Community Round-Up

The Hamdard Education Society and the Indo-Qatar Urdu Markaz, Doha will jointly organize an All India Inter School Urdu Debate competition on December 2 and 3. The best contestant will receive Rs. 15,000 and the runner up Rs. 10,000. The topic assigned is: Musalamano ki pasmandgi ki zimmedar hukumat nahin, woh hood hain (‘Government is not responsible for the backwardness of Muslims, they themselves are’). Students from 9th standard to 12th standard can participate. The best team will be given Hakeem Abdul Hameed Memorial Rolling Trophy. President of the executive committee of the competition,. Saleem Hassan Siddiqi has informed that the debate competition would be held annually. Schools aspiring to participate can contact Mr. Siddiqi at: saleem_hsn@yahoo.co.in, Ph: 092110-68815, or Fax: 011-23277799. However, it has been clarified that teams from outside Delhi would have to make their own travel arrangement. The organizing committee would look after accommodation between December 1 and 4, 2007 at Hamdard Scholars Guest House and local transport.

A group of Muslims who visited Ajmer dargah recently have accused the state as well as the central government for taking the October 11, blast probe into the wrong direction. They said that investigating agencies were trying to pin-point the blame for the bomb blast at the Ajmer shrine on Islamist groups, to protect the real culprit of the crime. Rajasthan Muslim Forum - an umbrella body of Muslim organisations of the State, which visited the dargah, said the attack on the Sufi shrine during the month of Ramadan three days before Id-ul-Fitr was aimed at terrorizing Muslims and spoiling the festive atmosphere, besides disturbing communal harmony in the city. In a statement Qari Moinuddin, who led the delegation said the police by arriving at hasty conclusions in blaming extremist outfits such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI), the real perpetrators of the heinous attack must be feeling assured that they would never be suspected.

The Central Wakf Council has emphasized on the need of setting up the National Wakf Development Corporation. It has also stressed on exemption of Wakf properties from the purview of the various legislations as recommended in the Sachar Committee report. At the Council 52nd meeting here recently, the members were informed that the Central Wakf Council would send its views on the proposed amendments in the Wakf Act, 1995.

The Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), will be launching three National wide caravans each from Kerala, West Bengal and Delhi, on November 3, 4 and 5, respectively. These caravans would converge at Mumbai on November 25, 2007 where a National Level Conference will be held. The entire program will be conducted under the central theme of “Redifining Education-Regaining Struggle-Renovating Society SIO Awakening the Nation”. The caravans and the conferences will mark the 25 years of SIO’s activism in the country.


As a prelude to launching National Caravans, series of activities including seminars, symposiums, colloquiums, cycle rallies, submission of memorandum, student meets, public meetings and conventions will be organised throughout the States. Street plays, documentary screening and flash presentations will be also part of the caravans.

The Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India (CEPECAMI) would hold a two-day national workshop on ‘Social Inclusion and Access to Education of Indian Muslims: Evaluating Government Policies’ on November 12-14 at the Aligarh Muslim University. Dr. Abdul Waheed, Director, CEPECAMI has invited papers from scholars and other aspirants on sub-themes i.e., 1-Strategies for the social inclusion of Indian Muslims, 2-Social inclusion and Affirmative Action, 3-Need for quality school, 4-Education of Muslim Women, 5-Linguistic and educational rights of the Muslims, 6-Higher Education of Muslim and Affirmative action, 7-Evaluating area intensive and Madrasa Modernisation programme. Those who wish to present papers can contact: (Dr. Abdul Waheed, Director, CEPECAMI, B-2, Nazir Ahmad Road, Behind V.C. Lodge. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh -202002. Ph. 0571 2700920, Ext. 1347, Mobile: 0-94106-45721, 098971-99572 (Mr. Amir), 093199-15223 (Mr. Wasim), email: cepecami_amu@rediffmail.com)

In a bid to churn out not just graduates, but good human beings who would serve the society, Muslims NGOs in Ahmedabad have decided to introduce a faculty mentor scheme from the upcoming new academic session in Muslim run schools.


Under the new scheme, each student admitted to these schools would be attached to one faculty member who would be his or her guide and counselor for his entire period of study there. The students would be encouraged to discuss all kinds of issues, academic as well as personal, with their respective mentors. “I have been teaching for the past 25 years and I have seen tremendous changes among students. I think this generation is being nurtured in a vacuum,” says eminent academician M. Aslam. “The association between teachers and students is hardly a relationship. It is a one way communication. Since our NGO cherishes human values and wants to pass it on to the future generations, we would assign six to eight students to one faculty member who would be their mentor for the time they spend in the college,” said M. Johar of SPART.


(The writer can be reached at lakhani63@yahoo.com)

“Given an opportunity, girls can also do wonders in any field, be it politics or space technology as has been proved by Indira Gandhi and Sunita Williams”, said Gujarat Governor, Naval Kishore Sharma while giving away prizes to Muslim students who have cleared SSS/HSC exams this year with more than 75 percent marks. Speaking at a function held at Town Hall under the aegis of Ahmedabad Educational Trust and Parsoli Corporation, the governor said it was unfortunate that amidst plenty of opportunities, Muslims remained backward due to their lack of attention to education. Film actor Aditya Pancholi commented that it was a matter of pride that a majority of recipients of prizes were girls. “It is only due to the mistakes of a small number of Muslims, that the entire community gets a bad name. Let us prevail on that small number and contribute our mite to the welfare of the nation. I am Hindu by caste, but I do respect Islam and my wife is a Muslim”, he said. Parsoli Corporation CEO and M.D,. Zafar Sareshwala said that the entire history of Islam showed that girls’ education was given much importance and even the very beginning of the Prophet’s (Pbuh) mission started with the word ‘read,’ but still it is a fact that Muslims are backward in education. Education and skills are two basic tools to progress, he added.

Religious preaching is hi-tech affair at Darsgahs and elsewhere. Be it teaching the Qur’an on computer or disseminating information on Islam trough Internet or CDs, all holds true for Kashmir. At the School of Orthoepy, Qur’an & Theology Education (SOQTE), a Darsgah in Shahr-e-Khaas, over 100 students had enrolled for the Ramadan special batch. Besides, conventional mediums, the students including aged and working class were taught through various gadgets including computers, LCD projectors and digital Qur’an. SOQTE Chairman, Tanveer Ahmed said the religious institution is making use of technology since 1999. “We implement the Qur’anic education via computers and multi-media. (Reported by M. Hyderi)

TV Company Islamic World have presented a special prize “for contribution to Islamic enlightenment” to the director of the Film “God of Abraham,” Zakhir Ahmed.

Contact: PO Box 3422, Palos Verdes, California 90274 USA.

Email: ivprod@earthlink.net / www.islamic-video.com.

The Maharashtra government has finally asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate into the police firing at Sewri’s Hari Masjid during the 1992-93 communal riots in which seven Muslims were killed. For the past several years, activists have been demanding a CBI probe in the case. In response to a PIL filed in the Bombay high court by Farooq Mapkar, a victim, some time ago, the DF government assured that a CBI inquiry would be sought. But it was only on October 17, did the state write to the CBI headquarters in New Delhi requesting an investigation into the incident in which people offering namaz were shot dead at point blank range.


After death sentences and life-term imprisonments were handed out to those found guilty in the Mumbai serial blasts case, there was a demand for stringent action against all those indicted by the Justice Srikrishna commission as well. Several Muslim organisations and human rights activists had then urged the chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh and his deputy R R Patil, to hand over the case to the CBI. Among the deceased was a 24-year-old student Nisar Ibrahim who had arrived at Wadala on January 10, 1993, to visit a friend. He had taken refuge in the Hari Masjid. His father Mohammed and sisters Abeda, Aziza and Rashida only want “Ibrahim’s killer” to face a criminal trial. Despite the deaths, the state has taken no steps so far to try the policemen. The Srikrishna Committee, which looked at the 1992-93 riots, concluded in its 1998 report that the Hari Masjid firing was “unprovoked and brutal”.


The state only subjected Nikhil Kapse, the sub-inspector who led the police team at Hari Masjid, to a departmental inquiry that absolved him in 2002. But the state charged 39 local residents with rioting, even when the Srikrishna Committee had found the police explanation for the firing “fabricated”.


“I was shot point-blank in the back by the police”, Nisar Ibrahim told his family, Ibrahim was in KEM hospital for six months. He died on July 24, 1993.


Ibrahim’s father, who also saw a mob burn the contents of their bakery as the police watched, recall: “The doctors would not treat Nisar properly, operate, or remove his bullet. The Wadala police even claimed they never admitted him, and tried to make us change our statement. We had to wear bindis to the hospital to hide we were Muslims.”


Lawyer Nilofer Bhagwat, who helped Rashida and over 20 witnesses depose before the Srikrishna Commission, said that CBI probe was necessary: “The firing showed police culpability. It must be properly probed”.

This year, the process to select pilgrims for Hajj was carried out in a transparent manner. At the draw held at Haj House in south Mumbai recently, pilgrims were selected for the pilgrimage later this year out of the 23,363 applicants in the state. Another 100 pilgrims have been put on the waiting list in case there are cancellations.


Last time, when lots were drawn using envelopes, there were complaints that the committee had favoured some pilgrims. This time, the entire process of choosing the pilgrims was completed in a few hours. The quota for India, fixed by the Saudi Arabian government based on its population of Muslims, is 1, 47,000. Out of this, 1, 10,000 travel through the Haj Committee which processes travel documents, makes arrangements for their stay and arranges subsidized airfare. Though the state had a quota of only 7,990 pilgrims, 2,026 more seats have been allotted out of the unused quota from states such as Bihar, Assam and West Bengal. The Maharashtra State Haj Committee wants a separate quota for Mumbai. Out of the 7,600 applicants from the city, only around 3,000 got the opportunity to undertake the pilgrimage. The Haj Committee constituted under the Act of Parliament is empowered to make agreements for Indian pilgrims in India, only under the present norms. On reaching Jeddah airport, the responsibility to look after the pilgrims and to redress their grievances is that of the Indian Consulate stationed at Jeddah.

Three people were injured when supporters of two clerics clashed in Bhopal over the declaration of Eid on Saturday 13th October. The trouble erupted when Naib Qazi Amirullah, deputy to Imam Shahar Qazi Abdul Latif Qasmi, declared in a mosque that Eid-ul-Fitr would be celebrated on Saturday.. Qasmi was present in the mosque when the announcement was made, and his supporters insisted that he should have made the declaration. The followers of the two religious leaders then exchanged blows, leaving three people injured. Qasmi supporters were also annoyed because Amirullah had earlier led the Friday prayers despite the presence of the former.