By Najiya O, TwoCircles.net,
Kaviko Abdul Rahman, famous Tamil poet and chairman of the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board, has vowed to redeem the properties of the Board from encroachers. Education is very important for the development of Muslims. Muslims can solve all their problems if they stand united, he said.
Talking to the TwoCircles.Net, the newly-elected Chairman of the Wakf Board said that he would give priority to redeem the properties of the Board from encroachers. “Properties of the Board worth around Rs. 90,000 crore have been encroached all over the state. I plan to redeem them with the support and cooperation of the Government,” he said.
Committed to the educational development of the community in the State, Kaviko plans to open elementary schools and ITIs. Beginning a university providing free education to Muslims is his dream. Muslims in the State are educationally backward. Illiteracy and poverty are very common. Mr. Kaviko said that the Wakf Board had plans to provide financial help to poor students for higher education. There are many educational institutions run by Muslims, but a majority of them are self-financing institutions where the fees are unaffordable for the common people. Religious education is provided in Masjids, but not in an organized matter. The new chairman also wishes to begin an organized Madrasa system. Educating and empowering women will be one of main focuses, he said.
Kaviko also plans to build hospitals in the four major cities of Chennai, Trichy, Madurai and Kovai (Coimbatore). The hospital in Chennai would be made a centre of heart transplantation.
Muslims are there in every party in the State, but the parties generally see them as mere vote-bank. A close friend of the DMK chief and State Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Kaviko is all praises for his friend. “Karunanidhi has got a good heart towards Islam and Muslims in general. He has done a lot for Muslims. Even though Karunanidhi is a known atheist and Kaviko a famous Islamic scholar, they have a lot in common, says the poet. “We have many common interests like the popularization of Tamil language and literature, attitude towards general issues, etc”.
Majority of the Muslims in the State follow the Hanafi Mad’hab and speak Tamil, the mother-tongue. But of course there are Urdu speaking people too. Some people follow the Shafi Mad’hab.
“I advocate the unity of all Muslims. If Muslims unite, they can solve all problems. Muslims are killing each other in Pakistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Muslims should be united under one umbrella. Islam is enough for Muslims. All parties and organizations divide Muslims, keeping one group against others. Muslims have got a very bad name by terrorism. The Qur’an doesn’t approve of the killing of innocent people,” he concluded.