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Only 1 in 4 Indian applicants will make it to Hajj this year

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Mumbai: Only one in four of Indian Muslims desiring to perform Hajj will be travelling to Saudi Arabia this year. The 20% reduction in Hajj quota ordered by the Saudi government is causing a huge backlog of pilgrims who want to perform the “once-in-a-lifetime” ritual.

Muslim leaders have demanded an increase in quota for India as the latest census data shows a rise in Muslim population (172.2 million or 14.23% of India’s population). The Saudi government allows one pilgrim per 1,000 Muslims in a country to go for the Haj.

The Haj Committee of India said around 3.83 lakh people applied for Haj 2015 but only 1.20 lakh pilgrims are travelling through the Haj Committee to Saudi Arabia to perform the rituals in the last week of this month. Around 36,000 are using private tour operators (PTOs) to fly to Saudi Arabia. “Since 2013, the Saudi government has cut 20% quota of pilgrims from every country as the expansion of the holy mosque in Mecca is underway and the administration wants fewer pilgrims there,” said Haj Committee CEO Ataur Rahman.

Muslim leaders want India’s ministry of external affairs to take up the issue with Saudi’s Haj ministry. “Thousands of Indian Muslims who fulfill criteria to go for the Haj are being denied it as the quota has reduced. The external affairs ministry must intervene and communicate this growing concern of Indian Muslims to the Saudi authorities,” said Congress MLA Amin Patel.

“We have told the external affairs ministry to look into the issue for the last few years. Haj is one of the pillars of Islam and performing it is mandatory for Muslims who can afford it. The government should take up the issue with the Saudi authorities and get our quota increased,” former minority department minister and MLA Arif Naseem Khan said.

(Agencies)

Stop discrimination against Muslims: Hamid Ansari breaks silence

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Hamid Ansari

New Delhi: Identity, security, education, empowerment and a fair share in decision-making are the key issues India’s Muslims are facing, vice-president Hamid Ansari has said. He added the problems of exclusion and discrimination they are confronted with have to be corrected by the state.

He also cited the official objective of “sab ka sath, sab ka vikas” (with everyone, for everyone’s growth), calling it commendable and added a pre-requisite for this is “affirmative action” to ensure a common starting point and ability in all to walk at the required pace.

The vice-president was speaking at the inauguration of the All India Majlois-e-Mushawarat Golden Jubilee in Delhi on Monday.

Tracing the condition of Muslims since Independence and the work in the past decade to delineate the contours of the problem, Ansari said studies bring forth sufficient evfidence to substantiate the view that “inequality traps prevent the marginalised and work in favour of the domkinant groups in society”.

“It is evident from the compendium of official reports that the principal problems confronting India’s Muslims relate to: identity and security; education and empowerment; equitable share in the largesse of the state; and fair share in decision making.

“Each of these is a right of the citizen. The shortcomings in regard to each have been analysed threadbare. The challenge before us today is to develop strategies and methodologies to address them.”

The vice-president said deprivation, exclusion and discrimination (including failure to provide security) is to be corrected by the state; this needs to be done at the earliest and appropriate instruments developed for it.

“Political sagacity, the imperative of social peace, and public opinion play an important role in it. Experience shows that the corrective has to be both at the policy and the implementation levels; the latter, in particular, necessitates mechanisms to ensure active cooperation of the state governments,” he said.

The official objective of ‘sab ka sath sab ke vikas’, is commendable, Ansari noted and added that a pre-requisite for this is affirmative action (where necessary) to ensure a common starting point and an ability in all to walk at the required pace.

“This ability has to be developed through individual, social and governmental initiatives that fructify on the ground. Programmes have been made in abundance; the need of the hour is their implementation,” he said.

He said that exclusion and discrimination including failure to provide security has to be corrected by the State at the earliest and appropriate instruments developed for it.

“The default by the state or its agents in terms of deprivation, exclusion and discrimHamid Ansariination (including failure to provide security) is to be corrected by the state.”

Observing that the imperative of social peace is political sagacity, the vice-president said the Indian experience of a large Muslim minority living in secular polity should even be a model for others to emulate.

The community comprises 14% of the country’s population.

Ansari also reminded of the Kundu report of September 2014 which had asserted that “development for the Muslim minority must be built on a bed-rock of a sense of security”.

The Kundu Committee was set up to review the implementation of the Sachar Committee report.

Ansari said the it was evident that significant sections of the community remain trapped in a vicious circle and in a culturally defensive posture that hinders self advancement.

“Tradition is made sacrosanct but the rationale of tradition is all but forgotten. Jadeeyat or modernity has become a tainted expression. Such a mindset constrains critical thinking necessary both for the affirmation of faith and for the well being of the community,” he observed.

Annual journal of Mahfil-e-Nisa ‘Meraas’ released

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‘Meraas’ the annual magazine released at the event.

‘Meraas’ the annual magazine released at the event.

Bengaluru: Mahfil-e-Nisa, the all women’s movement  to ‘learn Urdu and teach Urdu’, celebrated its third annual function here at the Hasanath women college.

Prof. Ali Ahmed Fatmi, Head, Dept of Urdu, Allahabad University was the chief guest. He lamented the current state of Urdu in the country and praised the efforts of organisations like Mahfil-e-Nisa to promote the cause of Urdu.

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Chief Editor of Nasheman Urdu Weekly Mr. Rizwan Asad, commended the work of Mahfil-e-Nisa, and called for more such organisations to be formed.

The annual magazine ‘Meraas’ was released by the guests.

Dr. Fouzia Chowdhary, chairperson, Karnataka Urdu Academy, Dr. Syed Sha Madar Aqeel, Former Head, Dept of Urdu, Kuvempu University, Shimoga, Dr. Shaista Yusuf, President, Mahfil-e-Nisa, Convenor, Azeezulla Baig, were also present.

Muslim population growth slows in India, still faster than others

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New Delhi: India’s Muslim population is growing slower than it had in the previous decades, and its growth rate has slowed more sharply than that of the Hindu population, the census on religious groups released by the Central government has revealed. However, the Muslim share in India’s population has grown faster than that of other religions between 2001 and 2011.

The decadal Muslim rate of growth is the lowest it has ever been in India’s history, as it is for all religions.

The Muslim population still grows at a faster rate than the Hindu population, but the gap between the two growth rates is narrowing fast.

India in numbers

India now has 966.3 million Hindus, who make up 79.8 per cent of its population, and 172.2 million Muslims, who make up 14.23 per cent. Among the other minorities, Christians make up 2.3 per cent of the population and Sikhs 2.16 per cent.

The Registrar-General and Census Commissioner released the data on Population by Religious Communities of Census 2011 on Tuesday evening.

The distribution of data is of the total population by six major religious communities — Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain — besides “Other religions and persuasions” and “Religion not stated”.

The data are released by sex and residence up to the levels of sub-districts and towns.

As has been the case since Independence, the rate of increase of the Muslim population is higher than that of the Hindu population as a result of higher Muslim fertility, higher child mortality among Hindus and a greater life expectancy among Muslims, demographers say. However, Muslim fertility rates in India are falling faster than among Hindus, Pew Research’s Future of World Religions report showed recently, and the Muslim community is expected to reach replacement levels of fertility by 2050.

Muslim sex ratio improves further

The data on Population by Religious Communities of Census 2011 show that between 2001 and 2011, Hindu population grew by 16.76 per cent, while that of Muslims by 24.6 per cent. The population of both communities grew faster during the previous decade, at 19.92 per cent and 29.52 per cent, respectively. As a long-term trend, say demographers, the communities’ growth rates are converging.

“This is completely along expected lines, and has been an ongoing process,” P. Arokiasamy, demographer and Professor at the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai, told The Hindu. “With rising education and changing family expectations, declining fertility is an expected demographic phenomenon. It begins among better educated groups with better access to health care — as in India’s southern States — and then other groups catch up and converge,” Dr. Arokiasamy explained. In Kerala, for instance, the Muslim fertility rate (while higher than among the Hindus) is extremely low, especially compared with all communities in the northern States, he said.

The numbers show that the sex ratio among Muslims, already better than among Hindus, has further improved.

The sex ratio among Muslims now stands at 951 females for every 1,000 males, substantially better than 936 in 2001, while among Hindus, it is 939 females for every 1,000 males, a slight improvement over the 2001 value of 931. Assam remains the State with the largest Muslim population as a proportion (34.22 per cent) and saw the largest increase in the Muslim proportion between 2001 and 2011, followed by Uttarakhand and Kerala.

Growth rate

The growth rate of population in the decade 2001-2011 was 17.7%. The growth rate of population of the different religious communities in the same period was:

The Census data on religion comes after a significant delay; the 2001 Census data on religion was released in 2004 and the 2011 round results were expected in 2014. However, the numbers remained unreleased, even as a draft of the key data was selectively leaked earlier. The data comes in the backdrop of much fear-mongering over Muslims and their population, and RSS thinkers were quick to term the new data as proof of the end of Hindus, even while the numbers belie their claim.

(Agencies)

I will not go back from Bengaluru: Asaduddin Owaisi

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Asaduddin Owaisi

Bengaluru: Ahead of the BBMP polls scheduled to be held on Saturday, Aug 22, AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at the state Congress government for ‘deliberately’ trying to impose restrictions on his entry to Bengaluru city and impeaching his constitutional rights to free movement.

Owaisi said that as a member of parliament, he has constitutional rights to enter any place in the country, and Congress has no rights to stop him entering the city.

He said he and his party are here to stay, and will not go back from Bengaluru. He announced his party’s intention to participate in the next assembly elections in the state.

Earlier on Tuesday Justice A.S. Bopanna had issued the direction while rejecting AIMIM’s plea for a direction to the authorities to grant permission for its public rally that was scheduled for August 11 at Chota Maidan in Shivajinagar.

Muslim student punished for not worshipping Ganesha; forced to recite shlokas, humiliated

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Represenational Image

Bengaluru: In a shocking incident, a 15-year-old Muslim student was punished and humiliated by the principal for not worshipping ‘Ganesha’ a deity worshipped by many Hindus at a school in South Bengaluru.

This academic year, the school adopted a few controversial Sanskrit shlokas as its official prayer for the morning assembly. When Padmaja Menon, the principal of the school noticed that Abdullah (name changed) and some of his other Muslim friends weren’t singing “Vakratunda Mahakaya, Surya Koti Sama Prabha…,” she asked the group to come on stage and sing loudly.

“I was humiliated in front of 1,200 students and my constitutional right was violated. She made us go on stage and forced us to sing the prayer in front of everybody. She scolded me in front of everyone on the mike when I mispronounced a few Sanskrit words,” said the boy, who is in a state of shock since the July 27 incident.

The boy said the incident has deeply hurt him. “I am on the school debate team and was elected as the head boy unanimously. I have studied here since I was in kindergarten. The teachers love me and my classmates respect me. I felt like all that was lost when I refused to sing the prayer that day,” he said.

“I feel a little awkward now to discipline other students. They look at me as though I don’t have the right anymore. Being the head boy makes me uncomfortable now,” he complained. However, Abdullah is happy with the fact that many of his Hindu friends have been by his side!

The boy’s mother, along with activists of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, approached the principal and sought clarification. However, the principal acted like she did not understand what the fuss was about and kept saying that the prayer was important to instil values and discipline in students.

The principal even suggested that the boy was turning into a fundamentalist Muslim since he was from Bhatkal (a Muslim-dominated area in Karnataka).

The only thing they managed to achieve was an exemption for Abdullah who can now sit in his class while the assembly is on. “But that is not good enough. Why can’t they go back to the old prayer which had no religion in it? Fourteen of the 32 students in my class are Muslims. There are people from other religions too. At least 30% of the school is Muslim. Why should I sit separately?” he asked.

The principal however defended her stance saying that there was nothing wrong with the prayers, one of which invokes the Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. She was quoted assaying: “But Brahma is the creator of the universe. What is wrong in invoking his name?”

On the other hand, Jessy Joseph, the former principal of the school, says the development is “very sad” and points out that Hindu prayers were sung only during festivals. “We also had a tradition of conducting all faith prayers for special occasions,” said Joseph.

“He worships the Creator of the creators of an Idol!”

Family members of Abdullah, who are preparing to take their fight further, say that the boy never agitated against a Hindu prayer song. “He just remained silent during the morning assembly because, he always worships the creator of the creators of an idol,” said one of the family members of the boy.

She said that the first two lines of the prayer song itself is an act of worshipping an idol (O Lord Ganesha, of Curved Trunk, Large Body, and with the Brilliance of a Million Suns / Please Make all my Works Free of Obstacles, Always). “We are Muslims and we seek guidance and help only from the Creator of the universe and not form a creation of the man,” she said.

(Agencies)

Bias against Muslims on death penalty: Prakash Karat

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New Delhi: CPI(M) politburo member Prakash Karat Thursday said there was a bias against the Muslims in the case of execution of the death penalty in the country.

“There is a bias and an increasing feeling against the Muslims in the case of execution of the death penalty in the country,” Karat told a news channel.

“Three persons, including Yakub Mamon, were hanged till death in India in the last three years. All of them were Muslims. The death sentences of others were commuted or their mercy petitions are pending,” he said.

(Agencies)

Yakub Memon’s body handed over to family, tight security in Mumbai

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Yakub-Memon

Nagpur/Mumbai: The body of Yakub Memon, who was hanged in Nagpur this morning for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, was handed over to his family which flew it to Mumbai for last rites amid tight security with city police disallowing any procession.

Security has been stepped up in Mumbai, especially in Mahim area where Yakub’s family resides as well as other sensitive localities of the metropolis, and over 400 people have been detained as a preventive measure.

Quick Response Teams of police, formed after the 26/11 terrorist attacks, have been deployed at a few places, including the Al Hussaini building where the Memon family lives and in Marine Lines, where the burial arrangements have been made.

“Yes Yakub Memon has been hanged at 7 AM sharp and his body is being handed over to his family,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said. Yakub’s brother Suleiman and cousin Usman, who were camping in Nagpur since yesterday, received the body which was taken to airport and flown to Mumbai. The two boarded the same flight.

Suleiman had moved an application last evening to the Nagpur jail authorities requesting that the body be handed over to the family. The request was accepted and accordingly, the body was wrapped in ‘kafan’ (shroud) and placed in a tightly sealed coffin box.

Mumbai Police has not allowed Yakub’s family to carry the body in a procession and has made arrangements to perform the burial at a cemetery in Marine Lines, where heavy police force has been deployed.

“We have not permitted Yakub’s family to reach the cemetery in any procession taking into account law and order situation and only those very close to the family would be taking part in his last rites,” a senior police officer said.

“We have already gathered personal details of the people who would be with Yakub’s family,” he added. Since Yakub’s father Abdul Razzak and some other family members were buried at the Marine Lines cemetery, Yakub’s family has wished to perform his last rites there, another police officer said.

Alternative arrangements have also been made for burial at the Mahim cemetery, he said.

“We are monitoring and reviewing the security arrangements regularly,” Mumbai Police spokesperson Dhananjay Kulkarni said.

Mumbai Police have detained nearly 405 people as a preventive measure to maintain law and order in the wake of Yakub’s hanging. “All the people who are detained are on police record, who might disturb the communal harmony or create disturbance in the city,” said DCP (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni.

Police are also keeping a close eye on any inflammatory statement by religious or political leaders and have warned of strict action against anyone violating law. The burial will take place in a Muslim cemetery after the usual last prayer ‘Namaj-e-Janaja’ later today.

Tight security arrangements were made in and around the Central Prison in Nagpur. Quick Response Teams were deployed and authorities also clamped section 144 of CrPC (unlawful assembly) last evening.

A large number of onlookers gathered at some distance outside the jail. Yakub was hanged till death in the ‘Fansi Yard’ under supervision of Jail Superintendent Yogesh Desai.

A team of doctors declared him dead after about half-and-hour of the scheduled hanging, when his body was brought down.

Chief Judicial Magistrate of Nagpur M M Deshpande was present in the Fansi Yard.

She read out the operating part of the TADA court order which awarded capital punishment to Yakub before he was made to stand on a stool and the lever pulled by the hangman.

Yakub, who was the lone convict sent to gallows in the serial blasts which claimed 257 lives across the financial capital of country in 1993, lost a series of legal battles for stay on his execution.

(Agencies)

Yakub Memon hanged in Nagpur jail on his 54th birthday

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Yakub Memon

Nagpur: Yakub Abdul Razzak Memon, “convicted” in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, was hanged till death at the Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday morning, officials said.

He was sent to the gallows — on his 54th birthday on Thursday — after several of his court appeals and clemency petitions were rejected by various courts, including the Bombay High Court, the Supreme Court, the Maharashtra governor and the president of India.

Memon was hanged at 6.35 a.m. A medical team at the jail pronounced him dead a short while later. His body was sent for an autopsy by a medical team from a Nagpur government hospital, before being cleared for the last rites.

The last of the legal procedures continued till barely a couple of hours before the execution this morning before sunrise. Memon was the first — and only convict out of 100 in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case — whose hanging was upheld by the Supreme Court.

The death sentence of 11 others was commuted to life. A Mumbai Special Court had sentenced him to death in July 2007. The death warrant was issued by a Special TADA Court judge on April 29, scheduling the execution for July 30.

Maharashtra had started preparations for the noose for Memon almost three weeks ago.

Memon filed a fresh appeal in the Supreme Court, followed by a clemency plea with the Maharashtra governor, again a fresh plea in the apex court and a final appeal with the president of India.

He got no relief from any quarters, paving the way for his execution. The Supreme Court on early Thursday rejected a last ditch attempt by 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon to stall his execution.

Memon had challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the president. Past midnight on Thursday, the apex court bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Amitava Roy rejected Memon’s plea seeking 14 days’ time before the execution of his death sentence is carried out.

Here is the timeline of the major events that took place in the last 24 hours:

10.35am (July 29): Three-judge bench of the SC starts hearing Memon’s plea after two judges gave a split order on Tuesday

11am: Memon submits a 14-page mercy petition to President Pranab Mukherjee’s office

4pm: SC dismisses Memon’s plea against his death warrant

4pm: Maharashtra governor rejects Memon’s mercy plea

4pm: President sends Memon’s mercy petition to home ministry for advice

8.30pm: Home minister Rajnath Singh drives to Rashtrapati Bhawan, conveys government’s decision to reject Memon’s mercy petition

9.15pm: Union home secretary LC Goyal and solicitor general Ranjit Kumar arrive at Rashtrapati Bhawan

10.45pm: President rejects mercy petition of Memon

10.50pm: Senior lawyers Prashant Bhushan and Anand Grover reach Chief Justice of India Justice HL Dattu’s residence with a fresh petition seeking stay of death warrant for the next 14 days

1am (July 30): Scene shifts to residence of senior SC judge justice Dipak Misra’s residence as senior lawyers Grover and Yug Mohit Chaudhry reach his residence

1.35am: Three judges – justice Misra, justice Pant and justice Roy – agree to meet at the Supreme Court at 2.30am.

2.30am: Judges arrive at the apex court. Hearing deferred over attorney general Mukul Rohtagi’s delay in arrival

3.20am: Hearing on Memon’s plea begins

4.50am: SC rejects Memon’s plea for a stay on the death warrant

5.30am: Memon is provided information as to why he is being hanged by a magistrate in the jail

7am: Memon hanged at Nagpur jail in Maharashtra around 7am. A medical team pronounced him dead a short while later.

9.30am: After doing all formalities by 9.30 am, Yakub’s elder brother, Suleiman and cousin, Usman Memon take the custody of the body and leave for the Nagpur airport by 9.45 am. The body would be taken to Mumbai for burial by a service flight.

(Agencies)

Muslim organisations in Karnataka appeal for cancelling death punishment to Yakub Memon

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(L-R) Umar Shariff (DIET), Mr. Mahir (MPJR), Syed Mohammed Iqbal (KMMM), Syed Shafiullah (JDS), Mr. Khalid (MPJR)

(L-R) Umar Shariff (DIET), Mr. Mahir (MPJR), Syed Mohammed Iqbal (KMMM), Syed Shafiullah (JDS), Mr. Khalid (MPJR)

Bengaluru: A collective of Karnataka-based Muslim organisations including, Mission Possible for Justice & Rights (MPJR), Karnataka Muslim Muttahida Mahaz (KMMM), Discover Islam Education Trust (DIET), All India Dawah Centres Association (AIDCA) and Karnataka Muslim Muttahida Tehreek (KMMT) today urged the Centre not to hang 1993 Mumbai blast death row convict Yakub Memon.

Addressing the press here, Mr. Umar Shariff, president of DIET said that, “Yakub Memon has already spent around 22 years behind the bars for the role which has not even been clearly or convincingly established. He or his family should not be punished for the alleged crimes of his brother”.

Referring to the view of the late head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) B Raman, who had favoured clemency for Yakub Memon on the ground that he had cooperated with investigating agencies and does not deserve to be hanged, Syed Shafiullah of Janatal Dal (Secular) urged the government to commute the death penalty to life sentence, for if carried out, it would not serve the interests of justice.

He also presented former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) Markandey Katju, who last week said that the evidence on which Memon has been found guilty is “very weak”, and there has been “gross travesty of justice” in the case.

Syed Mohammed Iqbal, general secretary of the Karnataka Muslim Muttahida Mahaz, questioned what he termed as ‘double standard’ practiced in the decision to hang Menon.

“Justice B N Srikrishna’s report, submitted in 1998, had named Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray as the man who directed the violence in the January 1993 phase of the riots, which claimed the lives of over 900 innocent people, yet he was given a state funeral. He pointed out that those scheduled to hang for two other crimes, the assassinations of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, have not yet been hanged. All we are asking is to give Memon the same clemency that these people have been granted.”

The organisation stated that there many in the country, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI, MDMK and others, who feel feel that Yaqub Memon should not be hanged.

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