The Delhi State branch of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (Registered) organised a major conference on Saturday evening to strengthen national harmony and social unity. Major leaders from the Muslim, Sikh, Christian, and Buddhist communities participated in the event. Together, they pledged to reinforce the fabric of national and social unity and exposed those forces that are attacking our unity for their petty political gains.
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The conference was attended by the national spokesperson of the Gurdwara Sangh and President of the All India Peace Mission, Daya Singh; former Delhi minister Rajendra Pal Gautam; Dr MD Thomas, President of the Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies; renowned Islamic scholar Mufti Ataur Rahman Qasmi; Advocate Feroz Khan Ghazi, General Secretary of Samla; Professor Mohammad Suleman, Working President of the Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat and head of the Indian National League; former MP Ram Bakhsh Verma; and President of the Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan.
The event was conducted by journalist Suhail Anjum.
In his inaugural address, Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan explained verses 11–13 of Surah Al-Hujurat, with which the conference had commenced. He said Islam makes no distinction among human beings. According to Allah Almighty, the best person is the one who is most pious and God-fearing—that is, the one who fears Allah and protects and honours the rights of others. He cited multiple sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in which the Prophet said that no Arab is superior to a non-Arab, and no non-Arab is superior to an Arab, and neither is a white person superior to a black person nor a black person is superior to a white person. Rather, all are equal and all are children of Adam, said Khan.
He also referred to the advisory letter that the fourth caliph Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to his governor in Egypt, Malik al-Ashtar, in which Hazrat Ali said: “Malik! People are either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity.” Dr Khan mentioned that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said this quote is a source of international law and it should be written and hung at the entrances of all human rights organizations around the world.
Dr. Zafarul-Islam highlighted the need for national and social unity and brotherhood in the country, stating that it is not only necessary according to the Indian Constitution and laws, but it is also essential to ensure the progress of our country and society. If we want to stand shoulder to shoulder with the greatest nations of the world, we must promote love and mutual respect within our society. He said that those who are engaging in the politics of hate are a small minority that can be defeated by a united majority of the country, he said.
The President of the All India Peace Mission, Sardar Daya Singh, recited some verses from the Guru Granth Sahib which have the same meanings as the verses of the Qur’an that were recited during the conference. He said everyone together fought for the freedom of this country, while some forces have constantly worked to divide the people of this society. They have deprived some communities of their rights and have greatly oppressed others—such as the massacre of Sikhs in 1984. At that time, members of the Muslim community saved Sikhs everywhere and gave them shelter in their homes and mosques. Sikhs owe this as a debt to the Muslims, he said.
He said immediately after Independence, a decision was taken in 1950 by the President of the Republic, according to which if a Dalit converts to Islam or Christianity, his reservation is revoked—which is an injustice. He stated that a petition has been filed by the Sikh community in the Supreme Court against the law which has just been passed against Waqf.
Sardar Daya Singh said it is commonly believed that historically Sikhs have had very bad relations with Muslims and that Muslims oppressed them. But no one tells you that Guru Nanak praised Babur, and that the only Bani (hymn) written by the founder of Sikhism for any individual was for Babur, he said.
Daya Singh mentioned that Emperor Akbar gave 50 villages to Bibi Bhani, the daughter of the third Guru, Baba Amar Das, on the occasion of her wedding. It is this land on which the city of Amritsar was later built and where the Golden Temple stands. The foundation of this temple was laid by the Muslim Sufi saint Sayeen Mir, he said.
He also said Sikhs had very good relations with Emperor Jahangir. And when the eighth Guru, Harkrishan Ji, died of smallpox in Delhi in the year 1664 during the time of Aurangzeb, the emperor said the place where the Guru died is the property of the Khalsa, and the Guru should be buried there, he said. That is why Guru Harkrishan was buried right there in Delhi, he said.
Sardar Daya Singh said if all these things are removed from history today, then what will remain? He said the area of “Mata Sundari” in Delhi was given by the Mughals to Mata Sundari, the widow of Guru Gobind Singh. He stated that in Kartarpur, the Pakistani government has given 40 acres for the Gurudwara. This is our history. This country belongs to everyone. Everyone has sacrificed for it, and it is necessary to speak this truth today.
Former MP, Dr. Ram Bakhsh Verma, said he began his life by going to the RSS shakhas and only later moved to secular politics. According to his experience, the people of the Sangh say one thing and do another. He stated that certain forces want to push this country backwards. “He has taken control of all the media in the country, joined hands with the country’s wealthy, and is exploiting the public. Hitler did the same thing in Germany. After seizing power, he had started eliminating the weak. The same is happening in our country today. Money is driving many things, votes are being bought. 80–85 per cent of the people have been pushed to the margins, and no one is talking about them,” he said.
Dr. Ram Bakhsh Verma said we and our Muslim brothers have the same ancestors. “It was due to some of our shortcomings that some of our people separated from us. There was never any Hindu-Muslim conflict here. There were Hindus in Aurangzeb’s army and Muslims in Shivaji’s army. Subhash Chandra Bose gave the second-highest rank in the Azad Hind Fauj to a Muslim. For this country, Bahadur Shah Zafar and Begum Hazrat Mahal made greatest sacrifices,” he said.
He said Mohammad Firoz Khan was a commander in Rani Jhansi’s army who fought the British until his last breath, while some of Rani Jhansi’s own relatives had betrayed her. He said that changing religion does not change one’s parentage — our DNA is the same. He concluded his speech with Iqbal’s verse: Mazhab naheen sikhaata aapas mein bair rakhna (Religion does not teach you to bear hatred against one another).
Advocate Firoz Khan Ghazi, General Secretary of SAMLA, said our Constitution and laws have strive to unite different communities and classes into one nation. This is written right in the preamble of the Constitution, but today a party is in power whose very goal in life is to humiliate Muslims. He said the National Integration Council was established to create unity in the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs had issued guidelines on how the police should act during riots and disturbances.
“A law was passed in 1991 for the protection of places of worship. All of this was for the promotion of national unity so that people from different communities could come together to form one nation. But for the last 30–35 years, some forces have been trying hard to tear this nation apart again.” He said it is our duty to stand against the politics of hatred. He said what we today call “Akhand Bharat” (Undivided India) and dream about was actually created by the Mughals. Before them, we were divided into hundreds of small princely states.
Former Delhi minister Advocate Rajendra Pal Gautam, while speaking at the conference, said he has visited this area several times in the past few weeks. He said he wants the voice rising from here today to reach the grassroots, to the poor and Dalit settlements, because the real issue lies there. These people are not just targeting Muslims; Christians too are on their target. “The poor, Adivasis, and Dalits are on their target. After them, others will be targeted too. He said that the forces of hatred attacked Muslims and Christians at a time when many Dalits and Adivasis began to convert to Islam and Christianity. The British, French, and Dutch who came to India went back, but the Muslims and Christians who are here today are all people of this land. Today, there are 200 million Muslims in India and their majority were originally Adivasis and Dalits…, he said at Mushawarat conference.
Rajendra Pal Gautam emphasised that we need to come out of closed rooms and go down to the poor and Dalit neighbourhoods, which are used during riots. “We must make efforts to ensure that poor and Dalit people are not used in the politics of hate. Today the situation is such that they have complete control over every department of the government, they have total dominance over the Election Commission, they have removed many people from the voter lists and added others in order to gain political advantage. Today, if even the Supreme Court starts delivering judgments based on faith, the issue becomes very grave. The followers of Manusmriti consider the poor, the weak, Dalits, and Adivasis as their tools and use them for their own purposes, even though they have no love for them. We have to go to these poor people and tell them that it is the Manusmriti that created all our problems. Until these poor people stop going to the shakhas, the situation will not change,” he said at the conference called by Mushawarat.
Professor Muhammad Suleiman, Working President of the Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat and head of the Indian National League, agreed that our message needs to reach the grassroots so that the public, the poor, Dalits, and Adivasis can understand these matters.
At the end of the Mushawarat conference, Dr. D. M. Thomas said in his presidential address that all religions contain good teachings, but some people use religion for their own malicious purposes. We must work together. We must understand that we are all human beings, and all are servants and children of the same God.
In addition to members of the Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, many prominent local individuals and professors and students of Jamia Millia Islamia participated in the conference.
NOTED: Issued by Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat.
