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The Aligarh Muslim University has decided to draw a national educational plan for minorities in order to extricate Muslims from the quagmire of ignorance and set them on the path of intellectual resurgence. As a first step in this direction, a national seminar is being convened at AMU to discuss the issue of Access, Equity and Inclusion of Muslims in the collective life of India. Professor P.K.Abdul Azis, Vice-Chancellor who has embarked upon an extensive resurgence drive in the university has been striving to revive the spirit of the Aligarh Movement by making serious efforts to spread education among the Muslims across the country. He has directed the Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India to play a pro-active role and accelerate the process of minority education at the national plane. While emphasizing the need to galvanize private and voluntary initiatives to seize the opportunity of various education schemes launched for the benefit of minorities by the central Government, he asked the Centre to set in motion a special drive to establish an enduring strategic partnership with minority institutions across the nation.
Recognising the yeoman services rendered by the Aligarh Muslim University, the Parliament has passed the AMU Amendment Act, 1981 that empowers the University to promote the educational and cultural advancement of Muslims of India under section 5 (2) (c) of the Act.

The Government of India has allocated around 4000 crore of rupees for various affirmative action programmes in Minority concentrated districts in India. There are many regions in the country where we have not seen any major initiative for establishing educational institutions.

in the last six decades. The revelations in the Sachar Committee remind everyone of us that we cannot wait any longer for an education revolution to occur among the minorities, more especially, the Muslims of India, unless the community itself rise to the occasion and make deliberate, planned and sustained efforts.

It is a cause of high concern that Muslims, constituting 14 percent population of the country and 73 percent population of five religious National Minorities, are most educationally backward community. Literacy rates among Muslims, both men and women, have been the lowest among all the religious minorities. Their gross enrolment ration (GER) is 5.23 percent lowest of all religious communities and nearly one-half of the national average.

The University has created the Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India (CEPECAMI) in 1998 under section 5 (2) (c) of AMU Amendment Act, 1981. The Centre primarily functions as a monitoring and coordinating agency. It also acts as a catalyst for minority welfare and uplift activities including those of Government.

The Aligarh Muslim University's Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India (CEPECAMI) will organise a two-day national seminar on “Minority Education in India : Issues of Access, Equity and Inclusion” in the first week of December, 2008.

Followings main themes will be discussed at the seminar: 1-Government's action after Prime Minister's High Level Committee Report on status of Higher Education among Muslims, 2- Linking Aligarh Muslim University with the minority, 3-Minority Educational Institutions success stories, role of NGO's and Community Trusts, 4- Minority Education: How to launch new institutions, 4- Condition and availability of educational infrastructure in minority concentration districts of the country, 5-Revitalizing the Aligarh Movement, 5-Need oriented action plan for educational uplift of Muslims in India and other relevant themes. Director Prof. Abdul Waheed has invited papers on the above themes. Address for Correspondence, Director, CEPECAMI, No. 2, Nazir Ahmad Road, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, Uttar Pradesh.

Ph.: 0571-2700920 Extn. 1347,
Director Abdul Waheed, 0-94106-45721,
e-mail: cepecami_amu@rediffmail.com.

Muslim Ulema and intellectuals came together on a common platform to denounce the Indian Mujahideen, the self-proclaimed perpetrators of the bomb blasts. “Murderers cannot be Muslims,” the press release signed by eminent ulemas and intellectuals said.

Maulana Mustaqueem Azmi of the Ulema Council said that Islam preached love and peace and did not allow the killing of innocent people. Editor of the Urdu daily, Hindustan, Sarfraz Arzu, challenged the supporters of Indian Mujahideen to come forward and engage in a dialogue with Muslims. “Come, talk to us and prove that whatever you are doing is correct in the light of Islam. The activities of the Indian Mujahideen have only helped the Sangh Parivar in executing their plans,” he said. The ulema and intellectuals have also criticised the bias of the police in the blast investigation. Maulana Mehmood Daryabadi said that the police should explore different angles in their blasts probe and take the investigation beyond the spectrum of Muslim suspects.

“Every time the police claim that the masterminds have been arrested. If these so-called masterminds are in police custody then who is carrying out the blasts?” he asked, adding that there was a need to examine whether Muslims were indeed behind the terror emails before announcing this as a fact. “On earlier occasions, non-Muslims had been arrested, but the police showed no interest in probing those cases with a terror angle,” he said, suggesting that there was an inbuilt bias against the minority community.

Maulana Abdus Salam Salfi from the Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadees said that the average Muslim was so busy making two ends meet that he scarcely had time to think of subversive activities. “We appeal to the media to project our feelings before citizens. We want to express our emotions not in the form of protests or demonstrations, but from a common platform and we would like the government to listen to what we are saying,” said Salfi.

Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi demanded that the investigation in the blast cases be made more transparent. “The only way to make it more transparent is through the induction of a greater number of Muslims in the anti-terror security force or in police cells. A Muslim officer will be in a better position to understand the thinking of a so-called Muslim suspect.

When we label an innocent a terrorist, his life is ruined and when he is acquitted, there’s no one to proclaim his innocence to the world,” he said.

Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi said that after studying the Indian Mujahideen mail carefully on TV, he had found that the first line of the email (written in Arabic) was wrong. “A Muslim will not commit such a mistake. The mistake in the very first line shows that it’s the handiwork of a non-Muslim organisation. Anti-Muslim forces seem to be behind this email,” he said emphatically.

Maulana Athar Ali, general secretary of the Ulema Council, said, “Muslims were shown as suspects in the 7/11 train bombing case. However, they have not been proved guilty so far. On the contrary, when a US national’s IP address was used for sending a terror email, he was not questioned thoroughly and given a clean chit. It shows how the police thinks.”