A voice for India’s many peaceful Islams

A group of activists who have been fighting community issues individually or as a group came together on Monday to launch Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD). In a press conference held at the Marathi Patrakar Sangh in Mumbai on Monday, the group said that they would now represent ‘many Islams’ and fight for several rights within the community as a whole, irrespective of sectarian differences.

The move ties in with the community’s fight for similar issues worldwide. DNA in its Monday issue had reported on the Muslim Council of Elders—an independent body of Muslim scholars, experts and dignitaries in Abu Dhabi, who have announced an international youth forum to spread awareness among Muslim youth vulnerable to extremism, as well as function as an outreach programme to clarify Islam as a religion of peace to outsiders. There is also a widespread global fear that those with malafide intent are hijacking the platforms from which Islam is being spread as a religion of peace.  

“After a two-day conference during the weekend with dozens of people from across India attending it, we decided to have IMSD. We felt that there is a need to have strong voice for the Muslims. We are against people of other communities being termed as ‘kafirs’ by some extremists, or that state be formed on the basis of religion be it Hindu-Rashtra or even a Muslim state like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. We do not think religions make a state.... IMSD will basically stand for the many Islams that exist,” said Javed Anand, convenor of the newly-formed IMSD.

Among the co-convenors of IMSD who attended the press conference were Noorjehan Safia Niaz of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, Nasreen Contractor and Feroze Mithiborewala, active citizens who have previously raised issues of the community in the past. “We feel that religion cannot be the basis of a state. Hence we oppose that. We also oppose ideologies like that of Zakir Naik,” said Mithiborewala. The group has listed a number of issues that are part of the gender justice fight and will take them up.

The IMSD said it will have 33 per cent Muslim office bearers.  

The Muslims for Secular Democracy (MSD) is a similar organisation that is already in place. Anand, responding to a question on the need for a second organisation founded on similar lines, said: “There are various organisations coming up in different countries. Since there is a issue of which identity comes first, the name should address that.”

STAND FOR RIGHTS

Represent many Islams and fight fundamentalism within the community

Women’s right to pray inside mosques

Women’s equal right to access to daargahs, kabristan

Ban Female Genital Mutilation/ FGC

Abolish triple talaq, halala, polygamy (as practiced)

Stop communalising, politicising gender justice issues

Fighting fundamentalism within the community

Rejuvenate Islam’s tolerant tradition

Condemn all acts of intolerance, extremism, terrorism in Islam’s name

IMSD rejects all versions of a theocratic/majoritarian state in India and elsewhere

Stop discrimination against and attacks on Muslims