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‘We cannot have peace without justice’:
Former US President Jimmy Carter visited Jeddah on Saturday to share
his vision of the future of cross cultural and interfaith relations
and peace in the Middle...
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Muslims constitute about 26% of the
Kerala population and comes over 8 million in number. Internal
strife and schism are the major problems confronting Kerala Muslims.
Each and every Muslim religious organization are competing each
other on trivial issues. The anti-Muslim forces are brilliantly
utilizing this opportunity to vilify and demonize Muslim community
and Islam per se. The latest of the anti-Muslim campaign is
Love-Jihad. With mere figment of imagination pro-fascistic media
with the connivance of the police fabricated ‘evidence’ for Love
Jihad and created wide Islamophobia.
Forum for Intellectual Dialogue, a new
venture intended for intra-faith and interfaith dialogues, conducted
its first official programme of intra-faith dialogue on 10th January
2010 at Kerala Waqf Board Auditorium in Kochi.
The meeting highlighted the concept of
Islamic unity as described by the Qur’an. Secondly, it probed
Islamic unity in history and thirdly, the significance of unity in
protecting identity, confronting challenges and unifying religious
edicts.
It also underlined the
responsibilities of governments, scholars and Islamic organizations
in fostering unity. Fourthly, the meeting dealt with the obstacles
facing Islamic unity and ways to overcome them. Fifthly, the
participants discussed practical programs to achieve unity.
All races are equal in Islam; black,
white, yellow, red, or any combination of that. For the sake of
Muslim unity all sects are acceptable and equal and we should learn
to tolerate each other, different sects are just different flavors
of the same principle.
Justice K.A. Abdul Gafoor presided
over the meeting while Prof. K. M. Bahauddin (former Vice-chancellor
of Aligarh University) inaugurated the function.
K.A.Abdul Haseeb Madani (former ISM
vice-president) presented a paper on Contemporary Environmental
Problems and Ways to Overcome Them. He argued that, Tawhid is the
fundamental statement of the oneness of the Creator, from which
everything else follows. It is the primordial testimony to the unity
of all creation and to the interdependence of the natural order of
which humanity is an intrinsic part.
K.F. Mohammed Aslam Moulawi (president
of DKMYF) made a speech on Historical Roots of Islamophobia. K T.
Hussain (executive committee member of Solidarity) made a
presentation on Remedial Measures against Islamophobia. Prof.
Omanoor Mohammed (leader of Sunni and former principal of MAMO
College, Malappuram) presented Theological Basis of Pluralism.
Advocate P.K. Habiburahman (State treasurer of ISM group) presented
Ideal Muslim Life in a Plural Society: An Indian Perspective.
India’s pluralism and its ability to “draw the circle wide enough to
be inclusive” have greatly contributed to stability and development,
Habiburahman said.
The unprecedented anti-Muslim violence
in Gujarat in 2002 with which the Gujarat state government openly
connived, and the subsequent total loss of recourse to justice for
the Muslim victims of the carnage shook me to my bones, he said.
Justice P.K. Shamsudheen presented the
communiqué of the conference. It pleaded the various community
organizations to unite for goodness, virtue and righteousness.
The communiqué read as follows:
“Most often, difference of opinion
acts as a hindrance to Muslim unity. Anti-Islamic forces misuse it,
at an optimum level, to spread the message that Muslims are all
extremists and Islam per se, in terrorist in nature. This negative
image against a community, which is intended to guide mankind
towards righteousness, morality and liberation, would alter the
moral balance of the earth and lead the mass into darkness. We, who
are assembled here with the theme of “moving unitedly in
righteousness” wants o declare our intention to move more closely,
and intimates in virtue. We reiterate the Qur’anic dictates wherein
says that Muslims shall hold fast to the rope of GOD, all of you,
and do not be divided (3:103). We do recognize that we have
difference of opinion among us and wish to maintain them. Keeping
these differences, we intend to move unitedly, for issues of common
interests. We declare to intensify this spirit of unity further in
the coming future.”
1. Justice K.A.Abdul Gafoor
2. Justice P.K.Shamsudheen
3. Prof. K.M.Bahauddin
4. K.T.Hussain
5. Prof.Omanoor Muhamed
6. Abdul Salam Faisy
7. K.A.Abdul Haseeb
8. KF Mushammed Aslam Maulavi
9. Adv. P.K. Abdul Rahiman
& 65 others
Email of the
organization:
intrafaith2010@gmail.com Website:
www.alharmony.com
(V.A. Mohamad Ashrof is
the executive committee member of Forum for Intellectual Dialogue.
Email:vamashrof@gmail.com)
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