Logging life

Politics is not a dirty word for her. In fact she enjoys being a politician. Mrs. Badar Sayeed, who represents Triplicane constituency in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assemby, always wanted to be part of the decision making process of the country and politics gives her that opportunity. She credits Jayalalitha, her schoolmate and leader of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) for her entering the electoral politics. But it was not just the friendship that got her the ticket to the seat, Sayeed had worked hard to earn the respect that she gets now. After finishing her BA in Economics from University of Madras in 1966, she lived in the USA and Canada for few years then returned to India and decided to hit the books. In 1982, she got a degree in Law and started practicing. She is a practicing senior lawyer and her legal career has coincided with her activism and she has used her training in law to champion the causes that are dear to her. A fearless leader, she is not scared to spe...

It has been over one week of Ramadan and I have been going to the masjid everyday. This is a new masjid for me since I just moved into the area. Obviously, they do things a bit differently here and I am still getting used to it. One thing that surprised me most is the frequent calls for fund raising. If it is not for the masjid then it is for some other Islamic organizations. Once or twice over a seven day period would have been enough, but calling for donations every day and sometimes several times a day is just too much. Even when the talk is about something else then end up by hinting, not too subtly, about the donation. E.g. a talk on respect for parents ended with how you can help your dead parents (if they are dead) by giving money to the masjid in their name since it will be sadqa-e-jariya or you can help yourself by feeding iftar to those who fasted. Most masaajid in the US have regular iftar program which helps students, singles, or those looking for free food. But ...

Ramadan started all over the US today (Saturday, Aug. 22). Al-hisabis had already declared that this is going to be the first day of Ramadan based on their calculations, fortunately, Al-hilalis also were able to see the moon and confirm al-hisabi's calculation and now all of us have started the fast same day. Let's see what happens for Eid. Ramadan is also the month of Quran and the first word revealed is 'Iqra' or read. Therefore to celebrate the revelation of Quran and start of Ramadan, I made my way toward the Boston Public Library. It is the first public library in the United States i.e. it is funded by the public money and all resources available to the public. It is impressive structure and beautifully decorated inside. They have a new wing that is modern looking and very spacious. It is supposed to contain over 6 million books and search through their catalog does give an idea of the scope. I selected five books for picking up the copies but unfortunately could f...

Screaming headlines announced the death of Mohammadali Shihab Thangal (4 May 1936 -1 Aug 2009). Most identified him as the political leader, president of the Kerala unit of Indian Union Muslim League. A few recognized him as the spiritual leader or leader of the Muslims of Kerala. Yet others gave him credit for launching the era of coalition politics in India, keeping UDF united in Kerala, a secular leader who kept Kerala calm during the tumultuous period after Babri masjid demolition. Still his multi-faceted personality is difficult to be contained in few articles. Story of Mohammadali Shihab Thangal starts many generations ago. His family is descendent of the Prophet. Mohammadali Shihab is 37th generation away from the Prophet in his lineage. About 300 years ago his family arrived on the coast of Kerala from Tarim in Hadhramaut region of Yemen. They landed in Kannur and made it their home. They came here to spread the message of Islam in Kerala. Three hundred years later they continu...

Ramadan is the most holy month of the Islamic calendar. It is a month of seeking Allah’s mercy, forgiveness for sins and salvation. Unfortunately, for many Muslims, it is also a month of confusion and conflict – from the beginning to the end of the month – to how long should be taraveeh or the night prayers, and when to begin and end fasting each day. It is not unusual in Muslim localities to hear azan for prayers at slightly different times coming from different masjids of the area. Iftar or breaking of fast rather than being a time of spirituality becomes a time of confusion as one wonders which of these azans is the correct one. An effort is underway in Bihar to change this confusion and this small but important beginning can provide important stepping stone for community unity. The first agreed upon calendar SILSILAH, an NGO based in the Patna City campus of Khanqah Munemia Qamriya, has taken upon itself the task to standardize the Ramadan calendar. Eight years ago, it invited vari...

Entertaining, enlightening, and informative- these are the few words that best describe the play “Maulana Azad,” where Azad is played by Tom Alter. For two and a half hour, Tom Alter brought alive Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on stage in Boston, Massachusetts. Over a hundred people showed up to watch the play at the eighth annual convention of Federation of Aligarh Alumni Association organized last weekend in a suburb of Boston. First premiered in 2002, the play is the fruit of painstaking research and hard work of Dr. M. Sayeed Alam who wrote the script of the play as well as directed it. Script is written in Urdu and was a deliberate choice for the Director. Most of us have read Azad in Urdu but very few had the opportunity to hear him have a conversation. This play is an imaginary conversation between Maulana Azad and Humayun Kabir. Maulana dictates what later gets published as “India Wins Freedom.” During the writing of the book, the conversation digresses to include religion, poetry, l...

Since assuming office of the Minister of the Minority Affairs, Salman Khursheed is all over the media promising schemes and programmes for the socio-economic development of the Muslims. One thing that he will not agree to is tabling the Ranganath Misra Commission report on reservation for the Muslims. Though the Congress manifesto was clear that the party favours reservation for minorities at the national level, now that it has come to power, the fine prints are getting larger in size. Salman Khursheed now says that reservation is a ‘double-edged sword’ and that it can only be implemented by ‘consensus.’ Khursheed did not disclose any plan on how he wants to achieve this ‘consensus’ or if he is even willing to do that. From his statements it does not appear so. If the UPA government is serious about the issue, then the first step for arriving at this consensus will be to table in the Parliament the Ranganath Misra Commission report that recommends reservation for the Muslims. How can o...

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net, Engineering is his profession but community activism is Faizur Rahman’s passion. Urdu-speaking native of Chennai, he writes on religio-political issues in mainstream newspapers of India. Faizur Rahman is an executive committee member of Harmony India, an organisation to promote secularism and communal harmony which is headed by Mr. N. Ram, the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu. He is also the founding secretary of Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought in Islam. He talked to TwoCircles.net on ways Muslims in India can improve their economic conditions only if we check some wasteful and unnecessary expenditures. TCN : Recently in a workshop attended by Muslim community leaders, you created quite a ruckus by saying that Muslims should not go for umra every year. Why are you against umra? FR : Please allow me to clarify. First of all, I am not against Umra. I only pointed out that Umra not being an obligatory ritual in Islam one need not perform it every...

A study of the maternity care and births in Mumbai slums By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net, A large number of Muslims of India live in poverty and they are the majority of the poorest of the poor living in slums. This is according to a study conducted in 2006 in Mumbai. The details of the study were published earlier this month. Mumbai is home to millions of residents and more than half of them live in congested areas with virtually no civic services of any kind. These slums provide cheaper housing alternatives for people who migrated to Mumbai in search of better lives. People of different regions, speaking multiple languages, and observing various religious practices live side by side. A study published on June 5th, 2009 in International Journal for Equity in Health suggests that Muslims are overwhelmingly represented in these slums and also they are in general poorer than Hindus living in the same area. TCN photo The study was jointly conducted by Society for Nutrition, Education an...

July 16th was last day of earning money in Florida. I packed my bags and moved to Massachusetts on July 18th and started a new job on July 20th. On July 31st, I have got an apartment in Cambridge and now can be officially called Cantabrigian (resident of Cambridge). The city was established in 1630 and the congested streets show that. Many of the streets are one-way streets and they criss cross each other in very confusing way so it is not unusual to see 5-ways street crossings. Fortunately, it has a very good commuter rail and bus system. It also means that you will find lot of people walking on the streets. Cambridge is also called "City of Squares," almost all street intersections are named. In most cases no idea who that person is or was. I suspect that most of the squares are named after historical people. I was delightfully surprised to see Mushtaque Alikhan Mirza square. Cambridge is also home to MIT and Harvard, so lot of brain capital here. I am sure IQ level of both...