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Baba-e-Urdu Moulvi Abdul Haq: Renowned promoter of Urdu language and literature

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By Rohail Khan

Moulvi Abdul Haq (Father of Urdu) was born 141 years’ ago on 16th November 1872 in Hapur, Ghaziabad District, India. He was an acclaimed Urdu educator, writer, critic, linguist, lexicographer, editor, compiler, translator, etymologist, biographer and grammarian. His entire life was devoted to making Urdu the foremost language across sub-continent.

At an early age, young Abdul Haq acquired expertise in Urdu, Deccani, Persian, English, and Arabic languages. In 1894, he obtained B.A from the Aligarh Muslim University. During his formative years, his contemporaries included progressive scholars like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Moulana Shibli Nomani, Sir Ross Masood, Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Professor T. W. Arnold.

In his early career, Moulvi Abdul Haq served as Translator at the Home Department and based on his esoteric capabilities he was later appointed Inspector of Schools (Aurangabad, Deccan).

Simultaneously, he also served as Secretary, All India Muslim Educational Conference, where he managed the Promotion of Urdu across the entire British India.

Baba-e-Urdu was a moving spirit behind the establishment of famous “Osmania University”, Hyderabad Deccan; where he was instrumental in curriculum design and development of teaching methods in Urdu for all subjects and faculties.

Under his able supervision, textbooks and reference material were compiled and taught in Urdu. Later on, he served as chairman of the University’s Department of Urdu. Osmania University rose to new heights under his leadership and became second after Aligarh Muslim University.

It was Moulvi Abdul Haq who worked hard to enrich Deccani Urdu literature and make it familiar to the masses. He was the first in unearthing various old rare manuscripts from the archives that remained unattended for centuries. He introduced Deccani literature to Modern Urdu readers and historians and strengthened the roots of the Urdu language.

Having realized the demise of Persian language, Moulvi Abdul Haq made it his mission to place Urdu language head-to-head with English and Arabic. He ensured that Urdu books and material are developed in basic fields of knowledge i.e: medical sciences, arts and crafts, geology, astronomy, mathematics, economics, and social sciences.

In his tenure, he edited rare manuscripts such as Meraajul Ashqeen (1924), Zikr-e-Mir (1928), Bagh-o-Bahar (1931), Sab Ras (1932), Nikat-o-Shoara (1935), Nusrati (1938), Qutub Mushtari (1939), others.

After his retirement from Osmania University in 1930, he compiled and edited a comprehensive and authoritative “English Urdu Dictionary” which is a great service to Urdu language.

Under his asture care, the “Anjuman e Taraqqi e Urdu” (Society for Development of Urdu), emerged as a powerful service organization across the sub-continent. In the 1930s, Mahatma Gandhi and his comrades started a campaign to change the Urdu script. Thanks to the Anjuman and proactive role of Moulvi Abdul Haq, the attempt was successfully thwarted. Thereafter, till the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he fought the Indian National Congress for the cause of Urdu and Pakistan.

In early1948, Moulvi Abdul Haq migrated to Pakistan. During the partition riots, thousands of valuable manuscripts, memoranda, books and articles that he possessed were inadvertently lost. Anti-Islam sections of the British Government had seriously damaged the Anjuman by withdrawing all support in 1945. Moulvi Sahib reached Pakistan poor in health, meager in resources but planted the Anjuman anew, on fresh ground. Under the aegis of the organization, countless books and several important journals were re-produced in Urdu.

During 1948 - 1961, Baba-e-Urdu patronized and inaugurated various “Urdu Public Libraries” and lived long enough to see his dreams come to reality i.e: introduction of Urdu medium institutions of higher learning, establishment of Arts and Science College with Urdu curriculum.

He continually stressed the need for a multi-dimensional multi-region “Urdu University” for which he even called a All Pakistan National Conference in 1959.

Moulvi Abdul Haq, a life-long proponent for Urdu, was the moving force behind making Urdu the National Language of Pakistan.

After a prolonged illness, Moulvi Abdul Haq departed on 16th August 1961 in Karachi. Government of Pakistani, in recognition of his tireless efforts, issued a postage stamp in his honor in 2004.

As a researcher, scholar, critic and lexicographer Moulvi Abdul Haq is a great name in history. It is, however, as the foremost campaigner of Urdu and its greatest servant that Baba-e-Urdu will be remembered for ever by 550 million Urdu speakers around the world.Urdu – Great Language

After Arabic, the largest source of Islamic literature is “Urdu”. Indeed, we must promote and nurture this fascinating language.

Urdu is spoken by “550 million people”, pre-dominantly in India and Pakistan. Significant Urdu speaking communities exist in the Sub-continent, North America, Middle East, and Far East. Urdu is the “national language of Pakistan”. It is widely spoken across India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and official language of five states. The Indian film industry is dominated by Urdu as prime language since 75 years. Urdu is the language of love, peace, poetry, and communal harmony. Over 5,500 Urdu literary societies and associations are serving this great language all over five continents.

Based on the Khariboli dialect of Dehli, Urdu developed under the rich influence of Persian, Arabic, and Turkish languages over 900 years.

It began to take shape in what is now Uttar Pardesh, India, during the Dehli Sultanate (1206-1527 AD), and continued to develop and flourish under The Great Mughal Empire (1526-1858 AD).

The 550 million Urdu speakers make it as “4th largest language in the world”. Let's serve Urdu. Let's promote those who promote Urdu.

Phooloun ki mehek banke bikher jaye gi Urdu,
Yeh wehem hai aey dost ke merr jaye gi Urdu.

[Rohail Khan, a senior banker and social worker, is Chairman of Urdu Academy International. He is actively developing communities through literature, culture, and philanthropy. He can be reached at: rohailkhan00@gmail.com]

Narendra Modi and Ram Leela

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By Syed Ali Mujtaba

The RSS has created a new Ram for the Indians to worship. His hanuman is Amit Shah. The duo had staged one Ram Leela or rasleea, the skeletons of which is tumbling out of the cupboard, which they are finding it hard to keep back and shut the doors.

Those who are not familiar with this story, let me put this in perspective. A young lady called Mansi Soni, befriended Gujarat Chief Minister and she was snooped by his acquaintance, the reasons of it is shrouded in mystery.

Ms. Soni hails from Bangalore and was selected as the landscape architect for the development of Bhuj city in the Kutch district of Gujarat. It’s since then she came in proximity with the Gujarat Chief Minister and the story begins.

It appears that one Pradeep Sharma who was once collector of Kutch district and now victimized by the Gujarat Government has filed a petition in the court alleging that Ms Soni had developed intimate relations with Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The fact of the intimacy is confirmed by the petitioner who saw them in close proximity and overheard their conversation during one of the official functions.

Subsequently, according to Pradeep Sharma, Ms. Soni confide to him that when she called Modi in his office, he would freely interrupt scheduled meetings, walking out of his office in order to speak to her privately……

One may believe this story or not but the fact remains that it has been submitted to the court and let it cast it judgement on it.

How does this connected with the surveillance issue that is hogging limelight now? Well the lady in question is none other but Ms Soni, mentioned in Pradeep Sharma’s petition. The stalking incident actually took place in August-September 2009, when Amit Shah was holding junior Home Minster’s portfolio of Gujarat.

A sting operation jointly conducted by two media outlet has produced audio tapes that reveal that the illegal surveillance of Ms Soni was ordered by Amit Shah at the behest of his ‘Saheb’ Narendra Modi.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad of Gujarat carried out month long minute to minute tracking, surveillance, stalking and phone tapping of this young lady.

The orders given by Amit Shah clearly come out from recorded conversations captured in the audio tapes that are submitted to the court handling Ishrat Jhan encounter case.

Prima facie facts that emerge out is that Narendra Modi through Amit Shah did order and carry out the most brazen, unauthorized and illegal stalking activity in the country.

Why did he do so? What was the motive behind it? The nation is seeking answers to it ever since this story broke out. This is more so because the common man want to know the motive before making choice for the Prime Minister of the country.

The BJP line of defence is this was done to ‘give protection to the girl,’ but this argument needs scrutiny. First of all why protection was need at all, from whom the girl felt threats? Even if we buy the protection argument, then a police jeep could have been sufficient for security, what was the need for stalking and that too for more than a month?

The father of the girl has come out with a statement that his daughter does not wish for an investigation into the politically charged controversy and has claimed that the surveillance was mounted on her with her consent.

There are two threads to this argument, one desisting from an investigation, and other to take on the blame. Both arguments seems to be of dubious and do not live up to the test of reasons.

The third argument is built by Madhu Kishwar, one time feminist writer, now doing public relations for Narendra Modi, calling Ms Soni a terrorist. She justifies the stalking that was done to check her credentials.

Well can terrorist be a landscape architect, who goes through the rigmarole of competing through open tender and wins the contract of Bhuj city’s beautification. Suppose, if she was not selected for the project, then was she still stalked?

This brings us to the last motive and that is Ram Leela or Rasleela of Narendra Modi. The 63 year old bachelor has gained notoriety for making livid comments on women. He had called Sonia Gandhi ‘Burhia’ (old lady) and Shashi Tharoor's wife, a 'Rs 50 cr girlfriend.' Even though unrelated, these comments point figures and his character. The Prime Minister in waiting has to come clean on the “character dhela hai” apprehension of the people of this country.

This episode also reflects the style of functioning of Narendra Modi. He is known for taking decisions that has resulted in post Godhara riots and fake encounters. Can India be handed over to someone who goes by his whims and fancies to run the administration of his state?

There is more than what the eyes can read in this story. The truth about this chilling instance of state-sponsored stalking must be known. The audio tapes clearly prove that illegal state sponsored surveillance of a young female had taken place. If that’s the case, then the stalkers, who are now equated with the rapist, in this case would find its place in the same category? If proven guilty what would be the quantum of their punishment?

It’s high time that the conspiracy of silence in this case should be broken. The patriarchal defence do not hold ground in such a case. The adult woman or the man in the dock should make the motives clear and bring the real truth in public domain. If they cannot do so, then an independent inquiry should be ordered to unravel the mysteries surrounding it.

[Syed Ali Mujtabais a Journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com]

British Muslim Fashion Brand Opens its First Store in Hyderabad

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BySyed Khaled Shahbaaz 

Hyderabad:  UK-based renowned ‘modest’ fashion store IDH London on Saturday inaugurated its first mercantile establishment in Hyderabad, Telangana on January 4. The brand showroom inaugurated at City Centre Mall, Banjara Hills, brings internationally acclaimed products loved in over several countries to Hyderabad. IDH London specializes in products that are a fusion of cosmopolitan style and modest fashion for women.



Franchise owner Mrs. Rahmath Unnisa, while addresss mediapersons during inauguration said, “The ease of doing business in Telangana State and the government’s boost to entrepreneurship led the brand to set up its first store in Telangana’s capital city.”

The British brand has proved its mettle in Middle East and Africa with presence in international markets like Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Palestine, Jordan, UAE, South Africa and Mozambique.



“Modest fashion is one of the city’s most notable specialities, perhaps influenced by the aristocratic lineage and cultural heritage that lives on in the nobility and grace exhibited by Hyderabadi women. IDH brings a notable variety of women wear from silken scarfs to exquisite skirts to modest jumpsuits, trousers to abayas in coveted varieties including denims, sports and partywear to headwear in futuristic and modern styles that are otherwise a rarity in Indian markets. IDH Hijabs are perfect accessories for completing the look of a modern Muslim girl or woman, and such Islamic fashion is making heads turn around the globe.

The cosmopolitan culture of Hyderabad, in Telangana particularly, these accessories aren’t restricted to religious identities anymore but have rather evolved into a fashion statement with the underlying motive of modernizing eastern fashion. The brand is providing young and dynamic girls and women to experience the eastern culture through its impeccable couture.



IDH London products allow customers to blend in the cosmopolitan culture without compromising their dignity and identity while flaunting flawless fashion. They are intricately crafted to help the feminine gender embrace fashion that’s a perfect fusion of cosmopolitan style and modest art at the same time. Fabrics are specially chosen to keep the apparel weather friendly. Some fabrics, specially chosen for these apparel, are designed to be weather friendly allowing women to protect their face from excessive heat during summers and others in winter. The apparel is stylishly distinctive and also appeals modern young women who are also YouTubers, social media influencers, and artists in different verticals.

According to joint owner of the franchise Mir Israr Ali Khan, “Hijabs and modest Muslim wear wooed the audiences at some of the industry’s biggest fashion events including New York Fashion Week. Some models adorned abayas and head scarves and made heads turn. Their designs despite exemplifying Modest Muslim fashion made a powerful and undeniable impact.” He says “IDH London brings the modest Islamic fashion, which was previously available via limited channels and choice for people in Gulf countries to desiring consumers in India.”


Other products like Maxidress, scarves, jilbabs are also available in multiple designs and variety besides products oozing contemporary Islamic style in soft, luxurious fabrics. The store is only other outlet in India after Calicut, Kerala.


[Syed Khaled Shahbaazis a journalist based at Hyderabad, He can be reached at syedkhaledshahbaaz@gmail.com

Is Davinder Singh being made a Sacrificial Lamb?

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BySyed Ali Mujtaba

The story that is fed through media that a Sikh officer was caught ferrying three terrorists out of the Kashmir valley, with alleged intention to disturb the Republic Day celebrations in Delhi has something deeper into it than the arrest of a DSP Davinder Singh from Union Teritory of Jammu & Kashmir.


Let’s read the story once again: “Davinder Singh, posted as the deputy superintendent of police, was arrested along with Naveed Babu, self-styled district commander of banned Hizbul Mujahideen, a new recruit Atif and an advocate Irfan Mir. The four were caught with arms and ammunition while they were travelling in a car near Qazigund, on the national highway in South Kashmir.”


This childish story when read in cold print or coming from the mouth of news anchors on Television evokes grin on the face and laughter of the lips because it cannot without a pinch of salt.


How come, overnight a mid-ranking police officer who played a high profile in the conflict zone in J&K can become a black sheep and so childishly get arrested.


The first reaction is it is a story being deliberately planted by the security agencies as ‘cover-up’ to some goof up in the conflict zone of J&K and whose antecedents cannot be independently verified.


Since Davinder Singh arrest is hogging the lime light in the media, it is essential to go into the merits of this case and come out with some conjectures that our mind can digest?


Essentially, there are five theories that are making rounds in Davinder Singh’s arrest case. The first is Davinder Singh was the cop who had links with terrorists and the state police intercepted his car on the national highway and arrested him red handed along with three terrorists.


This story instead of appealing to human senses raises many questions and triggers our mind like busy bees to probe deeper varsity of this planted scoop.


How come such a high profile cop who a few days ago was seen near the aircraft that disembarked foreign diplomats to Srinagar to assess the situation in valley, can be arrested a few days later that too caught red handed in an antinational act.



This story wants to convey that Davinder Singh was a double agent who was working in J&K police but was hand in gloves with the terrorists.

Now in a conflict zone like Kashmir, where even every civilian’s activity is marked by security sleuths, how come a uniformed police officer be allowed to operate without any surveillance?


Certainly this baloney story deserves to be archived for journalism students to cite as examples in their term papers of concocted and peddled stories.


The second theory is Davinder Singh was a corrupt police officer who can do anything for money. He was double and triple agent and he worked for money, irrespective of the source of funding.


This theory by default makes Davinder Singh an entrepreneur cop who was making best use of the conflict situation and in the process making money.


This story looks blatantly untrue when some facts are issued by the source to support the entrepreneur cop theory. This entrepreneur theory fails the test of logic as it raises few fundamental questions; how a police officer with dubious credentials is allowed to function in such a high profile way that too in an extremely sensitive zone of conflict.


The third theory that is making rounds is that Davinder Singh was working for some intelligence agency and has become victim of inter services rivalries between different intelligence agencies operating in the Union Territory.


This looks more plausible theory. Remember, the words of Davinder Singh when he was questioned by the sleuths. He said, ‘this is a game and asked them do not spoil this game.’  


This means that he was on a mission for some intelligence agency maybe secret police, administrative agencies, RAW, IB, bureaucracy etc. that was not coordinated well and therefore he was taken as suspect.


Such situation is common in a conflict situation where many state actors are work not in tandem with each other but at cross purposes, with an intention to score some brownie points.


This theory looks more palatable theory than the first two because it satisfies the logic of human mind. But then besides it there are two other theories that looks equally enticing.   


The fourth theory is that Davinder Singh was a pawn in government’s deep state operations. A deep state is a form of clandestine government’s operation made up of hidden or covert networks of power operations independently working in pursuit of some hidden agenda and goal.


The deep state actors are parallel operatives who can operate in opposition to the publicaly stated agenda of the government that may involve, obstructing, resisting, and subverting stated government policies and directives.


The government uses its agents in the pursuit of its hidden objectives or goals. The agents get into such acts for job security, enhanced power and authority and gain favors from the government.


In Davinder Singh case, the hidden objective was to bring some militants to the national capital through state channel and then plant a story of government foiling a terrorist attack on eve of Republic day parade.


The deep state theory looks palatable and it appears that lack of coordination has led to this goof up and Davinder Singh was sacrificed on the altar of deep state theory.


The last theory has religious overtones and is much sensitive because it sets cat against the pigeon. Davinder Singh was picked up because he was a Sikh by faith. As we know that Sikh community in J&K has sided with the overwhelming Kashmiri sentiments against the abrogation of Article 370.


And, this has irked the Central government that hatched up a conspiracy to trap Davinder Singh to set an example if Sikhs indulge in acts of defiance against the ruling government policies, a similar fate may await them.  


The latest news about Davinder Singh’s story is that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has received orders from the Union Home Ministry to re-register a case against Davinder Singh and alleged terrorists and has started the investigation.


Well such probes are just like this story, which will always be one sided and never bring the real truth to the public domain. This is more some when there is some tacit involvement of the intelligence agencies or the central government in such cases.


The conclusion is Davinder Singh has become the sacrificial lamb put behind bars to cover up someone’s faults.     


[Syed Ali Mujtabais a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

Delay in addressing important issues is eroding the Supreme Court's credibility, Newspapers question

Conspiracy against the Shaheen Bagh Protest: Know who is doing and what newspapers are writing

CAA पर आया सुप्रीम कोर्ट का कड़ा रुख सामने, मोदी सरकार परेशान

شہریت قانون پر فی الحال روک لگانے سے سپریم کورٹ کا انکار چیف جسٹس نے معاملے کو پانچ رکنی آئینی بینچ کے حوالہ کرنے کا دیا اشارہ، مرکز کو چارہفتہ میں جواب داخل کرنے کی ہدایت

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شہریت قانون پر فی الحال روک لگانے سے سپریم کورٹ کا انکار
چیف جسٹس نے معاملے کو پانچ رکنی آئینی بینچ کے حوالہ کرنے کا دیا اشارہ، مرکز کو چارہفتہ میں جواب داخل کرنے کی ہدایت

عدالت کے فیصلہ سے انصاف کی امید لگائے کروڑوں لوگوں کو سخت مایوسی ہوئی ہے: مولانا ارشدمدنی
نئی دہلی22 /جنوری 2020ء۔شہریت ترمیمی قانون کے خلاف سپریم کورٹ میں داخل 144عرضیوں پر آج چیف جسٹس اے ایس بوبڑے کی سربراہی والی تین رکنی بینچ نے سماعت کی عدالت نے قانون پر فی الحال روک لگانے سے یہ کہہ کر انکارکردیاکہ اس پر پانچ ججوں کی آئینی بینچ ہی کوئی راحت دے سکتی ہے، اس معاملہ پر جواب دینے کیلئے مرکزکو چارہفتہ کا مزید وقت دیا گیا ہے علاوہ ازیں شہریت قانون کے خلاف ہائی کورٹوں میں داخل عرضیوں کی سماعت پر عدالت نے روک لگادی ہے جبکہ آسام اور تری پورہ کے معاملوں کو اس سے الگ رکھا گیا ہے، واضح ہو کہ سی اے اے، این آرسی اور این پی آرکے خلاف عرضی داخل کرنے والوں میں جمعیۃعلماء ہند نے پہل کی تھی اور آج سماعت کے دوران اس کی طرف سے پیروی کے لئے سینئر ترین وکیل پیش ہوئے، آج سماعت شروع ہونے سے پہلے ہی عدالت نمبر ایک کھچاکھچ بھرچکی تھی اس کی وجہ سے عدالت کے تینوں دروازے کھول دینے پڑے سماعت جیسے ہی شروع ہوئی مرکزکی طرف سے اٹارنی جنرل کے کے وینوگوپال نے کہا کہ کل 144عرضیاں ہیں اس لئے ہم ابھی ابتدائی حلف نامہ ہی داخل کررہے ہیں، انہوں نے یہ بھی کہا کہ مرکزکو اب تک 60عرضیاں ہی موصول ہوئی ہیں اس پر سینئر ایڈوکیٹ کپل سبل نے کہا کے پہلے یہ طے ہوکہ معاملے کو آئینی بینچ کے حوالہ کیا جائے گا یا نہیں، سینئرایڈوکیٹ منوسنگھوی نے عدالت کی توجہ مبذول کراتے ہوئے کہا کہ لوگوں کو شہریت دینے کا عمل بھی شروع ہوگیا ہے، اترپردیش میں 30ہزارلوگوں کا انتخاب بھی ہوچکاہے اس پر چیف جسٹس نے کہا کہ ہم حکومت کو پروزنل شہریت دینے کے لئے کہہ سکتے ہیں، ہم یک طرفہ طورپر روک نہیں لگاسکتے عرضی گزاروں کے وکلاء کا اس بات پر اصرارتھا کہ معاملے کو آئینی بینچ کے حوالہ کردینا چاہئے اور شہریت دینے کے عمل کو روک دیا جانا چاہئے اٹارنی جنرل نے اس کی مخالفت کی اس پر چیف جسٹس نے کہا کہ معاملہ آئینی بینچ کو سونپاجاسکتاہے اور ہم پابندی لگانے کے موضوع پر بعدمیں سماعت کریں گے دوسری طرف سالیسٹرجنرل تشارمہتانے کہا کہ عدالت کو اس معاملہ میں مزید عرضیاں داخل کرنے پر روک لگادینی چاہئے مگر عدالت نے اس مطالبہ پر کوئی توجہ نہیں دی اسی دوران ایک وکیل نے این پی آرکا ایشواٹھاتے ہوئے کہا کہ اگر این پی آرمیں کسی کو مشکوک قراردیا گیا تو اس کا نام ووٹرلسٹ سے کٹ جائے گااس پر مسٹرکپل سبل نے بھی کہا کہ یہ ایک انتہائی تشویشناک بات ہے بالآخر عدالت نے مرکزکو نوٹس جاری کرکے جواب داخل کرنے کو کہا اور اس کے لئے چارہفتہ کی مہلت طلب کی جس کی عرضی گزاروں نے مخالفت کی مگر عدالت نے اس درخواست کو قبول کرلیا، عدالت نے یہ بھی کہا کہ عبوری راحت کے لئے تین ججوں کی بینچ فیصلہ نہیں دے سکتی جبکہ چیف جسٹس ایس اے بوبڑے کاکہنا تھا کہ صرف پانچ ججوں کی آئینی بینچ ہی اس بابت کوئی فیصلہ کرسکتی ہے، شہریت قانون کے خلاف داخل عرضیوں پر سماعت کرتے ہوئے ملک کی سب سے بڑی عدالت نے قانون کو فی الحال بحال رکھنے اور مرکزکو جواب داخل کرنے کے لئے جس طرح چارہفتہ کی مزید مہلت دی ہے اس پر جمعیۃعلماء ہند کے صدرمولانا سیدارشدمدنی نے سخت تشویش کا اظہارکیا ہے اور کہا ہے کہ ملک کے موجودہ حالات کو دیکھتے ہوئے ہمیں امید تھی کہ کوئی مثبت پیش رفت ہوگی انہوں نے کہا کہ اگر عدالت قانون کے نفاذ پر روک لگادیتی تو ملک بھرمیں اس قانون کے منظوری کے بعد خوف ودہشت کا جو ماحول قائم ہوا ہے اس میں بڑی حدتک کمی آجاتی اور جگہ جگہ ہورہے مظاہرے بھی بڑی حدتک تھم جاتے مگر افسوس کہ ایسا نہیں ہوا۔ مولانا مدنی نے کہا کہ ملک بھرمیں شدید احتجاج اور مظاہرے کے بعد بھی حکومت کہہ رہی ہے کہ اس قانون میں کوئی تبدیلی نہیں ہوسکتی اس صورت میں ملک کے تمام انصاف پسند لوگوں کی امید یں اور آرزویں ملک کی سب سے بڑی عدالت سے ہی وابستہ ہیں انہوں نے یہ بھی کہا کہ اس سیاہ قانون کے خلاف سپریم کورٹ میں ریکارڈ 144عرضیاں داخل ہیں اوران سب میں اس قانون کو آئین مخالف قراردیا گیا ہے اور کہا گیا ہے کہ چونکہ اس قانون سے آئین کے تمہید کی صریحا خلاف ورزی ہوتی ہے اس لئے اس پر پابندی لگنی چاہئے انہوں نے کہا کہ عدالت کا فیصلہ سرآنکھوں پر لیکن اس سے ملک کے ان کروڑوں ہندو،مسلم، سکھ اور عیسائی کو سخت مایوسی ہوئی ہے جو پچھلے ایک ماہ سے سخت سردی، ٹھٹھرن اور بارش میں کھلے آسمان کے نیچے بیٹھ کر اس کالے قانون کے خلاف پرامن مگر مثالی احتجاج کررہے ہیں، انہوں نے کہا کہ ان سب کے باوجود حکومت آمرانہ روش اختیارکرکے اس آئین مخالف قانون کو سب پر تھوپنا چاہتی ہے یہی وجہ ہے کہ 18/دسمبرکو اسے جواب داخل کرنے کے لئے جو ایک ماہ کی مہلت عدالت نے دی تھی اسے اس نے ضائع کردیا جبکہ اسے آج مکمل حلف نامہ داخل کرنا چاہئے تھا اس سے حکومت کی منشاء کا اندازہ لگایا جاسکتاہے، انہوں نے ایک بارپھر وضاحت کی کہ جمعیۃعلماء ہند کا شروع سے یہ مانناہے کہ جن مسائل کا حل سیاسی طورپر نہ نکلے اس کے خلاف قانونی جدوجہد کا راستہ اپنانا چاہئے، کئی اہم معاملوں میں اس نے ایسا کیا ہے اور عدلیہ سے انصاف بھی ملا ہے چنانچہ اس معاملہ میں بھی جمعیۃعلماء ہند نے وکیل آن ریکارڈ ارشادحنیف اور سینئر ایڈوکیٹ ڈاکٹر راجیودھون کے مشورہ سے ایک رٹ پیٹشن شروع میں ہی داخل کی تھی، مولانامدنی نے کہا کہ جو لوگ اسے ہندومسلم کا مسئلہ سمجھتے ہیں وہ غلطی پر ہیں سچائی یہ ہے کہ یہ ملک کے آئین ودستورسے جڑاہواایک انتہائی اہم معاملہ ہے البتہ بعض لوگوں کی جانب سے اسے مسلسل ہندومسلم بنانے کی دانستہ کوششیں ہورہی ہیں لیکن سچائی یہ ہے کہ اس کے خلاف ملک بھرمیں لوگ مذہب ذات پات اور برادری سے اوپر اٹھ کر احتجاج کررہے ہیں گویا دوسرے لفظوں میں یہ کہا جاسکتاہے کہ اس سیاہ قانون نے سب کو ایک دوسرے سے جوڑدیا ہے اور جولوگ باہمی اتحاداور یکجہتی کو نقصان پہنچانے کا خواب دیکھ رہے تھے انہیں سخت مایوسی ہاتھ لگی ہے، انہوں نے کہا کہ پورے ملک میں جہاں جہاں شاہین باغ اور جامعہ ملیہ اسلامیہ کی طرزپر مظاہرے ہورہے ہیں ان میں ایک بڑی تعدادہمارے غیرمسلم بھائیوں کی ہوتی ہے، انہوں نے کہا کہ پچھلے چھ سال کے دوران حکومت نے نفرت کی جودیوارمختلف جذباتی اور مذہبی ایشوزکو ہوادیکر ہندووں اور مسلمانوں کے درمیان منصوبہ بندطریقہ سے کھڑی کی تھی ان مظاہروں نے اس دیوارکو پوری طرح مسمارکردیا ہے اور یہی ہماری اصل طاقت ہے درحقیقت یہ ہندوستان کی طاقت ہے جس کے آگے اقتدارکے نشہ میں چور انگریزوں نے بھی گھٹنے ٹیک دیئے تھے انہوں نے آخر میں کہا کہ ان حتجاج اور مظاہروں کو عام احتجاج یا مظاہرہ نہ سمجھاجائے بلکہ یہ ایک نئے انقلاب کی آہٹ ہے اور مرکزی حکومت نوشتہ دیوار کو پڑھنے کی کوشش کرے ورنہ کل تک بہت دیر ہوسکتی ہے۔

فضل الرحمن قاسمی:
پریس سکریٹری، جمعیۃعلماء ہند: 9891961134 

OPINION: Two Child Policy and the RSS

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ByDr. Mohammad Aleem

Recently, in a public function in Moradabad (UP), RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that we should now focus on the two child policy in the country. It should be given a constitutional status. It is necessary to control the population to make our country grow economically, socially and culturally. He also said that there should be a law formulated to implement this ambitious plan throughout the country.


The chief editor of the Urdu daily, Inquilab, Shakil Shamsi has written his opinion article on the same theme, titled,  dated 19th January 2020,“Two Child Policy and the RSS”.


He writes: “When the country is passing through a turbulent time due to the contentious CAA, NPR and proposed NRC, then, this issue, which has been raised by the RSS will only create a new problem. And many people are asking this simple question that whether this law will be applied to all religious communities or will it be specific to the Muslims only? This question comes into mind because there are scores of the Hindu extremist Sadhus and Yogis who say that the population of India is rising only due to the Muslims only.”


But it is a fact that the data says just opposite and put the reality in completely another perspective. According to the 2011 census, during the last 10 years, both Hindu and Muslim population has seen considerable decline. The growth of the Muslim population is at present 24.6%, which was earlier 29.5%, and the growth of the Hindu population is at present 16.7%, which was earlier 19.92%.


Shakil Shamsi also has scathingly criticized this malicious propaganda that the trend among Muslims is having many wives, but the reality is just the opposite. He writes: “They (the hardcore right wing people) always indulge in such malicious propaganda that every Muslim marries four women and produces as many children as they can. But when we say that please help me in identifying such men who have four wives and many dozen children, they run away. The fact is that the population of the Muslim women is less than the Muslim men in the Indian society. Then, from where on earth, these men will get as many wives of their choices?”

In the recent days, we have also heard many times from many Hindu chauvinist Sanyasis and Gurus that every Hindu should bear at least 10 children. If it happens, then, the how the problem of rising population will be controlled?


Shakil Shamsi put his views over it in this way: “We have no right to criticize any such law which comes for the purpose of controlling the population, but it should be brought within the secular character of this country. It was Sanjay Gandhi who had first adopted the tough policy of family planning in 1975. In the whole country, forced sterilization of men was applied in such places as schools, Dharmshalas, hospitals and even in the government offices. When in 1977, Indira Gandhi was ousted from the Prime Minister post, it was being said that the forced policy of the family planning of the government was the main reason for the Congress Party’s decline. And the fiercest opposition had come from the Hindus mainly.”


The fear is that a group of the rightwing people, who always look for any opportunity to extract some blood from the Muslim’s muscles, will demand for implementation of this law only for the Muslims as it has been adopted in the case of the Citizenship Amendment Act. And if it happens, it will cause to create another mass unrest in the country.


Shakil Shamshi concludes his article with these scathing remarks: “The BJP plays a dual policy when it comes to practice the bigamy. For example, when the film star Dharmendra marries a second time with another film star, Hema Malini, despite of having two wives at the same time, the BJP makes him a candidate for the parliamentary election from Bikaner and it also gives an opportunity to his second wife, Hema Malini to secure a seat of the MP from another constituency. If the BJP keeps rewarding such persons who have two wives, then, will this family planning movement ever succeed?


In fact, the rising population is the result of the many socio-economic factors. And before formulating and implementing any such law, it should be taken into account seriously. It has been said that those people, either men or women, who are well educated and economically, socially and culturally well-off, they prefer smaller families. And this trend is prevalent among all the religious communities of India.


So, the Government should focus mainly on educating people and making them economically sound rather than bringing a tough law for it, then, this problem will automatically get solved without inviting any public wrath and resentment.


[Dr Mohammad Aleemis an award winning novelist, playwright, journalist and scriptwriter. He has five novels (three in English, two in Urdu), two plays, including ‘Imam-e-Hind Ram’ based on the great epic Valmiki Ramayana to his credit. His books have been published by Penguin Books India, National Book Trust, India, Lifi Publications and many others. He has also written many serials for DD and other channels. Currently, he is hosting a web series, Desh Keya Sochta Hai?Akhbaron ke Hawale Se on the YouTube Channel, Newsnexxt. He can be contacted at mohammad.aleem1@gmail.com]

Mysuru Gets Its First Ever Muslim Woman Mayor

Muslim women in Gujarat to protest against CAA

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IMO News Service

Ahmedabad: Muslim women in Gujarat have decided to protest against CAA on the occasion of India’s 71st Republic Day, on Sunday, 26th January 2020.


Events will be held across the state to “save the Constitution” and express solidarity with Muslim women protesting at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi’s Okhla for past one month against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).


The Preamble of the Constitution will be read after flag-hoisting. Apart from Muslim women, among other participants will include women from other religions, MLAs, councilors and leading Muslim organizations.

Citizenship as Participation: Muslim Women Protestors of Shaheen Bagh

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The peaceful indefinite sit-in by Muslim women at Shaheen Bagh has become the epicentre of nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act–National Population Register–National Register of Citizens, as the protestors have brought to the fore a protest performative that is to be comprehended beyond the physical protest site. As a people’s protest in the true sense, it contests the state’s excessive urge to define and dominate, and flags pressing concerns vis-à-vis discrimination in the face of a consumerism-driven argument of inconvenience. In doing so, the protestors help us understand resistance as an expression of belonging and citizenship as a participatory tool, rather than a status granted by the state on the basis of select documents.

ByIrfanullah Farooqi


Ever since the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (CAB 2019) was tabled in Parliament, there has been a visible unrest in the country. As the bill turned into an act (Citizenship [Amendment] Act [CAA] 2019) on 12 December 2019, the unrest spread like wildfire. Seen alongside the lined-up National Population Register (NPR), a six-month exercise to be conducted between 1 April 2020 and 30 September 2020, and the impending National Register of Citizens (NRC), the CAA is opposed for its discriminatory and anti-constitutional character. It subscribes to a disturbingly restricted understanding of minorities, religious persecution, and India’s neighbourhood.


While protests, marches, and demonstrations have punctuated the national life of India for the past few weeks, the peaceful sit-in by women at Shaheen Bagh, New Delhi has become the epicentre of the nationwide protests against the CAA, NPR, and NRC. As I write this, Shaheen Bagh, through its unusuallanguage of resistance and a somewhat unique claim vis-à-vis belonging hasalready inspired people in several cities to join hands for peaceful indefinite sit-ins. So far, we have been informed of sit-ins in Kolkata, Gaya, Kanpur, Allahabad, Bengaluru, and Deoband. InDelhi itself, peaceful sit-ins at Khureji, Seelampur, Turkman Gate, Kardam Puri, Mustafabad, and Inderlok have registered their presence.


The Site and the Protestors


Shaheen Bagh, also called Abul Fazal Enclave Part II, is the southernmost colony of Okhla. With almost 100% Muslim population, the colony came into being in the early 1980s. Although it is a part of the larger Jamia Nagar area, it remained a colony rarely visited by those visiting Jamia Nagar from other areas of Delhi. For a very long time,Jamia Nagar has been frequented by people from all over Delhi for food.Hotels, restaurants, and eating joints in Zakir Nagar, Batla House, Tikona Park, and Abul Fazal Enclave cater to hundreds of non-Jamia Nagar customers everyday. Shaheen Bagh never figured in that list. However, the colony shot to prominence with its market along Road 13A (the one that connects Mathura Road with Kalindi Kunj and is currently blocked by the protestors) with a significantly long line of factory outlets of major brands offering discount all year round. So, it was through the sale offers at Nike, Adidas, Monte Carlo, Woodland, Reebok, and so on that people got to know the place, but needless to say, not the people.



The people of Shaheen Bagh have remained somewhere behind the well-lit factory outlets. The women of Shaheen Bagh were further behind, a little beyond the unknown. However, with the peaceful sit-in at Shaheen Bagh that has turned into its second month now, the women of the area have come forward in the most unanticipated way possible. It started as a humble demonstration against the Delhi Police beating Jamia Millia Islamia University students on 13 December 2019. However, the brutal crackdown in Jamia that took place on the evening of 15 December 2019 turned the Shaheen Bagh protest into something else. Hundreds of Muslim women sat on Road 13A that connects Delhi to Noida, and ever since then, the blockade remains.


Who are these protestors? Anyone visiting Shaheen Bagh will be able to tell us that although, as of now, it is a mix of various people who have decided to come together to register their protest against a discriminatory law, it is the Muslim women of Shaheen Bagh who stand out at the site. As has been reported in almost all the write-ups on the Shaheen Bagh protest, most of the women of Shaheen Bagh who are a part of the sit-in are protesting for the first time in their lives. In the beginning, this aspect of the movement was exploited to express a “concern” around protestors not being aware of what they are protesting about. However, over the weeks, almost everyone is convinced about the extraordinary ways in which the first-timers invoke new understandings of resistance and, in doing so, help us understand other facets of power. It is the first-timers who urge us to attend to the primacy of resistance, that is, move from resistance to power, rather than the other way around.


A New Protest Performative


The gathering at Shaheen Bagh has evoked a new performative of protest, especially for those whose understanding of protests and demonstrations emerged out of regular attendance at Jantar Mantar. At Shaheen Bagh, the script of protest is rewritten simply because the protestor is endowed with a very different vantage point of belonging. Moreover, when the spectrum has a 90-year-old woman on the one end and a 20-day-old infant on the other, it is bound to offer us a new grammar of protest, a new language of resistance.


Unlike other sites of protest and demonstration, at Shaheen Bagh, one gets to know the centrality and primacy of “people.” There is a stage that remains occupied all the time, but it is the audience that is more important. Speakers and performers come and leave the stage, knowing very well that the actual performance, a hearteningly interminable one, is before them and not by them. Through their deep and informed silent presence, the first-timers of Shaheen Bagh (the oft-repeated reference found in various media reports) have altered our perspective on the ways in which the stage and the audience adhere to a certain priority scheme.


The protest’s performative calls for a new frame of understanding because it is not restricted to the site. As one gets down at the Shaheen Bagh metro station and heads towards the protest site, there is a likelihood of being driven to the site by an auto or e-rickshaw wallah who does not even charge the meagre fair of ₹10. Owners of showrooms on Road 13A have decided not to take rent from the rentees for as long as the blockade continues. This amount could very well be in lakhs. As one reaches the site, one sees people distributing bottles of water, juice, tea, boiled eggs, fruits, biscuits, biryani, puri sabzi, etc. Then there are students and activists who are found running initiatives to inform people through creative art, doing sessions with children on harmony, peace, and compassionate living, inculcating mindfulness through conversations, and so on. None of these people are to be found on the stage or in the audience. However, through these selfless acts that suggest an individual transcending their own location anddenying that politico-economic structures have the final say, the people at Shaheen Bagh have made us understand the unique ways of protesting.


A protest that goes beyond the immediate visible site of reference suggests deep connections that exist between resistance and belonging. Muslim women of Shaheen Bagh have demonstrated an uncommon expression of belonging through their resistance. People who have joined them so as to extend solidarity have acknowledged the sanctity of this rare expression. This is the reason why many activists who have been a part of numerous different protests over the years have conscientiously remained away from the stage. They have addressed the gathering when asked to, but they have been conscious of the uniqueness of the setting. This simultaneity of Muslim women coming in huge numbers and seasoned activists and “knowledgeable” people knowingly standing out of the frame can be considered as a fresh chapter in the history of protests and demonstrations in independent India.


Not against Anyone Specific


There is something unsettlingly convenient about accepting the premise that the protest in Shaheen Bagh (perhaps in other regions too) is against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). If Muslim presence is predominant in the protest and the ruling dispensation at the centre is known for its anti-Muslim policies, what can possibly stop us from seeing Shaheen Bagh as an anti-BJP protest? While it cannot be denied that there have been repeated references to stalwarts of the current regime, the protest is about more than the regime and its discriminatory policies.


Muslim women at Shaheen Bagh draw our attention to the way a marginalised identity experiences its location and, consequently, association with the rest. In that respect, their protest is against the pathologically inhuman ways in which the state, for decades, encroached upon their everyday spaces of domestic life. A little more than three decades ago, writing on the political culture of the Indian state, Ashis Nandy (1989) warned us about a state that was decisively moving from the realm of service to the realm of domination. Nandy was highlighting something distinctly characteristic about the modern state, its obsession with order and, in that regard,governable subjects. Nandy was quite clear that for such an entity, the essential problem is not its failure, but its success.


Protestors at Shaheen Bagh are not against the regime, but a governing psychology or template that defines marginalised identities solely from the vantage point of lawlessness, chaos, violence,ignorance, etc. It is this reading of the margins by the state that urged Das and Poole (2004) to refer to the state as an “incomplete project” (p 5) and its margins as those pockets that are “insufficiently socialised into the law” (p 9). Muslim women of Shaheen Bagh are posing a serious question to that alleged “insufficient socialisation” of theirs into the law. Instead of being defined as members of a community allegedly inclined towards lawlessness, they have rightfully become the epitome of the lawful, the bearers of the constitutional.


The state is also questioned by unsettling the nationalised memory and remembrance. For instance, the India Gate replica at Shaheen Bagh is, in a true sense, a people’s response to national memory, as it carries names of people who were killed by the state during the protests against the CAA and NRC. By drawing our attention to a new perspective on sacrifice and mourning, the India Gate replica at Shaheen Bagh brings to the fore the powerless’s claim on memory and mourning. Similarly, the 40-feet iron and mesh map of India inscribed with the words Hum Bharat ke log CAA–NPR–NRC nahin maante (We, the people of India, reject the CAA–NPR–NRC) is a people’s humble-yet-stunning response to state’s indulgent and extravagant national projects, such as theStatue of Unity.


Discrimination vs Inconvenience


Recently, residents of adjacent colonies, such as Sarita Vihar and Jasola Vihar, took out a rally opposing the sit-in at Shaheen Bagh, citing the inconvenience caused by the road blockade. Backed by the Resident Welfare Association of these colonies, people claimed that instead of blocking Road 13A that connects Delhi and Noida, the protestors should protest at dedicated and identified sites. This narrative of inconvenience conveniently tries to dislodge the narrative of discrimination.


The protest at Shaheen Bagh is a marginalised people’s uncommon response to discrimination. When we earnestly speak against discrimination, we go beyond our immediate identity markers. A call against discrimination is a call for the “we” invoked in the preamble of the Constitution. On the contrary, inconvenience places the individual before the collective. A rallying cry around inconvenience is the call of the individual expressing concern over what they are facing. The logic of inconvenience invokes a “we” that is fundamentally different from the “we” our Constitution’s preamble opens with. Almost all the protests and peaceful demonstrations, a living expression of people’s solidarity against discrimination, are denied their due because of the inconvenience caused by them. Instead of earnestly inquiring into what forced common people to come out on roads and remaining there for several weeks, the inconvenience fraternity is only interested in “For how long it will go on?” The pervasiveness of this pathology, this unsettling indifference can be attributed to our living in a society where most of us are identified as consumers.


A society decisively tilted towards consumption as opposed to social justice and equality is a society that turns its back on injustice and discrimination. In such a society, we find it more logical to talk about losses incurred due to protests (not loss, for it offers a philosophical or existential promise), rather than getting our acts together against the suffering faced by specific groups. Problems are identified strictly from a class-informed perspective of everyday routines, which is why an additional two hours in traffic preponderates over concern about a law that is discriminatory against the marginalised sections.


Issues with ‘What Next’


In addition to those crying over the inconvenience caused by the Shaheen Bagh peaceful indefinite sit-in, many sympathisers of the protest too ask themselves, “What next?” This anxiety cannot be dismissed as an altogether insignificant one. However, people’s movements are to be appreciated in terms of how they inform the “ongoing.” In not putting forth a full-fledged plan of action, the brave Muslim women of Shaheen Bagh have questioned the state’s peculiar occupation with planning that routinely excludes and marginalises various groups.


As of now, what matters the most is that with every passing day, the protest site is acquiring more dynamism. As the women talk to each other, discuss theissues, and reflect on what turned them into flagbearers of one of independent India’s most glorious phases, they add more meaning to our national present. Queer activists are taking sessions with Muslim children from the locality. Braving the harshest weeks of Delhi winter, women protestors are knitting messages of peace and harmony. Artists are painting 500-metre-long cloths with messages that uphold the values of the Constitution. Each of these extraordinary acts that bring a hope-affirming version of a community makes a claim for citizenship as participation, as something not simply granted by the state, but realised in our behaviour towards each other, our contribution to our nation’s diversity.


We can set up committees to look into whether Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s Hum Dekhenge is anti-Hindu or not, but we cannot stop these peaceful protests contributing to the emergence of a life-giving Hum (“we”) in nooks and corners of the country. As the women of Shaheen Bagh tweak their daily schedules in the hope of tweaking the dominant national narrative, we are witnessing a new Hum that assures the present an uncommon longevity and refuses to define the future as a next occurrence.


Mysuru gets its first ever Muslim Woman Mayor

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For the first time in its 158-year history, the Mysuru Municipal Corporation has a Muslim woman mayor – Tasneem. According to the Indian Express, Tasneem is also the youngest ever mayor of the city. She is 31.

Tasneem has lived all her life in Mysuru’s Meena Bazaar area, and has been the corporator for the area since 2013. She replaced her uncle, three-time corporator Alhaj Naseeruddin Babu, as the Congress candidate from the ward after it was earmarked for women.


In 2018, she contested again on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket and won. According to Indian Express, she was part of a Congress faction that chose to back the JD(S) before the assembly elections. She was reportedly a very popular corporator and a successful grassroots mobiliser, and thus made her way to the mayor’s position.


Tasneem told the Indian Express that she is making efforts to ensure that Mysuru retains its “cleanest city” tag. “Even though we ended up third on the list of cleanest cities in the 2019 rankings, we are now working towards securing the coveted top spot on the list. With the dedicated service of our pourakarmikas, officers across all levels and with the help of our residents, we are confident of winning the ‘Cleanest City’ tag this time. This is my priority as of now.”


Tasneem father, Munnavar Pasha, is a tailor and mother, Tahseen Banu, a homemaker. Tasneem herself now has two children. Her husband runs an embroidery business in Meena Bazaar.


(Courtesy: The Wire)

Female Genital Mutilation: The Controversy within Islam and the West

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ByMike Scruggs

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), female genital mutilation (FGM) refers to “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”


FGM is particularly common in about 30 predominantly Muslim countries, but it is uncommon in as many more. Worldwide, about 22 percent of Muslim women and girls have endured FGM. There is no direct reference to FGM in the Koran, and Muhammad did not institute it. However, according to reliable Muslim scholarship, he did speak favorably of it but with a recommendation for moderation. Because Muhammad spoke of it, it has found its way into Sharia Law.


The Koran is by no means the only sacred foundational document in Islam. Islamic doctrines are formed by a trilogy of foundational writings believed by Islamic scholars to be reliable. The Koran is most sacred, but it represents only about 14 percent the words of Islam’s doctrinal sources.


The Hadiths are collections of Muhammad’s sayings that are almost as sacred and are necessary and explanatory in understanding the Koran. The Hadith collections make up 60 percent Islam’s sacred trilogy. Each Hadith collection is composed of individual hadiths, which are usually no more than a short paragraph quote. The Sira is a collection of approved histories of Muhammad, making up another 26 percent of the sacred trilogy.



Together the Hadiths and the Sira are often referred to as the Sunna. Whatever is sunna is right, noble, and reliable according to Muhammad. The Koran refers to Muhammad 91 times as the perfect Muslim, so the Golden Rule of Islam is to follow the example of Muhammad. Sharia Law, which is obligatory for all Muslims, is the legal codification of the sayings and example of the Koran and Muhammad.


In the classic and most respected Sharia Law manual Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller) by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (1302-1367) and translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller in 1988, “circumcision” is covered in Section e4.3. This is on page 59 of my 2015 English and Arabic edition.


“Circumcision is obligatory for both men and women. For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women of the prepuce of the clitoris (not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert). (Hanbalis hold that circumcision is not obligatory but sunna [honorable according to Muhammad], while Hanafis consider it a mere courtesy to the husband.)”


Perhaps this alternative translation is more understandable: “Circumcision is obligatory for every male and female. This is done by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male. Circumcision of the female is by cutting off part of the external fold of the labia minora forming a cap over the clitoris.”


There are four jurisprudential schools (Madhhab) in Sunni Islam, which are nearly identical in 75 percent of issues and close in most others. Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri was of the Shafii school. The Shafii school considers “circumcision” for both men and women, obligatory, while the Maliki, Hanbali, and Hanafi schools consider “circumcision” for women not obligatory but preferable or honorable (sunna), according to the example and words of Muhammad.


The Shafii school is the most conservative in sticking to the Koran, Sunna, and historical scholarly consensus in their jurisprudence. Malik ibn Anas (711-795) founded the earliest school of jurisprudence, and Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafii (767-820) was one of his pupils. The Maliki school of Jurisprudence is probably the second most conservative in interpretations. Abu Hanifah (699-767) established the Hanafi school, which became the largest school during the rise of the Ottoman Empire and is the most inclined to be influenced by opinion. Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855) established the Hanbali school, which is the smallest but predominates in influential Saudi Arabia.


The Sunni jurisprudence schools are not exclusive in regional influence but have roughly defined areas of geographical dominance. The Hanafi school is the largest in Sunni Islam with perhaps 40 percent and dominates Western and Central Asia. The Maliki with perhaps 33 percent dominates in North and West Africa. Shafii is third largest with more than 20 percent and dominates East Africa including Egypt, Southeast Asia, and Yemen. It is also strongly associated with Kurds in SE Turkey, northern Syria, northern Iraq, and NW Iran. Hanbali is relatively small with about 5 percent and strongest only in Saudi Arabia, which has financed the building of many mosques in the U.S. and Western Europe.


The Shafii school punches with power far above its numbers. The author of the most used and respected Sharia Law manual, Ibn Naqib, was Shafii, and the six most respected and reliable Hadith collections are all Shafii. They are in the usual order of esteem: Sahih (authentic) al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawud. Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Nasa’l, and Sunan Ibn Majah. Hence it is not easy to dismiss the Shafii claim that female “circumcision” is obligatory.


Shia Islam represents no more than 15 percent of Islam. It has three schools of jurisprudence. Jafari (Twelvers) is the largest with 85 percent of the total, and its position on female “circumcision” is similar to Hanafi and Hanbali Sunnis. Female circumcision is honorable but not obligatory. It is frequently practiced, however, by those influenced by the smaller Zaydi and Ismaili jurisprudence schools.


There is a wide difference in Islam of those who practice FGM in its severity. The World Health Organization does not recommend female “circumcision” or any degree of FGM, but recognizes four different types: Type I, partial or total removal of the clitoris or prepuce; Type II, Partial or total removal of the clitoris and labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora; Type III, Narrowing of the vaginal orifice by cutting and bringing together the labia minora and/or the labia majora to create a type of seal, with or without excision of the clitoris. In most instances, the cut edges of the labia are stitched together, which is referred to as ‘infibulation;” Type IV, Although usually less severe, all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, for example: pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.


Female “circumcision” in Islam is based on some hadiths recorded by Muhammad’s followers. The clearest quoted here has its own ambiguities:


“Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: ‘Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.’” — Abu Dawud 41:5251


“Abu al- Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honor for women.’” — Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75


This hadith is classified as Sahih (reliable) and indicates Aisha was circumcised: “Aisha narrated: ‘When the circumcised meets the circumcised, then indeed Ghusl [purification] is required. Myself and Allah’s Messenger did that, so we performed Ghusl.” (Jami al-Tirmidhi 108)


However, there is no shortage of Muslim leadership strongly opposing FGM. The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), representing 57 UN nations called for ending FGM in 2013. In 2005, a dean of Al-Azhar University of Cairo declared the act of infibulation (Type III) to be criminal. An International Islamic Conference held in Cairo the following year converged specifically to condemn infibulations.


The Muslim Brotherhood has not taken a position on FGM but has generally opposed banning it. That is a problem throughout Islam. Although many oppose it, few dare prohibiting it, because it is recognized as sunna. FGM’s prevalence remains very strong in Sub-Saharan central Africa, Egypt, Southeastern Asia, and among Kurds Eight African nations have FGM rates over 80 percent: Somalia 98%, Guinea 96%, Djibouti 93% Egypt 91%, Eritrea 89%, Mali 89%, Sierra Leone 88%, and Sudan 88%. A recent study in the Southeast Asia nation of Malaysia found that 92 percent of women had been “circumcised.” The FGM rate for Iraq is only 8 percent, and that is almost entirely the effect of Shafii Kurds. Syria and Iran would have very low rates except for their Kurdish minorities.


It is obvious that high rates of FGM is highly correlated with areas dominated by Shafii school of jurisprudence, but the high incidence of FGM in West Africa must surely also have a connection to Maliki influence.


The British National Health Service (NHS) has taken a strong position against FGM and supplied valuable advice on its harmful medical and psychological consequences, but it makes the false claim, undoubtedly bowing to prevalent political correctness and laws against “Islamo-phobia,” that no religion requires FGM. This is a dangerous half-truth.


Most of Islam honors it as noble but does not require it, and a large minority makes it obligatory. Furthermore, few are willing to ban it, because Muhammad made it sunna, and the Golden Rule of all of Islam is to follow the example of Muhammad. Many apologists for Islam say that FGM is cultural, originated among pagan African tribes, and is not religious.


But Muhammad found it thriving in Arabia and termed it noble rather than prohibiting it. Wearing a wreath of nobility, which could not be discarded, FGM spread primarily through the advance of Islam. Albeit, some of the most severe forms of it found in Somalia certainly exceed the instructions of Sharia Law stated by Ibn Naqib in Reliance of the Traveller. There are also about 27 predominantly Muslim countries that have been fairly successful in eliminating FGM. Some prohibit it, as have several European countries—France, Sweden, Germany, UK—but have allowed the acceptance of family Sharia Law courts to effectively abrogate effective prohibition.


U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R,TN) recently introduced a federal bill to criminalize female genital mutilation in the U.S.


(Courtesy: The Tribune Papers)

Fatima Sheikh: The Muslim Feminist Forgotten By Indian History

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ByPrapti Sarkar

Fatima Sheikh was one of the first Muslim teachers of India, who took to teaching Dalit children at the school run by Savitribai and Jyotiba Phule. However, like many women who fought against injustice, this educator and social reformer’s memory has been wiped out of Indian consciousness. To this day, she remains lost in the pages of history, despite her close association with Savitribai and Jyotiba Phule.


Why Should We Know Fatima Sheikh?


Fatima Sheikh was, according to some, India’s first Muslim woman educator. She and Savitribai became pioneers in education at a time when it was reserved for upper-caste men. She helped Savitribai set up their first girls’ school called “Indigenous Library”, in her own house, thus challenging the upper-caste Hindus as well as the orthodox Muslims.


What Makes Her Badass


Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule had to leave their home because they wanted to educate women and Dalits. For going against his Brahamanical views, Savitribai’s father-in-law threw them out of the house. In such trying times, Fatima Sheikh offered refuge to the couple. That home soon became the first girls’ school in the country. She taught at all five schools that the Phules went on to establish and she taught children of all religions and castes.


Biggest Battles She Faced


Little is known of Fatima Sheikh’s life beyond her involvement with the Phules. However, the resistance she faced must have been even more. She was marginalized not only as a woman but also as a Muslim woman. The upper caste people reacted vehemently and even violently to the start of these schools. They pelted stones and cow dung at Fatima and Savitribai while they would be on their way. But both the women remained undeterred. The journey was even tougher for Fatima Sheikh. Both the Hindu as well as the Muslim community shunned her. However, she never gave up and continued to go door to door, encouraging families and parents especially those from the Muslim community to send their daughters to school. As several writings say, Fatima used to spent hours counselling parents who did not wish to send their girls to schools.


Life Lessons We Can Learn From Her


Fatima Sheikh’s life stands as a testament to social reforms that were championed by Indian women in the pre-independence era, despite facing immense social resistance. She is an important figure in Muslim history and we, as a society, must give her the due credit. Her work is also of a large significance as she probably marked the first joint struggle of the Dalits and the Muslims. The unity amongst the oppressed groups has always directed the struggle of liberation, as was later seen in larger movements.


(Courtesy: SheThePeople)

Against Fascism in India: In solidarity, through care

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Women are leading the resistance against the unconstitutional Citizenship Amendment Act

ByEnda VerdeandChandan Kumar


On the 4th of December 2019 the Hindu nationalist Bharatya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of India introduced the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in parliament. By the 11th of December the bill had been enacted into law after being pushed through parliamentary votes, and signed by the President. The rules of the law are still being written and yet Home Minister Amit Shah announced on the 10th of January 2020 that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is now in operation. By doing so, the BJP has chosen to ignore thousands of citizens who have been gathering on the streets to protest against the Act since the 4th of December, and who continue to do so in defiance of state and police violence across the country.


The protests have been fuelled by the controversial tenets of the act which effectively deny citizenship to Muslims, as well as the knowledge that this is part of a much longer agenda of the BJP to deepen state surveillance and turn India into a Hindu theocracy, or what some call a ‘Hindu Rashtra.’ The Act is complex as it cannot be seen as a stand-alone piece of legislation and the affects on people will be different depending on the state, due to historic migration patterns and the diversity of ethnicities across the country. Nevertheless, three core elements can be seen to directly compromise the democratic and secular Constitution of India, and have been the spark and fuel for protests across the country.


Firstly, the Act directly contradicts the fundamental rights of the Constitution, specifically Article 14 and Article 21. Article 14 guarantees “Equality before the law”, and Article 21 the “Right to Life”.


Secondly, whilst it claims to grant citizenship to all minorities being persecuted in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, it outright excludes Muslims from these countries and does not provide citizenship to minority groups from countries such as Sri Lanka, Tibet, Myanmar and Nepal.


Thirdly, the entire exercise will be combined with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the process will force existing citizens of a country of over 1.3 billion people to prove their citizenship through appropriate certification (birth, marriage, naturalisation), claiming that if you are truly ‘Indian,’ there is no need to worry.


In their disregard for the Constitution, the ethno-nationalism that lies at the root of the CAA and NRC is revealed. The arbitrary classification of citizens and implementation processes they propose will be the beginning of a slow, structural violence targeting the poor, marginalised and Muslim sections of society – a majority of whom are informal workers, the backbone of India’s economy. Indian citizens across the country can see through the claims of ‘humanitarianism’ and argue that the implications of this act bring the BJP a step closer towards making Muslims second-class citizens.


‘Citizens against CAA, citizens against fascism’


The citizen uprising against the CAA, that began in the north-eastern state of Assam (a state already familiar with the violence of the NRC), has spread across the country resulting in the government taking extreme measures to quell the dissent. Internet shutdowns happened in Assam, Uttar Pradesh and the capital of New Delhi, even as Prime Minister Modi called for ‘no violence’ via his twitter account. The Indian Police announced a ban on public gatherings of over five people on the 19th of December in most parts of country. Protests continued, resulting in thousands of arrests and violence against young people, mostly students.


The police have used batons, tear gas and firing arms against protestors. Universities, where many of the protests began, have been violently raided by police and youth groups who appear to be associated with the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – a right-wing, Hindu nationalist paramilitary organisation that supports, and is supported by, the BJP. BJP-dominated states observed the worst violence with 23 people killed, mostly daily wage young muslim workers, and over 1000 arrested in Uttar Pradesh, whilst states such as Maharashtra remained calm with police supporting the non-violent protests. As protests retain momentum, however, arrests across the country are continuing.


These forms of state oppression are nothing new in India and neither are the acts of dissent. What is different is that the seemingly unstoppable culture of violent Hindu supremacy has come face-to-face with voices, acts and displays of communal unity playing out across the country. This article offers a brief glimpse into that complex reality through the perspectives and embodied acts of the women who are leading the protests, with the aim to tell a larger story of collective Indian dissent against what is potentially becoming an emerging Hindu theocracy.


Solidarity against state violence


Across the country, women have been at the forefront of the protests, putting their bodies on the line in the face of state violence and oppression. The anger and fear in their voices and on their faces have echoed in the streets, flashed across TV screens and circulated the internet.


As protests moved into the capital of New Delhi, growing out of university campuses, police cracked down on the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMU). A recent reportcompiled by the Independent Women’s Initiative titled ‘Unafraid: The day young women took the battle to the streets,’ gave voice to the experiences of 18 women who were part of the protests at JMU. The report illuminates the involvement of women across social strata who are coming out in solidarity with students and Muslim groups to oppose the CAA, NRC and the unfolding violence happening on their doorstep. However, their involvement, they said, was not only about the discriminatory Act but about fighting for the future they imagined for themselves, their children and India.


The state violence happening at different sites across India has been captured on video by citizens using mobile phones, with much of the footage going viral. One particular videofrom the JMU protests and violence shows five women shielding a man from the police, refusing their violence, denying their authority. The video quickly went viral and has become symbolic of the centrality of women in the resistance against police violence. However, their act of embodied protection is not just about bravery or love for another. It is about justice in a fragile democracy. When the police become your attackers, citizens, friends, family, strangers become the protectors of bodies and the rights (enshrined in the constitution) attributed to those bodies. In doing so, the citizens of India are becoming the upholders of the constitution.


Careful dissent


In Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu in southern India, women activists have appropriated the traditional, everyday decorative and artistic practice of Kolams (Rangolis) as an alternative method of expressing dissent against the CAA. Kolams are associated with Hinduism yet widely practiced and used in both private and public space. A gendered practice, Kolams are emblematic of celebration and community. Its appropriation as a political tool has therefore been impactful in raising awareness about the Act, demonstrable by its continued use as a method of peaceful protest across Chennai and surrounding cities.


In the capital city of New Delhi, the ‘Women of Shaheen Bagh’ have received wide attention, and are creating ripple effects across the country. Since 2014, the BJP government has generated a rhetoric of ‘saving’ the ‘Muslim woman’ through speeches, targeted policies, and by creating a larger public notion of the ‘dangerous Muslim man’ and an oppressive Muslim community. These same, apparently oppressed Muslim women, are now at the forefront of the protests against the BJP’s latest anti-Muslim political move, the CAA.


At Shaheen Bagh, Muslim women from across class and caste backgrounds have come together in protest by holding a continuous sit in, defying patriarchal structures and norms that restrict their bodies, movement and time. Continuing now for over a month, these women have redefined the very idea of a protest in the country. Shaheen Bagh is completely leaderless, free of any NGO-isation, and it is based entirely on a collective, shared solidarity. It has become a space of care, redefining how care is perceived, turning ‘care’ into a form of resistance. Babies and small children join women at the protest, where they have created a designated area for children. There is a community kitchen, art corners, and readings of the Indian Constitution preamble in several languages.


This phenomenon remains unparalleled in the country and in the last week, the idea of a peaceful sit in by mostly Muslim women, has gone viral. Now there is a ‘Shaheen Bagh’ in Allahabad, Kolkata and Hyderabad, amongst others. The police in many of these cities, who have been ordered to take violent action against protestors, have not been able to grasp what is happening. The very women that the upper caste Hindutva leaders wanted to ‘save’, and free from ‘oppression’ – are the very women who will keep India’s Constitution alive in defiance of Hindutva. The strength of this resistance is arguably in its multiplicity, in its resistance against three structures of oppression: patriarchy, Islamophobia, and most of all, Hindutva: Hindu ethno-nationalism.


These acts of resistance to the unconstitutional CAA and NRC only catch a glimpse of the fight for democracy happening across India. Arguably those we see and hear are the voices of the relatively privileged, those who have the possibility (and relative safety) to put their bodies on the line, be vocal against the government and are receiving press coverage because of their social capital and position. Nevertheless, the glimpse illuminates the possibilities of collective public action and civil disobedience in a fragile democracy, suffering fractures from the violence of a government intent on sowing seeds of division and hate. It also sheds light on the centrality of women in the protests, complicating the reductive stereotypes that try to define the reality of ‘Indian women.’ The involvement of women in this fight is not monolithic or romantic. It is as necessary and powerful as the participation of all socially marginalised groups and the privileged, and yet it is ‘India’s angry young women’ whose presence is being most felt. Together citizens across gender, age, class and caste are raising a fierce rallying cry for unity against fascism.


(Courtesy: Open Democracy)

5th IoT Middle East 2020 conference to be held at Armani Dubai on February 24

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Armani Dubai to be the venue for talks on how to generate business out of IoT, AI, ML and Intelligent automation as the adoption of IoT is expected to accelerate over the coming years

IMO News Service


Dubai, UAE: An impressive line-up of speakers will be addressing how to manoeuvre the IoT landscape for higher profits at the 5th Internet of Things 2020, held at Armani Hotel Dubai on 24th February 2020.


The cross-industry C-level conference aimed at decision-makers in both the private and public sector focuses on the business aspects of digital transformation. The event brings together forward-thinking experts sharing insights on business, technology and organizational transformation to leverage new business and new eco-systems.


Attendees have the rare opportunity of networking with experts, discussing the optimization of company revenue, reducing costs, changing business models, opening up new services and markets for key stakeholders and disruptive new entrants.


According to Johan Ehrstrom, CEO of 5th IoT Middle East 2020, “Collaboration is the new competition and eco-systems will replace traditional industry boundaries. New tech like AI and ML needs the data of IoT to deliver accurate analyses and output. IoT adoption is hence expected to grow by two-digit numbers and reach $18 billion in MEA related IoT investments by 2023, as both governmental and private sector companies ramp up their digital transformation capabilities.”


“The 5th Internet of Things 2020 is a game-changing platform, attracting over 400 attendees yearly, addressing the business relevance of technology across multiple verticals. IoT Middle East 2020 is for all who are less interested in the tech-aspects, but eager to future proof strategies, grow the bottom-line impacts and set the direction for the new decade.”


Over 30+ international and regional speakers, including executives from PwC, Evoteq, du, McKinsey, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, LondonBusinessSchool, Cigna, Iqvia, Haltian and PTC will take the stage and highlight novel utilization of technologies designed to shape the foundation of the future success stories.


Participants can register on www.iot-dxb.com. Registration is now open for USD 745 for individual tickets.

Germany’s prominent Muslim diplomat Murad Wilfried Hoffman dies

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IMO News Service

Murad Wilfried Hoffman, one of Germany’s prominent Muslim diplomats and scholar died on 13th January 2020 in Cologne. He was aged 89.


Hoffman began his carrier as a German diplomat in 1961 and served for 33 years in many countries, including Algeria and Morocco, and as also as director of information for NATO.


Hofmann was born into a Catholic family in Germany's Aschaffenburg in 1931, but later converted to Islam in 1980. He was educated at the University of Munich and HarvardUniversity.


He was also a scholar par excellence and wrote many articles and books on intercultural issues and religion. He authored books like "Journey to Makkah" and "Islam: The Alternative".


He was an honorary member and advisor to the Central Council of Muslims (ZMD) in Germany.

Indian Diaspora in London express solidarity with Shaheen Bagh protestors, holds demonstrations against CAA

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ByM. Ghazali Khan

London: Except that there was no Delhi police to harass and intimidate the protesters, the vicinity of Downing Street – where the official residence of British Prime Minister is – today briefly presented the scene of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh where thousands of diasporic Indians representing various faiths and ethnicities assembled to march to Indian High Commission to protest against the ignoble CAA and NRC.


For more than an hour speakers after speakers addressed the gathering, paused by the chants of same slogans as raised by Shaheen Bagh protesters like, for example, ‘Ham kia chate? Azadi’; ‘Hai jan se piari Azadi’; ‘ham cheen ke leN ge Azadi’; ‘Tum kuch bhi karlo, Azadi’; ‘Modi ham se darta hai police ko samne lata hai’; ‘Jamia tum aage badho, ham tumhare saath haiN’; ‘AMU tum aage badho, ham tumhare saath haiN’; ‘Modi-Shah you can’t hide; NRC is genocide’.



 Holding India’s tricolour and placards and chanting slogans they marched to India House through London’s iconic
Trafalgar Square
. As the march reached India House, the contained anger of the protesters expressed itself in more vigorous chants of anti-Hindutva and anti-BJP slogans.

The marchers read and repeated the preamble of the Indian constitution and dispersed after singing India’s national anthem.


Those who addressed the gathering included Labour MP from Ilford South, Sam Tarry who expressed deep concern at the growing fascism in India under Narendra Modi and said that this situation must be causing lot of hurt to the souls of founding fathers of modern India including Mahatma Gandhi.


The demonstration was organised by human rights body South Asia Solidarity Group (SASG) and supported by Co-ordinating Committee of Malayali Muslims, SOAS India Society, Tamil People in the UK, Indian Workers Association (GB), Indian Muslim Federation (UK), Federation of Redbridge Muslim Organisations (FORMO), Kashmir Solidarity Movement, South Asian Students Against Fascism, Newham Muslim Alliance, and Ghadar International.


Five Labour MPs who were unable to attend the rally expressed their support in messages sent to SASG: “Some will characterise these movements for democracy as “anti-India”. But this is part of a global fight against the far-right— whether in India, Hungary, Brazil, or here in the UK. In South Asia and the diaspora, we can only overcome the politics of division by banding together on what unites us: aspirations for a good standard of living, a decent wage, safety, and a world in which our children can breathe clean air,” said Nadia Whitthome (MP Nottingham East), UK’s youngest MP.


Some MPs have written letters to British Foreign office and Indian High Commissioner in London expressing their concern on the continuously deteriorating political situation in India.


In a special message veteran anti-war activist and writer Tariq Ali said, “Thank you Modi for uniting Hindus and Muslims.”


The organisers have also written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing, “our outrage at India’s descent into open fascism under your government. Since 2014 we have watched the growing epidemic of mob-lynching, rapes and attacks on Muslims, Dalits, Christians and Adivasis, along with attacks on dissenters, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and even judges who dare to speak out and uphold the truth about what is happening in India under your government.”


The letter reads further, “The events of the last six months have been particularly disturbing. First the revoking of Article 370, the further militarisation of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state, which was already the most highly militarised zone in the world, the imprisonment of leaders, continual curfews, torture, including torture of minors, and the imposition of  a lock down  on internet services while outsiders including your corporate friends such as Reliance’s Ambani buy up land in the Kashmir valley.


This was followed by the handing over of the land on which the iconic Babri Masjid had stood for some 500 years, before it was demolished by RSS stormtroopers, to a Hindu right-wing organisation for the construction of a massive Ram temple.”


Highlighting BJP led government’s historical anti-Muslim hatred the letter reads, “We note with alarm that historically mass disenfranchisement of a targeted minority has been closely followed by ethnic cleansing and genocide.” The letter strongly condemns the CAA and NRC and urges Mr Modi “to listen to the voices of mass democratic united protest in India and revoke the CAA and abolish the NRC and the NPR as a matter of urgency.”


[M. Ghazali Khanis based at London, UK. He is Editor of UrduMediaMonitor.com. He can be reached at mkhanghazali@gmail.com]

Celebrating the constitution

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