will be reimbursed for the price and sending charges.

Some friends forwarded me your editorial entitled "Faith Divide, Values Unite". I very much appreciated the same. Your sentence, "People of faith, be they Muslims, Christians, Hindus or others, often camouflage their action under ritualism to put on a cloak of sacredness" is very relevant in the present context and environment. I hope such clear-headed articles and observations on contemporary subjects would rerail all of us.

As the Indian Constitution is committed to the equality of citizens and prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. It is the responsibility of the state to preserve, protect and assure the rights of minorities. The United Nations Declaration on the Human Rights of persons belonging to National, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities enjoins states to protect the identity of such minorities within their respective territories and also to encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity. Appropriate emphasis is therefore required to be given to protect the interests of minorities and ensure that they do not lag behind in the progress and development of the society.

On 23-10-1993 Government has notified Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Zorastrians (Parsis) as “the minority communities” under clause [C] of Section 2 of the NCM Act, 1992. The International Information Resource Centre has just released Database of Government Funding Schemes for NGOs/Institutions in CD-Rom/Print/e-mail edition.

This is a first database of its kind which covers all Government Financial Schemes in all the sectors including the policies, guidelines, Notifications, Circulars & Press Releases, Application Forms, Declarations, Specimens, and hundreds of schemes of Government of India.

The database of Government of India Schemes is a outcome of a survey of all Government Institutions and Departments during the last five years. Editor Sheikh Gulzaar from International Information Resource Centre and his colleagues have collected details of Government Funding Schemes.

Government at both Central and State levels encourages particulars of the NGO's in developmental and welfare activities. Certain approved programmes are implemented through NGO's. International Information Resource Centre has published 850 pages of e-book on the Government of India schemes and centrally sponsored schemes. The database of Government of India Schemes is an outcome of a survey of all Government Institutions and Departments during the last 3 years. More details:

International Information Resource Centre
Ist Street, Nambalbal, Pampore PPR J&K 192121, Contact person:
Ed. Sheikh Gulzaar, (Programme Incharge)
Ph: 09858986794, 01933-223705
E-mail: iirc@rediffmail.com
web : http://ngoinindia.blogspot.com

A reading of the report titled 'State of Research and Innovation in Arab World' in Islamic Voice December 2009 would make it abundantly clear as to why the Muslims lag behind others. In fact the entire series of Arab Development Reports published by the Muhammad bin Rashid bin Maktoum Foundation in collaboration with United Nation’s Development Programme have amply highlighted the tragedy of the Muslims. Most Muslim live in a candy floss world of unrealism believing that one day they would prevail over the world. But the whole world looks at them with contempt for the kind of emotionalism that prevails in the Islamic world right from Casablanca to Jakarta. Unless Muslims grab the reins of knowledge and values, they would wallow with their psychotic visions, providing entertainment opportunity for good number of watchers in the gallery.

The plethora of monarchs, emirs, shahs, khalifas who rule the oil-rich kingdoms hide their wealth from their subjects in the Swiss banks, invest in ranches and casinos in the US and scrupulously proscribe any study or research in universities and institutes that would expose their priorities, indulgences, and pastimes. At one time, late King Hassan of Morocco owned personal assets worth $40 billion in Europe while the entire foreign debt his country owed amounted to $7 billion. The state of Kuwait used to regularly default on annual payment of $ 10,000 to a Jeddah based OIC run Islamic News Agency. But he felt no qualms in donating one million pounds to save the London Zoo from closure. With such heads of states, how could science and research flourish in the Muslim world. No wonder then why some of us lay false claim to several inventions in the medieval era.
Kudos to Islamic Voice for the bringing such facts to readers' knowledge!