Community Round-Up

Muslim bodies asks community to boycott pro-Israeli Muslims


Muslim intellectuals and religious leaders here have asked the community to socially boycott those ‘so called’ Muslim religious leaders who have visited Israel on so called goodwill mission recently. They said that the so-called Muslim representatives have become victims of Jewish conspiracy and they are not only hurting the sentiment of Indian Muslims, but the whole Islamic world.


It may be recalled that a delegation of Indian Muslims led by the All India Council of Imams and Mosques visited Israel for advancing interfaith dialogue and peace. The visit is sponsored by Project Interchange, an Institute of the American Jewish Committee, in coordination with AIJAC (Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council), an AJC international partner.


Maulana Jamil Ilyasi, who was to lead the delegation changed his programme at the eleventh hour and made his son Umer Iliyasi to lead the delegation. The other members of the delegation include Khawja Iftikhar Ahmad of Vajpayee Himayat Committee and Abdul Wahid Chishti of dargah Ajmer Sharif and others.


Various Muslim Ulema and intellectuals including Maulana Abdul Hameed Noamani (secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind), Intizar Naeem (assistant secretary of India’s Jamaat-e-Islami), Maulana Abdul Wahab Khilji (member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and former Jamiat Ahle Hadith general secretary), Mufti Mukarram of Fatehpuri Masjid and Dr Tasleem Rahmani (president of the Muslim Political Council of India), called upon Indian Muslims to boycott the participants socially.


Maulana Abdul Wahab Khilji in a statement said that the participants in the delegation are part of American conspiracy. “If they were so interested in going they should have gone to Palestine and see atrocities committed by Israelis on women and children” he said. Hamid Nomani said that this visit will not send a good message, rather it will hurt the sentiments of the Muslims.


Intizar Naim of Jamate Islami said that since the delegation are going on the expenditure of Israel it will certainly serve the interest of the Jewish lobby. He said those who are part of delegation must be condemned. “India and Indian Muslim have always supported the cause of Palestinian people” he said.


Asked to address on Hamas’s call for jihad to destroy Israel, Ilaysi said, “I believe in peace and this is the message I take. I don’t believe in anything that destroys another country.”


The Israel visit follows on a trip to India earlier this year by Rabbi Rosen, along with Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger and a delegation of chief rabbis from around the world. Their meeting with the Muslim leaders led to a joint statement.

Recently a 2-day session of the executive body and trustees of Islamic Fiqh Academy India, was held in New Delhi that was presided by Darul Uloom Deoband’s senior Mufti, Maulana Mufti Mohammad Zufairuddin. Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, who has been elected as the general secretary for 2007-2012, presented the Academy’s quintennial progress report that says the Academy organized 10 seminars and workshops and published 36 books in Arabic, Urdu, English, Hindi and Malyalam besides completing the translation of 45 volumes of Fiqhi Encyclopedia published from Kuwait during this period. Mufti Mohammad Zufairuddin has been re-elected as the Academy’s president.

In another move to uplift youth from the minority communities particularly the Muslims, the government of India has decided to launch free coaching scheme for them. The aim is to enable the minority youth to avail of special coaching facilities for taking competitive exams and enhancing their educational qualifications for better jobs.


With a budgetary provision of Rs 10 crore for 2007-08, the scheme is aimed at enabling students belonging to the economically weaker sections of the minority community to access good coaching facilities. The "Free coaching and allied scheme," is part of the promises made in the Prime Minister’s "New 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities" that of providing the minorities with educational and employment opportunities. Eligible students can seek financial help for special coaching for qualifying exams for admission into technical/professional courses like engineering, medical, management, information technology; competitive exams for recruitment to group ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ services and other equivalent posts under the Central or state governments (it includes jobs with banks, insurance companies, security forces, public sector undertakings).

The popular belief is that the 1992-1993 riots in Mumbai were a spontaneous outpouring of anger at the demolition of Babri Masjid. That’s a myth the riots were a pre-planned pogrom.


The seeds of the riots were sown during BJP leader L K Advani’s rathyatra in 1990. The build up to the Ramjanmabhoomi movement polarised the country along communal lines and the final provocation came when the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. As Hindutva leaders took out rallies through Muslim areas in Mumbai, rioting broke out. Neighbour turned against neighbour and Mumbai came to a halt.


The rioting engulfed Mumbai in two waves: 6-12 December 1992 and 6-20 January 1993. Over 900 people (575 Muslims and 275 Hindus) were killed and more than 2,000 were injured. The rioters wore khaki. The Justice B N Srikrishna Commission, which investigated the riots, says in its report: “the wireless communication equipment were not foolproof. This enabled communally affected policemen to successfully break into and intrude upon the police channels and transmit abusives.”


V N Deshmukh, who was Additional Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) in 1992-93, admits there were “disgruntled policemen” during the riots. "During that time there were some disgruntled policemen and they had a wireless set with them and they had gone into hiding somewhere and from there they were making wireless calls many times abusive," says Deshmukh.


(Source: IBNlive.com)

Lending a Helping Hand

“No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger” is the vision of the Akshaya Foundation. This Bangalore based Foundation, across 13 cities in India, has now formally launched in Gujarat.


The Foundation has been providing wholesome meals free to almost 64,000 children in more than 250 schools in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (west zone) since June 25. The Foundation started its operations first in Karnataka and then gradually spread to Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa.


“Many state governments have been running midday meal schemes, but being a public private partnership, we become a public option” said Chanchalapathi Das, the vice chairman of the board of Trustees.


Explaining how the Foundation works, Jaganmohan Krishan Das, program co-ordinator in the state, said “we have a centralized kitchen in Gandhinagar which has a capacity to cook for around 70,000 children in five hours. The food is cooked in containers, with a capacity of 20,000 litres and then packed into air tight stainless steel containers to be transported to schools in specially transformed vehicles.

Labbaik Tours & Travels, the Hajj & Umra Tour operators have shifted into a posh and spacious new premises at 92, Infantry Road, KEDIA ARCADE, 3rd Floors, Off No: 308, Bangalore - 560 001. Ph. 080-41131065/ 41131010.


The Inaugural ceremony was performed on 19th Aug 2007. Mr. R. Roshan Baig was Chief Guest. Mr. Nayeem Shariff and Mr. Anees Ahmed (managing partners) are pioneers in the field of Hajj and Umra Tourism and have achieved renowned name and respect for the dedicated services they have rendered over the last 13 years.

A grand Convocation function was held at the premises of Darul Uloom Mohammedia Gangodanahalli, Layer Palya, Bangalore, wherein dignitaries from various parts of the country and from abroad shared the dias on the occasion and delivered the convocation addresses.


The Chief guests were Shaikh Khalfan Kharbash a prominent name of world Trade from United Arab Emirates and Shaikh Khalid Saalam.


The Programme was also attended by Iqbal Anasari, State Labour Minister, Govt. Of Karnataka, Syed Riyaz Ahmed of Lokayukta S. and other dignitaries from across the country.


With the vote of thanks by Hazarath Moulana Dr. Mohammed Idris Habban Rahimi, the function concluded upon the dua by Moulana Mohammed Isahaq Saheb, Khateeb-o-Imam Kormangala Mosque.

Maharashtra revenue minister Narayan Rane issued orders to stop registration or any sale, lease or any other transaction of Wakf land in the state and also ordered probe into complaints of irregularities in dealings and if irregularities are found the land will be restored to Wakf Board.


It may be recalled that recently Wakf properties from the state came into controversy after it was sold in Mumbai to Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani for his multi-storied residence at Malabar Hill.