By S G Haque for TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: With personal meetings and public addresses across various parts of the state, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), Maharashtra kicked off the 10-day state-wide campaign ‘Islam for all’ on Saturday.
This campaign intends to introduce Islam as a complete way of life to the non-Muslims.
Taufique Aslam Khan, president JIHM, led a delegation to a police station in Mumbai, as a part of the campaign. The delegation introduced the basic teachings of Islam to the officials and distributed books, Islamic literatures and copies of the Holy Qur’an to the staff members.
Iqbal Mulla, senior functionary of the Jamaat, also visited Swami Sri Kadshideshwar in Kolhapur and briefed him the basics of Islam and objective of the ongoing campaign “Islam for All”.
Besides these, the members of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind visited educational institutions and other organizations to present Islam.
During the campaign, the JIHM would conduct public meetings, door-to-door meetings with government officials, corporate houses, police and administrative departments. Apart from this, street plays, corner meetings, hospital, jail visits and blood donation camps too have been planned.
Taufique Aslam Khan while addressing the media at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh earlier this week had said, “We want to change the hearts of our fellow countrymen rather than changing their religion. We would strive to clear all the misconceptions they harbour about Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through this endeavor.”
Sami, chief of Dawah cell of JIHM, said it is the belief of Jamaate Islami Hind that Muslims should utilize all their strengths and resources to present Islam to all our countrymen. This campaign, ‘Islam For All’, is also a part of the same endeavor.
Khan reiterated, “It is our conviction that all the issues Muslims face in India today are rooted in our failure to call people towards Islam. I appeal people to participate in our 10 day campaign ‘Islam For All’ so that the misconceptions our fellow countrymen have against Islam may be cleared.”
The JIHM had already launched this campaign last Saturday at Mumbai in the presence of various eminent intellectuals, scholars, religious clerics and thousands of people.
At the launching ceremony, (Prof) B M Herdekar from Shivaji University, Kolhapur was all praise for Prophet Muhammad and his anti-apartheid policies. He said the rights Islam has enshrined in favour of all human beings and women in particular need to be conveyed to the world so that plausible solutions to our social concerns can be delivered.
Arun Gadve Patil, a well known scholar and former President of Maratha Seva Sangh said he was deeply inspired by the holistic guidance offered in the Qur’an for a morally upright life and earnestly appealed to the Muslims to spread its message to one and all. He emphasized that “just as Islam was successful in purging Arab society from all its social evils 1400 years back, so Islam is also the only solution to all our problems today, provided it is implemented in letter and spirit.”
Various religious scholars from different Islamic sects of Islam were also present on the occasion and they unanimously supported the JIHM’s initiative to present Islam before non-Muslim brethren, who harbour a lot of misconceptions regarding Muslims and Islam.