Lol, I went to the link from Homeschooling Muslimah and read about the "Mom of the Year Award" and thought, "Oh, that's nice - oh wait, I'm supposed to do this too?" Lol, then I felt intimidated and let it sit for a few days.
Here are the rules of this tag:
1. Admit one thing you feel awful about (involving being a mom). Once you have written it down, you are no longer allowed to feel bad. Remember you are a good mom!
2. Remind yourself that you ARE a good mom, list 7 things you love about your kids, you love doing with your kids, or that your kids love about you.
3. Send this to 5 other moms of the year that deserve a reminder that they are too the best moms that they can be. Remember to send them a note letting them know you have selected them, and also add a link to your post that directs people back to the person who nominated you.
Okay,
1. Lately, I feel most relieved when it's bedtime because I can stay up late and not have to think about the kids. My husband and I buy special treats (like ice cream) that we eat as soon as they go to bed. And we giggle about it.
2. I love it when my:
1. two year old says "Mommy, help me" and holds her arms up so that I can hold her.
2. three year old says "I'm going to use the potty to make you happy" How sweet is he?
3. five year old holds the baby when she's being fussy and tells her stories or sings to her.
4. kids pray beside me
5. Making cakes with my oldest
6. the baby smiles at me
7. kids tell me that dinner was good (they are super picky)
I was going to send it on but I think everyone has received it already, lol.
take care,
Nakia
Read More...
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A Madrasa With a Difference
Yoginder Sikand
Located at Shanthapuram, a township in the Mallapuram district some eighty kilometers from Calicut, the Jamia al-Islamiya is one of the largest Islamic seminaries in Kerala. Established in 1955 by activists associated with the Kerala unit of the Jamaat-e Islami, and considerably expanded since then, the Jamia offers a wide range of courses and seeks to combine Islamic and modern subjects. Says V.K.Ali, the Rector of the Jamia, ‘We want our graduates to take up careers in a wide range of fields, not just as professional ulema, and this is reflected in our curriculum. So far, some 40 batches have passed out of our institution, and our graduates have taken on a range of jobs. Some are in journalism. Many are Arabic teachers in schools. Others work in the numerous institutions run by the Jamaat-e Islami throughout Kerala. Yet others are in the Gulf.’
Admission is provided to students who have finished at least the tenth grade of regular school and have passed the entrance examination held by the Jamia at its premises every year. ‘Unlike in much of the rest of India,’ Ali points, ‘in Kerala most ulema have a basic modern education as well.’ Students first go through a two-year Introductory or Tamhidi course, studying Urdu, Arabic, English, Quran, Hadith, Fiqh, Islamic History and Computer Applications. Thereafter, they can opt for a Bachelor’s Degree in either Usul ud-Din (‘The Principles of Din’) or the Shariah, each of a three-year duration. English, Urdu, Arabic and Comparative Religions are part of the curriculum of both courses. BA level students must simultaneously enroll, as private candidates, for a graduate degree course in Calicut University in a subject of their choice. Most select English, Arabic or Sociology. Thereafter, students can do a two-year Master’s course in Quranic Studies, Hadith Studies or Islamic Mission (Dawah). The medium of instruction in all three courses is Arabic.
Education in most courses at the Jamia al-Islamiya is provided free of cost, as are boarding and lodging. Students doing their Master’s degree are provided with an additional monthly stipend of Rs.1250. At present, the Jamia has some 500 students, of whom around 65% are from Kerala and the rest from north India, mainly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Of the 50-odd teachers, mostly from Kerala, several hold Ph.D degrees, including from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in addition to some Indian universities.
Besides regular course work, students are encouraged to participate in a range of curricular activities. Malayalam journalists are regularly invited to speak to the students to encourage them to write for the press and to help improve their writing skills. The Jamia brings out three periodicals—Sandesham in Malayalam, Majallat ul-Jamia in Arabic and Dawn in English—which contain articles penned by students. Its sprawling library, containing some 30,000 books, is one of the largest collections of Islamic literature in south India.
Recent years have seen a marked rise in the popularity of and demand for ‘Islamic’ financial institutions. To promote further research in the field of Islamic economics and to cater to the increasing demand for personnel skilled in this discipline in India and abroad, in 2003 the Jamia launched a one-year post-graduate diploma course in Islamic Economics and Finance. ‘Ours is the only institution in south India to offer such a course,’ says course co-ordinator Muhammad Saleh. ‘We framed our very detailed syllabus in consultation with Islamic economics experts, and after examining the curriculum used for teaching the same subject in institutions in Malaysia and some Arab countries. Our syllabus has been validated by the Markfield Institute of Islamic Studies in the United Kingdom, a major centre for research in the field of Islamic Economics and Finance.’ The medium of instruction is English, and entrance is open to B.Com and BA (Economics) graduates. Given the demand for ‘Islamic economics’ specialists, particularly in the Gulf, the course has been attracting a steadily increasing number of students, who are willing to pay the Rs.10,000 course fee (in addition to boarding and lodging expenses). Presently, some 40 students are enrolled in the course, four of who are girls. One of these girls is a topper in Physics from Calicut University. Another student is a trained Chartered Accountant and four students are graduates of Islamic Studies. Most of the earlier students are now working in finance institutions in the Gulf.
Students in the Institute of Islamic Economics and Finance are expected to do a one month internship to gain practical experience, generally at an interest-free credit society or shariah-based firm in Kerala. They must also write a detailed thesis, in English, on a subject of their choice, which could be either theoretical or empirically-based. Muhammad Salih points to a cupboard neatly arranged with bulky blue-coloured bound volumes—almost fifty thesis that have so far been submitted by the students. I take a hurried glance at their titles, all of which seem fascinating to me and represent innovative research that few other Islamic institutions in India are engaged in. I note down a few titles: ‘The Economic Teachings of the Quran’, , ‘Shariah Investment Options in India and the Indian Capital Market’, ‘Acceptability of Mutual Funds as an Islamic Mode of Investment’, ‘Islamic Finance in Real Estate’, ‘Interest-Free Funds in Kerala: A Case Study of the Irshad Islamic Finance Cooperative, Melattur’, ‘Islamic Micro-Finance: A Case Study of the Welfare Society, Salamath Nagar, Pallikal’, ‘Flourishing of Shopping Malls: Boon or Bane?’, ‘Islamic Microfinance Through Self-Help Groups in Kerala’, ‘The Role of the Islamic Welfare Forum in Poverty Alleviation of Muslims in Edavankad’, ‘The Impact of Interest in Society: A Case Study of Tirur Municipality’. And so on.
The Jamia’s Rector enthusiastically tells me that his institution wants to give greater focus on research on contemporary issues. ‘We need our scholars to know about present-day conditions and challenges and about what inspiration we can get from Islam to deal with these.’ To promote scholarship in this area, the Jamia recently set up the Islamic Research Centre. At present it has five research fellows, all of them graduates of the institution. Each of whom gets a modest sum of money, plus boarding and lodging facilities, to work on a project on a subject of their own choice, which, after its completion, might be published as a book and made accessible to the general public. The topics on which the researchers are presently working reflect some crucial current debates about Islam: ‘Islamic Revivalism’, ‘Salafism’, ‘Islamic Banking’, ‘Islamic Economics’ and ‘Islam and Democracy’.
‘We need to address modern-day concerns and questions, not simply parrot whatever past writers have written, as is the case with many madrasas and Islamic publishing houses in India’, says a young research scholar who takes me around. And judging by the enthusiasm of the students I meet, that seems a mission that the Jamiya al-Islamia seems to be taking with considerable seriousness.
Located at Shanthapuram, a township in the Mallapuram district some eighty kilometers from Calicut, the Jamia al-Islamiya is one of the largest Islamic seminaries in Kerala. Established in 1955 by activists associated with the Kerala unit of the Jamaat-e Islami, and considerably expanded since then, the Jamia offers a wide range of courses and seeks to combine Islamic and modern subjects. Says V.K.Ali, the Rector of the Jamia, ‘We want our graduates to take up careers in a wide range of fields, not just as professional ulema, and this is reflected in our curriculum. So far, some 40 batches have passed out of our institution, and our graduates have taken on a range of jobs. Some are in journalism. Many are Arabic teachers in schools. Others work in the numerous institutions run by the Jamaat-e Islami throughout Kerala. Yet others are in the Gulf.’
Admission is provided to students who have finished at least the tenth grade of regular school and have passed the entrance examination held by the Jamia at its premises every year. ‘Unlike in much of the rest of India,’ Ali points, ‘in Kerala most ulema have a basic modern education as well.’ Students first go through a two-year Introductory or Tamhidi course, studying Urdu, Arabic, English, Quran, Hadith, Fiqh, Islamic History and Computer Applications. Thereafter, they can opt for a Bachelor’s Degree in either Usul ud-Din (‘The Principles of Din’) or the Shariah, each of a three-year duration. English, Urdu, Arabic and Comparative Religions are part of the curriculum of both courses. BA level students must simultaneously enroll, as private candidates, for a graduate degree course in Calicut University in a subject of their choice. Most select English, Arabic or Sociology. Thereafter, students can do a two-year Master’s course in Quranic Studies, Hadith Studies or Islamic Mission (Dawah). The medium of instruction in all three courses is Arabic.
Education in most courses at the Jamia al-Islamiya is provided free of cost, as are boarding and lodging. Students doing their Master’s degree are provided with an additional monthly stipend of Rs.1250. At present, the Jamia has some 500 students, of whom around 65% are from Kerala and the rest from north India, mainly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Of the 50-odd teachers, mostly from Kerala, several hold Ph.D degrees, including from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in addition to some Indian universities.
Besides regular course work, students are encouraged to participate in a range of curricular activities. Malayalam journalists are regularly invited to speak to the students to encourage them to write for the press and to help improve their writing skills. The Jamia brings out three periodicals—Sandesham in Malayalam, Majallat ul-Jamia in Arabic and Dawn in English—which contain articles penned by students. Its sprawling library, containing some 30,000 books, is one of the largest collections of Islamic literature in south India.
Recent years have seen a marked rise in the popularity of and demand for ‘Islamic’ financial institutions. To promote further research in the field of Islamic economics and to cater to the increasing demand for personnel skilled in this discipline in India and abroad, in 2003 the Jamia launched a one-year post-graduate diploma course in Islamic Economics and Finance. ‘Ours is the only institution in south India to offer such a course,’ says course co-ordinator Muhammad Saleh. ‘We framed our very detailed syllabus in consultation with Islamic economics experts, and after examining the curriculum used for teaching the same subject in institutions in Malaysia and some Arab countries. Our syllabus has been validated by the Markfield Institute of Islamic Studies in the United Kingdom, a major centre for research in the field of Islamic Economics and Finance.’ The medium of instruction is English, and entrance is open to B.Com and BA (Economics) graduates. Given the demand for ‘Islamic economics’ specialists, particularly in the Gulf, the course has been attracting a steadily increasing number of students, who are willing to pay the Rs.10,000 course fee (in addition to boarding and lodging expenses). Presently, some 40 students are enrolled in the course, four of who are girls. One of these girls is a topper in Physics from Calicut University. Another student is a trained Chartered Accountant and four students are graduates of Islamic Studies. Most of the earlier students are now working in finance institutions in the Gulf.
Students in the Institute of Islamic Economics and Finance are expected to do a one month internship to gain practical experience, generally at an interest-free credit society or shariah-based firm in Kerala. They must also write a detailed thesis, in English, on a subject of their choice, which could be either theoretical or empirically-based. Muhammad Salih points to a cupboard neatly arranged with bulky blue-coloured bound volumes—almost fifty thesis that have so far been submitted by the students. I take a hurried glance at their titles, all of which seem fascinating to me and represent innovative research that few other Islamic institutions in India are engaged in. I note down a few titles: ‘The Economic Teachings of the Quran’, , ‘Shariah Investment Options in India and the Indian Capital Market’, ‘Acceptability of Mutual Funds as an Islamic Mode of Investment’, ‘Islamic Finance in Real Estate’, ‘Interest-Free Funds in Kerala: A Case Study of the Irshad Islamic Finance Cooperative, Melattur’, ‘Islamic Micro-Finance: A Case Study of the Welfare Society, Salamath Nagar, Pallikal’, ‘Flourishing of Shopping Malls: Boon or Bane?’, ‘Islamic Microfinance Through Self-Help Groups in Kerala’, ‘The Role of the Islamic Welfare Forum in Poverty Alleviation of Muslims in Edavankad’, ‘The Impact of Interest in Society: A Case Study of Tirur Municipality’. And so on.
The Jamia’s Rector enthusiastically tells me that his institution wants to give greater focus on research on contemporary issues. ‘We need our scholars to know about present-day conditions and challenges and about what inspiration we can get from Islam to deal with these.’ To promote scholarship in this area, the Jamia recently set up the Islamic Research Centre. At present it has five research fellows, all of them graduates of the institution. Each of whom gets a modest sum of money, plus boarding and lodging facilities, to work on a project on a subject of their own choice, which, after its completion, might be published as a book and made accessible to the general public. The topics on which the researchers are presently working reflect some crucial current debates about Islam: ‘Islamic Revivalism’, ‘Salafism’, ‘Islamic Banking’, ‘Islamic Economics’ and ‘Islam and Democracy’.
‘We need to address modern-day concerns and questions, not simply parrot whatever past writers have written, as is the case with many madrasas and Islamic publishing houses in India’, says a young research scholar who takes me around. And judging by the enthusiasm of the students I meet, that seems a mission that the Jamiya al-Islamia seems to be taking with considerable seriousness.
***************************************************************** ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For more details about Jamia al-Islamiya, see its website http://www.aljamia.net/
For more details about Jamia al-Islamiya, see its website http://www.aljamia.net/
Monday, March 2, 2009
Kerala Madrasas: Charting a Different Course
Yoginder Sikand
Writings about India’s madrasas generally focus on the most ultra-conservative or reactionary of these institutions, of the sort that churn out fatwa-hurling mullahs characterized by bone-chilling views on politics, women and inter-community relations. This owes principally to a distinct prejudice on the part of many observers—non-Muslims as well as many Muslims themselves—as well as lack of personal knowledge of and interaction with the ulema and students of such institutions on the part of many of those who glibly write about them. It also owes to a marked, although thoroughly mistaken and misleading, tendency to regard traditional north Indian madrasas as typical and representative of all madrasas across the country.
Unbeknown to many, the system of madrasa education in Kerala is markedly different from the traditional north Indian system. It is well-organised and fully integrated with the secular system of education, thereby enabling Muslim children to receive religious as well as secular education simultaneously. It also enables would-be ulema to gain a basic modicum of knowledge of modern subjects, not leaving them totally bereft of this as in the case of many traditional north Indian madrasas.
One of the major Islamic organizations in Kerala is the Jamaat-e Islami. Like the Sunnis and the Mujahids, the two other major Islamic groupings in Kerala (each of which is divided into competing factions), the Kerala Jamaat has a vast network of part-time madrasas (corresponding to north Indian maktabs) and full-time Arabic Colleges (similar to senior madrasas or dar ul-ulums in north India that train would-be ulema). Says Muhammad Ali, secretary of the Majlis Talim ul-Islam, the Kerala Jamaat’s Islamic education wing based in Calicut, ‘We run 21 Arabic Colleges across Kerala and some 200 madrasas. In addition, 73 regular schools, mostly English-medium institutions till the tenth grade level, are affiliated to the Majlis, with some 40,000 students, including several non-Muslims, on their rolls. Eighty per cent of their teachers are women, and more than half are non-Muslims. They are independently registered and are locally managed. We believe that both Islamic as well as modern education are necessary for Muslim children. The fees that they charge are low and, for most families, affordable.’
Unlike in the Urdu-Hindi belt, where would-be ulema often have no familiarity with modern subjects, the Arabic Colleges under the aegis of the Majlis require prospective students to have finished at least the tenth grade in regular school. Some of these Arabic Colleges are affiliated to government-run universities, and offer a regular BA course, with Islamic Studies as a subject along with other Arts subjects, while the rest are specialized Islamic institutions that offer the
afzal ul-ulema degree but which also require their students to study English. Graduates of the former generally go on to do a degree in education and take up jobs as Arabic language teachers in government schools, Kerala being the only state in India where government schools offer Arabic as a subject. The latter aim at training professional ulema. Nine of the Majlis’ Arabic Colleges are specifically for women, while the rest are roughly equally divided between co-educational and men-only institutions.
The 200-odd madrasas that the Majlis oversees are managed by local committees, which collect donations locally to pay for their teachers and other expenses. Most of the madrasas charge only a nominal fee of Rs.5 a month, but several do not charge anything at all. The majority are co-educational, and have both male as well as female teachers. Muhammad Ali estimates that some 40 per cent of the madrasa teachers are women, the proportion for women Arabic College teachers being around half of that. Madrasa timings are adjusted in such a way as to enable their students to attend regular school as well. ‘This is why’, says K.K.Muhammad, another senior Majlis functionary, ‘the dualism characteristic of Muslim education that is so stark in north India, between madrasa-educated and school-educated children, is largely absent in Kerala.’
In contrast to north India, where each madrasa is free to set its own syllabus, the madrasas run by the Majlis follow a common curriculum. Almost eighty Islamic Studies and Arabic language textbooks have so far been prepared for students from the kindergarten to the tenth grade level by a team of Majlis specialists that includes educationists as well as Islamic scholars. Presently, all the books are in Malayalam, although efforts are now being made to prepare books in English and Hindi as well, the latter intended to be used in
madrasas in the Urdu-Hindi belt. Periodic workshops are also organized to update the textbooks. In addition to the madrasas run by the Majlis, some madrasas in Kerala that are not affiliated to the Kerala Jamaat also use these books.
A major bane of the madrasa system in the Urdu-Hindi belt is the complete lack of any system of teachers’ training as well as the absence of a uniform evaluation system. In contrast, the Majlis organizes regular district- and state-level teachers’ training and orientation courses. The Majlis’ Muallim Welfare Fund provides financial assistance to needy teachers for medical expenses, debt relief and education of their children. The Majlis’ Examination Board also sets papers for quarterly, half yearly and annual examinations for students studying at various levels in all its madrasas, thus ensuring a uniformity of standards that is clearly lacking in most madrasas elsewhere in India. Papers are evaluated centrally, by the Board. As an incentive to students, the Majlis conducts the annual state-wide Majlis Talent Search Examination, with bright students being given awards. The annual Majlis Festival, organized at the district- and state-levels, brings together students of madrasas and schools under the aegis of the Majlis to participate in a range of art, literary and cultural programmes and sports events.
Muhammad Ali and KK Muhammad both opine that there is much that managers of madrasas in the Urdu-Hindi belt can learn from the well-organised system of madrasa education in Kerala. However, language remains a problem, with few Malayali ulema knowing good English and almost no north India ulema who understand Malayalam. To add to this is the problem of the thoroughly misplaced, little talked-of, but, at the same time, undeniable north Indian superiority complex, with the experiences of Muslims outside the Urdu-Hindi belt hardly given any attention by those who claim to be leaders of the Indian Muslims as a whole. Clearly, that complex must be exposed and critiqued, for the Kerala experience can provide valuable lessons for Muslim organisations elsewhere in India to learn from.
Writings about India’s madrasas generally focus on the most ultra-conservative or reactionary of these institutions, of the sort that churn out fatwa-hurling mullahs characterized by bone-chilling views on politics, women and inter-community relations. This owes principally to a distinct prejudice on the part of many observers—non-Muslims as well as many Muslims themselves—as well as lack of personal knowledge of and interaction with the ulema and students of such institutions on the part of many of those who glibly write about them. It also owes to a marked, although thoroughly mistaken and misleading, tendency to regard traditional north Indian madrasas as typical and representative of all madrasas across the country.
Unbeknown to many, the system of madrasa education in Kerala is markedly different from the traditional north Indian system. It is well-organised and fully integrated with the secular system of education, thereby enabling Muslim children to receive religious as well as secular education simultaneously. It also enables would-be ulema to gain a basic modicum of knowledge of modern subjects, not leaving them totally bereft of this as in the case of many traditional north Indian madrasas.
One of the major Islamic organizations in Kerala is the Jamaat-e Islami. Like the Sunnis and the Mujahids, the two other major Islamic groupings in Kerala (each of which is divided into competing factions), the Kerala Jamaat has a vast network of part-time madrasas (corresponding to north Indian maktabs) and full-time Arabic Colleges (similar to senior madrasas or dar ul-ulums in north India that train would-be ulema). Says Muhammad Ali, secretary of the Majlis Talim ul-Islam, the Kerala Jamaat’s Islamic education wing based in Calicut, ‘We run 21 Arabic Colleges across Kerala and some 200 madrasas. In addition, 73 regular schools, mostly English-medium institutions till the tenth grade level, are affiliated to the Majlis, with some 40,000 students, including several non-Muslims, on their rolls. Eighty per cent of their teachers are women, and more than half are non-Muslims. They are independently registered and are locally managed. We believe that both Islamic as well as modern education are necessary for Muslim children. The fees that they charge are low and, for most families, affordable.’
Unlike in the Urdu-Hindi belt, where would-be ulema often have no familiarity with modern subjects, the Arabic Colleges under the aegis of the Majlis require prospective students to have finished at least the tenth grade in regular school. Some of these Arabic Colleges are affiliated to government-run universities, and offer a regular BA course, with Islamic Studies as a subject along with other Arts subjects, while the rest are specialized Islamic institutions that offer the
afzal ul-ulema degree but which also require their students to study English. Graduates of the former generally go on to do a degree in education and take up jobs as Arabic language teachers in government schools, Kerala being the only state in India where government schools offer Arabic as a subject. The latter aim at training professional ulema. Nine of the Majlis’ Arabic Colleges are specifically for women, while the rest are roughly equally divided between co-educational and men-only institutions.
The 200-odd madrasas that the Majlis oversees are managed by local committees, which collect donations locally to pay for their teachers and other expenses. Most of the madrasas charge only a nominal fee of Rs.5 a month, but several do not charge anything at all. The majority are co-educational, and have both male as well as female teachers. Muhammad Ali estimates that some 40 per cent of the madrasa teachers are women, the proportion for women Arabic College teachers being around half of that. Madrasa timings are adjusted in such a way as to enable their students to attend regular school as well. ‘This is why’, says K.K.Muhammad, another senior Majlis functionary, ‘the dualism characteristic of Muslim education that is so stark in north India, between madrasa-educated and school-educated children, is largely absent in Kerala.’
In contrast to north India, where each madrasa is free to set its own syllabus, the madrasas run by the Majlis follow a common curriculum. Almost eighty Islamic Studies and Arabic language textbooks have so far been prepared for students from the kindergarten to the tenth grade level by a team of Majlis specialists that includes educationists as well as Islamic scholars. Presently, all the books are in Malayalam, although efforts are now being made to prepare books in English and Hindi as well, the latter intended to be used in
madrasas in the Urdu-Hindi belt. Periodic workshops are also organized to update the textbooks. In addition to the madrasas run by the Majlis, some madrasas in Kerala that are not affiliated to the Kerala Jamaat also use these books.
A major bane of the madrasa system in the Urdu-Hindi belt is the complete lack of any system of teachers’ training as well as the absence of a uniform evaluation system. In contrast, the Majlis organizes regular district- and state-level teachers’ training and orientation courses. The Majlis’ Muallim Welfare Fund provides financial assistance to needy teachers for medical expenses, debt relief and education of their children. The Majlis’ Examination Board also sets papers for quarterly, half yearly and annual examinations for students studying at various levels in all its madrasas, thus ensuring a uniformity of standards that is clearly lacking in most madrasas elsewhere in India. Papers are evaluated centrally, by the Board. As an incentive to students, the Majlis conducts the annual state-wide Majlis Talent Search Examination, with bright students being given awards. The annual Majlis Festival, organized at the district- and state-levels, brings together students of madrasas and schools under the aegis of the Majlis to participate in a range of art, literary and cultural programmes and sports events.
Muhammad Ali and KK Muhammad both opine that there is much that managers of madrasas in the Urdu-Hindi belt can learn from the well-organised system of madrasa education in Kerala. However, language remains a problem, with few Malayali ulema knowing good English and almost no north India ulema who understand Malayalam. To add to this is the problem of the thoroughly misplaced, little talked-of, but, at the same time, undeniable north Indian superiority complex, with the experiences of Muslims outside the Urdu-Hindi belt hardly given any attention by those who claim to be leaders of the Indian Muslims as a whole. Clearly, that complex must be exposed and critiqued, for the Kerala experience can provide valuable lessons for Muslim organisations elsewhere in India to learn from.
Socially-Engaged Islam: A View From Kerala
Yoginder Sikand
Unlike much of the rest of India, Islamic organizations in Kerala are heavily involved in various forms social activism, not limiting themselves simply to religious education and preaching or to petitioning the government for sops. This is one of the major reasons for the remarkable social, economic and educational progress that Kerala’s Muslims, who account for around a fourth of the state’s population, have witnessed in recent decades. Among the major Islamic movements in Kerala is the Jamaat-e Islami (JI). The Kerala JI’s headquarters are located at the Hira Centre, an imposing multi-storey building in the heart of Calicut (Kozhikode), a town which, for centuries, has been a major Muslim centre. Enter the building and the stark contrast with north Indian Muslim organizations—even with the JI’s units in the north—is immediately evident. The building is sparkling clean and well-maintained, and it has separate offices for its different wings, which are a staffed by team of professionally qualified activists (and not just maulanas).
The ‘Dialogue Centre’ is one of the Kerala JI’s major initiatives. Set up six years ago, it aims at promoting inter-community dialogue and understanding. Says Shaikh Muhammad Karakunnu, its Director, ‘In recent years in Kerala, particularly after 9/11, there has been a sudden surge in debates about Islam—mostly negative though—and so we felt it important to reach out to Hindus, Christians and others in the state to address their misunderstandings about our faith. The Dialogue Centre seeks to do that by publishing literature and by organizing periodic seminars and public conventions, to which we also invite Hindu and Christian religious leaders as well as Marxists. We dialogue in a friendly way, not in the old-fashioned polemical manner, and do not limit ourselves simply to religious issues but also take up matters of common social concern, on which people of different faiths can work together.’
‘Dharma Dhara’ is the Kerala JI’s communications division. So far, it has produced some 50 CDs in Malayalam, mainly about Islam, but also on social issues and struggles for justice for marginalized groups. One of its most recent productions is a digitalized edition in Malayalam of Syed Abul Ala Maududi’s voluminous commentary on the Quran, Tahfim ul-Quran. It has also produced tapes and CDs containing Islamically-inspired feature films, dramas and songs, some by non-Muslim singers and actors, something quite inconceivable in the Urdu-Hindi belt.
Through its ‘Jana Sevanam’ wing the Kerala JI engages in small economic development projects for the poor and assisting people affected by natural calamities. In the wake of the deadly Tsunami which struck coastal India some years ago, it collected and disbursed more than three crore rupees to victims in Kerala and the Andaman Islands. Says T.K.Hussain, the head of the programme, ‘Jana Sevanam runs more than 300 small interest-free lending institutions to help poor families set up small scale industries and for loans for emergencies and for education. Taken together, every year then lend out more than five crore rupees, the money being collected from zakat funds and donations or sadqa.’ Jana Sevanam’s ‘Ideal Relief Wing’ has trained some 500 volunteers, including girls, to help in relief work, and its teams have worked in emergency situations not just in Kerala but in Kashmir, Bihar and Rajasthan as well. Recently, it sponsored the repair of two general wards in the Calicut government hospital. Activists associated with Jana Sevanam run six hospitals in Kerala, including a new three hundred-bed super-speciality medical centre, and also provide subsidized medical treatment, including to poor non-Muslim patients, through the Association of Ideal Medical Services, a network of Muslim and non-Muslim doctors in the state. Across Kerala JI activists run some 150 regular schools, mostly from kindergarten to the twelfth standard and affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, in addition to some 200 part-time madrasas and a dozen or so Arabic Colleges for higher Islamic learning.
Established in 2003, ‘Solidarity’ is an organization led by youth activists of the Kerala JI. It has been involved in generating mass awareness on a range of social issues as well as leading and participating in social movements against anti-people government policies, fascism, imperialism, terrorism and environmental degradation. Says Solidarity’s Public Relations Secretary K.K.Basheer, ‘We now have a membership of some 4000, including some two hundred non-Muslims. Most are teachers, businessmen, doctors, but also fishermen, small farmers and labourers, between the age of 18 and 40. Members provide one per cent of their income to Solidarity’s bait ul-mal (treasury) to meet our expenses. We work closely with non-Muslim groups in Kerala, particularly leftists, who are concerned about similar social causes. Some of our activists work with Adivasis in Wynad, on issues of empowerment, education and drug de-addiction. Some other activists helped out with the government’s Ambedkar Housing Scheme for Dalits. We’ve constructed some 500 houses for the poor, and plan to build a hundred homes for Adivasis soon.’ Over the years, ‘Solidarity’ has organized mass rallies across Kerala, to which it has invited such noted social activists as Medha Patkar, Arundhiti Roy, Sandeep Pandey, Ram Puniyani, Suresh Khairnar, Iftikhar Gilani, Ajit Sahi, Yvonne Ridley, Claude Alvares and Kuldeep Nayyar.
‘Kerala is very different from north India,’ Basheer goes on, with evident pride. ‘People here, including Muslims, are much more socially aware and politically conscious. The contrast with north Indian Muslims is glaring. But the Solidarity experiment in Kerala has definitely had an impact on youth associated with the Jamaat-e Islami, some of who are now trying to get more socially involved as a result, moving beyond issues that are narrowly framed as specifically Islamic or Muslim.’ But this is not a phenomenon limited just to the JI. As Basheer adds, ‘Other Muslim groups in Kerala are also, like the Jamaat, increasingly working on social, economic and educational empowerment, and for communal harmony and against terrorism and fascism. These initiatives in Kerala, which, unfortunately, are hardly known elsewhere in India, can provide a powerful inspiration and example for Muslim activists in the rest of India to learn from.’
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