Indian Moderate Muslims To Meet at Ajmer Sharif
Hijack Of Muslim Representation By Wahhabi-"Salafi" Elements On Agenda

by All India Ulema and Mashaikh Board
All India Ulema and Mashaikh Board
February 10, 2014

http://www.islamicpluralism.org/2342/indian-moderate-muslims-to-meet-at-ajmer-sharif

New Delhi, 10 February 2014

A general meeting of the All India Ulema and Mashaikh Board (AIUMB) will be held at Ajmer Sharif, one of the most distinguished spiritual Sufi sites in the world, as the shrine of the great saint Moinuddin Chishti (12^th-13^th c. CE), from 12 February to 15 February 2014. This meeting will discuss, among other topics, the very sorry state of affairs of Indian Muslims, who have been relegated to a position worse than that of Dalits [so-called "untouchables"], as admitted by high powers in the Indian Union government.

Ajmer Sharif -- Photograph 2012 Via Wikimedia Commons.

Syed Babar Ashraf, AIUMB general secretary, said that AIUMB has been campaigning for the welfare of Muslim community through the last decade, and has addressed both the masses and the rulers about developments in India that have occurred with the active connivance of the political class, administration and bureaucracy.

Syed Babar Ashraf.

According to Syed Babar Ashraf, the agenda of the Ajmer Sharif meeting will include the injurious nature of the Waqf Amendment Bill recently passed by the Indian parliament, and the National Waqf Development Corporation created by the government, purportedly to save the Muslim Waqf [pious foundation] properties. In reality, these measures will legalize the seizure of Awqaf [plural of Waqf] by Wahhabi/"Salafi" elements led, guided, and financed from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to use the Muslim endowment assets in propagating an extreme, alien, and infamous ideology rejected sharply by more than 80 percent of Indian Muslims, who have professed and practiced Sufism for centuries.

The general secretary said the meeting will also discuss how to make the political class comprehend that Indian Muslim affairs have been hijacked by the two above-mentioned foreign powers, that they are governing these affairs by proxy, and that both the Union and state governments have neglected this issue since independence.

Wahhabi/"Salafi" elements have gained access to the corridors of power by faking Muslim representation, and the authoritative Indian Muslims are deprived of their share in the fruits of national development, although the government declares that Muslims are first to claim their share in resources.

He said that the interference of Wahhabi/"Salafi" elements in management of Waqf assets and monuments will be discussed because the Wahhabi/"Salafi" elements are not honoring Waqf property deeds and work against the will of the original founders. This will again emphasize that nobody would endow his/her property without full faith in intercession, i.e. veneration of spiritual centers associated with humble and noble departed souls. All the Waqf properties have been endowed by Sunni Sufi Muslims and AIUMB as the leading body of Indian Sunni Sufi Muslims represents the heirs of the endowers and knows better than these Wahhabis/"Salafis" how to honor the will of the endower.

According to the general secretary, this meeting will seek unanimity on an action plan to get rid of Wahhabi/"Salafi" elements misusing all the Muslim bodies, including Hajj committees and Waqf boards, and the new National Waqf Development Corporation, with removal of the legal provisions in the recently-enacted Waqf Bill and changes in other government bodies, to provide for participation by Muslim representatives like the Delhi Urs Committee or Khawaja Gharib Nawaz Committee. Management of other bodies, created at the Union and state levels, for the development of Urdu, the main language spoken by Muslims all over India, such as the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) and the Urdu academies, are supposed to be entrusted to Sunni Sufi intellectuals and men and women of intellect and integrity, so that spread of the Wahhabi/"Salafi" ideology by written word can be restricted, and an Indian patriotic approach given pride of place in our common life, literature and language.

He said all such issues will be discussed as thoroughly as necessary and that the AIUMB leadership would try to produce a firm timeline to take up these issues in broader platforms.

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