Showing posts with label Mumbai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mumbai. Show all posts

Monday, 25 January 2016

Indian Muslims against ISIS: After fatwas against terror, Muslims take to streets, launch major campaign

0 Comments
First, there were fatwas against terrorism and ISIS.

Now, Indian Muslims have taken to the streets, to raise their voice against the outfit.

The photograph on the left, shows Muslim girls raising slogans against self-styled 'Islamic State'.

This is not a lone protest. It is part of a campaign. The reason is that many Muslims now increasingly feel that just condemning ISIS is not enough, but there is need to go to the street and say it, strongly, so that the message goes out.

Specially, in the wake of arrests of Muslim youths on suspicion of links with extremist groups, the Muslim community has decided to come out strongly and raise their voice.

Muslims in general are disgusted by the acts of groups like 'Islamic State', which is also known as 'Daaesh', ISIS or ISIL. Also, with media reports continuously giving wide coverage to inhuman acts of ISIS, community is deeply concerned.

The complexities of the situation in Syria and other countries of Middle East aren't clear to everyone.

However, the manner in which ISIS has been executing people and using Islamic symbols, distorting the message of the religion, has disturbed Muslims.

Earlier, over 1,000 Muslim religious heads, clerics and scholars had issued a joint fatwa, denouncing ISIS.

It termed the activities of the militia is inhuman and against the teachings of Islam. A copy of the text was sent to United Nations (UNO) too.

READ: 1,050 Muslim scholars' fatwa against ISIS

Now, a big campaign has been launched. It will mostly focus in Western part of India, where there are reports of many Muslim youths getting indoctrinated and affected by ISIS' propaganda.

Mumbai-based Sahas Foundation and Urdu Markaz are jointly organising the campaign. The aim is that parents also take care that the children don't get astray. A report about this campaign is published in Times of India (link below).

READ: 'Muslims against ISIS' campaign in India

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Mumbai has the highest number of Buddhists, Jains and Muslims in Indian cities: Most cosmopolitan city in India

0 Comments
The meat ban in Mumbai has brought focus on the fact that Jains form such a large part of Mumbai's population.

The decision to ban sale of meat for a few days was taken to respect the sentiments of Jains, who are more numerous in Western Indian.

In fact, no other city in India has such a large number of Jains. There are more than 5 lakh (more than half-a-million) Jains in Mumbai.

But the fact is that Mumbai is the city that has the highest proportion of other religious minorities too.

For example, no city in India has more Buddhists than Bombay. It has over 6 lakh Buddhists.

It is also a city with a very high Christian population. Mumbai has more than 4 lakh Christians.

And Mumbai has more Muslims than any other Indian city. The Muslim population of Mumbai is 25.68 lakh

Besides, this is the capital of Parsis in India. Around 40-45,000 Zoroastrians live in Mumbai, though not counted separately in census now. In a way, the religious minorities are not minorities here, they all together comprise over 33.8% of the city's population [1.24 crore or 12.4 million]. Such diversity!

Of course, Mumbai is overwhelmingly a Hindu city, where Hindus are a whopping 82 lakh, but it is still, the most cosmopolitan city of India. The remaining populace includes those who didn't state their religion including atheists, numbering around 32,000.

That's the beauty of Mumbai. No City in India matches it. It is a city that has a huge Marathi population, followed by Gujaratis, and now the North Indians, as well. So Mumbai is different than any other major Indian city.

MUMBAI

RELIGION              POPULATION

Hindu                         82 lakh
Muslim                       25.68 lakh
Buddhist                    6.03 lakh
Jain                            5.09 lakh
Christian                    4.07 lakh*
Sikh                            61,000
Parsi                           45,000
Not stated                   31,800

[Source 2011 census] Total population of Mumbai is nearly 1.24 crore or 124 lakh [12.4 million]

In the 90s, Hindu-Muslim violence divided the City. In recent years, controversies like denial of houses to 'non-vegetarian' eaters in housing socieites and meat ban, are incidents that don't go well with the spirit of Mumbai-kars

Mumbai is the jewel among Indian cities, most diverse. One hopes that Mumbai-kars of all faiths would realise that Mumbai is the City, India prides upon, for its cosmopolitan nature. They too need to celebrate this cosmopolitanism, and reject bigotry and ghetto culture.

[*Though Mumbai has over 4 lakh Christians, it is not the city with highest Christian population in India]
 
back to top