Urdu press roundup

By IndianMuslims.info Staff

This past week witnessed many developments in which Muslim Ulema, scholars, thinkers and social workers came forward to voice their resentment and concern over continued harassment and humiliation at the hands of police and security personnel in different parts of the country, and put their genuine grievances before the Government. They confirm what Indianmuslims.info has been reporting in this column for the last one month viz. people on the street feel the bitterness on their pulse that Muslims are being selectively targeted and discriminated against.

A close look at Urdu dailies of the past week shows that the Government now seems to be sincere in taking the situation under control.

On behalf of various madrasa managements, Muslim organisations and Ulema, Jamiat-ul-Ulema Hind Secretary-General Maulana Mahmood Madni and renowned social worker Kamal Farooqui jointly organised a 2-day conference on “Terrorism: Causes and Remedies� at Parliament Annexe on August 20 and 21. Almost all Urdu dailies covered it but with varying degrees of importance. In its front-page report under banner heading “Millat-e-Islamia aazmaishon se dochar, mardanawar muquabla zaroori,� the Hindustan Express (August 21) says: “The Muslim community is passing through a period of trials with regard to terrorism the country over. But the situation on the ground would not let us down; we would face it dauntlessly. This was the consensus that emerged on the first day of the conference.�

Sharing the view that “media terrorism� is unbearably agonising, Muslim scholars and Ulema urged the media persons not to tarnish the image of Muslims. They also warned the Government against playing in the hands of those who are hell bent upon destroying communal harmony in the country. They called upon the Government to take stock of how the situation is changing for the worse particularly after the Mumbai serial blasts.

“Terrorism and violence can never get support of the majority of followers of any religion; therefore the concerned sections of society should not let the country fall hostage to a handful of (anti-national) elements,� the report cited them as saying.

Inaugurated by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rahman, the conference was graced with active participation by Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Das Munshi, Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi, film director Mahesh Bhat, eminent social activist Teesta Setalvad and others.

In his keynote address, Jamiat president Maulana Arshad Madni underlined the need of practising social justice for countering terrorism.

The next day, August 22, the Express gave a brief front-page report of the second day of the conference, and scooped the other Urdu dailies by running the 6-point Delhi Declaration adopted at the end of the conference as well as the texts of the speeches made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rahman.

The Prime Minister tried to convince the audience that the Government was sincere in making an end to the ill treatment being meted out to Muslims in the name of countering terrorism.

“If one is trying to defame Muslims by calling them terrorists, it is a mean conspiracy to provoke them…. Any action against terrorism should be taken only on the basis of solid proof and evidence. It should not be linked with any particular community, society or religion on the basis of mere rumours. We expect prudent measures in this regard on the part of State and Central Governments,� the Prime Minister said while calling upon the Ulema in particular to lead the Muslim community onto the path of progress and development.

The Prime Minister later called an urgent meeting of Muslim MPs on August 23. In a UNI news item Musalmanon ko harasan karne ki ijazat nahin the Rashtriya Sahara and the Express, on August 24 reported the Prime Minister assuring Muslim legislators that innocent people would not be allowed to be harassed at any cost in the investigation of Mumbai bomb blasts, and that he himself would talk to Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilas Rao Deshmukh about targeting the members of one single community.

Rajya Sabha member Abu Asim Azmi, maintains the report, in a press statement later said as many as 35 members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha cutting across party lines participated in the meeting.

Briefing the Prime Minister on what is happening on the ground, Mr. Azmi referred, as an example, to the cases of two Muslim youth, Faisal and Muzzammil, and said that the police not only tortured them but their ageing father as well and reportedly detained one of their female relations. He informed the PM that the police threatened the youth to disgrace other female members of their family if they did not confess the crime voluntarily.

The Prime Minister asked them to submit a written complaint to his office, and the latter did submit a written complaint to the PMO then and there.

In a 3-colum news Bomb dhamakon ke ba’d musalmanon ke khilaf karwai bund ki jaye, the Qaumi Awaz (August 23) reports All India Momin Conference staging a protest march at Jantar Mantar in the Capital against the ongoing harassment of Muslims following Mumbai serial blasts. Member Parliament and president of the organisation Furqan Ansari led the march.

The procession also addressed some other issues. It demanded cutting diplomatic ties with Israel forthwith, giving 5.8% reservation to Muslims from among the reservation given to backward classes, and increasing the number of Muslim employees in the various government departments.

The next day, on August 24, the Awam ran a photograph of Muslims marching under the banner of Momin Conference.

A delegation of All India Tanzeem Aimma-e-Masajid led by Maulana Muhammad Haroon on August 19 called on the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and handed over a memorandum to her, asserting their 3-point demands. They demanded that the UPA government should allow the Muslims to say prayers in the ancient mosques now under Archaeological Survey of India and hand over those mosques to Muslims, fix the payment scale of Imams and Muazzins as per the decision of the Supreme Court, and establish national monuments in the names of the Ulema, who had laid down their lives for the freedom of the country, in different parts of the country, reports the Sahara of August 20.

The report maintains that later the members of the organisation held a convention on “The Role of Ulema in the Freedom Struggle of India� at Aiwan-e-Ghalib.

Addressing the convention as Chief Guest, senior Congress leader R.K. Anand lamented: “The victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots were given Rs. 100 crore as compensation. Anti-Muslim riots have been taking place in India from 1952 till date but justice has not been done to them.�

Chairman of Delhi Waqf Board Choudhary Mateen Ahmed, participating in the discussion, lamented that Muslims are being dubbed terrorists today for following the commandments of God, guidance of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Holy Qur’�n.

Many writers like Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi in his article Beqasoor Musalman nishane per kiyon? (the Dawat, August 22) and Noor Jahan Tharwat in her article Nazar mein dur talak tishnagi ka sehra hai (the Inquilab, August 22), and many in letters to the editors of various Urdu dailies, have addressed this disquieting situation prevailing in the country.

The Rahnuma-e-Deccan, in its editorial on August 18, complains that the Prime Minister’s Red Fort speech on the Independence Day was replete with beautiful words and poetic verses but there was nothing about the ground realities especially the sorry state of affairs Muslims have been subjected to.

August 24, 2006