History books never gave space for Muslim scholars

Kozhikode: The history of Muslim leaders, who sacrificed their life for the country's freedom were "tarnished by people with vested interests", Union Minister of Minority Affairs K Rahman Khan said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the "Kerala Muslim History Conference" here, he said, "Our history textbooks never gave space for the Muslim scholars, who chose martyrdom in the freedom struggle of 1857."

The minister also emphasised the need for the reviving and compilation of the glorious history of Muslims and their rich heritage.

T Arifali, Ameer, Jamat-e-Islami Kerala, presided the function.

The three-day Conference discussed various matters pertaining to Muslims including on topics like "Muslim Society: Culture and Arts", "Muslim Renaissance Movements and its Analysis" and "Muslim society and its critical engagements".
http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/history-books-never-gave-space-for-muslim-scholars_899192.html

Muslims want Cong to pass communal violence bill

 NEW DELHI: Muslim leaders urged Congress to pass the communal violence bill, putting a tough poser to the party that has failed to promulgate the legislation promised in its election manifesto.

The strong pitch for the legislation, with Muzaffarnagar riots as the reason, came at an interaction organized by Congress with civil society working among minorities to elicit their views on issues to be included in the 2014 manifesto. It was a bit of an irony since the bill was a key poll promise of Congress in 2009 though the UPA has failed to promulgate it.

 Rahul Gandhi, it is learnt, did not give his opinion on the vexed legislation though he cited AICC general secretary Mohan Prakash as saying that "there are two views on the bill".

The Union Cabinet cleared the bill recently at the fag end of UPA-2's tenure but failed to bring it in the winter session of Parliament. BJP and some regional parties are strongly opposed to the bill.

The community's urgency on the legislation which seeks to hold authorities accountable for communal riots is linked to Muzaffarnagar riots in western UP that left 50,000 Muslims in relief camps. The clashes between Jats and Muslims were raised at the manifesto meeting with participants pointing to the futility of making other promises if lives of people were under threat.

Along with it was raised the issue of arrest of "innocent" Muslim youth in terror cases and the need to fast-track their cases.

When a young participant mentioned "first security, then development", Rahul retorted, "no, both can go hand in hand".

It is not a happy situation for Congress that the legislation it has failed to pass in Parliament is the uppermost concern of the Muslim community, its core support base.

While security was mentioned repeatedly as a concern during the meeting, Rahul agreed that people were worried. Referring to his visit to relief camps in Muzaffarnagar on Sunday, he said when he took an 8-year-old boy aside and asked him what he felt, the boy replied, "I am very scared." Rahul said nobody in any state or belonging to any religion needs to be scared in India.

That Muzaffarnagar dominated the manifesto session may further nudge the Congress to raise the pitch on riots, sure to rile the ruling Samajwadi Party in UP since such focus puts its "secularism" under the scanner. A day after Rahul's visit, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said the Congress was misleading Muslims in relief camps.

Muslim leaders also demanded that dalit converts to Islam be recognized as SCs and the 4.5% minority quota be rescued from Supreme Court which has stayed it. The gathering demanded that 15-point programme for Muslims be made mandatory for states since they were reluctant to implement the Sachar panel schemes.

The gathering also sought a system to rein in the "communal attitude" of the administration which did not allow implementation of welfare schemes.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-12-24/india/45539097_1_muzaffarnagar-riots-relief-camps-communal-violence-bill

Disappointed Muslims Prepare for India Vote

Frustrated by politicians’ unfulfilled promises, Indian Muslim in Ajmer city, in the largest northwestern state of Rajasthan, are holding regular meetings to decide whom to vote for in the upcoming elections.

“The Muslim voters in the Dargah region are 35,000 and towns like Sarwar, Nasirabad, Khanpura, Salemabad and Roopangargh are densely populated with Muslims,” professor Manan Rahi, a leader of Muslim community, told the Times of India on Wednesday, November 20.

With more than 465,000 voters out of the 16 lakh population of the eight constituencies, Muslims have been the cornerstone of the Indian elections.

In the last assembly elections, there was a 10 to 12 % overall swing towards BJP from this community.

From Ajmer North, 5.5 % Muslims voted for the BJP candidate.

Preparing for the upcoming assembly elections, Muslims feel dissatisfied by both Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and National Congress party (NCP) polices.

Over the past weeks, the provinces of Taragarh, Dargah, Khanpura and Sarwar, which are heavily populated with Muslims, have been witnessing regular meetings ahead of assembly elections.

Adding to their confusion, a big part of the Muslim community feels jammed as they fear BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and on other hand is disappointed with Congress.

Modi, the 14th and current Chief Minister of Gujarat, is the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance for the upcoming 2014 Indian general elections.

“Now the major problem is that Muslim voters are coming and asking that if they vote for their BJP candidate, it may bring Narendra Modi to power,” professor Rahi said.

“We are not against BJP but have decided to vote against Modi.”

Relations between Muslims and the BJP have been strained since the 2002 massacre of Muslims in the state.

More than 2,000 Muslims were hacked and burnt to death in Gujarat in 2002 by Hindu mobs after Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire first blamed on Muslims but which a later inquiry concluded was accidental.

Several investigations at the state and federal levels accused police of failing to protect Muslims under orders from Modi and his aides, fanning one of the worst instances of sectarian violence in India.

In August, an Indian court sentenced a former Indian state minister from the BJP to 28 years in jail party.

Congress Too

With most voters disappointed with BJP, the congress too has lost its glow in the city after failing to bring long awaited piece.

“Congress failed to bring peace to this town,” Mohammad Anis of Sarwar said.

“People are angry that neither senior Congress leader nor any minister of the government came to help at the time of riots,” he added.

In its bid to replace BJP, the congress is luring Muslim voters in Pushkar, who count for 32 percent of votes, by nominating a Muslim candidate Naseem Akhtar.

In Ajmer North, about 35,000 Muslim voters are against BJP after the party failed to achieve any development in the region.

“Thousands of devotees come daily to this place but the BJP did not attempt to take any measures for the development of the region,” said Mahmood Khan, leader of dargah bazaar.

“There was a budget of Rs 300 crore but it lapsed.”

High turnout in Dargah would be in favor of the congress “If a good number of people from these areas vote then most certainly that will indicate a loss to BJP but if they do not come out to vote, it will not be good for Congress,” Khan said.

There are some 140 million Muslims in Hindu-majority India and they have long complained of being discriminated against in all walks of life.

Muslims complain of decades of social and economic neglect and oppression.

Official figures reveal Muslims log lower educational levels and higher unemployment rates than the Hindu majority and other minorities like Christians and Sikhs.

They account for less than seven percent of public service employees, only five percent of railways workers, around four percent of banking employees and there are only 29,000 Muslims in India's 1.3 million-strong military.
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/asia-pacific/466207-disappointed-muslims-prepare-for-india-vote.html

Hindus flock to mosques for circumcision

Chennai: While his friends spent the summer enjoying the sights of various holiday locations, 13-year-old Surendar headed for a mosque – not for religious reasons, but for  undergoing ‘khatna’, otherwise known as ‘sunnath’ (circumcision), to overcome a medical problem.

“We were told it would take about three weeks for him to recover from the surgery and so we thought the summer vacation was the best time to get it done,” says Surendar’s father  K G Shanmugam, who lives in  Kolathur , North Chennai with his family.

He explains that his son, a class 8 student, suffered from severe pain when urinating and although admitted twice to hospital for treatment, found no relief. “My brother told me his son too had a similar problem and sunnath provided a permanent solution. We approached the mosque and they were kind enough to do the procedure for the boy last week. He is much better now,” he adds, sounding relieved.

Unani practitioner Syed Nawaz , who has been performing khatna for several years, says the number of Hindu boys coming for the procedure is steadily growing. “Almost 40 per cent of the boys I have attended to so far since  this summer vacation began were Hindus. When a Hindu family approaches me for help, I first explain the surgical process, the healing time and its health benefits,” the  hakeem adds.

S. Sulaiman, 62, of the Masjid-ur-Noor says his mosque on ECR Road in Thiruvanmiyur has been organizing free khatna camps during the summer vacations for the last five years. “We are happy that several Hindu families have understood the health benefits of khatna and are coming to us to have their sons undergo the procedure . We arrange for it with love and care, irrespective of religion”, he says.

Mosque vice-president, R Noorullah says the summer vacation is a busy time for hakeems specializing in khatna procedures. “Of course, they are busy during the other months too as several Hindu adults are opting for the procedure for health reasons. Many men from the film world too undergo khatna to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases”, he reveals.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130524/news-current-affairs/article/hindus-flock-mosques-circumcision

Muslim front to protest in Mumbai today

MALEGAON: The Muslim Reservation Federation (MRF) here has demanded the state government to announce a suitable quota for the Muslim community by October 31 or face agitation.

Accusing chief minister Prithviraj Chavan of not keeping his word, MRF volunteers will hold a 'dharna' in Mumbai's Azad Maidan to remind him of the promise he had made to them around three months ago.

When the MRF volunteers met Chavan on May 27, he had promised that the Dr Mehmud ur-Rehman committee's report would be made public within a month. He also promised that based on the committee's findings, the government would initiate action to provide the Muslim community reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for admissions, said Asif Shaikh, president of the MRF. "But nothing constructive happened at the state secretariat on the subject. This, despite the fact that Dr Mehmud ur-Rehman had submitted the final report to the government," Asif Shaikh said.

"We are giving the state government time till October 31. If it fails to release the report and initiate action on our demand, we will start a 'jail bharo andolan' from the first week of November," he said. The Mehmud ur-Rehman committee was set up in 2008, at the behest of then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, to look into the socio-economic and educational status of the Muslims in Maharashtra. The government had asked the committee to submit its recommendations for the empowerment of the community, which according to the Sachar committee, is lagging behind others in all fields.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nashik/Muslim-front-to-protest-in-Mumbai-today/articleshow/23669152.cms