By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
The annual report of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), the umbrella body of all Muslim organisations of India, shows important progress made by Mushawarat in a number of areas.
The report comes in the context of the new two-year cabinet of Mushawarat, which gained the chair on January 8, 2016, under the leadership of Navaid Hamid, who is serving as 7th president of Mushawarat. Hamid will serve the Mushawarat until the end of 2017.
During these two years, one of the biggest achievements of Mushawarat was that for the first time ever, Uzma Naheed, a woman, was elected to be a member of Markazi Majlis-e-Amla(MMA). Soon after, she was elevated to the post of vice-president in AIMMM.
During the reported period, six meetings of Standing Committee comprising Amanullah Khan, Ahmad Raza, Saiyid Samar Hamid and Sheikh Manzoor Ahmad were held on various dates.
The key concerns of the Markazi Majlis-e-Amla (MMA) during the reported time were the execution and monitoring of decisions, stand on the issues of Triple Talaq and Uniform Civil Code, responses to the communal situation in different parts of the country, violence in Jammu Kashmir, stand on different national and international events, settlement with Mushawarat Trust, copyright of the “Mushawarat Documents”, resolution of disputes and controversies within the Mushawarat and the like. Four meetings of MMA were carried out during last year concerning all these issues relating to Muslim societies.
During the past year, Mushawarat has worked extensively in uniting Dalit and Muslim voices together. On the call of the President Navaid Hamid, more than 30 Dalit and Muslim activists joined a meeting on April 2nd, 2016 at the Mushawarat’s office for discussing on need, contents, and modalities of Dalit-Muslim Dialogue.
It was resolved that all participants of the meeting will be taken as members of the Organising Committee for the proposed Dalit-Minority Cooperation.
According to the Membership List as on 31 December 2016, there are 204 members of the Markazi Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM). Out of them, 29 represent respective member organisations whereas 175 are individual members being eminent Muslims in their own right. In all, 27 new individual members and 13 organizational members have joined the Mushawarat during the reported period.
Mushawarat Quarterly Bulletin has been published since June 2000. However, from July 2013 onwards it remained discontinued. After a lapse of almost three years, its publication was resumed with a combined copy of three quarters, i.e. from January to September 2016. Abdul Rashid Agwan took charge as Editor of Quarterly Bulletin after Navaid Hamid’s request.
Also during the last year, Mushawarat’s online presence increased considerably. Its website was redesigned last year and reports and briefs are being uploaded on a regular basis. However, Mushawarat believes that they need to put more effort for a stronger online presence, and will work on managing its social media in a more efficient manner.
Mushawarat has spoken effectively on the issue of Triple Talaq and has taken a substantial stand on the issue after Supreme Court allowed hearing on the petition over the same filed by a woman from Uttarakhand.
President Navaid Hamid constantly remained in touch with other leaders of the community and tried to shape better perspective on the issue among them.
Speaking with TwoCircles.net on the achievements of Mushawarat, Hamid said, “We are destined to take Mushawarat forward. Mushawarat had become more of a paper organisation in past few years, but what we tried with it is for it to be an ideological base.
“Nowadays Muslim community is facing ideological assault more than the physical assault, especially after Modi became Prime Minister. So Mushawarat’s prime agenda is to counter those assaults with a vast ideological base and that’s why we tried to bring all the Muslim organisations, even those who left us 25 or 30 years back and to make a consensus to counter the ideological attack on the Muslim society.”
The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) was established at a representative meeting of the community leaders held on 8-9 August 1964 at Nadwatul-Ulema, Lucknow, inaugurated by Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi and chaired by Dr. Syed Mahmood. Syed Mahmood was elected as the first president of Mushawarat that year.