Islamic meet in South Africa praises India for being secular. Maybe with all it’s faults this is the approcah US wants to take in Iraq and Palestine.
Islamic meet in South Africa praises secular India
IANS Wednesday, October 22, 2003
PRETORIA: The freedom that Muslims enjoy in a secular India came in for praise at a global meet here hosted by the local Islamic community.
The 8th International Fiqh Conference has brought together Muslim theologians from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan among hundreds of others from around the world.
The meet aims to find ways for Islam to deal with a changing global society without compromising the principles of Shariah (Islamic law).
Amir Abdus Samad Nana, the director of the conference, told IANS: “The Ulema (religious leaders) of the subcontinent now play an important role in the development of the Muslim polity as a whole.”
“The Ulema of the subcontinent, in India, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, still are able to speak their minds and say what they really feel.”
Nana said the Muslim leaders in India had a huge following.
“Take Sheikh Abubakr, who has come from India. He is the secretary general of an organisation that runs 20,000 madrassas (Islamic seminaries). That is virtually like a country! These are men of leadership, with immense following.”
Nana said there were many similarities between Muslims of India and those of South Africa.
"Not only because many of us here are (descended from South Asia) but also because the inheritance of our knowledge does come from the subcontinent.
“We can learn a lot from what is happening there and also may be assist with what should be happening there.”
Mohammed Shamsul Huda Khan Misbahi of the Al-Jamiatul Ashrafia Arabic University in Mubarakpur, Uttar Pradesh, said he was pleased to see the way South African Indians had maintained their religious practices.
He also said Muslims in India did not have any issues with the secular government of the country.
“We have thousands of madrassas being run for our children. Thousands of our trained religious leaders go out to many countries of the world to serve the interests of Islam, often for communities where they lack such training facilities as those that have been in India for generations.”
Although the conference was organised largely by South African Indian Muslims, Muslims from many countries, including many from Africa and Europe, attended it.
Nana conceded that the stereotyped image of South African Muslims, all being either of Indian or Malay origin, was changing with the influx from Africa since the end of apartheid a decade ago.
"One must realise that Africa as a continent has the largest Muslim population in the world and people of Indian origin are a very small group.
“We now have Nigerians, Somalians, Senegalese, Egyptians and others coming into South Africa to show that Islam as a religion is much beyond an Indian phenomenon in the country.”
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownewsdata.asp?newsno=21370&newscat=Top