Bohra issues: archive of eye-opening articles and posts
This website and Forum have many interesting and thought-provoking posts submitted by various members over a period of many years, and which are difficult to locate. We have gathered this material in one place to provide easy access, and a starting point. Do yourself a favour, read this today.
News & Events
- Asghar Ali Engineer passes away
- It is with great sadness and sorrow we report the passing away of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer. He breathed his last on May 14, 2013 at his suburban home in Mumbai. He was 74. Dr. Engineer had been ill since February. His untimely death is a great loss to the peace and justice loving people around the world. He was a renowned Islamic scholar, Borha reformist leader and a public intellectual who passionately fought for the rights and justice of the downtrodden and of women. He had made it his life’s mission to work for communal harmony and was a staunch opponent of religious obscurantism which, he claimed, politicians exploited to garner votes and power. more
Features
- Merchant Princes of East Africa
- Gijsbert Oonk, the author, starts the book (The Karimjee Jivanjee Family: Merchant Princes of East Africa 1800–2000) with an insert of a family tree. This becomes a very necessary tool for readers as we weave through the journey of the prominent Karimjee Jeevanji family on the east coast of Africa. The author is a senior associate professor of non-western history at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He has published various books and numerous articles on the history of the Indian Ocean region. more
Islamic perspective
- Is Islam undemocratic?
- In a TV show a senior editor of a well-known Indian daily threw a question at me, why Islam is so undemocratic? It spurred me to write this article. The question must be answered. Is Islam undemocratic by nature of its teachings? more
Bohras and Reform
- The problems of the Bohra community
- Modernisation and change has brought many problems in its wake. The change is hardly ever smooth though we often like it to be one. Many religious communities have gone or have been going through turmoil in this process of modernisation and change. more
- Bohras and the scourge of social boycott
- The Bohra priesthood has resurrected the technique employed by the rich pagan Arabs against the Holy Prophet (peace be on him) and the first converts to Islam: social and economic boycott. When inducements, including the kingship of Arabia, failed to dissuade the Holy Prophet (peace be on him) from his mission and threats failed to frighten the followers, the powerful mercantile class initiated a long period of persecution which eventually culminated in his epochal migration to Medina. In Mecca the Holy Prophet (peace be on him) and his followers were isolated, broken and all commerce prohibited with them. Abu Lahab, an uncle of the Holy Prophet (peace be on him,) even forced his two sons to divorce holy Prophet’s daughters. more
Multimedia
- Interviews and talks
- Few people understand what the reform movement is about. They think reformists are against the Dai. This is not true. Check out a series of long-ranging interviews and talks to understand why reformists are fighting and what they are fighting for. more
Your story
- Walking out of the Bohra falsehood
- I was born in India in a small village more than 40 years ago into a Bohra family. I came with my family to Malaysia when I was only 4 years old. I grew up like any normal Bohra surrounded by the richness of the Bohra culture and rituals. My religion was primarily restricted to namaz and learning to read the Qur’an. more