How AIMIM is Challenging the Traditional Turf

An AIMIM meetThe outcome of the recent assembly elections in Maharashtra is surely a sign of changing times. Against odds, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen won three seats. The result meant that Owaisi brothers have finally succeeded in expanding the party’s base outside its stronghold in Andhra Pradesh.

Fighting elections in the name of religion is nothing new in India, neither is the exploitation of a persecution complex in minorities. What’s new is the emergence of a Muslim led and governed party. It reflects the level of dissatisfaction of the Muslim minority with mainstream political parties.
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Qadam Sharif in Delhi lies neglected and forgotten

A painting from Thomas Metcalfe’s ‘Imperial Delhie’.
A painting from Thomas Metcalfe’s ‘Imperial Delhie’.

After reading Shamsur Rahman Farooqi’s ‘Mirror of Beauty’, I was very intrigued by a description in it of a very popular and revered shrine called Qadam Sharif. Having spent a lot of time in Delhi, I was surprised because I never heard of this shrine and was determined to locate it myself.

In Farooqi’s book when misfortune strikes Shamsuddin Khan of Loharu, Wazir Khanum makes a trip to the shrine. The author describes it as a very beautiful and busy place with supplicants and mendicants both going about their business. In fact the impression I got was of a fair the kind one sees on urs days in the dargahs.

In Qadam Sharif, the annual urs is held on Barawafaat, which is the Holy Prophet’s [PBUH] birthday. On that day the slab with the imprint of his foot is immersed in water and that water is offered as ‘tabarruk’ (religious offering of food) to devotees. The slab was acquired by Feroz Shah Tughlaq. Continue reading “Qadam Sharif in Delhi lies neglected and forgotten”

A petty feudal at Jama Masjid

Imam Bukhari

WHEN ignorance marries bluster you get a functioning blunderbuss. Every scattershot gun should come with a safety catch, but human behaviour so often becomes vulnerable to the ego of a weak mind.

Muslims claim, with justified pride, that the age of jahilya, or ignorance, ended when the message of Islam came to the Prophet Muhammad in the desert city of Mecca. Regrettably, jihalat still lingers in parts of the Muslim world. It has found a temporary sanctuary in Delhi’s Jama Masjid, the iconic symbol of Indian Islam.

If the bluster of its Imam, Syed Ahmad Bukhari, were nothing more than self-inflicted wounds, it would not matter so much. But Bukhari gets media space, thanks to his position, and thereby affects the wider perception of Indian Muslims. When he claims that he will not invite India’s Prime Minister to his 19-year-old son Shaban Bukhari’s so-called investiture ceremony, but would like Pakistan’s leader to be present, Ahmad Bukhari is guilty of many varieties of stupidity. Indian Muslims relate to their country’s leaders, not to those of a foreign nation. But this is an appropriate moment to ask another question. Continue reading “A petty feudal at Jama Masjid”

Let’s be just Muslims Again

Three news items caught my attention recently: A suicide bombing in Afghanistan killed 89 people, blowing of religious places by ISIS in Iraq and a letter by a prominent cleric in India to the ISIS chief. All three incidents involved Muslims!

This is the state we are in today as a community. Even during the holy month of Ramadan we’ve not given peace a chance.

While nobody claimed the bombing in Afghanistan, it’s mostly Taliban behind such attacks in the country. Which Muslim would do that in such a month! If it’s indeed Taliban then they have further alienated themselves. This has been a trend of sorts during the last few years in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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“Sufism is Not an Innovation but a Classical Tradition of Islam”

Sadia Delvi
Sadia Dehlvi

SADIA DEHLVI is an Indian author and activist. Her most recent book is ‘The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs of Delhi’. Her first book was ‘Sufism: The Heart of Islam’. In a telephonic interview with Inam Abidi Amrohvi, Muslims Today, Sadia speaks on Sufism, women’s rights and Indian Muslims in general.

How satisfied are you with the progress of Indian Muslims during the last 20 years or so?

Well that’s a very tough question because lot has happened during the last two decades, and I think Muslims have progressed a lot.

When I was growing up, I remember, there was hardly a Muslim middle-class. Just after the partition when we had the landed elites and the poor, you never came across Muslims who were doctors, lawyers, engineers, young politicians, etc. I distinctly remember, I had gone to boarding school in Shimla and I was the only Muslim girl there.

When I look now, I see that things have changed a lot for the better. Today, you see a whole new generation of Indian Muslims who are educated and empowered in the true sense. They are engaged in sports, film industry, media, legal, arts and medical profession. So there has been a tremendous growth during the last twenty years, undoubtedly. But, on the other hand it’s not good enough. We should have progressed much further and become a bigger part of India’s growth story. A lot needs to be done at the grassroot level. You know there are many issues at stake. I find that there is a tremendous thirst for knowledge, to work and be financially independent, in the poor people I work with in the Muslim community, especially amongst the women. So there is a tremendous change in their mental attitudes which is a good sign. They want to progress and are looking for opportunities. Unfortunately the opportunities are not enough. Continue reading ““Sufism is Not an Innovation but a Classical Tradition of Islam””

Indian Muslims and Elections 2014: Some Issues

THE LOK Sabha elections 2014 are different from all previous elections. This is mainly due to the fact that the BJP, the principal opposition Party in the existing Parliament, has nominated Mr. Narendra Modi as its PM candidate, a person who has the blotch of the 2002 Gujarat riots on him as he was CM then and when over 2000 Muslims were killed.

Whatever the Courts may say on technical, legal grounds, the perception remains among a considerable section of Indians and especially among Muslims, that Mr. Modi not only failed to stop the massacre of Muslims, rather he connived in it. Thus, his nomination as PM candidate filled the Muslim community with fear and apprehension and created a divide not experienced even in the elections after the Babri Masjid demolition. His speeches in the previous Assembly elections in Gujarat and during these elections have only given strength to that perception. Adding fuel to the fire are the statements of his close aides, Mr. Amit Shah, who exhorted voters in Muzaffarnagar, scene of recent communal riots, to cast their votes as ‘revenge’, and Mr. Giriraj Singh, saying that those who don’t vote for Modi will be sent to Pakistan; the statements of his opponents, like Mr. Abu Azmi, saying that Muslims who do not vote for the Samajwadi Party against Modi are not true Muslims and their DNA should be tested, have only complemented the aforementioned statements.

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Alarming Rise of Torture Based on Religion

Interface on Muslim MinorityPEOPLE’S Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), Varanasi and Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), New Delhi, with the support from European Union and Dignity Danish Institute Against Torture organised “Interface meeting with the Parliamentarian, policy makers and political parties, on the issue of Muslim minority in Uttar Pradesh” on December 9, 2013, in Speaker Hall, Constitution Club, New Delhi.

“Attacks on Hindu and Christian communities in Pakistan and Bangladesh and targeting of Muslim and Christian communities in India are being increasingly used as a political weapon by the communal and fascist forces”, said Lenin Raghuvanshi, General Secretary, PVCHR. A documentary, ‘Muslim & Police: A Perspective’, prepared on the basis of interactions for almost three months at the grass root level with the members of Muslim community in various Muslim dominated districts of Uttar Pradesh was screened during the event.

A book “Repression, Despair and Hope: Mapping of Police torture in four districts of Uttar Pradesh and Strengthening Human Rights Institutions” on 1500 cases of human rights violations after comprehensive fact finding exercises in the last 3 years was also launched. These cases relate to police torture and communal violence which have affected the minority Muslim community most in Uttar Pradesh.

The following resolution was made during the event-The role of judiciary in condoning police atrocities and in not allowing the state to withdraw false cases lodged by police against persons declared innocent by a judicial commission (Justice Nimesh Commission).

  • Ratification of UNCAT and enactment of Prevention of Torture Bill.
  • Enactment of Communal Violence Bill immediately.
  • Immediate established of rule of law and appropriate pro-survivors rehabilitation and relief to survivors of survivors pf communal riots in Muzzafarnagar, U.P.

Kashmir: Understanding Article 370

THOSE gripped by religious nationalism are unable to understand the regional-ethnic aspirations of the people. Many an ultra-nationalists of different hues also fall into this trap quite often. With the formation of Indian nation, integration of regions like Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern States and Jammu & Kashmir created some challenging situations. Though in all these cases the challenges were met in different ways and even now continue to pose issues of serious national concerns, but those related to Kashmir require some more pressing attention. Located in a strategic geographic area of great significance, the global powers have also added their own weight behind complicating the matters in Kashmir. It remains one of the most contentious issues between the two neighbors, Pakistan and India. In addition the communal forces in India have been making it a bone of contention all through. Continue reading “Kashmir: Understanding Article 370”

The Iran Genie is Out

THE SEQUENCE is established. You first release the genie, we are reliably informed by Middle East folklore, and then it grants your three wishes.

America has set free a genie called Iran from three decades of isolation within the world’s most congested conflict zone. Over the next six months we shall find out whether Iran will grant  America’s three wishes, or actually one wish written in three codes: forget the bomb. The one thing a genie will not do, however, is return to the bottle which was its prison. Whether Iran’s nuclear ambitions get punctured, or deposited into some storehouse of mind and memory for revival at some later date, the Geneva deal between America, five other major powers  and Iran has already begun to redraw the strategic map of the region and beyond. Continue reading “The Iran Genie is Out”