Articles

A Year-long Series on Education, Sponsored by The Aligarh Forum : - A Mirror on our Efforts, our Successes & our Shortcomings ; Stories...

By Danish Khan,

By TCN News Desk,

By Adnan Alavi, The decline in influence of Thakur leaders in Indian politics has been a cause of concern among the once-dominant Rajput community. And Amar Singh's visible haste in moving away from Samajwadi Party and Mulayam Singh, is an indication that the suave-socialite now wants to play the pivotal role for Rajput resurgence.

By Irfan Engineer The recent Judgment given by Justice S. N. Srivastava of Allahabad High Court to the effect that, Muslims in UP are not a minority within the state, came as a surprise to many. The media – both electronic and print media gave prominent coverage to the judgment. The Judgment has now been stayed by the Division Bench of the same Court. The legal and Constitutional merits and demerits of the proposition will be gone into by the Appeal Courts upholding or overruling the judgment of the single judge of the Allahabad High Court in the coming days.

By Dr. Javaid Rahi This is narration of 5th day of the strike in Kashmir Valley. I was busy in reading a local newspaper while my five years old son (Ali Gujjar) called my attention towards television and said "See Papa-Gujjar Gujjar Hai Hai" !!. I increased the volume of my television and with all inquisitiveness watched the television.

By Shafeeq Rahman,

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net Modern girls from Indian metros may soon pose a big challenge to authorities in France and Belgium, who are busy implementing new rules on hijabs and burqas. If our latest fashion remains unchecked and crosses the international boundaries of these two European countries––and of course many others––then they may soon be flooded by ‘masked girls’ from India.

By Tanvir Salim, TwoCircles.net,

Over 120 Muslims have been elected as MLAs in the recent Assembly elections. The five states that went to polls included Assam, West Bengal, Kerala,...

By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net, History Madrasa system in West Bengal came with the arrival of Muslims in this part of India, to impart Islamic education. The Madrasah-i-Aliah founded by Warring Hastings (first governor general of East India Company) in October of 1780 in Kolkata, turned a new leaf by introducing modern education as a full fledged subject along with Islamic studies. The madrasah was supported by government funding and was setup with the purpose of providing man-power for the ever growing bureaucracy of Company Raj.

By TCN News,

By Shafee Ahmed Ko, TwoCircles.net, The Town of Ambur (Vellore Dist) has a devout young man whose duty, as he feels, is only to honour the great scholars in Islam and serve them to his best. He has constructed a mosque, runs schools and he feels only to hallow the name of Allah. Himself being Hafiz-e-Quran, he wishes that youngsters become Hafiz along with the modern education.

By Shafeeq Hudawi, TwoCircles.net Kozhikode: Malayalam Daily Mathrubhumi’s reproduction of a comment which insulted Prophet Mohammed sparked wide protests of Muslim organisations in Kerala. Accusing...

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net TCN Malabar series: Part 5 Not unlike Muslims of north India, Mappilas also lagged behind when it came to modern education. While there were some attempts made, some as early as a hundred years ago, it was not until a generation ago that major effort was made to link the community to modern education without losing the religious and cultural identity.

Tawhid Laskar, 16, is believed to be the youngest writer in Assam and undoubtedly the youngest Muslim debut writer of the region By Maruf Alom, Hojai (Assam): Simple, soft spoken, shy in nature but confident in outlook, thin in shape; this is all about a teenager of Hojai – a tiny town of Assam. During my last visit home in March 2015, I met him for the first time.

By Dr. Rafat Seema,

Recalling Jamshedpur riots of 1979 By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net This month in the year 1979, the Hindu-Muslim violence in Jamshedpur took the lives of 108 people. The number of dead could have easily been 114, but as it turned out, my family and I survived the mayhem, to write about it thirty years later.

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net TCN Malabar series: Part 3

By Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,

By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net, Full Series: Buddhist-Muslim Relations in Ladakh

By Mahmood Asim, TwoCircles.net Dr. Baig in his clinic Jaffarabad, Delhi: “I expressed my agitation in front of Prime Minister and I was let go without...

By Mohammad Sajjad,

By Amjad Suri and Mohammed Imteyaz Ahmed for Twocircles.net The Sarvasiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was introduced in 2000 to bridge the gap between the social...

By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,

By Abdul Basith, TwoCircles.net,

“We have Spade as our symbol…Spade is another sign of humility and our carrying it on our shoulders shows that we are out...

Jamia Millia Islamia – A case study By M. Tarique Siddiqui

By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net Udalguri, Assam: Harisinga is a sleepy town in Assam’s Udalguri district along the India-Bhutan international border. Handicapped by insurgency till...

By Anis Ansari,

My visit to Darul Uloom Deoband was on Sunday, 9th March 2008, unannounced for my own convenience. I was surprised to note that the historic madrasa was located right on the main highway between Saharanpur and Meerut (Uttar Pradesh). Its campus is spread out throughout the town surrounded entirely by Muslim neighborhood. The population of Deoband is about 100,000 with Muslims constituting 65% of it.

By Omar Khalidi

Deoban series- first part Deoband is on the world map thanks to a famous institution that was established here in 1866. Manzar Bilal of TwoCircles.net, a Darul Uloom’s graduate visited Deoband recently to give us a glimpse of life in this city and its famous madrasa. First part of the seven part series. By Manzar Bilal TwoCircles.net,

By Mohammed Ayub Ali Khan

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net TCN Malabar series: Part 8 In various towns of Malabar, it is not uncommon to see Muslim women on the streets, bazaars, and schools. They can be easily identified with their traditional mode of clothing. Young girls wear long colorful skirts, long sleeved blouses and heads covered in dupatta or a hijab. Older girls, it seems, prefer shalwar qameez. Married women wear saris or abayas.

Special series on Jharkhand’s Muslims- Part—2 By Mahtab Alam and Mary Abraham,

By M. Zajam, TwoCircles.net

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net To find the first Muslims of India, you must visit the first mosque of India, Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kodungallur. A simple mosque, Cheraman Juma Masjid was named after a famous king, King Cheraman Perumal. King Perumal’s capital was in Kodungallur which is now in the Thrissur district of Kerala.

By Mohammad Sajjad for TwoCircles.net In this era when modesty is no longer a virtue, and everybody shares his/her accomplishments via social networking sites,...

Report of the National Seminar in Delhi on 13-14th May, 2014 By Anchal Jain, India stood at the brink of a very important historic moment with the culmination of 16thLokSabha elections. One of the most important issues flagged by the numerous debates on the issue of elections was what these elections meant for the state of Indian secularism. This issue was highlighted even more as the fear of Hindu-right wing political forces coming to power grew in the minds of the secular ranks of society.

An analysis of randomly selected Deoband fatwas By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net

By Wasiullah Shaikh, TwoCircles.net, Wherever the word ‘Mother’ is mentioned in Urdu poetry events, there the name ‘Munawwar Rana’- a famous urdu poet of our time, will also be mentioned. Through his beautiful poetry (Shayeri), Munawwar Rana has brought whole universe into a single word ‘Mother’.

By Dr. Omar Khalidi for TwoCircles.net

By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,

By S. Nihal Singh, IANS, One of the most difficult jobs in the world is to be the interface between the media and the powerful. Several attempt it and come to grief. But a master practitioner of this demanding role was H.Y. Sharada Prasad, who died in New Delhi on Tuesday. A man who was synonymous with Indira Gandhi over scores of years, he chose to stay in the shadows as a matter of policy. Yet like a magician who knew when he was needed, he would spring to life to throw morsels of news to oil the wheel of national politics or to serve broader interests.

By Asghar Ali Engineer, Salafism or Wahabism, also referred to as cult of Ahl-e-Hadith is supposed to be directly opposed to the sufi strain of Islam. In India too the two sects are opposed to each other though here, due to democratic secular polity, nature of conflict is not very aggravated or violent. The partisans of both the ideologies apart, it confuses many Muslims as to what are their differences about and why they condemn each other?

[A take on the attempted brainwashing of our young minds and the sexist nature of some religious speeches] By Asma Anjum Khan, This happened a few years ago. It was the usual hurried Jumma. My 12 year old boy looked solemn in his long, pale white kurta. His usual fervor for the special Jumma lunch [Daal Gosht with piping hot fried rice] was absent and I found him sitting at the corner of our large mahogany bed. He seemed contemplative, very unusual for him. When asked to join, he looked up and asked, Mom, why do you work? And before I could react and open my mouth to say Whatttt and look gawky; I heard this next.

The main objective of the Islamic Finance is to create a society of investors, unlike the conventional banking system, which has made and created the society of borrowers and lenders from the past 800 years. By Tameemuddin Humble, Islamic finance activism in India should not be limited to the conferences and meetings, asking government to allow and operate interest-free banking for those whose faith prohibits interest-based transactions; it should also be to challenge the stereotype that the Shariah investment can’t yield the profit, even if professionally managed. We can’t sail the boat of Islamic Finance with the people having such perceptions. We can’t reach to its logical end without building an environment of Sharia compliant investment in the country, availing the limited opportunities in the given regulations.

From Khanqahs to the auditorium; from shrines to international pop charts, from spirituality and devotion to entertainment – the qawwali has travelled far and wide in its 700 year journey.

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net

[हमारे युवाओं के दिमाग को भावनात्मक तौर पर बरगलाने और हमारे धार्मिक संवादों के लैंगिक मिजाज़ पर बहस] By अस्मा अंजुम खान, [अरे लड़कों, मुझे मत समझाओ. लेकिन क्या हम इस ‘कोसने’ के खेल को अपना संयुक्त और सार्वजनिक खेल नहीं बना सकते? चलो...कोसो, कोसो और ख़ूब कोसो. रुको मत. और आखिर में थोड़ा और कोसो. शुक्रिया.] यह कुछ साल पहले की घटना है.

By V.M. Khaleelur Rahman,

By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net

By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,

By Navaid Hamid for TwoCircles.net,

By Zohra Javed for TwoCircles.net 26th January. This day in 1950 India chose to become a Republic adopting a secular constitution that had been painstakingly written taking into consideration modifications and alterations, and giving thought to the aspects of equality and justice, making a set of fundamental rights such that every component of the Republic would be taken care of. Our elders thus proudly chose the path of democracy which brought the hope of a better tomorrow for every section of the society and a promise to empower the weakest among the weak.

Dr. Lubna Sarwath for Twocircles.net Jyoti Punwani’s Nov 27, 2016 interview with a woman activist who had recently resigned from the All India Muslim...

Tata Motors plant in Singur, West Bengal was supposed to “revolutionise the automobile industry in India” and “mark a watershed in the global automobile...

By Nivedita Khandekar, TwoCircles.net, Nagpur: Incredible! That is how Rubina Patel’s life story is. She came from a well to do, educated, business family, married to a teacher, blessed with two children. She wanted to study and help the community through her social work. But her life went on an unexpected trajectory.

By Shafeeq Hudawi, Twocircles.net What would you call a district where female literacy is more than 90%? Where the sex ratio is much better than...

Azimul Hoque, TwoCircles.net,

By M Naushad Ansari,

By Anjuman Ara Begum, TwoCircles.net,

By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,

Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,

By Shafee Ahmed Ko,

The horrific episode from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur is quite different from what happened in UP’s Muzaffarnagar in 2013. The Azizpur-Bahilwara violence may not be said to be a religious violence in a way we have been understanding it conventionally, as non-Mallah Hindus not only remained away from the violence, they are also extending all possible help in protecting the people and in relief measures. By Dr Mohammad Sajjad, Violence broke out in Azizpur-Bahilwara village near Saraiya in Muzaffarpur district in north Bihar on January 18. It killed at least five people and almost all the 56 Muslim (Pasmanda) households were looted and burnt. The immediate provocation allegedly was an inter-faith love affair: to the Hindutva zealots, was it a case of ‘Love-Jihad’ in reverse, or a case of ‘Honour Killing’?

By Rakhshanda Jalil,

By Dr Mohammad Iqtedar Husain Farooq, Biological diversity, or the shorter term ‘biodiversity’, means the variety of life forms like human beings, animals of all sorts and plants of different categories in a region or on the globe. Any harm to biodiversity may increase diseases on Earth or in other words less of biodiversity means more of infections.

By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net, New Delhi: The representation of Muslims in higher judiciary does not even come close to community’s share in the population...

By Mudassir Rizwan, TwoCircles.net,

Among many challenges and hurdles marking the Indian Muslims in 2013 like a beacon of hope comes across for Indian Muslims in 2013 is the story of Mira Road.

Coming from a privileged background to working for underprivileged, Samina Bano has ensured hundreds of poor children get admission under RTE in Uttar...

By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net,

By Manzar Imam for TwoCircles.net, Despite belief in the inevitability of death, sometimes one struggles in shock and awe to believe in its eventuality. The...

By Imteyaz Rahmani,

Elimination of British rule from India and independence of the country are great events of human history which not only abolished British kingdom but also left indelible mark on constitutional and political history of Arab world. The British were ruling in their own way on Arab countries due to their rule in India and almost the whole world was under their control as a super power.

By Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood, Plato has once again been proved right: politics is the art of gaining power and the craft of retaining it. Media has reported the current central government saying that opening up the list of Scheduled Castes beyond Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism - would encourage religious conversions. He said this in the context of the demand of Muslims & Christians that the definition of 'scheduled caste' should be made religion-neutral by deleting para 3 from the presidential order of 1950. That's what has been stated a couple of days ago by the union Social Justice Minister Thavar Chand Gehlot, "Allowing SC status (to converts to Christianity & Islam) would provide a fillip to religious conversions. The demand is not constitutional and we want to work within the parameters of the statute for the welfare of 'these communities' (read Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists)."

By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net New Delhi: The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), in collaboration with Facebook, have announced the...

By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net,

By Aziz A. Mubaraki,

काशिफ़ उल हुदा, TwoCircles.net बीते कुछ दिनों से समाचार चैनलों की सुर्खियां आंकड़ों के मुकाबिले ज्यादा बातें कर रही हैं. हाल में ही भारत सरकार...

By Danish Reyaz, Mumbai: Do you have any idea about how Dawoodi Bohras celebrate the holy month of Ramadan? Perhaps, many of us would say, No, because we are not much aware about this community.

By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net, This 6-part series of articles provides a detailed account of the historical origins and development of the Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat, focusing in particular on the social multiple roles that the movement has played in the region, which accounts, in large measure, for its deep-rooted popularity among the Meos. A sociological study of the development of Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat can provide interesting insights and parallels to understand the success and appeal of the movement in other contexts as well—Editor

जावेद अनीस उर्दू के शीर्ष उपन्यासकार अब्दुल्ला हुसैन का 7 जून 2015 को 84 वर्ष की उम्र में देहांत हो गया, वे लम्बे समय से...

By Mohammed Ayub Khan Maulana Maududi's estranged disciple and Tanzeem-e-Islami chief Dr.Israr Ahmed appearing on the Jawabdeh program of GEO television in 2005 made some startling remarks about Indian Muslims. According to a published report of the program in the liberal Daily Times he reportedly said the following:

By Asghar Ali Engineer,

By Aaliya Rushdi, TwoCircles.net,

By Firoz Bakht Ahmed, IANS On behalf of all Muslims who believe in reason and sanity, I declare that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) affidavit (since withdrawn) questioning the existence of Hindu god Ram was vitriolic, scathing, unfortunate and blasphemous -not just to Hindus but to all those who cherish our pluralistic cultural heritage. How can a government decide the veracity of a figure like Ram? He Ram ke wajood pe Hindostan ko naaz/Ahl-e-nazar samajhtey hein usko Imam-e-Hind!

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,

By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net,

By Asghar Ali Engineer,

A friend of mine Daniel Mazgaonkar gave me a Hindi copy of Vinoba Bhave’s book on Islam to see whether the Qur’anic verses and hadith have been correctly quoted. I am reading it particularly those portions wherein Vinoba Bhaveji has quoted Qur’anic verses and ahadith. I have yet to go through the whole text but meanwhile certain portions which I read are worth writing about.

By H Abdur Raqeeb, Modern, secular and industrialized countries like Britain, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan have become hub of Islamic finance and banking. If London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong can become hub and house of Interest free Islamic finance and banking, why not Mumbai and Cochin? asks the author while analyzing problems and prospects of Islamic banking in India. The paper was presented at an Islamic banking conference in New Delhi recently— Editor Banking