Community Round Up

BJP national general secretary Vinay Katiyar, who had demanded a ban on Darul Uloom Deoband, will soon visit the seminary and address ulemas. The MP said he has received an invitation from Darul Uloom, which he had, earlier last month, alleged of having contacts with Pakistan-based terrorists organisations. Singing a different tune, Katiyar said there is no question of banning this “world-famed Islamic centre”. “We should be proud that we have Deoband like Islamic centre in India which gives religious direction to rest of the world,” Katiyar said. He claimed his earlier remarks on the seminary were guided by the report of the Second Administrative Reforms Committee, headed by Congress leader Veerappa Moily which “blamed this Islamic seminary of having contacts with terrorists organisations”. “It is not me but the Congress which is saying that Darul Uloom had links with terrorists organisations,” Katiyar told the media. “Now the Centre is left with only two options. First if this report is correct it must take action and ban the institution. If the report is wrong, Congress should immediately seek apology from the Muslim community and sack Moily and others involved in preparing the report,” he said.

Clerics at the highly revered seminary in Deoband town in Uttar Pradesh said that yoga was fine as long as no non-Islamic religious rituals were involved. “Islam does not prohibit anyone from practicing yoga or any other kind of physical exercise. Only thing is the intention / belief with which you are doing it. If you are doing it for health reasons, there is absolutely no problem in practising yoga or any other exercise,” said Qari Usman, an expert on Hadith at Darul Uloom. “In fact the Prophet had laid stress on people leading a healthy life. Historically there have been traditions of different kinds of exercises in Muslim civilizations,” added Usman, also a former pro-vice chancellor of the seminary that attracts thousands of students. Yoga guru Swami Ramdev has suggested that non-Hindus can chant Allah in place of Om while doing yoga. Qari Usman reacted to this: “Exercises are done for physical fitness, why include religious mantras?” Indonesia’s Ulema Council also known as MUI issued a ‘fatwa’ asking Muslims to stop practicing yoga saying it included chanting of Hindu mantras. The Indonesian fatwa follows a similar ban imposed by Malaysia’s top Islamic body in November, 2008.

Hundreds of Sadhus in Ayodhya led by Mahant Bhavnaath Das, chief of the Hanumangarhi temple and ministers and legislators from the government and opposition parties in the Sindh Legislative Assembly in Karachi, Pakistan became one in signing the Joint Petition against terrorism and war. This Joint Signature Campaign by Citizens of India and Pakistan against terrorism, war posturing and to promote cooperation and peace between India and Pakistan was launched on 9th January 2009 simultaneously from 22 cities in India and 17 cities in Pakistan. Civil society organisations in both the countries are facilitating the Signature Campaign in hundreds of cities, towns and villages of India and Pakistan. Many prominent personalities, members of Parliament, editors of newspapers, academicians, artists, scientists, social activists and others have endorsed the Petition that demands both the governments of Pakistan and India should practice zero tolerance for religious extremism and terrorism, take appropriate actions to root out terror groups, setup joint action and investigation mechanism, desist from war posturing, address all issues through dialogue and cooperation, and follow all conventions of UN and SAARC against terrorism and for cooperation. The Petition also appeals to the media of both countries to propagate and strengthen positive attitudes for the resolution of all outstanding problems in the region. If you want to endorse as an individual, then sign and endorse the Petition online by clicking: www.petitiononline.com/indopak/petition.html

Taurus Asset Management Co. Ltd, which manages Rs213 crore of assets in India, recently launched a Shariah-compliant equity fund.

The fund will not invest in industries that earn interest income such as banks, or in companies that promote gambling or sell products such as tobacco and alcohol, the firm said.

Only one other asset management firm in the country, Tata Asset Management Ltd, offers a similar fund. The Tata Select Equity Fund is deemed to comply with Islamic law, although the fund house doesn’t market it as such.

The Shariah-compliant equity fund has some specific rules on investments. (a) Extent of debt availed by the company (b) interest and other questionable earnings of the company and (c) extent of cash and receivables with the company. (d) Investments are barred in companies whose total debt is more than one-fourth of the total assets or whose interest income exceeds 3% of total revenues.

This screening of Shariah compliance will be done at two levels; first at the S& P Shariah level and second at the more stringent independent Shariah board called TASIS (Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions).

Waquar Naqvi, chief executive, Taurus Mutual Fund, said, “the role of this TASIS board is to regularly monitor stock picks and certify their Shariah compliance on a quarterly basis. TASIS comprises of the eminent Shariah scholar Mufti Barkatullah Kadir and we will bring more eminent persons to the board.”

Taurus is targeting India’s 150 million Muslims, the world’s second largest Muslim population after Indonesia. But the fund house is not sure of the response its so-called ethical fund will receive, especially at a time when the global financial meltdown has shaken equity markets.

According to Waqar Naqvi,Globally, Shariah-compliant investments are to the tune of 65 billion dollars. Of this, 35 billion dollars are invested in equity-oriented Shariah funds. This business has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 22 per cent from 2003 to October 2008.

Globally, all major banks and stock exchanges have a Shariah Board to facilitate these investments, Naqvi said.

It also provides an effective filter to identify and avoid speculative businesses and hence, Shariah-compliant businesses have weathered the sub-prime crisis, he said. The scheme is benchmarked against the BSE 100 and the S&P CNX 500 Shariah index.

Political parities are working overtime to throw peanuts in front of the Muslim voters to make a positive perception in their mind. The Congress is wooing Muslims by sanctioning aid to the schools and junior colleges. Minorities Development Department, a brainchild of former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is sanctioning up to Rs 2.00 lakh for infrastructure development of the Minority schools.

On the other hand, NCP president and Union Minister Sharad Pawar is systematically forging an alliance of three Ms — Marathas, Muslims and Mahars — in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections.
Simultaneously, he is trying to weaken Shiv Sena’s votebank by extending tacit support to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray, who has a pro-Marathi agenda like Shiv Sena
Pawar recently asked the Congress-NCP-led Democratic Front government in Maharashtra to include Marathas on the OBC list so that they benefit from job and educational quotas. In an attempt to woo Muslims, he met ulemas and community leaders at Jamia Ashrafia Qadria in central Mumbai and promised reservation for Muslims.

Pawar while addressing the Madrasa students said like economically and socially weak Marathas, poor Muslims too should be considered for reservation. “Islam doesn’t believe in caste system, but some Muslims do get discriminated against on the basis of their caste. I had initiated some reservation for Muslim OBCs, but I think the poor among the Muslims as a whole do deserve a quota,’’ he said.

NCP already has forged a tie-up with factions of Republican Party of India which principally represents Mahars, who form a sizable chunk of Dalit population in Maharashtra . Pawar enjoys considerable goodwill among the Mahars since he had taken initiative to rename Marathwada University after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar against tremendous odds.

The NCP and the Samajwadi Party are known to be unhappy over the Congress decision to have only state-specific alliances with regional parties for the Lok Sabha elections, not a national level arrangement.

Only alternative to the Congress-NCP in Maharashtra is the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance which Muslims cannot opt for. There is no other regional party here like the U.P., Bihar etc. Thus Pawar has also a Plan B in place in case Muslims do not back his party. His close associate Ajmal Badruddin has floated a third force like what he did successfully in Assam The development in Maharashtra cannot be but distressing for the Congress and a larger consolidation against it can create a ‘winner takes it all’ political situation like in Tamil Nadu.

The NCP’s moves to checkmate the Congress coincide with attempts on the part of the Samajwadi Party to create a pressure group within UPA for undermining the Congress hegemony.

The B. S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Engineering College here has been conferred the status of deemed university by the HRD Ministry on the recommendation of the University Grants Commission. It is the first Muslim minority institution to be conferred the status of a university in the state of Tamil Nadu. It will be henceforth known as B. S. Abdur Rahman University. The Crescent Engineering College will be rechristened as B. S. Abdur Rahman Institute of Science and Technology.

Mr. P. Kanniappan, former vice chancellor of the Alagappa University, Karaikudi has been appointed the first vice chancellor of the University. He will hold the post for three years. He is a professor of mathematics.

The B.S. Abdur Rahman Institute of Science and Technology has initiated the process of its disaffiliation from the Anna University of Technology following the conferment of the deemed University status.

According to a spokesman from the BSA institutions in Chennai, the permission was received on December 16, 2008. The University has signed an MoU for tie-up with the Columbia University in the United States.

The Crescent Engineering College was set up in 1984 at Vandaloor in Chennai by business tycoon B.S. Abdur Rahman. It was later named as B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Engineering College. The group also runs Crescent Residential Schools and several other institutions.

The Hind Agro Industries has bagged the Best Export Oriented Unit award for the fifth consecutive year. Hind exports processed meat to 45 different countries of the world especially in Africa, Europe and Russia. The Best Export Award was presented by the Union Minister for Commerce Mr. Kamalnath on February 4 in Delhi to managing director of the Industries Mr. Sirajuddin Qureshi. Hind exported meat and its products worth Rs. 500 crore during 2006-2007. The exports help nearly 1.75 lakh livestock farmers in Uttar Pradesh. It has set up an ultra modern meat processing plant in Aligarh. The meat is certified ‘Halal’ by authentic clerics at the plant after due inspection.

The Mukkam Muslim Orphanage (MMO) Committee has been given the National Award of Excellence in the field of Child Welfare for the year 2007-2008. The Award was presented to V. E. Moyi Haji, General Secretary of the MMO on February in New Delhi by Ms. Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the United Progressive alliance government at a function held under the aegis of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The award carries Rs. 3 lakh and a certificate. This is the second time the Orphanage has been adjudged the winner of the Child Welfare Award. It came their way in 1982 earlier.

The Mukkam Muslim Orphanage is located at Mukkam, 30 kms from Calicut, and has 1,100 inmates, 427 boys and 685 girls. It was set up in 1956 with 22 orphans. The MMO today runs nearly half a dozen schools, a degree college, a couple of mosques, an Islamic cultural centre, an Industrial Training school and a working women’s hostel. More information could be had from:
www.mmomukkam.org

Farooq Mapkar, a riot victim of the Mumbai 1992-93 carnage, was recently acquitted of all charges filed against him by the police.

Mapkar was witness to the police firing in Hari Masjid which killed seven persons. Mapkar was shot in the back and yet the police filed a case against him and 50-odd others, accusing them of rioting, murder, attempted murder and rioting with deadly weapons. For 16 years, Mapkar, both a victim and an accused in the firing, has been running around for justice.

Mapkar was one of the seven injured when police opened fire at Hari Masjid on the afternoon of January 10, 1993 . “We had all gathered for namaz and people were milling around the mosque when the firing took place,” Mapkar told media. He too got a bullet injury in his left shoulder but instead of being taken to the hospital he was put in jail for 15 days. “The bullet was removed on January 27,” he recalls after he was let out on bail.

The police was unable to prove where he was picked up from and what time the incident had taken place. The investigating officer in the case failed to support Kapse’s claim of how he had ordered fire following the mob violence.

Mapkar’s lawyers Shakeel Ahmed and Yug Choudhary said they had made an application in the Bombay High Court for a CBI investigation into the allegations of police atrocities in the Hari Masjid case. The court accepted this in December 2008 and now the CBI has been given six months to register a first information report in the case and investigate it.

The Sri Krishna Commission which has produced a voluminous report on the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai has documented the Hari Masjid case in detail. It said that one of the policemen, Nikhil Kapse, was not justified in opening fire and his conduct was violent. Mr. Kapse who has been promoted since then, was exonerated in a departmental inquiry and even the Special Task Force (STF) that was set up to look into the riots cases gave him a clean chit. Mapkar says he was not even summoned by the STF to give evidence.

For Mapkar’s lawyer Shakil Ahmed, it’s another step ahead. “We have thousands of such cases pending. We hope that the state will not treat the victims as accused and drag the case for so long,” Ahmed said. “The special court though have picked up a handful of cases, many cases have been forgotten. If the state wants to offer any compensation, they should reopen the cases and ensure that justice is done,” said Ahmed.

The BJP Government in Karnataka in its second budget has proposed spending Rs. 167 crore for the minorities who constitute nearly 17 per cent of the 60 million population. This is Rs. 24 crores more than the funds allocated during the first budget i.e., for the year 2008-2009. Of the Rs. 167 cr. Rs. 15 cr. Will be allocated for the marriage halls, Rs. 35 crores for the hostels for the minority students, Rs. 5 crore for the Haj House, Rs. 5 crore for the Wakf Women’s Foundation, and Rs. 5 crore will be spent for the skill development among the youth from the minorities. Several dargahs, maths and Hindu shrines too have been made liberal allocation of funds in the vote-on-account presented by chief minister Mr. B. S. Yeddyurappa on February 20 in the State Assembly.
Minister for Minorities Welfare Dr. Mumtaz Ali Khan said the Haj House will be built at Hennur Bende, nearly 10 kms from City Centre in consultation with two leading builders of Bangalore Mr. Ziaullah Sheriff and Mr. Irfan Razzack of Prestige Group. He told news persons that the Government had waived off Rs. 12 lakh from the stamp duty for registration of the five acre land allotted for the Haj House. He said the hostel construction for minority students would include building of hostels for girls doing post graduation and working women of the minority groups.