Hyderabad : Jamat-e-Islami Hind president Syed Jalaluddin Umri said solutions to all problems faced by the humanity lie in following the path shown by Islam.
Addressing the public meeting on ‘reconstruction of the society and our responsibilities’ organised by JIH here on Saturday night, he said following the path shown by Islam will change the destiny of India.
He pointed out that the concept of freedom of thought has been borrowed from holy Quran, which makes it clear that there is no compulsion in Islam.
There is not a single incident in Islamic history of forcible religious conversion, he said.
Speakers at the event said Muslims as equal partners in the country have a special role in its reconstruction, and urged them to adhere to the teachings of Islam to discharge their responsibility as the best ‘ummah’ for entire mankind.
Shankaracharya Omkarananda Saraswati said had Islam been a religion of terrorism, Hindus would not have been living in India today.
Stating that Muslims can never be separated from India, he said Muslims and Hindus are like two hands of a body.
“(Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji is visiting the world for global peace negotiations but I want to tell him that such a dialogue will have no meaning if there is no peace at home,” he said.
Organised as part of the national conclave of JIH, the meeting brought together leaders of various religions, sects and Islamic schools of thought on one platform.
Zafar-Ul-Islam, president, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, said Muslims should raise their voice against injustice and exploitation and all issues related to their non-Muslim brethren.
Mujtaba Farooq, member, Majlis-e-Shura, JIH, claimed that Modi’s countdown had begun as evident from the way the country stood up unitedly to the incidents of growing intolerance.
Supreme Court advocate Mehmood Paracha said false charges of terrorism against Muslim, Dalits and tribals were a conspiracy against the country. “There is no need to be on backfoot because of these false charges,” he said.
Stating that numbers never mattered for Muslims, he said the community which constitutes 15 percent of India is capable of protecting the country and playing a significant role in the reconstruction.
Qasim Rasool Ilyas, president, Welfare Party of India, said even after 68 years of independence, India is lagging behind in all parameters of human development index.
He said the Welfare Party was striving for value based politics in the country. Voicing concern over growing intolerance, he said there was serious threat to the democracy.
Telangana’s Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali lauded JIH for clearing misconceptions about Islam among non-Muslim brethren by publishing Islamic literature in various Indian languages.
He also hailed the role played by Jamaat in the movement for separate Telangana state.
Former MP Mohammed Adeeb, All India Muslim Personal Law Board vice president, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq and leaders of various organisations addressed the meeting.