Another article:
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/comold/mar00/spreport.htm
The legacy of Sayedna Mohammed Burhanuddin
-
qutub_mamajiwala
- Posts: 1051
- Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2013 4:17 am
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin(A Legacy of oppression and Tagh
vry interesting and informative article
-
Saeed al Khair
- Posts: 166
- Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 5:08 pm
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin(A Legacy of oppression and Tagh
Study the record of News Paper of Malegaon, "Jurraat", enough meterial you will find. I will appreciate if someone from the Malegaon perform this Khidmat to open eyes of Dawoodi Bohras
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin(A Legacy of oppression and Tagh
it is a pity. right from my toddler age I have seen 51 and 52 and 53 visiting our residence and my relatives showering them with money. I did not witness any mojeza . I did not have faith in either of them and yet I think i have done pretty good due and only due to my strong faith and belief in my creator.
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin(A Legacy of oppression and Tagh
Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin is neither God nor a Prophet. But his followers believe that if he so decides, the Syedna can gift anyone a ticket to Paradise. This is a matter of faith for the Bohra community and we see no reason to comment on the same. After all, if millions do see god in a clay idol, it is neither a matter of surprise nor criticism if some choose to elevate a flesh–and–bones human being to the status of god.
But when non–Bohra Muslims — who claim to have faith in the one and only God and his Prophet, and who have enormous respect for the first four khalifas (Caliphs) of Islam — start crying themselves hoarse in support of a person who does not subscribe to the essentials of their faith, and who seven years ago had publicly abused the first three Khalifas in his speech leading to the first ever Sunni–Bohra riots, some hard questions need to be raised. What is it that propels them to rise to the defence of someone who is so opposed to their basic believes?
The first question that comes to mind is whether they, too, have accepted the Syedna as their religious head. Or, is it that money–power is at work and that they have prostrated themselves before the Syedna’s wealth just as the followers of Moses had done before the magician Samri’s golden calf? If an answer to these questions can be found, they will reveal the real reasons why so many non–Bohra Muslim leaders revere the Syedna.
The Syedna has kept the entire Bohra community in terror over the past 50 years. Earlier, his sovereignty was limited to his own community. But in the last ten years he has successfully identified and cultivated mercenaries among non–Bohras who play dubious games with other Muslims merely to help maintain the Syedna’s religious empire. Needless to say, such stooges are duly rewarded and they play an important role in buying the loyalty of Urdu newspapers to the Bohra head priest.
Apart from this, the Syedna also commands a team of goons to crush his adversaries. Nearly seven years ago, from a stage in a Bohra mohalla in Mumbai, the Syedna had used foul and abusive language against the wife of the Prophet and the first three khalifas who succeeded him. A moulvi from the Sunni sect who objected to this was thrashed by the Syedna’s henchmen at his prompting and this led to the first ever Sunni–Bohra riot which continued for three days.
In the midst of that conflict, some of the Syedna’s agents from among the Bohras and the Sunni community had approached the owner of an Urdu daily offering a briefcase full of currency notes in lieu of support for the Bohra high priest. But the owner of the daily had to reject the offer since a majority of the daily’s readers were Sunnis and passions were still running high because the Syedna had abused the Prophet’s wife. Judging by the current eagerness of the Urdu papers (from Mumbai) to rush to the Syedna’s rescue, it is difficult to believe that it was the same people who seven years ago had refused the Syedna’s bribe.
To ensure that his paid lackeys continue to sing his tune, the Syedna has set aside a huge fund to benefit prominent non–Bohra Muslims. Whenever the Syedna’s henchmen find that any Muslim person of some standing, journalist or intellectual is in financial difficulty, they approach him at their own initiative to offer assistance. It is through such assistance that they are corrupted and their loyalty assured. All those who are on the Syedna’s side today are those very people who have been beneficiaries of his largesse. Pick up any Urdu paper and you will find it full of statements in the Syedna’s support and not a sentence against him.
This is how the arrangement works: on the Syedna’s birthday every year, a full–page advertisement is released in all Urdu newspapers at double the normal rate. How will such newspapers ever publish a statement critical of the Bohra high priest? It is of course a different matter that it does not cost much to buy the allegiance of Urdu newspapers. Since Rs.20,000–25,000 is all it takes to tie a collar around the necks of the editors or owners of Urdu newspapers, it’s a good deal.
The entire attention of the Syedna and his sycophants remains focussed on buying up non–Bohra Muslim journalists, intellectuals, moulvis and newspapers. After all, that is how the Syedna is able to impress upon politicians that he is not only the religious head of the small community of Bohra Muslims, but he also enjoys the respect of Muslims from other sects too.
To create this impression, on Id Day every year, the Syedna’s agents round up prominent Muslims immediately after the Id prayers and herd them to the Syedna’s mansion (the Prophet of Islam never owned a mansion but this dharamguru resides in one). There, they all reverentially kiss the Syedna’s hands following which each select invitee receives an expensive shawl and a ‘packet’ depending on his assessed worth.
When I was editing an Urdu newspaper, the Syedna’s agents had tried in the beginning to take me, too, to offer my respects to the high priest on Id day. But I told them that I would rather go to the graves of my grandparents after namaaz to pray for them. And that there was no question of my going to pay respects to a person with whom I am in intellectual and ideological disagreement.
As I have written earlier, if the Syedna is indeed a follower of the Prophet, he should lead his life in accordance with his words and deeds. While the Prophet declared an amnesty even for his worst enemies when he entered Mecca as a victor, the Syedna cannot bear a word of censure against himself. What kind of a religious leader is the Syedna who reserves for himself the right to abuse the Prophet’s wife and highly respected first khalifas but who instigates his men to violence the moment anyone dares criticise him?
Prominent Muslims who go to pay their respects to the Syedna on Id day have their photos taken in the company of the high priest. These are then circulated amongst political leaders to impress them with the Syedna’s clout so that they can be kept under fear of the Muslim vote bank.
With the aid of his cronies, the Syedna has virtually turned that part of the posh Malabar Hill locality in Mumbai where he stays into a virtual Vatican City. Each time he travels, his car is preceded and followed by uniformed private security guards on motor–cycles — four in front and four at the rear. The Syedna occupies no government or political post. Who then has given him the authority and privilege to claim such preference on public roads? Or is he above the Constitution? The Syedna is able to avail of all this paraphernalia only on the strength of the vast funds at his disposal and his claim of being a religious head.
For security reasons, no one is permitted on the tarmac at the airports to receive any person unless the VIP in question has been granted special permission by the government. But over two years ago, the then minister for civil aviation, CM Ibrahim issued a special VIP card to the Syedna. His lieutenants can now drive up to the aircraft to receive the high priest. Interestingly, the Syedna contributed Rs10 lakh to a college in Bangalore being built by the same Ibrahim. Put the two things together and there you have the secret of the Syedna’s clout.
Incidentally, Asghar Ali Engineer is not the only one to have been at the receiving end of the Syedna’s wrath. The late Moin Shakir, a Sunni Muslim and a progressive historian from Aurangabad, was one among his many targets. Professor Shakir’s ‘crime’ consisted in the fact that he was one of the members of the Justice Nathwani Commission appointed in 1978 to inquire into the tyrannies of the Syedna and his coterie. There was little that the Syedna could do to Shakir while he was alive, but he sought his revenge after the latter’s death in 1987. At the instigation of the high priest’s henchmen, four months after Moin’s death, some of the Syedna’s paid agents from within the Sunni Muslim community in Aurangabad raised a dispute. Since Shakir was a communist, his body cannot rest in a graveyard for Muslim believers, they claimed. Their demand was that Shakir’s body be dug out from the grave and thrown out. The gathering storm that was deliberately stoked settled only after the kazi of Aurangabad city and the vice–amir of the Jamaat–e–Islami strongly condemned the Syedna–inspired mischief makers, saying, “since Shakir never described himself as a kafir, his faith was a matter between him and Allah; and no one else has any right to sit in judgement on the issue.’ Had the Aurangabad kaazi and the vice–amir of the Jamaat–e–Islami not been true to their calling, the Syedna’s agents in Aurangabad would not have rested till they had thrown the mortal remains of a Muslim scholar like Shakir out of the graveyard.
Religious leaders who play politics in the name of faith are forever insecure about their hold on their flock. Which is why they are always anxious to silence the voice of anyone who criticises or opposes them. Because they are unable to muzzle their opponents in democratic ways, they resort to violence. When even that fails, they deploy the most potent weapon at their disposal — the fatwa. The origin of fatwa politics can be traced back to the Church and the Pope. By the end of the 18th century, the Pope’s fatwa had lost its sting. But the same weapon is now being deployed within the Muslim community as never before.
Whenever the need is felt to malign or marginalise someone, it is declared that he/she is no longer a Muslim. Once such a declaration is made, barely literate and simple–minded Muslims take the mullah’s word on face value without seeking confirmation of the claim. In the past, fatwas have been issued even against people like Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, declaring them as ‘mischievous Muslim’, ‘kafir’, ‘atheist’, etc.
The Syedna, too, deploys the fatwa weapon against his critics with great cunning. How potent his weapon is can be gauged from the fact that his agents felt bold enough to use it against an Islamic scholar of the stature of professor Moin Shakir. What can one say of the fact that Aurangabad’s Muslims came close to giving such a mean treatment to a man who wrote more than 10 books on Islamic history and culture.
In the past Engineer, too, has been denounced as a kafir, a person who is anti–Muslim and anti–Quran. Mention the word Engineer before an ordinary Muslim today and he will immediately parrot the charge of his being anti–Islam. Is it not extremely unfortunate that such is their attitude towards a scholar of shariah and fiqh, who has through his books and columns in newspapers repeatedly challenged misinterpretations of the Quran or the Hadith? Because Engineer posed a danger to the mercenary mullahs, they decided that the best way to deal with him was to snap his ties with the average Muslim through resort to fatwa politics. For this reason alone did the professional mullahs dub Engineer un–Islamic.
Unfortunately, by dubbing him as anti–Islam they have cut him off not only from the Bohras but from the larger Muslim community, too. It is of course another matter that those who call him anti–Islam are unable to cite anything from his writings to prove their case. The mullahs and the high priests mislead the simple-minded community of believers in the same measure as they place their trust in such leaders.
Prominent among those who have today chosen to side with the Syedna are the very people who seven years ago had lead a morcha against the same man. The same Syedna who until yesterday was an ‘enemy of Sunnis’ is suddenly being presented today as a sage. It would appear that the Syedna’s gift shawls and ‘packets’ every Id have succeeded in melting the hearts of the Sunni mullahs.
So burdened are the spokespersons of the Ulema Council and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board by the Syedna’s largesse that they have even forgotten the teachings of the Prophet of Islam: “When you are asked to speak the truth, testify even against yourself”. Apart from the Ulema Council and the All-India Personal Law Board, the Syedna also contributes generously to the Aligarh Muslim University. Similarly, at the time of natural calamities, the Syedna makes generous contributions to the relief funds of the governments at the Centre and in the states.
Whenever his own authority is called into question, the Syedna seeks the shelter of the Muslim community. But whenever the Muslim community as a whole is targeted in the form of riots etc., he is quick to distance himself and the Bohras from the rest of the Muslims. Of this there are several examples.
During the 1992–93 riots in Mumbai, when the Shiv Sena had let loose a reign of terror against the Muslim community, the Syedna contacted Bal Thackeray and struck a secret deal. Following this, Thackeray had declared that though Bohras are part of the Muslim community, they are businessmen with whom “we have no dispute”. This way, the Syedna very smartly disassociated himself from all those who were being targeted by the Sena simply because they were Muslims.
The Syedna and his agents have had a long–standing equation with the Shiv Sena. During the Sunni-Bohra riots seven years ago, the city was rife with rumour that Thackeray has sent his sainiks into Bohra mohallas to protect them from the Sunnis. Our readers will recall that on the occasion of his 73rd birthday last month, the Syedna had personally visited the residence of ‘Hinduhridaysamrat’ Bal Thackeray to felicitate him. It should be noted here that the same Syedna, who sees himself as a religious head priest and never goes to meet any political person, saw it fit to visit Thackeray on his birthday.
This can mean one of two things: either the Syedna considers Thackeray to be a more exalted religious authority than himself or that he fears the Sena chief and therefore wants to keep him in good humour. Or, it could mean that Thackeray and the Syedna are old pals. As it is unlikely that the Syedna treats Thackeray as a higher religious authority, it could only mean that he is either the latter’s old pal or that he is scared of him.
Now, if the Syedna is scared of a mere mortal like Thackeray, what kind of a dharam guru is he? But if he is an old friend of the Sena supremo, he should tell us how old their friendship is. Since the 1984 Bhiwandi riots, or since the 1992–93 riots? It is unlikely that the Syedna will answer this question but knowledgeable sources say the friendship between Thackeray and the Syedna is as old as Thackeray’s anti–Muslim politics.
If the Syedna is truly a spiritual person and a high priest, why does he need Thackeray to protect his flock from the Shiv Sainiks ire? If he indeed possesses the spiritual power to issue passports to heaven, here and now, to any person he likes, why does he need goons to deal with an opponent like Engineer? Surely, his spiritual power is more than adequate to deal with people like Engineer! (Sajid Rashid who is currently editor of Hamara Mahanagar (Hindi) was formerly the features editor of Urdu Times).
But when non–Bohra Muslims — who claim to have faith in the one and only God and his Prophet, and who have enormous respect for the first four khalifas (Caliphs) of Islam — start crying themselves hoarse in support of a person who does not subscribe to the essentials of their faith, and who seven years ago had publicly abused the first three Khalifas in his speech leading to the first ever Sunni–Bohra riots, some hard questions need to be raised. What is it that propels them to rise to the defence of someone who is so opposed to their basic believes?
The first question that comes to mind is whether they, too, have accepted the Syedna as their religious head. Or, is it that money–power is at work and that they have prostrated themselves before the Syedna’s wealth just as the followers of Moses had done before the magician Samri’s golden calf? If an answer to these questions can be found, they will reveal the real reasons why so many non–Bohra Muslim leaders revere the Syedna.
The Syedna has kept the entire Bohra community in terror over the past 50 years. Earlier, his sovereignty was limited to his own community. But in the last ten years he has successfully identified and cultivated mercenaries among non–Bohras who play dubious games with other Muslims merely to help maintain the Syedna’s religious empire. Needless to say, such stooges are duly rewarded and they play an important role in buying the loyalty of Urdu newspapers to the Bohra head priest.
Apart from this, the Syedna also commands a team of goons to crush his adversaries. Nearly seven years ago, from a stage in a Bohra mohalla in Mumbai, the Syedna had used foul and abusive language against the wife of the Prophet and the first three khalifas who succeeded him. A moulvi from the Sunni sect who objected to this was thrashed by the Syedna’s henchmen at his prompting and this led to the first ever Sunni–Bohra riot which continued for three days.
In the midst of that conflict, some of the Syedna’s agents from among the Bohras and the Sunni community had approached the owner of an Urdu daily offering a briefcase full of currency notes in lieu of support for the Bohra high priest. But the owner of the daily had to reject the offer since a majority of the daily’s readers were Sunnis and passions were still running high because the Syedna had abused the Prophet’s wife. Judging by the current eagerness of the Urdu papers (from Mumbai) to rush to the Syedna’s rescue, it is difficult to believe that it was the same people who seven years ago had refused the Syedna’s bribe.
To ensure that his paid lackeys continue to sing his tune, the Syedna has set aside a huge fund to benefit prominent non–Bohra Muslims. Whenever the Syedna’s henchmen find that any Muslim person of some standing, journalist or intellectual is in financial difficulty, they approach him at their own initiative to offer assistance. It is through such assistance that they are corrupted and their loyalty assured. All those who are on the Syedna’s side today are those very people who have been beneficiaries of his largesse. Pick up any Urdu paper and you will find it full of statements in the Syedna’s support and not a sentence against him.
This is how the arrangement works: on the Syedna’s birthday every year, a full–page advertisement is released in all Urdu newspapers at double the normal rate. How will such newspapers ever publish a statement critical of the Bohra high priest? It is of course a different matter that it does not cost much to buy the allegiance of Urdu newspapers. Since Rs.20,000–25,000 is all it takes to tie a collar around the necks of the editors or owners of Urdu newspapers, it’s a good deal.
The entire attention of the Syedna and his sycophants remains focussed on buying up non–Bohra Muslim journalists, intellectuals, moulvis and newspapers. After all, that is how the Syedna is able to impress upon politicians that he is not only the religious head of the small community of Bohra Muslims, but he also enjoys the respect of Muslims from other sects too.
To create this impression, on Id Day every year, the Syedna’s agents round up prominent Muslims immediately after the Id prayers and herd them to the Syedna’s mansion (the Prophet of Islam never owned a mansion but this dharamguru resides in one). There, they all reverentially kiss the Syedna’s hands following which each select invitee receives an expensive shawl and a ‘packet’ depending on his assessed worth.
When I was editing an Urdu newspaper, the Syedna’s agents had tried in the beginning to take me, too, to offer my respects to the high priest on Id day. But I told them that I would rather go to the graves of my grandparents after namaaz to pray for them. And that there was no question of my going to pay respects to a person with whom I am in intellectual and ideological disagreement.
As I have written earlier, if the Syedna is indeed a follower of the Prophet, he should lead his life in accordance with his words and deeds. While the Prophet declared an amnesty even for his worst enemies when he entered Mecca as a victor, the Syedna cannot bear a word of censure against himself. What kind of a religious leader is the Syedna who reserves for himself the right to abuse the Prophet’s wife and highly respected first khalifas but who instigates his men to violence the moment anyone dares criticise him?
Prominent Muslims who go to pay their respects to the Syedna on Id day have their photos taken in the company of the high priest. These are then circulated amongst political leaders to impress them with the Syedna’s clout so that they can be kept under fear of the Muslim vote bank.
With the aid of his cronies, the Syedna has virtually turned that part of the posh Malabar Hill locality in Mumbai where he stays into a virtual Vatican City. Each time he travels, his car is preceded and followed by uniformed private security guards on motor–cycles — four in front and four at the rear. The Syedna occupies no government or political post. Who then has given him the authority and privilege to claim such preference on public roads? Or is he above the Constitution? The Syedna is able to avail of all this paraphernalia only on the strength of the vast funds at his disposal and his claim of being a religious head.
For security reasons, no one is permitted on the tarmac at the airports to receive any person unless the VIP in question has been granted special permission by the government. But over two years ago, the then minister for civil aviation, CM Ibrahim issued a special VIP card to the Syedna. His lieutenants can now drive up to the aircraft to receive the high priest. Interestingly, the Syedna contributed Rs10 lakh to a college in Bangalore being built by the same Ibrahim. Put the two things together and there you have the secret of the Syedna’s clout.
Incidentally, Asghar Ali Engineer is not the only one to have been at the receiving end of the Syedna’s wrath. The late Moin Shakir, a Sunni Muslim and a progressive historian from Aurangabad, was one among his many targets. Professor Shakir’s ‘crime’ consisted in the fact that he was one of the members of the Justice Nathwani Commission appointed in 1978 to inquire into the tyrannies of the Syedna and his coterie. There was little that the Syedna could do to Shakir while he was alive, but he sought his revenge after the latter’s death in 1987. At the instigation of the high priest’s henchmen, four months after Moin’s death, some of the Syedna’s paid agents from within the Sunni Muslim community in Aurangabad raised a dispute. Since Shakir was a communist, his body cannot rest in a graveyard for Muslim believers, they claimed. Their demand was that Shakir’s body be dug out from the grave and thrown out. The gathering storm that was deliberately stoked settled only after the kazi of Aurangabad city and the vice–amir of the Jamaat–e–Islami strongly condemned the Syedna–inspired mischief makers, saying, “since Shakir never described himself as a kafir, his faith was a matter between him and Allah; and no one else has any right to sit in judgement on the issue.’ Had the Aurangabad kaazi and the vice–amir of the Jamaat–e–Islami not been true to their calling, the Syedna’s agents in Aurangabad would not have rested till they had thrown the mortal remains of a Muslim scholar like Shakir out of the graveyard.
Religious leaders who play politics in the name of faith are forever insecure about their hold on their flock. Which is why they are always anxious to silence the voice of anyone who criticises or opposes them. Because they are unable to muzzle their opponents in democratic ways, they resort to violence. When even that fails, they deploy the most potent weapon at their disposal — the fatwa. The origin of fatwa politics can be traced back to the Church and the Pope. By the end of the 18th century, the Pope’s fatwa had lost its sting. But the same weapon is now being deployed within the Muslim community as never before.
Whenever the need is felt to malign or marginalise someone, it is declared that he/she is no longer a Muslim. Once such a declaration is made, barely literate and simple–minded Muslims take the mullah’s word on face value without seeking confirmation of the claim. In the past, fatwas have been issued even against people like Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, declaring them as ‘mischievous Muslim’, ‘kafir’, ‘atheist’, etc.
The Syedna, too, deploys the fatwa weapon against his critics with great cunning. How potent his weapon is can be gauged from the fact that his agents felt bold enough to use it against an Islamic scholar of the stature of professor Moin Shakir. What can one say of the fact that Aurangabad’s Muslims came close to giving such a mean treatment to a man who wrote more than 10 books on Islamic history and culture.
In the past Engineer, too, has been denounced as a kafir, a person who is anti–Muslim and anti–Quran. Mention the word Engineer before an ordinary Muslim today and he will immediately parrot the charge of his being anti–Islam. Is it not extremely unfortunate that such is their attitude towards a scholar of shariah and fiqh, who has through his books and columns in newspapers repeatedly challenged misinterpretations of the Quran or the Hadith? Because Engineer posed a danger to the mercenary mullahs, they decided that the best way to deal with him was to snap his ties with the average Muslim through resort to fatwa politics. For this reason alone did the professional mullahs dub Engineer un–Islamic.
Unfortunately, by dubbing him as anti–Islam they have cut him off not only from the Bohras but from the larger Muslim community, too. It is of course another matter that those who call him anti–Islam are unable to cite anything from his writings to prove their case. The mullahs and the high priests mislead the simple-minded community of believers in the same measure as they place their trust in such leaders.
Prominent among those who have today chosen to side with the Syedna are the very people who seven years ago had lead a morcha against the same man. The same Syedna who until yesterday was an ‘enemy of Sunnis’ is suddenly being presented today as a sage. It would appear that the Syedna’s gift shawls and ‘packets’ every Id have succeeded in melting the hearts of the Sunni mullahs.
So burdened are the spokespersons of the Ulema Council and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board by the Syedna’s largesse that they have even forgotten the teachings of the Prophet of Islam: “When you are asked to speak the truth, testify even against yourself”. Apart from the Ulema Council and the All-India Personal Law Board, the Syedna also contributes generously to the Aligarh Muslim University. Similarly, at the time of natural calamities, the Syedna makes generous contributions to the relief funds of the governments at the Centre and in the states.
Whenever his own authority is called into question, the Syedna seeks the shelter of the Muslim community. But whenever the Muslim community as a whole is targeted in the form of riots etc., he is quick to distance himself and the Bohras from the rest of the Muslims. Of this there are several examples.
During the 1992–93 riots in Mumbai, when the Shiv Sena had let loose a reign of terror against the Muslim community, the Syedna contacted Bal Thackeray and struck a secret deal. Following this, Thackeray had declared that though Bohras are part of the Muslim community, they are businessmen with whom “we have no dispute”. This way, the Syedna very smartly disassociated himself from all those who were being targeted by the Sena simply because they were Muslims.
The Syedna and his agents have had a long–standing equation with the Shiv Sena. During the Sunni-Bohra riots seven years ago, the city was rife with rumour that Thackeray has sent his sainiks into Bohra mohallas to protect them from the Sunnis. Our readers will recall that on the occasion of his 73rd birthday last month, the Syedna had personally visited the residence of ‘Hinduhridaysamrat’ Bal Thackeray to felicitate him. It should be noted here that the same Syedna, who sees himself as a religious head priest and never goes to meet any political person, saw it fit to visit Thackeray on his birthday.
This can mean one of two things: either the Syedna considers Thackeray to be a more exalted religious authority than himself or that he fears the Sena chief and therefore wants to keep him in good humour. Or, it could mean that Thackeray and the Syedna are old pals. As it is unlikely that the Syedna treats Thackeray as a higher religious authority, it could only mean that he is either the latter’s old pal or that he is scared of him.
Now, if the Syedna is scared of a mere mortal like Thackeray, what kind of a dharam guru is he? But if he is an old friend of the Sena supremo, he should tell us how old their friendship is. Since the 1984 Bhiwandi riots, or since the 1992–93 riots? It is unlikely that the Syedna will answer this question but knowledgeable sources say the friendship between Thackeray and the Syedna is as old as Thackeray’s anti–Muslim politics.
If the Syedna is truly a spiritual person and a high priest, why does he need Thackeray to protect his flock from the Shiv Sainiks ire? If he indeed possesses the spiritual power to issue passports to heaven, here and now, to any person he likes, why does he need goons to deal with an opponent like Engineer? Surely, his spiritual power is more than adequate to deal with people like Engineer! (Sajid Rashid who is currently editor of Hamara Mahanagar (Hindi) was formerly the features editor of Urdu Times).
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
The fatwaas from the permanent committe of fatwas in Saudi Arabia are the highest authority in Muslim world they come from the official decree:
http://aliftaweb.org/English/Pages/Fatw ... 1&BookID=7
The following line explicitly declares the syedna as kafir:
http://aliftaweb.org/English/Pages/Fatw ... 1&BookID=7
A deobandi fatawa:
http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/27682
http://darulifta-deoband.org/showuservi ... en&id=5192
http://aliftaweb.org/English/Pages/Fatw ... 1&BookID=7
The following line explicitly declares the syedna as kafir:
http://aliftaweb.org/English/Pages/Fatw ... 1&BookID=7
Note: it is only the 'wahhabi' sects like tablighi and salafi who showed the audacity to declare this in their official fatawas not bought over by the money power weilded by Burhanuddin and co.Consequently, both parties, the followers (Bohras) and the followed (chief of Bohras) are Kafir (disbelievers) in Allah and Islam. We seek refuge in Allah from this.
A deobandi fatawa:
http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/27682
http://darulifta-deoband.org/showuservi ... en&id=5192
The Dawoodi Bohra are a subsect of Ismā'īlī Shī'ah; as such, they are non-Muslims[1]. Also, going to their Jamat Khana is impermissible.[2]
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Zehra Cyclewala a member of the community who raised voice against the oppression of Burhanuddin and his clergy was harassed by the late Syedna and his followers
http://www.rediff.com/news/special/spec ... 110323.htm
http://www.rediff.com/news/special/spec ... 110323.htm
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
The About Us page on this Forum still says:
"We are Ismaili Fatimid Mustalian Tayyebi Dawoodi Bohras, a sect of Shia Islam. We accept the succession of Imams up to Imam Tayyeb and his progeny, and the line of Tayyebi Dais starting from Syedna Zoeb bin Moosa to the current Dai, Sayedna Mohammed Burhanuddin."
Yet, ADMIN allows such content on this site.
Devilish intent indeed?
"We are Ismaili Fatimid Mustalian Tayyebi Dawoodi Bohras, a sect of Shia Islam. We accept the succession of Imams up to Imam Tayyeb and his progeny, and the line of Tayyebi Dais starting from Syedna Zoeb bin Moosa to the current Dai, Sayedna Mohammed Burhanuddin."
Yet, ADMIN allows such content on this site.
Devilish intent indeed?
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Well this is constructive criticism and this thread is not meant for personal attacks but critical verifiable journalistic reports on him. Now as there is succession crisis going on the people should learn from the past mistakes and the future leaders (if any) should learn from that.
Allah swt himself presents the examples of Taghoot like Pharoah not to attack him but for us to learn and take Ibrat from it.
Allah swt himself presents the examples of Taghoot like Pharoah not to attack him but for us to learn and take Ibrat from it.
-
Al Zulfiqar
- Posts: 4618
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:01 am
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
so the jack-in-the-box rip van winkle adam is back. to state what? that since the official reformist position is to believe in the office of dai, then dai is above criticism? the dai can commit whatever crimes he wants against humanity, violate the principles of islam, insult the practices of its prophet and its sahabas incl. the great ali, indulge in money laundering on a massive scale, live a life of shameless ayyashi, murder wild animals for sport and yet be untouchable?Adam wrote:The About Us page on this Forum still says:
"We are Ismaili Fatimid Mustalian Tayyebi Dawoodi Bohras, a sect of Shia Islam. We accept the succession of Imams up to Imam Tayyeb and his progeny, and the line of Tayyebi Dais starting from Syedna Zoeb bin Moosa to the current Dai, Sayedna Mohammed Burhanuddin."
Yet, ADMIN allows such content on this site.
Devilish intent indeed?
the daim ul islam clearly spells out the parameters for qualifications that a person should meet to be appointed a dai. why would it do that if the dai is considered divine, infallible and above reproach? does it spell out the requirements for an imam or a prophet? obviously it does not, because those positions are allah's to decide. the dai is neither divine, nor is he above criticism if his actions, words and lifestyle does not conform with the daim.
the dai's office is a neccessary one for the community, but its the dai who has to uphold its sanctity. if he chooses to live like firaun and treat his subjects as idiot slaves, then we have every right to criticise and condemn and make him amend his unislamic ways. that does not negate the office of the dai, just as the US president can be impeached but the office of the president remains.
blind people like adam are welcome to lend their backsides like a donkey for his infallible dai to ride, adam cannot expect that we will do the same (although we would like to take a ride on the oh-so-obliging adam as well)
-
ghulam muhammed
- Posts: 11653
- Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Bohra: an Islamic sect reduced to a cult
The Milli Gazette
Published Online: Dec 01, 2012
Print Issue: 1-15 December 2012
By Saifuddin Insaf
The Milli Gazette is a magazine widely read in the Muslim World. In its recent issue of 16-31 October, 2012 it has published an article “The Wizard of Gujarat” by Mr. Yunus Chitalwala. In this article the writer has said that “Bohras do not represent the mainstream Muslim community”. In other words, Dawoodi Bohras have separated themselves from the mainstream Islam.
Mr. A. G. Noorani, an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and a leading constitutional expert, after going through the Justice Nathwani Commission report in 1980, had commented on the un-Islamic practices of the Dawoodi Bohra priestly class saying, “The practices which the Commission report has exposed are totally opposed to Islam and it would be suicidal of Muslims to show any sympathy for the Dawoodi Bohra priesthood.”
Many Muslims, like Farooq Abdul Gaffar Bawani (Rajkot Gujarat), are raising questions as to what is wrong with Dawoodi Bohra community? Why have Dawoodi Bohras separated themselves from the rest of the Muslims? Who is the think tank of Dawoodi Bohras? What is the role of the religious head H. H. Dr. Syedna Saheb in this state of affairs? What may be the hidden agenda of H. H. Dr. Syedna Saheb and his followers for adopting such an approach?
Before the Justice Nathwani Commission report, Muslim leaders, ulama and community members were not aware of the un-Islamic practices and sins of idolatry (Shirk, i.e., associating Syedna with Allah) practiced by the Bohra Syedna and his family members within the four walls of the Bohra community.
That is why Dawoodi Bohra priesthood did not want their un-Islamic practices and atrocities to come into public. Therefore, as soon as the appointment of an Enquiry Commission was announced, the Bohra priesthood’s entire machinery was geared up to raise a worldwide hue and cry against the commission. Slogans of “Islam in danger” and “Interference in Islamic Shariah” were shouted everywhere demanding a ban on the commission. The Dawoodi Bohra priestly class tried to enlist the support of the Muslim Personal Law Board, Central Hajj Committee, Shahi Imam of Delhi, Mufti Ateequr Rehman Usmani etc. In spite of violent opposition and all odds, members of the Commission, which included two Islamic scholars Dr. Alam Khundmiri and Dr. Moin Shakir, remained firm and completed their inquiry and made its report public. The authenticity of this report is evident from the fact that the filthy rich Bohra priesthood, who has a troop of best legal experts, could not dare to challenge this report till today.
The Dawoodi Bohra priesthood has always used Muslims to safeguard its interests and power. But it has not joined and helped Muslims in any welfare activity and humanitarian work, victims of riots and violence, participating in events like Miladun Nabi, peace committees, Babri Masjid agitation etc.
Two inquiry commissions have been appointed to look into the malpractices and violation of human rights of Dawoodi Bohras. The first commission was appointed under the chairmanship of Justice Nathawani by the Citizens for Democracy and the second one was appointed under the chairmanship of Justice Tevatia by Indian Peoples’ Human Rights Commission. After the eye-opening exposure by these two Commissions’ reports, Muslims started distancing themselves from the tyrant and idolater Bohra priesthood and started forming an opinion like the one expressed by Mr Yunus Chitalwala. Loss of Muslim support compelled the Bohra priestly class to seek support of Hindus and hardcore Hindutwa leaders like Narendra Modi, LK Advani, Bal Thackeray etc.
The Dawoodi Bohra priesthood’s conscious gameplan to safeguard its vested interests can be justified but the question is: why Dawoodi Bohras separated themselves from the Muslim mainstream?
I am a Dawoodi Bohra myself. I am sure that till recently we, Dawoodi Bohras, used to believe that we are Muslims first and Shia-Ismaili-Must’alian-Tayyebi second. Islam is our fundamental faith. All our Shia-Ismaili-Must’alian-Tayyebi doctrines are based on Islamic teachings and Qur’anic injunctions and whatever is against Islam and Qur’an cannot be a part of our faith. We, undoubtedly believe in the Qur’an, which is the source of our law, and the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) who is our true guide. We were strict followers of Islamic practices.
While the worshipers of Syedna still claim to be Muslim, they have gradually deviated fundamentally from the teachings and practices of Islam ever since their 51st Da’i, Syedna Taher Saifuddin, occupied the seat of Dawat in 1915. Dawoodi Bohra Da’is, till 50th Da’I, were poor and indebted. Whereas the 51st Da’i, Syedna Taher Saifuddin was full of worldly ambitions, wealth, luxury and fame. He wanted to live as a monarch and thus he moved unabashedly to build his financial empire destroying the spirit and norms of Islam and Isma’ilism giving it an absolute authoritarian character. This caused, and is still causing, many problems in this peace-loving community. There is no priesthood in Islam as religious functions can be performed by any ordinary Muslim. The priesthood is absent in all other Islamic sects. The same was the case in Dawoodi Bohra community till the emergence of the 50th Da’i.
To establish his absolute authoritarian control over the Bohra community, Syedna Taher Saifuddin went to the extent of claiming that he is “Elahul-Ard” (God on this earth) (na’udhu billah) and that he has powers equal to that of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and that he is accountable to no one and that he is master of the soul, mind, body and properties of his followers. He made it compulsory that every Bohra should call him/herself as “Slave of Sayedna” (Abd-e Sayedna / Amat-e Syedna) and perform “Sajda-e ‘Ubudiyat” in front of him. He also claimed that he is “Qur’an-e Natiq (speaking Qur'an) (na’udhu billah) and that the Quran in the present book form is a dead book (na’udhu billah).
Taher Saifuddin called himself “Da’i-ul-Mutlaq” (Absolute Da’i) and Sultan of the Bohras. He introduced an oath (Misaq) which is compulsory for every Bohra to offer to the Da’i. The harsh conditions in Misaq made it an instrument of punishment. He started a practice of “Jama’at kharij” (excommunication), thus enslaving the entire community.
He also introduced a system of seeking his Raza (permission) for all religious as well as secular matters. Namaz, Hajj, Zakat etc., which are obligatory according to Islam and Quran for every Muslim, were declared unacceptable to Allah if done without the prior permission (Raza) of Syedna.
Very systematically, the class of Bohra ulama (learned persons) was eliminated by awarding the titles of Mullas and Shaikhs to undeserving and ignorant persons who could offer huge sums of cash to the Da’i.
By consolidating his absolute authority and becoming from Da’i-ul-Mutlaq to Qaderul-Mutlaq (Absolute in might), he took hold of all the trusts, properties and wealth of community and adopted a luxurious life of living in palaces, high-flying and big-spending.
His son and 52nd Da’i, Mohammad Burhanuddin, not only followed his father but deviated further and used this centralized structure to his advantage making it more and more authoritarian by introducing a particular dress code for Dawoodi Bohra males, females and children, E-Jamaat cards which is a deadly weapon of Jamaat kharij - called “Baraat” - in its latest version. Thus, the Ismaili mission which played a very important role by attempting a creative intellectual synthesis of philosophy and the teachings of Islam has now been reduced to a cult.
The present 52nd Da’i has further taken the community away from Islam by declaring himself as the sole-owner of Bohra mosques and the sole-trustee of the community’s charitable properties. Under his ownership, Bohra mosques have become a playground for organizing birthday functions, cutting cakes, serving jamans [community dinner], arranging vadhavnis [Aarti of Syedna saheb], qadambosi, najwa [private meeting] and salam functions, mass marriages, meetings of politicians, putting cinema screen, video shooting, fund collection and lottery draws. Now even musalla spaces are priced and reserved, thus killing the very spirit of namaz.
To hide these un-Islamic practices from other Muslims, the doors of Dawoodi Bohra masjids are permanently closed for non-Dawoodi Bohras. Further, to plug any loophole in the system, a particular dress code and Jamaat identity cards are made compulsory. Even in Mecca, during Hajj, Dawoodi Bohras are ordered not to join other Muslims either in Tawaf or Namaz.
Deliberate rifts are created between Dawoodi Bohras and other Muslims in order to keep them separate from each other. In 1988, Syedna Burhanuddin cursed Muslim caliphs (R.A.) and Hazrat Aisha Siddiqah (R.A.) openly during Moharram, causing a riot in Mumbai, in which five innocent Muslims lost their lives and properties worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed.
Dawoodi Bohra Da’i has given up the principle of accountability which is so central in Islam and which was followed by the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and his Ahl-e bait most vigorously. Now-a-days he and Bohras worshipping him are often seen in the company of anti-Muslim Hindu leaders like LK Advani, Narendra Modi, Bal Thakarey etc.
The earlier ‘Islamic sect’ is now reduced to a ‘cult’ with all the components of a cult, namely the Dawoodi Bohras are intensely devoted to the cult-head and they worship him. They follow a system of beliefs and rituals which are bogus though they claim that their system is most authentic and superior to that of other Muslims.
A large majority of cultic Bohras and their supporter Muslims are fully aware of the extent to which Bohras have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. Their social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioural patterns are commonly found in cultic environments. The present Dawoodi Bohra Da’i dictates, in great detail, how members should think, act and feel, how they must get permission to observe prayers, Hajj, change jobs, marry, what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so on and so forth. Dawoodi Bohras feel there can be no life outside the walls of their community. These are visible components of a cult which are against Islam.
Should Dawoodi Bohra priesthood headed by Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin be treated as Muslims or not and whether they should be expelled from the pale of Islam or not? This is a question for the Muslim ulama to think seriously.
The writer is Editor, Bohra Chronicle, Mumbai
This article appeared in The Milli Gazette print issue of 1-15 December 2012 on page no. 2
The Milli Gazette
Published Online: Dec 01, 2012
Print Issue: 1-15 December 2012
By Saifuddin Insaf
The Milli Gazette is a magazine widely read in the Muslim World. In its recent issue of 16-31 October, 2012 it has published an article “The Wizard of Gujarat” by Mr. Yunus Chitalwala. In this article the writer has said that “Bohras do not represent the mainstream Muslim community”. In other words, Dawoodi Bohras have separated themselves from the mainstream Islam.
Mr. A. G. Noorani, an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and a leading constitutional expert, after going through the Justice Nathwani Commission report in 1980, had commented on the un-Islamic practices of the Dawoodi Bohra priestly class saying, “The practices which the Commission report has exposed are totally opposed to Islam and it would be suicidal of Muslims to show any sympathy for the Dawoodi Bohra priesthood.”
Many Muslims, like Farooq Abdul Gaffar Bawani (Rajkot Gujarat), are raising questions as to what is wrong with Dawoodi Bohra community? Why have Dawoodi Bohras separated themselves from the rest of the Muslims? Who is the think tank of Dawoodi Bohras? What is the role of the religious head H. H. Dr. Syedna Saheb in this state of affairs? What may be the hidden agenda of H. H. Dr. Syedna Saheb and his followers for adopting such an approach?
Before the Justice Nathwani Commission report, Muslim leaders, ulama and community members were not aware of the un-Islamic practices and sins of idolatry (Shirk, i.e., associating Syedna with Allah) practiced by the Bohra Syedna and his family members within the four walls of the Bohra community.
That is why Dawoodi Bohra priesthood did not want their un-Islamic practices and atrocities to come into public. Therefore, as soon as the appointment of an Enquiry Commission was announced, the Bohra priesthood’s entire machinery was geared up to raise a worldwide hue and cry against the commission. Slogans of “Islam in danger” and “Interference in Islamic Shariah” were shouted everywhere demanding a ban on the commission. The Dawoodi Bohra priestly class tried to enlist the support of the Muslim Personal Law Board, Central Hajj Committee, Shahi Imam of Delhi, Mufti Ateequr Rehman Usmani etc. In spite of violent opposition and all odds, members of the Commission, which included two Islamic scholars Dr. Alam Khundmiri and Dr. Moin Shakir, remained firm and completed their inquiry and made its report public. The authenticity of this report is evident from the fact that the filthy rich Bohra priesthood, who has a troop of best legal experts, could not dare to challenge this report till today.
The Dawoodi Bohra priesthood has always used Muslims to safeguard its interests and power. But it has not joined and helped Muslims in any welfare activity and humanitarian work, victims of riots and violence, participating in events like Miladun Nabi, peace committees, Babri Masjid agitation etc.
Two inquiry commissions have been appointed to look into the malpractices and violation of human rights of Dawoodi Bohras. The first commission was appointed under the chairmanship of Justice Nathawani by the Citizens for Democracy and the second one was appointed under the chairmanship of Justice Tevatia by Indian Peoples’ Human Rights Commission. After the eye-opening exposure by these two Commissions’ reports, Muslims started distancing themselves from the tyrant and idolater Bohra priesthood and started forming an opinion like the one expressed by Mr Yunus Chitalwala. Loss of Muslim support compelled the Bohra priestly class to seek support of Hindus and hardcore Hindutwa leaders like Narendra Modi, LK Advani, Bal Thackeray etc.
The Dawoodi Bohra priesthood’s conscious gameplan to safeguard its vested interests can be justified but the question is: why Dawoodi Bohras separated themselves from the Muslim mainstream?
I am a Dawoodi Bohra myself. I am sure that till recently we, Dawoodi Bohras, used to believe that we are Muslims first and Shia-Ismaili-Must’alian-Tayyebi second. Islam is our fundamental faith. All our Shia-Ismaili-Must’alian-Tayyebi doctrines are based on Islamic teachings and Qur’anic injunctions and whatever is against Islam and Qur’an cannot be a part of our faith. We, undoubtedly believe in the Qur’an, which is the source of our law, and the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) who is our true guide. We were strict followers of Islamic practices.
While the worshipers of Syedna still claim to be Muslim, they have gradually deviated fundamentally from the teachings and practices of Islam ever since their 51st Da’i, Syedna Taher Saifuddin, occupied the seat of Dawat in 1915. Dawoodi Bohra Da’is, till 50th Da’I, were poor and indebted. Whereas the 51st Da’i, Syedna Taher Saifuddin was full of worldly ambitions, wealth, luxury and fame. He wanted to live as a monarch and thus he moved unabashedly to build his financial empire destroying the spirit and norms of Islam and Isma’ilism giving it an absolute authoritarian character. This caused, and is still causing, many problems in this peace-loving community. There is no priesthood in Islam as religious functions can be performed by any ordinary Muslim. The priesthood is absent in all other Islamic sects. The same was the case in Dawoodi Bohra community till the emergence of the 50th Da’i.
To establish his absolute authoritarian control over the Bohra community, Syedna Taher Saifuddin went to the extent of claiming that he is “Elahul-Ard” (God on this earth) (na’udhu billah) and that he has powers equal to that of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and that he is accountable to no one and that he is master of the soul, mind, body and properties of his followers. He made it compulsory that every Bohra should call him/herself as “Slave of Sayedna” (Abd-e Sayedna / Amat-e Syedna) and perform “Sajda-e ‘Ubudiyat” in front of him. He also claimed that he is “Qur’an-e Natiq (speaking Qur'an) (na’udhu billah) and that the Quran in the present book form is a dead book (na’udhu billah).
Taher Saifuddin called himself “Da’i-ul-Mutlaq” (Absolute Da’i) and Sultan of the Bohras. He introduced an oath (Misaq) which is compulsory for every Bohra to offer to the Da’i. The harsh conditions in Misaq made it an instrument of punishment. He started a practice of “Jama’at kharij” (excommunication), thus enslaving the entire community.
He also introduced a system of seeking his Raza (permission) for all religious as well as secular matters. Namaz, Hajj, Zakat etc., which are obligatory according to Islam and Quran for every Muslim, were declared unacceptable to Allah if done without the prior permission (Raza) of Syedna.
Very systematically, the class of Bohra ulama (learned persons) was eliminated by awarding the titles of Mullas and Shaikhs to undeserving and ignorant persons who could offer huge sums of cash to the Da’i.
By consolidating his absolute authority and becoming from Da’i-ul-Mutlaq to Qaderul-Mutlaq (Absolute in might), he took hold of all the trusts, properties and wealth of community and adopted a luxurious life of living in palaces, high-flying and big-spending.
His son and 52nd Da’i, Mohammad Burhanuddin, not only followed his father but deviated further and used this centralized structure to his advantage making it more and more authoritarian by introducing a particular dress code for Dawoodi Bohra males, females and children, E-Jamaat cards which is a deadly weapon of Jamaat kharij - called “Baraat” - in its latest version. Thus, the Ismaili mission which played a very important role by attempting a creative intellectual synthesis of philosophy and the teachings of Islam has now been reduced to a cult.
The present 52nd Da’i has further taken the community away from Islam by declaring himself as the sole-owner of Bohra mosques and the sole-trustee of the community’s charitable properties. Under his ownership, Bohra mosques have become a playground for organizing birthday functions, cutting cakes, serving jamans [community dinner], arranging vadhavnis [Aarti of Syedna saheb], qadambosi, najwa [private meeting] and salam functions, mass marriages, meetings of politicians, putting cinema screen, video shooting, fund collection and lottery draws. Now even musalla spaces are priced and reserved, thus killing the very spirit of namaz.
To hide these un-Islamic practices from other Muslims, the doors of Dawoodi Bohra masjids are permanently closed for non-Dawoodi Bohras. Further, to plug any loophole in the system, a particular dress code and Jamaat identity cards are made compulsory. Even in Mecca, during Hajj, Dawoodi Bohras are ordered not to join other Muslims either in Tawaf or Namaz.
Deliberate rifts are created between Dawoodi Bohras and other Muslims in order to keep them separate from each other. In 1988, Syedna Burhanuddin cursed Muslim caliphs (R.A.) and Hazrat Aisha Siddiqah (R.A.) openly during Moharram, causing a riot in Mumbai, in which five innocent Muslims lost their lives and properties worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed.
Dawoodi Bohra Da’i has given up the principle of accountability which is so central in Islam and which was followed by the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and his Ahl-e bait most vigorously. Now-a-days he and Bohras worshipping him are often seen in the company of anti-Muslim Hindu leaders like LK Advani, Narendra Modi, Bal Thakarey etc.
The earlier ‘Islamic sect’ is now reduced to a ‘cult’ with all the components of a cult, namely the Dawoodi Bohras are intensely devoted to the cult-head and they worship him. They follow a system of beliefs and rituals which are bogus though they claim that their system is most authentic and superior to that of other Muslims.
A large majority of cultic Bohras and their supporter Muslims are fully aware of the extent to which Bohras have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. Their social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioural patterns are commonly found in cultic environments. The present Dawoodi Bohra Da’i dictates, in great detail, how members should think, act and feel, how they must get permission to observe prayers, Hajj, change jobs, marry, what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so on and so forth. Dawoodi Bohras feel there can be no life outside the walls of their community. These are visible components of a cult which are against Islam.
Should Dawoodi Bohra priesthood headed by Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin be treated as Muslims or not and whether they should be expelled from the pale of Islam or not? This is a question for the Muslim ulama to think seriously.
The writer is Editor, Bohra Chronicle, Mumbai
This article appeared in The Milli Gazette print issue of 1-15 December 2012 on page no. 2
The Tyrant who rules over the Dawoodi Bohras
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2011/06/ ... ohras.html
Dawoodi Bohras have always been known for their business gene. But few know they are being choked by a tyrannical and all-powerful religious head. Anumeha Yadav reports how every attempt to rein him in is crushed
THE BOHRA Muslims have always been read through a dominant stereotype: their capacity for business. That’s probably one reason why even chief minister Narendra Modi has found it convenient to reach out to them as part of his PR measures to improve his scoreboard with Muslims in Gujarat. But few Indians would know that the Dawoodi Bohras have been living with — and fighting — deeply suffocating customs under the regime of their spiritual head, the 100-year old Syedna Mohamed Burhanuddin.
This story is not a new one. Three decades ago, the Janata Party-led government in Gujarat allowed the Nathwani Commission, set up by then PM Morarji Desai, to examine complaints of civil rights violations by the Syedna. But even after 1979, when the commission published its findings, the priest and his family have continued to wield overwhelming power over the community through the threats of baraat (community boycott), of denying ruqo chitthi (a letter obtained from the Syedna at a hefty sum so that the dead may enter heaven) and seven kinds of taxes arbitrarily levied on all, including foetuses.
This February, when the Syedna turned 100, one of his seven sons, Huzefa Mohiuddin, walked in for the celebrations in Ahmedabad with Chief Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders Vijay Rupani, Asit Vohra and Jayanti Barot. Inside the brightly- lit hall, Mohiuddin praised governance in ‘vibrant Gujarat’. Modi related anecdotes about his closeness with the Syedna over the years. Cell phone cameras clicked. Jointly holding the knife, Modi and Mohiuddin cut a cake to chants of Allaho- Akbar, and congratulated each other.
Modi’s attempts to appear more palatable to minorities by playing footsie with this sect are fairly recent. But those Bohras, who have been trying to resist the Syedna’s chokehold over their civil rights, say they have for decades witnessed their priest grow more powerful with covert support from various state and Central governments and corporate giants. Political expediency takes precedence over reform. (See pictures on next page)
Dawoodi Bohras are predominantly traders concentrated in western India — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra — and Madhya Pradesh. The men wear distinctive white-and-gold caps while the women wear colourful burqas called rida.
They believe their Imam represents the Prophet on earth and that their 21st Imam had to go into exile in the 12th century. The Syedna, appointed hereditarily since the present Syedna’s grandfather’s time, is supposed to be the spiritual representative in the Imam’s absence.
Blind faith The Syedna, at 100 years, commands a large following that keeps the faith — mostly out of fear
Udaipur has been a centre of reformist struggle since the early 1970s, when a section of Bohras defied the Syedna’s choice of candidates to nominate their own candidates in civic elections. In Bohrwadi, Udaipur, sitting in the reformist Dawoodi Bohra Youth Association office, Zehra Naaz, in her mid-40s, describes how the Syedna’s men attacked a Moharram majlis (assembly) at Moiyyadpura mosque in 1975. “They pushed me from the second floor. I was 14,” she recalls. Her spine was damaged so badly that she could not stand up for two years, having to drop out of school. Now, when the call for the namaz is heard at the mosque at 2 pm, the reformists are confined to a small enclosure.
The Syedna, who claims ownership over the minds and bodies of his followers as well as all communal property, staked claim to the mosque, the largest of eight in the city, in an Udaipur civil court in 1984. When a violent clash broke out during Ramzan in 2004, the administration divided the prayer hall. Reformists got a small portion behind iron bars.
“The Syedna insists that all mosques and communal property be vested in him rather than waqf boards. Last September, through an RTI, we found that he and his coterie submitted a forged certificate in 2000 to the municipal corporation to get permits for new properties,” says Yusuf Ali RG, a reformist whose father defied the Syedna. The family has been socially boycotted on the Syedna’s orders since.
Bohras need the Syedna’s permission to start a school, a charity, marry, even bury their dead
Reformists say the Syedna runs a parallel autocratic government. All Dawoodi Bohras, including those in the US, UK, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Indonesia, Thailand and the Gulf, must pay taxes to the Syedna but cannot ask what is done with the money. They need the Syedna’s permission to establish charities, start a school, marry, even to bury their dead. “The priest charges Rs 2-10 lakh for permission for burial in Bohra cemeteries even when the land is leased from the municipal corporation. The Bohras cannot have what the Constitution allows them because we need the Syedna’s permission for everything,” says Asghar Ali Engineer, a Mumbai-based reformer, who says he accepts the institution of the Syedna, but is fighting for civil rights.
Taxes and control of finances of charities or trusts form the financial basis of the Syedna’s empire. The 1979 commission, led by retired judges NP Nathwani and VM Tarkunde, pointed out, “All trust properties of the community are at the Syedna’s disposal, whether he is legally the sole trustee or not. Thus, he can take decisions as to the application of the income of any trust for such purposes as he considers charitable. Any person challenging his decision has to face the consequences.”
THE COMMISSION’S estimate was that trusts the Syedna controlled in Maharashtra alone were worth Rs 50 crore. It recommended that these trusts be regulated by laws similar to those which govern other Muslim trusts such as the Dargah Khwaja Sahab Act. Norman Contractor, a Dawoodi Bohra businessman and reformist who died in 1983, alleged that the Syedna and his family were embezzling charity funds. Reformists requested the Central government to probe financial details of two trusts headed by the Sydena — Dawat-e-Hadiya and the Syedna Taher Saifuddin Memorial Foundation — in 1977, alleging the priest was investing in industries that followers were then forced to buy shares in.
“In private, income tax authorities told us they cannot investigate this, given the pressure from higher authorities,” says Saifuddin Insaf, general secretary of the Dawoodi Bohras’ Central Board.
The government stayed silent even when the Tanzanian government expelled the Syedna for his alleged complicity in transferring money out of that country in 1967, and nine years later when Sheikh Abdul Qayum Kaderbhoy, the Bohra priest in Sri Lanka, was caught smuggling jewels in his robes by the Sri Lankan government.
Anil Ambani Mukesh Ambani Prithviraj Chavan
top cop LK Advani Narendra Modi
Appeasing the gods (from left) Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani, Prithviraj Chavan, top cops, LK Advani and Narendra Modi pay obeisance to the Syedna. This deals a further blow to reformists’ attempts to bring transparency and democracy
Photo: AFP
In fact, 1967 was when the present Syedna imposed a new Constitution on the community. He took over all secular powers vested in local panchayat-like councils, the jamaat. On reaching puberty, a child must take misaaq, an oath of allegiance to the Syedna. With this oath, he signs off all his rights — religious and secular — and agrees that if he disobeys the Syedna, he will have to divorce his spouse, or give up his property, and be cut off from the community as the Syedna wills. This oath was originally a way to assert one’s loyalty for the Ismailis, who were part of an underground movement against the Abbasid Empire. Ironically, a custom that originated during a reform movement has become a tool in the hands of a theocracy.
A glimpse into how the Syedna operates his empire is possible from a UK government inquiry into the Dawat-e-Hadiya trust, of which he is the sole trustee. In July 2001, Charity Commission UK began investigating this public trust with an annual turnover of £2 million (approximately Rs 15 crore). The commission found that of six nominees appointed to administer the trust, four were Syedna’s sons. It ordered them to pay Rs 3 crore back to the trust because the Syedna and the nominees had made payments to themselves, violating their fiduciary responsibilities.
Besides money from taxes and public trusts, the Syedna and his appointees charge money to make appearances. A follower must pay a minimum of Rs 5,000 to apply to see the Syedna at his Mumbairesidence Shaify Mahal in Malabar Hill, where he lives with 300-odd members of his family. A mail circulated prior to Syedna’s visit to California in May asked every household to pay $14,000 ( Rs 5.6 lakh) for the Syedna’s youngest son to inaugurate a mosque in Los Angeles.
The Bohra situation is not a remnant of archaic despotism, it was exacerbated by the greater affluence that came with economic changes post-independence. The threat of social boycott has remained powerful because the community, estimated to be a little over a million, is still fairly insular, often choosing to marry and do business within the community.
“A few years after I returned from the US after completing my PhD, they declared a baraat against me for not wearing the Dawoodi Bohra dress. They asked Muslim civic organisations I was active in to expel me. They tried to target my cousin Ismail Kanga, then India’s ambassador to Yemen, to make an example of what happens if the theocracy is not obeyed,” says professor JS Bandukwala, a prominent social activist and physicist at MS University, Vadodara.
DAWOODI BOHRA l ocalities resound with stories of being threatened, ostracised, beaten and in some instances even being driven to suicide. “My siblings, my relatives, neighbours, everyone stopped talking to me. Some Bohras even tried to burn the house I lived in with my aged mother,” says Zehra Cyclewallah, who lived under police protection in Surat for 14 years after going to court against the Syedna.
Cyclewallah invited the priest’s wrath when she refused to step down as manager of a cooperative bank that the Syedna first inaugurated and then several years later tried to shut down with a fatwa, accusing it of charging interest. The priest and his coterie had similarly tried to shut down Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank in Mumbai in 1982. The chairman of the bank, Hoseini Doctor, had then accused the priestly family of trying to gain control of the bank by forcing Bohra employees in the bank to resign or face a social boycott.
Recognising that social boycott is a weapon to deprive Dawoodi Bohras of their constitutional rights, the Bombay State Legislature had passed the Prevention of Excommunication Act in 1948. The Bombay High Court upheld the law but in 1961, a four-member Bench of the Supreme Court accepted the Syedna’s contention that excommunication on religious ground was his prerogative. In a dissenting judgment, then Chief Justice Sinha expressed his discomfort with the judgment. “I am not satisfied that the right to excommunication is a purely religious matter… one is inclined to think that the position of an excommunicated person becomes that of an untouchable,” he remarked. Reformists’ appealed for a review of the verdict but a hearing has been pending for 15 years.
The Syedna, who is the wealthiest of all Muslim clergy, has used his ties with Muslim leaders to serve his own ends, resisting any government scrutiny by raising the bogey of interference in minority culture. In cities with a history of reform within the community such as Udaipur, reformists’ numbers have dwindled. Even former leaders such as Ghulam Hussain, a former president of reformist Bohra Youth Association, have had to apologise and seek refuge with the Syedna.
“If they don’t obey the Syedna, they are not Dawoodi Bohras. Our trusts are run as per India’s laws,” says Quresh Ragib, the Syedna’s public relations officer.
Engineer, who led the movement despite six incidents of physical attacks, including a stabbing attempt in 1976, reels off a list of the high and mighty to whom he appealed to end the Syedna’s chokehold. “Indira Gandhi, Zail Singh, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, VP Singh, Rajiv Gandhi. I stopped trying after Narasimha Rao,” he says. He acknowledges that the underground movement is dead. “Hundreds used to collect in secret meetings in Ahmedabad, Indore, Kolkata. Now 10-15 people turn up. They say they are sympathisers but the fear of punishment is too great,” he says.
If the movement is completely snuffed out, what do the reformists ultimately lose? “The freedom to do what our conscience says, to live with dignity,” he says.
Anumeha Yadav is a Senior Correspondent with Tehelka.
anumeha@tehelka.com
Dawoodi Bohras have always been known for their business gene. But few know they are being choked by a tyrannical and all-powerful religious head. Anumeha Yadav reports how every attempt to rein him in is crushed
THE BOHRA Muslims have always been read through a dominant stereotype: their capacity for business. That’s probably one reason why even chief minister Narendra Modi has found it convenient to reach out to them as part of his PR measures to improve his scoreboard with Muslims in Gujarat. But few Indians would know that the Dawoodi Bohras have been living with — and fighting — deeply suffocating customs under the regime of their spiritual head, the 100-year old Syedna Mohamed Burhanuddin.
This story is not a new one. Three decades ago, the Janata Party-led government in Gujarat allowed the Nathwani Commission, set up by then PM Morarji Desai, to examine complaints of civil rights violations by the Syedna. But even after 1979, when the commission published its findings, the priest and his family have continued to wield overwhelming power over the community through the threats of baraat (community boycott), of denying ruqo chitthi (a letter obtained from the Syedna at a hefty sum so that the dead may enter heaven) and seven kinds of taxes arbitrarily levied on all, including foetuses.
This February, when the Syedna turned 100, one of his seven sons, Huzefa Mohiuddin, walked in for the celebrations in Ahmedabad with Chief Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders Vijay Rupani, Asit Vohra and Jayanti Barot. Inside the brightly- lit hall, Mohiuddin praised governance in ‘vibrant Gujarat’. Modi related anecdotes about his closeness with the Syedna over the years. Cell phone cameras clicked. Jointly holding the knife, Modi and Mohiuddin cut a cake to chants of Allaho- Akbar, and congratulated each other.
Modi’s attempts to appear more palatable to minorities by playing footsie with this sect are fairly recent. But those Bohras, who have been trying to resist the Syedna’s chokehold over their civil rights, say they have for decades witnessed their priest grow more powerful with covert support from various state and Central governments and corporate giants. Political expediency takes precedence over reform. (See pictures on next page)
Dawoodi Bohras are predominantly traders concentrated in western India — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra — and Madhya Pradesh. The men wear distinctive white-and-gold caps while the women wear colourful burqas called rida.
They believe their Imam represents the Prophet on earth and that their 21st Imam had to go into exile in the 12th century. The Syedna, appointed hereditarily since the present Syedna’s grandfather’s time, is supposed to be the spiritual representative in the Imam’s absence.
Blind faith The Syedna, at 100 years, commands a large following that keeps the faith — mostly out of fear
Udaipur has been a centre of reformist struggle since the early 1970s, when a section of Bohras defied the Syedna’s choice of candidates to nominate their own candidates in civic elections. In Bohrwadi, Udaipur, sitting in the reformist Dawoodi Bohra Youth Association office, Zehra Naaz, in her mid-40s, describes how the Syedna’s men attacked a Moharram majlis (assembly) at Moiyyadpura mosque in 1975. “They pushed me from the second floor. I was 14,” she recalls. Her spine was damaged so badly that she could not stand up for two years, having to drop out of school. Now, when the call for the namaz is heard at the mosque at 2 pm, the reformists are confined to a small enclosure.
The Syedna, who claims ownership over the minds and bodies of his followers as well as all communal property, staked claim to the mosque, the largest of eight in the city, in an Udaipur civil court in 1984. When a violent clash broke out during Ramzan in 2004, the administration divided the prayer hall. Reformists got a small portion behind iron bars.
“The Syedna insists that all mosques and communal property be vested in him rather than waqf boards. Last September, through an RTI, we found that he and his coterie submitted a forged certificate in 2000 to the municipal corporation to get permits for new properties,” says Yusuf Ali RG, a reformist whose father defied the Syedna. The family has been socially boycotted on the Syedna’s orders since.
Bohras need the Syedna’s permission to start a school, a charity, marry, even bury their dead
Reformists say the Syedna runs a parallel autocratic government. All Dawoodi Bohras, including those in the US, UK, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Indonesia, Thailand and the Gulf, must pay taxes to the Syedna but cannot ask what is done with the money. They need the Syedna’s permission to establish charities, start a school, marry, even to bury their dead. “The priest charges Rs 2-10 lakh for permission for burial in Bohra cemeteries even when the land is leased from the municipal corporation. The Bohras cannot have what the Constitution allows them because we need the Syedna’s permission for everything,” says Asghar Ali Engineer, a Mumbai-based reformer, who says he accepts the institution of the Syedna, but is fighting for civil rights.
Taxes and control of finances of charities or trusts form the financial basis of the Syedna’s empire. The 1979 commission, led by retired judges NP Nathwani and VM Tarkunde, pointed out, “All trust properties of the community are at the Syedna’s disposal, whether he is legally the sole trustee or not. Thus, he can take decisions as to the application of the income of any trust for such purposes as he considers charitable. Any person challenging his decision has to face the consequences.”
THE COMMISSION’S estimate was that trusts the Syedna controlled in Maharashtra alone were worth Rs 50 crore. It recommended that these trusts be regulated by laws similar to those which govern other Muslim trusts such as the Dargah Khwaja Sahab Act. Norman Contractor, a Dawoodi Bohra businessman and reformist who died in 1983, alleged that the Syedna and his family were embezzling charity funds. Reformists requested the Central government to probe financial details of two trusts headed by the Sydena — Dawat-e-Hadiya and the Syedna Taher Saifuddin Memorial Foundation — in 1977, alleging the priest was investing in industries that followers were then forced to buy shares in.
“In private, income tax authorities told us they cannot investigate this, given the pressure from higher authorities,” says Saifuddin Insaf, general secretary of the Dawoodi Bohras’ Central Board.
The government stayed silent even when the Tanzanian government expelled the Syedna for his alleged complicity in transferring money out of that country in 1967, and nine years later when Sheikh Abdul Qayum Kaderbhoy, the Bohra priest in Sri Lanka, was caught smuggling jewels in his robes by the Sri Lankan government.
Anil Ambani Mukesh Ambani Prithviraj Chavan
top cop LK Advani Narendra Modi
Appeasing the gods (from left) Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani, Prithviraj Chavan, top cops, LK Advani and Narendra Modi pay obeisance to the Syedna. This deals a further blow to reformists’ attempts to bring transparency and democracy
Photo: AFP
In fact, 1967 was when the present Syedna imposed a new Constitution on the community. He took over all secular powers vested in local panchayat-like councils, the jamaat. On reaching puberty, a child must take misaaq, an oath of allegiance to the Syedna. With this oath, he signs off all his rights — religious and secular — and agrees that if he disobeys the Syedna, he will have to divorce his spouse, or give up his property, and be cut off from the community as the Syedna wills. This oath was originally a way to assert one’s loyalty for the Ismailis, who were part of an underground movement against the Abbasid Empire. Ironically, a custom that originated during a reform movement has become a tool in the hands of a theocracy.
A glimpse into how the Syedna operates his empire is possible from a UK government inquiry into the Dawat-e-Hadiya trust, of which he is the sole trustee. In July 2001, Charity Commission UK began investigating this public trust with an annual turnover of £2 million (approximately Rs 15 crore). The commission found that of six nominees appointed to administer the trust, four were Syedna’s sons. It ordered them to pay Rs 3 crore back to the trust because the Syedna and the nominees had made payments to themselves, violating their fiduciary responsibilities.
Besides money from taxes and public trusts, the Syedna and his appointees charge money to make appearances. A follower must pay a minimum of Rs 5,000 to apply to see the Syedna at his Mumbairesidence Shaify Mahal in Malabar Hill, where he lives with 300-odd members of his family. A mail circulated prior to Syedna’s visit to California in May asked every household to pay $14,000 ( Rs 5.6 lakh) for the Syedna’s youngest son to inaugurate a mosque in Los Angeles.
The Bohra situation is not a remnant of archaic despotism, it was exacerbated by the greater affluence that came with economic changes post-independence. The threat of social boycott has remained powerful because the community, estimated to be a little over a million, is still fairly insular, often choosing to marry and do business within the community.
“A few years after I returned from the US after completing my PhD, they declared a baraat against me for not wearing the Dawoodi Bohra dress. They asked Muslim civic organisations I was active in to expel me. They tried to target my cousin Ismail Kanga, then India’s ambassador to Yemen, to make an example of what happens if the theocracy is not obeyed,” says professor JS Bandukwala, a prominent social activist and physicist at MS University, Vadodara.
DAWOODI BOHRA l ocalities resound with stories of being threatened, ostracised, beaten and in some instances even being driven to suicide. “My siblings, my relatives, neighbours, everyone stopped talking to me. Some Bohras even tried to burn the house I lived in with my aged mother,” says Zehra Cyclewallah, who lived under police protection in Surat for 14 years after going to court against the Syedna.
Cyclewallah invited the priest’s wrath when she refused to step down as manager of a cooperative bank that the Syedna first inaugurated and then several years later tried to shut down with a fatwa, accusing it of charging interest. The priest and his coterie had similarly tried to shut down Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank in Mumbai in 1982. The chairman of the bank, Hoseini Doctor, had then accused the priestly family of trying to gain control of the bank by forcing Bohra employees in the bank to resign or face a social boycott.
Recognising that social boycott is a weapon to deprive Dawoodi Bohras of their constitutional rights, the Bombay State Legislature had passed the Prevention of Excommunication Act in 1948. The Bombay High Court upheld the law but in 1961, a four-member Bench of the Supreme Court accepted the Syedna’s contention that excommunication on religious ground was his prerogative. In a dissenting judgment, then Chief Justice Sinha expressed his discomfort with the judgment. “I am not satisfied that the right to excommunication is a purely religious matter… one is inclined to think that the position of an excommunicated person becomes that of an untouchable,” he remarked. Reformists’ appealed for a review of the verdict but a hearing has been pending for 15 years.
The Syedna, who is the wealthiest of all Muslim clergy, has used his ties with Muslim leaders to serve his own ends, resisting any government scrutiny by raising the bogey of interference in minority culture. In cities with a history of reform within the community such as Udaipur, reformists’ numbers have dwindled. Even former leaders such as Ghulam Hussain, a former president of reformist Bohra Youth Association, have had to apologise and seek refuge with the Syedna.
“If they don’t obey the Syedna, they are not Dawoodi Bohras. Our trusts are run as per India’s laws,” says Quresh Ragib, the Syedna’s public relations officer.
Engineer, who led the movement despite six incidents of physical attacks, including a stabbing attempt in 1976, reels off a list of the high and mighty to whom he appealed to end the Syedna’s chokehold. “Indira Gandhi, Zail Singh, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, VP Singh, Rajiv Gandhi. I stopped trying after Narasimha Rao,” he says. He acknowledges that the underground movement is dead. “Hundreds used to collect in secret meetings in Ahmedabad, Indore, Kolkata. Now 10-15 people turn up. They say they are sympathisers but the fear of punishment is too great,” he says.
If the movement is completely snuffed out, what do the reformists ultimately lose? “The freedom to do what our conscience says, to live with dignity,” he says.
Anumeha Yadav is a Senior Correspondent with Tehelka.
anumeha@tehelka.com
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Interesting posts by GM and Shezada.
You'll can post and follow what you want, but in the mean time, this site's mission should change:
It says:
Rather, it should say, We DO NOT accept.
Once that is clarified, it would would make more sense.
You'll can post and follow what you want, but in the mean time, this site's mission should change:
It says:
"We are Ismaili Fatimid Mustalian Tayyebi Dawoodi Bohras, a sect of Shia Islam. We accept the succession of Imams up to Imam Tayyeb and his progeny, and the line of Tayyebi Dais starting from Syedna Zoeb bin Moosa to the current Dai, Sayedna Mohammed Burhanuddin."
Rather, it should say, We DO NOT accept.
Once that is clarified, it would would make more sense.
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Adam and TB
I agree with Adam and TB about changing the Mission Statement of PDB
It should say that We believe in 52nd Dai Syenda Mohammed Burhanuddin who was NOT MASOOM, NOR WAS HE GHAIB NA JANKAR AND HE DID NOT GET ANY ILHAM REGARDING THE SUCCESSION. HE WAS A SIMPLE HUMAN BEING WHO LED THE COMMUNITY AND WAS MANIPULATED BY HIS GREEDY SONS AND POWERFUL WIFE.
I agree with Adam and TB about changing the Mission Statement of PDB
It should say that We believe in 52nd Dai Syenda Mohammed Burhanuddin who was NOT MASOOM, NOR WAS HE GHAIB NA JANKAR AND HE DID NOT GET ANY ILHAM REGARDING THE SUCCESSION. HE WAS A SIMPLE HUMAN BEING WHO LED THE COMMUNITY AND WAS MANIPULATED BY HIS GREEDY SONS AND POWERFUL WIFE.
-
Akhtiar Wahid
- Posts: 804
- Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:22 am
Developments during the era of 52nd Dai
Members of this forum please list out developments and welfare in our community done by 52nd Dai Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin (RA)
"i need some optimistic responses"
"i need some optimistic responses"
Re: Developments during the era of 52nd Dai
Giving more than 2 crore rupees to Narendra Modi CM of Gujrat
Giving more than 2 crores to Atal Bihari Bajpai PM of India
Establishing a research center at Karachi University during the time of Zardari
Meeting Dictators of the world From Saddam Hussain to Narendra Modi to Bal Thackrey
Started Grow Tree Project
Started Free Sparrow Project
Started Nurani Sandas Project in every Mumin's house
Started stop eating Gutka Project
Started Thali/Dabba Project
Started SBUT project
and the biggest accomplishment
Due to his inability to clearly do the NUSS, caused another split in Dawat
Giving more than 2 crores to Atal Bihari Bajpai PM of India
Establishing a research center at Karachi University during the time of Zardari
Meeting Dictators of the world From Saddam Hussain to Narendra Modi to Bal Thackrey
Started Grow Tree Project
Started Free Sparrow Project
Started Nurani Sandas Project in every Mumin's house
Started stop eating Gutka Project
Started Thali/Dabba Project
Started SBUT project
and the biggest accomplishment
Due to his inability to clearly do the NUSS, caused another split in Dawat
-
Akhtiar Wahid
- Posts: 804
- Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:22 am
Re: Developments during the era of 52nd Dai
SBM bhai,
I know maybe you had personal grudges with the late marhoom Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb (RA), we have to be kind and understanding and know that a person who has left this world should be praised and spoke good about. So please refrain from pointing out points which would not do any good but create more of a destructive thoughts for the reader's mind.
I know maybe you had personal grudges with the late marhoom Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb (RA), we have to be kind and understanding and know that a person who has left this world should be praised and spoke good about. So please refrain from pointing out points which would not do any good but create more of a destructive thoughts for the reader's mind.
-
fustrate_Bohra
- Posts: 678
- Joined: Mon Nov 25, 2013 6:46 am
Re: Developments during the era of 52nd Dai
I think all the die hard follower of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin will DEFINITELY come up with long list of achievements established for the welfare/development of common bohra people.Akhtiar Wahid wrote:Members of this forum please list out developments and welfare in our community done by 52nd Dai Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin (RA)
"i need some optimistic responses"
Last edited by fustrate_Bohra on Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Developments during the era of 52nd Dai
Br AW
I never met 52 in my life so why would I have any grudge against him or anybody. I did list all the accomplishments for which my extended family paid dearly thru NUMBER of UNITS
And btw if you say we should not talk bad about dead people and should praise them, then Kothari Goons should stop saying laanats on all the Khalifas,
On a second thought if they can not spare living Mazoon how can we expect anything better.
Oh that reminds me of another accomplishment of creating a riot in Mumbai when he in public said Lanaats to Khalifas and caused death of innocent Bohras ( which he also did when he was dead too)
No Grudge just the truth....
I never met 52 in my life so why would I have any grudge against him or anybody. I did list all the accomplishments for which my extended family paid dearly thru NUMBER of UNITS
And btw if you say we should not talk bad about dead people and should praise them, then Kothari Goons should stop saying laanats on all the Khalifas,
On a second thought if they can not spare living Mazoon how can we expect anything better.
Oh that reminds me of another accomplishment of creating a riot in Mumbai when he in public said Lanaats to Khalifas and caused death of innocent Bohras ( which he also did when he was dead too)
No Grudge just the truth....
Re: Developments during the era of 52nd Dai
Oh
One more accomplishment
He collected tons of GOLD from all those gullible Bhoras to build the Zarih from Fatema Ut Zohra and no one dare ask him what he did with that Gold,
I do take back one of the accomplishment wrong credited t him which is of Thaali and Dabba that is to the credit of his Mansoos SMS.
One more accomplishment
He collected tons of GOLD from all those gullible Bhoras to build the Zarih from Fatema Ut Zohra and no one dare ask him what he did with that Gold,
I do take back one of the accomplishment wrong credited t him which is of Thaali and Dabba that is to the credit of his Mansoos SMS.
-
ghulam muhammed
- Posts: 11653
- Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm
Re: Developments during the era of 52nd Dai
Bro Akhtar Wahid,Akhtiar Wahid wrote:SBM bhai,I know maybe you had personal grudges with the late marhoom Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb (RA), we have to be kind and understanding and know that a person who has left this world should be praised and spoke good about. So please refrain from pointing out points which would not do any good but create more of a destructive thoughts for the reader's mind.
Truth doesn't change anytime, be it in ones lifetime or after death and we have to accept the wrongs if any as only then we can analyse things with an unbiased mind. He may have done some good work but that does not absolve him of the wrongs that he may have done. Hitler did a lot for the people of Germany but does that absolve him of his heinous crimes against the jews ? In India, Modi is suppose to have done a lot for development of his state but does that give him a clean chit with regard to the 2002 Mass genocide in which more 2,000 muslims were brutally killed and more then 2 lakh muslims were displaced !!
-
ghulam muhammed
- Posts: 11653
- Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
PUCL Bulletin, August 1982
The Dawoodi Bohra's
By Kalpana Sharma
The demonstrations held outside the head office and several branches of the Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank by orthodox Bohras in mid-May symbolised one of the central aspects of the on-going struggle within the Dawoodi Bohra community. Ostensibly the demonstrators only wanted the bank to stop giving interest because they claimed this was against Islam. The Mercantile Bank, the demonstrators insisted, was a Muslim bank and therefore should adhere to Islamic tenets.
The covert motivations of the orthodox Bohras demonstrating outside the bank, or those who were instrumental in organising the demonstrations, tell another story.
There has been a struggle for reform within the Dawoodi Bohra community for many years. This small Muslim sect, numbering around one million and spread over 35 countries, dates back to the 10th century AD when the Ismailias organised a secret religio-political movement in Iraq because of the prevailing circumstances of the Abbasid empire. The nature of the sect required that every member take a secret oath of allegiance - called a Misag - to the head of the community. This oath covered not just religious matters but encroached upon many other aspects of life.
Breaking the covenant was not just frowned upon but involved serious repercussions for the transgresser. For instance, it could mean that "Whatever he owns from property, assets, real estate, wealth, jewels, agriculture, milch cattle…. Will be seized and distributed among the poor, needy and indigent Muslims and nothing out of it will return to him whatever ruses he adopts." Furthermore, "all his wives and whom he will marry in future will be treated as divorced."
Essentially the same structure and a similar oath have continued to be an intrinsic feature of the Dawoodi Bohras who are directly descended from the Ismailia sect. The Dai-ul-Mutlaq, or the head of the community, appoints a successor. At the age of 15 every Bohra has to take the Misaq. This oath of allegiance to a living human being and the concept of a priestly class marks the Bohras as apart from the rest of Islam.
The Bohra chief, or the Syedna, has extraordinary powers of control over the community. For instance, he collects taxes which exceed Rs.11 crores each year from his half million followers in India. How these funds are used is left tohimto decide. Bohras questioning either the Syedna's lifestyle or the necessity for such a far-reaching oath in these times, have been subject to social boycott officially sanctioned by the Syedna and threats and harassment of an extreme nature. The combination of this control over the minds of his followers, as well as of their pocketbooks, makes the Syedna practically invincible. Being the head of a minority community means that he can safely assume that no ruling political party will touch the issue of reform within the Bohra community for fear of exciting communal passions.
With this knowledge the Syedna lives in a palatial mansion in Malabar Hill and chooses to spend Rs.4 crores to build a mausoleum in the memory of the last Syedna, while students of a Bohra college, the Burhani College in Bombay reveal through a survey that more than 50 per cent of the Bohras in Bombay live below the poverty line and are housed in slums.
The attack on the Mercantile Bank also revolves around economic control. This bank is the largest urban cooperative bank in the country. It started out in 1939 as the Muslim cooperative credit society founded by a group of reformist Bohras. In 1941 it became a full-fledged bank and after 1947 shed its Muslim bias. At present it claims to be a secular bank.
In any event all banks, irrespective of the community they serve, have to follow rules set out by the Reserve Bank of India and cannot arbitrarily decide they will stop giving interest. Besides there are a number of other Muslim banks that also follow the Reserve Bank directives but the orthodox Bohras have not taken any objection to their activities. Therefore, why the Bombay Mercantile Bank?
Mr. Hoseini Doctor, Chairman of the Bank, opined in an interview to "The Economic Times", in July that behind the demonstrations are a few members of the priestly family who either want to gain control of the bank through coercion or want to project the image of being the leaders of Islam in India, thus enhancing their image in the Islamic world.
Mr. Doctor's apprehensions are based on the attempts of the orthodox Bohras to get shareholders to transfer their shares. The demonstrations in May were not merely extolling the tenets of Islam and pointing out how the bank had violated them. The orthodox Bohras expressly attempted to get employees of the bank to resign or face social boycott, asked Bohras to close their accounts and also distributed blank transfer forces to shareholders; the threat of social boycott was held out against those refusing to transfer their shares. Between May 14 and 25, 584 accounts were closed and an amount of Rs.19 lakhs was withdrawn from the bank.
The Bombay Mercantile Bank has sued four of the Bohras who demonstrated outside the bank and the case is before the Bombay High Court. Meantime the court has prohibited the Bohras from demonstrating outside the bank's premises.
There are many ironies in this situation. Three members of the Syedna's family manage businesses which have taken loans on interest from different banks. The father-in-law of one of the Syedna's sons holds a high post in a foreign bank in Bombay. The account for a scholarship established by the previous Syedna in with the Mercantile bank and the present Syedna gave a Silver Plate to the bank in 1972 in appreciation of its services.
These are just some of the facts that give a lie to the orthodox Bohra stand that they object to the bank giving interest and have no other ulterior motives. The May demonstrations have also drawn attention once more to the issue of the authoritarian internal structure of the Bohra community and whether reformist Bohras, as citizens of a democratic country, can legitimately demand that the Government insist on internal changes in the community's set up.
One attempt was made in 1978 by the Janata government when it set up a commission headed by Justice N. P. Nathwani to look into the complaints of Bohra reformists that their civil liberties were being infringed upon. The Nathwani Commission had concluded that there was "large-scale infringement of civil liberties and human rights of reformist Bohras at the hands of the priestly class and those who failed to obey the orders of the Syedna and his Amils (priests), even in purely secular matters are subjected to Baraat (social boycott) resulting in complete social boycott, mental torture and frequent physical assaults." Amongst other things, the Commission recommended that Baraat should be made illegal.
Nothing was done, however, about the Nathwani Commission's recommendations and to this day reformist Bohras cannot be married by their priests, cannot have their family members buried in the community's burial grounds and suffer direct and indirect attacks just for questioning the validity of a structure which to them seems an anachronism.
http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/Relig ... /bohra.htm
The Dawoodi Bohra's
By Kalpana Sharma
The demonstrations held outside the head office and several branches of the Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank by orthodox Bohras in mid-May symbolised one of the central aspects of the on-going struggle within the Dawoodi Bohra community. Ostensibly the demonstrators only wanted the bank to stop giving interest because they claimed this was against Islam. The Mercantile Bank, the demonstrators insisted, was a Muslim bank and therefore should adhere to Islamic tenets.
The covert motivations of the orthodox Bohras demonstrating outside the bank, or those who were instrumental in organising the demonstrations, tell another story.
There has been a struggle for reform within the Dawoodi Bohra community for many years. This small Muslim sect, numbering around one million and spread over 35 countries, dates back to the 10th century AD when the Ismailias organised a secret religio-political movement in Iraq because of the prevailing circumstances of the Abbasid empire. The nature of the sect required that every member take a secret oath of allegiance - called a Misag - to the head of the community. This oath covered not just religious matters but encroached upon many other aspects of life.
Breaking the covenant was not just frowned upon but involved serious repercussions for the transgresser. For instance, it could mean that "Whatever he owns from property, assets, real estate, wealth, jewels, agriculture, milch cattle…. Will be seized and distributed among the poor, needy and indigent Muslims and nothing out of it will return to him whatever ruses he adopts." Furthermore, "all his wives and whom he will marry in future will be treated as divorced."
Essentially the same structure and a similar oath have continued to be an intrinsic feature of the Dawoodi Bohras who are directly descended from the Ismailia sect. The Dai-ul-Mutlaq, or the head of the community, appoints a successor. At the age of 15 every Bohra has to take the Misaq. This oath of allegiance to a living human being and the concept of a priestly class marks the Bohras as apart from the rest of Islam.
The Bohra chief, or the Syedna, has extraordinary powers of control over the community. For instance, he collects taxes which exceed Rs.11 crores each year from his half million followers in India. How these funds are used is left tohimto decide. Bohras questioning either the Syedna's lifestyle or the necessity for such a far-reaching oath in these times, have been subject to social boycott officially sanctioned by the Syedna and threats and harassment of an extreme nature. The combination of this control over the minds of his followers, as well as of their pocketbooks, makes the Syedna practically invincible. Being the head of a minority community means that he can safely assume that no ruling political party will touch the issue of reform within the Bohra community for fear of exciting communal passions.
With this knowledge the Syedna lives in a palatial mansion in Malabar Hill and chooses to spend Rs.4 crores to build a mausoleum in the memory of the last Syedna, while students of a Bohra college, the Burhani College in Bombay reveal through a survey that more than 50 per cent of the Bohras in Bombay live below the poverty line and are housed in slums.
The attack on the Mercantile Bank also revolves around economic control. This bank is the largest urban cooperative bank in the country. It started out in 1939 as the Muslim cooperative credit society founded by a group of reformist Bohras. In 1941 it became a full-fledged bank and after 1947 shed its Muslim bias. At present it claims to be a secular bank.
In any event all banks, irrespective of the community they serve, have to follow rules set out by the Reserve Bank of India and cannot arbitrarily decide they will stop giving interest. Besides there are a number of other Muslim banks that also follow the Reserve Bank directives but the orthodox Bohras have not taken any objection to their activities. Therefore, why the Bombay Mercantile Bank?
Mr. Hoseini Doctor, Chairman of the Bank, opined in an interview to "The Economic Times", in July that behind the demonstrations are a few members of the priestly family who either want to gain control of the bank through coercion or want to project the image of being the leaders of Islam in India, thus enhancing their image in the Islamic world.
Mr. Doctor's apprehensions are based on the attempts of the orthodox Bohras to get shareholders to transfer their shares. The demonstrations in May were not merely extolling the tenets of Islam and pointing out how the bank had violated them. The orthodox Bohras expressly attempted to get employees of the bank to resign or face social boycott, asked Bohras to close their accounts and also distributed blank transfer forces to shareholders; the threat of social boycott was held out against those refusing to transfer their shares. Between May 14 and 25, 584 accounts were closed and an amount of Rs.19 lakhs was withdrawn from the bank.
The Bombay Mercantile Bank has sued four of the Bohras who demonstrated outside the bank and the case is before the Bombay High Court. Meantime the court has prohibited the Bohras from demonstrating outside the bank's premises.
There are many ironies in this situation. Three members of the Syedna's family manage businesses which have taken loans on interest from different banks. The father-in-law of one of the Syedna's sons holds a high post in a foreign bank in Bombay. The account for a scholarship established by the previous Syedna in with the Mercantile bank and the present Syedna gave a Silver Plate to the bank in 1972 in appreciation of its services.
These are just some of the facts that give a lie to the orthodox Bohra stand that they object to the bank giving interest and have no other ulterior motives. The May demonstrations have also drawn attention once more to the issue of the authoritarian internal structure of the Bohra community and whether reformist Bohras, as citizens of a democratic country, can legitimately demand that the Government insist on internal changes in the community's set up.
One attempt was made in 1978 by the Janata government when it set up a commission headed by Justice N. P. Nathwani to look into the complaints of Bohra reformists that their civil liberties were being infringed upon. The Nathwani Commission had concluded that there was "large-scale infringement of civil liberties and human rights of reformist Bohras at the hands of the priestly class and those who failed to obey the orders of the Syedna and his Amils (priests), even in purely secular matters are subjected to Baraat (social boycott) resulting in complete social boycott, mental torture and frequent physical assaults." Amongst other things, the Commission recommended that Baraat should be made illegal.
Nothing was done, however, about the Nathwani Commission's recommendations and to this day reformist Bohras cannot be married by their priests, cannot have their family members buried in the community's burial grounds and suffer direct and indirect attacks just for questioning the validity of a structure which to them seems an anachronism.
http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/Relig ... /bohra.htm
-
ghulam muhammed
- Posts: 11653
- Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Yogi Sikand chronicles the voices for change in one of India's richest and most progressive Muslim sects -- the Dawoodi Bohras.
http://www.rediff.com/news/special/spec ... 110304.htm
http://www.rediff.com/news/special/spec ... 110304.htm
-
ghulam muhammed
- Posts: 11653
- Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Canadian Senate foils Sayedna's plans - Part 2
by M. Burhan●January 09, 2008
In 1992 Sayedna's attempt to become the sole owner of Bohra community's property in Canada (Bill S-13) was defeated by the Canadian Senate. Here we re-produce a petition sent by a Canadian progressive Bohra to Senator Corbin urging him to argue against Bill S-13.
February 1, 1993
Hon. Senator Eymard G. Corbin
Rm. 575 F
The Senate of Canada
Parliament Buildings
Wellington Street
Ottawa K1A OA4
Hon. Senator Corbin.
Re: Bill S-13
I understand from the Senate Debate of December 14, 1992 re. the above Private Member's Bill that you wish to speak on the matter when the Senate resumes the Second Reading of this Bill after the Senate's return from Xmas vacations.
As a concerned Citizen of Canada and a member-by-birth of the Dawoodi Bohra Community, I wish to append and present my following thoughts on the above subject which you could consider using during your submission to the Senate.
I wish to clarify at the outset that I consider the Dai Al Mutlaq His Holiness Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin as my spiritual and religious leader but not as my secular or temporal leader. This is also the view of most of the Community members - including the so-called dissident and progressive\reformist members.
i.The Dai Al Mutlaq and his family live in Bombay at Saifee Mahal (Palace) and Badri Mahal and the family is known to the Community as Royal Family. His sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and other blood relatives are addressed by the Community members as Shahzaadas (princes) and Shahazaadis (Princesses). Throughout the world (most of them in India) there are at least 2000 members of the Royal Family who are directly supported by the Community by the following 21 types of taxes extorted by the various Governors (Amils) - in most urban centres these being the Princes of the Royal Family: 1.Zakat - Income Tax - Alms for the Poor (have to be paid to Amils).
2.Sila Fitra - Annual Poll Tax, including by deceased first and second generations.
3.Nazar Mukam - Divine intervention commitment.
4.Hakkun Nafs - Death Taxes
5. Khums - one-fifth wealth tax.
6. Sabil - monthly dues.
7. Building or Property acquisition funds.
8. Nazranas and Salaams for following occasions:
• on marriage
• on naming the child
• on cutting hair of the child for the first time
•on oath of allegiance to the Dai Al Mutlaq - (Misaq equivalent to Bar Mitzva)
•on funeral prayers and various memorial services on the 3rd day, a month, 40 days, 1 year after the death and death anniversaries
• on in lieu of pilgrimage to Mecca by the family of a deceased who was unable to do so during his\her lifetime
• on invitations to members of Community to one's residence
• for passport or entry to Paradise
• for religious discourse
• on invitation to Royal Family Members
• for the privilege of a visit by Royal Family Members to one's residence
• sermons
• conferment of patronage titles: NKD, MKD, Mulla, Sheikh
• on pilgrimage to Mecca
ii.The so-called Governor of the Dai Al Mutlaq (Amil) in Canada, Quresh Bhai Saheb Shehabuddin (known to his flock as Quresh B.S) - Dai Al-Mutlaq's nephew, of Toronto was sponsored as an immigrant about 10 years ago to reside in Canada by the Community under concocted reasons and false pretences despite the Community already having in Canada numerous Mullas and Sheikhs to perform the religious rites and services for the 125 or so families of the Community residing in Canada at the time.
iii.The Amil not only receives a stipend from the Community (including a salary, untaxed house, car, generous travel expenses throughout the world) but also a certain percentage of the gross receipts extorted as listed in I above - plus unaccounted and untaxed substantial amount of tithes from the members of the Community compulsorily extorted every time a Community member wishes to utilize the services from the Amil as expounded in item 8 above.
iv.The Dawoodi Bohra Community in Canada has registered an organization called Anjumane Najmi with Revenue Canada as a Charitable Organization and issues receipts to its members for only taxes paid for items 6 and 7.
Hence the Canadian taxpayer has contributed towards the acquisition of the Community Centre in Richmond Hill, Ontario (by way of a tax deduction to the Community Members) and after the completion of the purchase, this by way of Bill S-13 will revert personally to the Dai Al-Mutlaq.
No receipts are issued for the other 19 taxes as they are directly deposited into the Dawate-Hadiya's Account. The following people have become prosperous self-employed businessmen since being appointed executives and office-bearers of the Community.
•Sheikh Hamza Najmi (formerly Patel)
•Sheikh Zulfiqar Zakir (formerly Patwa and brother-in-law of Patel)
•Mulla Ismail Yahya
•Nassir Kanchwalla (name since changed)
(As it transpires from the above, the priests compel the change of names of their disciples at whim and slightest excuse. A person named Zahid Hussein in Ontario was ordered to change his name to Hussein. Hussein because according to Quresh B. S., Zahid happens to be the name of a dissident member in India. One wonders why Quresh B.S. is not ordering all the Mohammeds to change their names as there are Mohammeds who belong to the so-called dissident\progressive wing of the Community in Canada).
It is also known that Sheikh Hakim Abdulhusein Shakir has been given a substantial amount of interest-free loan (Quarze Hassana) from the Community funds. Is this or the payment of fat legal fees paid or payable to the lawyers to incorporate the Dai Al-Mutlaq or the alleged political donations paid to a political party allowed under the Charitable institution regulations?
v.On September 22, 1992, Senator Atkins stated that adherents of the Community are required by their religious beliefs to be patriotic and loyal to their adopted nation and to participate in its economic, cultural and educational developments ... and participate in the milieu of Canadian life.
This statement, presumably prepared for Senator Atkins, by the Amil Quresh B.S. is far from true for the following factual reasons:
•Genital mutilations of clitoris under the guise of female circumcision is actively enforced by the Community in Canada - although this is not an Islamic tradition or custom. One of the cousins of Quresh B.S from California - a lady with medical background or qualifications visits Ontario regularly to conduct these procedures on little girls of the Community. Female circumcision is a crime in Ontario. This fact can be verified by having the Children Aid Society's doctors physically examining all the female children of the Community over 4 years old who have been born in Canada.
•Members of the Community in Canada who work for Banks or Insurance Companies have been directed by Quresh B.S. to be socially and religiously shunned, harassed, intimidated, threatened or boycotted by other Community Members (Baraat - meaning ex-communication which by the way is not recognised in Islam).
The shunning entails refusal by Quresh B.S. to conduct naming of child, Misaq, wedding ceremonies, funeral rites or memorial services. Members of the Community are compelled not to associate with people who have been “red-listed” as such - or else they will face the same fate. They practice their own version of “Bohrapartheid” on the followers.
•Female members are compelled to wear Rida (Chador), or else baraat!!
•Male members are compelled to wear a full beard, or else baraat!!
•Members of the Community who have any mortgages, RRSPs or loans suffer the same fate. The Akbarally Family of Montreal had to give up their lucrative I.G.A. franchise and a Cash and Carry Store after being coerced by Quresh B.S. to do so. Other members throughout Ontario had to sell their residences at a substantial loss of their equity because they had mortgages on the properties.
•A female member of the Community, Ms. Yasmin Tayabali Ajmerwalla invited some members of the Community for a recitation of the Holy Quran at her residence in commemoration of her recently deceased father's rites. She and all the people who participated in these rites were ordered to apologise in writing by Quresh B.S. because the recitation of the Holy Quran was held on His Holiness's birthday and because permission was not sought from Quresh B.S. Since when is the recitation of the Holy Quran a sin in Islam? And why does recitation of the Holy Quran require permission from the priest? What a sacrilege?
Aren't the above practices against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Canadian Human Rights Code and abuse of Civil Rights?
•All members of the Community (especially in B.C.) have specifically been ordered NOT to associate with another Shia sect called the Ithna Asheri Community and Quresh B.S. has directed the Community in other Canadian cities that they should not hold their functions in Churches as their children will be contaminated by Christian influences. Isn't this against the Criminal Code - spreading racial hatred?
•During the 10 days of the month of Mohorrum (when the martyrdom of Imam Husein is commemorated), Quresh B.S. has actively encouraged the members of the Community in Ontario to fake sickness and take sick leave from their employers to attend his sermons in Toronto.
Sheikh Hakim Abdulhusein Shakir, an appointed executive of the Community, is employed by the Toronto Transit Commission and has been known to be cautioned by his employers for taking excessive amount of time-off.
•Members of the Community, most of whom originate from the State of Gujarat in India, predominantly speak the Gujarati Language.
The Metropolitan Toronto School Board encourages the teaching of Heritage Languages. Gujarati is one of the languages being already sponsored and paid for by the Board for sometime. The teaching of religion is specifically excluded by this programme
.
In order to circumvent this regulation, Quresh B.S. and his clique, a few years ago, intentionally and under false pretences changed the name of Gujarati Language to Lisane Dawat - Komi Zabaan (language of the community) and applied to the Board and was granted funds to have this language taught as a Heritage Language. Sheikh Hakim Abdulhusein and his wife are being paid by the Board to teach the children. But instead of teaching the language, children of the Community are taught about the Dawoodi Bohra Community religion (!!) and songs of praises for His Holiness and curses against the Sunnis and dissidents and progressive members of the Community. One can easily verify whether the children have ever been taught the purported Heritage Language.
Two elderly widows from Brampton, Ontario, who were earning a meagre living from teaching the kids privately have been specifically forbidden by Quresh B.S. to continue as the Board will only pay for the teachers if the numbers justify.
•Jamie Lamb of the Vancouver Sun (British Columbia) wrote two feature articles on January 8, 1993 and January 11, 1993 on the above Bill. Quresh B.S., through his lawyers has threatened to sue Jamie Lamb and the Vancouver Sun for these factual articles.
Didn't the Reichmann Family use the same ruse and their billions to silence the media against some Canadian writers and publications a couple of years ago when the Canadian media wanted to expose the truth?
•A few years ago, an Editorial in the Daily Nation, a Nairobi newspaper owned by the Aga Khan (another Shia Sect), exposed the extortion, corruption and abuses by the High Priest's representatives on the followers of the Dawoodi Bohra Community in Kenya. After an intense pressure exerted by the His Holiness's administration in Kenya on the Aga Khan, the Editor was asked to apologize. The Editor refused on a matter of principle (truth) and was fired by the Aga Khan.
vi.I implore upon you to have this matter go to Committee. Invite through press advertisements or personal invitations and have any member of the Community testify in Camera, as under the threat of Baraat\excommunication and physical harm, nobody would dare come out in public to testify. Due to the adverse publicity on the opposition debates, Quresh B.S. has ordered all the Community members in Canada to sign a blank petition to be sent to the Senate and House of Common Chambers asking the Government to pass Bill S-13 by hook or by crook.
You must also subpoena Quresh B.S., as the sole representative of the Dai Al-Mutlaq, to appear before the Committee and ask him under oath about all the above abuses etc. in Canada. But I must warn you about the concept in the Dawoodi Bohra Community of what is known as Taquiyah. This principle allows a disciple to lie, perjure, cheat, steal, exaggerate or hide when in his opinion his faith is threatened by a non-believer of the faith.
Hence when Quresh B.S.'s lawyers, Borden & Elliott and Senator Norman Atkins allude that “...the Dawoodi Bohra in Canada represents a harmonious source of community traditions within the rich blend of Canadian Society” it is true for most of the law-abiding members of the Community. However, it is certainly not true for its leaders and the appointed henchmen who run the Community for their own selfish motives and profit at the expense of its docile and God-fearing followers - however naive and gullible.!! As George Bernard Shaw, after studying all religions, quite rightly surmised and quipped: “Islam is the best religion and Muslims are the worst followers.”
vii.The Community has not remained a glorious Community which it used to be some 30 years ago but a Family-controlled clan of slaves. In fact, the followers are compelled to call themselves “Abde Syedna” - meaning slave of His Holiness. Islam does not recognise institutionalised priesthood. A number of Community members have converted themselves to Christians, Sikhs, Hindus and Bahaais to escape the torture by the priests. Despite their conversion, their unconverted families, friends and relatives are being hounded by the priests and their cohorts.
viii.After the destruction of the mosque in Ayodhya (India) and the race riots between Hindus & Muslims, the Principal of Tyebiah Girls High School, Bombay (run by Saifee Mahal - Palace) was dismissed by the Bohra Community priests for producing a play on national integration and unity depicting the life of a Hindu family. This led to the launching of protests in media in favour of the principal's rights. This may have exacerbated the Hindu-Muslim tensions and led to the riots in Bombay just two weeks ago in which numerous Bohras were murdered.
ix.We do not want or need this situation to be transplanted in Canada. Passing Bill S-13 will enhance and compound Quresh B.S.'s delusion of grandeur and credibility in order to repress the Canadian members of the Community all the more.
Thank you for your support to the silent and suppressed majority of the Dawoodi Bohra Community. Some of these members had emigrated from their home countries to Canada to escape the religious persecution regularly practised by the Dawoodi Bohra Community priests as they could not seek any redress from the corrupted third world countries governments - only to find history repeating itself in Canada.
c.c.
Senator Hon. Philippe Deane Gigantes
Senator Hon. Royce Frith.
http://dawoodi-bohras.com/news/59/97/Ca ... l_article/
by M. Burhan●January 09, 2008
In 1992 Sayedna's attempt to become the sole owner of Bohra community's property in Canada (Bill S-13) was defeated by the Canadian Senate. Here we re-produce a petition sent by a Canadian progressive Bohra to Senator Corbin urging him to argue against Bill S-13.
February 1, 1993
Hon. Senator Eymard G. Corbin
Rm. 575 F
The Senate of Canada
Parliament Buildings
Wellington Street
Ottawa K1A OA4
Hon. Senator Corbin.
Re: Bill S-13
I understand from the Senate Debate of December 14, 1992 re. the above Private Member's Bill that you wish to speak on the matter when the Senate resumes the Second Reading of this Bill after the Senate's return from Xmas vacations.
As a concerned Citizen of Canada and a member-by-birth of the Dawoodi Bohra Community, I wish to append and present my following thoughts on the above subject which you could consider using during your submission to the Senate.
I wish to clarify at the outset that I consider the Dai Al Mutlaq His Holiness Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin as my spiritual and religious leader but not as my secular or temporal leader. This is also the view of most of the Community members - including the so-called dissident and progressive\reformist members.
i.The Dai Al Mutlaq and his family live in Bombay at Saifee Mahal (Palace) and Badri Mahal and the family is known to the Community as Royal Family. His sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and other blood relatives are addressed by the Community members as Shahzaadas (princes) and Shahazaadis (Princesses). Throughout the world (most of them in India) there are at least 2000 members of the Royal Family who are directly supported by the Community by the following 21 types of taxes extorted by the various Governors (Amils) - in most urban centres these being the Princes of the Royal Family: 1.Zakat - Income Tax - Alms for the Poor (have to be paid to Amils).
2.Sila Fitra - Annual Poll Tax, including by deceased first and second generations.
3.Nazar Mukam - Divine intervention commitment.
4.Hakkun Nafs - Death Taxes
5. Khums - one-fifth wealth tax.
6. Sabil - monthly dues.
7. Building or Property acquisition funds.
8. Nazranas and Salaams for following occasions:
• on marriage
• on naming the child
• on cutting hair of the child for the first time
•on oath of allegiance to the Dai Al Mutlaq - (Misaq equivalent to Bar Mitzva)
•on funeral prayers and various memorial services on the 3rd day, a month, 40 days, 1 year after the death and death anniversaries
• on in lieu of pilgrimage to Mecca by the family of a deceased who was unable to do so during his\her lifetime
• on invitations to members of Community to one's residence
• for passport or entry to Paradise
• for religious discourse
• on invitation to Royal Family Members
• for the privilege of a visit by Royal Family Members to one's residence
• sermons
• conferment of patronage titles: NKD, MKD, Mulla, Sheikh
• on pilgrimage to Mecca
ii.The so-called Governor of the Dai Al Mutlaq (Amil) in Canada, Quresh Bhai Saheb Shehabuddin (known to his flock as Quresh B.S) - Dai Al-Mutlaq's nephew, of Toronto was sponsored as an immigrant about 10 years ago to reside in Canada by the Community under concocted reasons and false pretences despite the Community already having in Canada numerous Mullas and Sheikhs to perform the religious rites and services for the 125 or so families of the Community residing in Canada at the time.
iii.The Amil not only receives a stipend from the Community (including a salary, untaxed house, car, generous travel expenses throughout the world) but also a certain percentage of the gross receipts extorted as listed in I above - plus unaccounted and untaxed substantial amount of tithes from the members of the Community compulsorily extorted every time a Community member wishes to utilize the services from the Amil as expounded in item 8 above.
iv.The Dawoodi Bohra Community in Canada has registered an organization called Anjumane Najmi with Revenue Canada as a Charitable Organization and issues receipts to its members for only taxes paid for items 6 and 7.
Hence the Canadian taxpayer has contributed towards the acquisition of the Community Centre in Richmond Hill, Ontario (by way of a tax deduction to the Community Members) and after the completion of the purchase, this by way of Bill S-13 will revert personally to the Dai Al-Mutlaq.
No receipts are issued for the other 19 taxes as they are directly deposited into the Dawate-Hadiya's Account. The following people have become prosperous self-employed businessmen since being appointed executives and office-bearers of the Community.
•Sheikh Hamza Najmi (formerly Patel)
•Sheikh Zulfiqar Zakir (formerly Patwa and brother-in-law of Patel)
•Mulla Ismail Yahya
•Nassir Kanchwalla (name since changed)
(As it transpires from the above, the priests compel the change of names of their disciples at whim and slightest excuse. A person named Zahid Hussein in Ontario was ordered to change his name to Hussein. Hussein because according to Quresh B. S., Zahid happens to be the name of a dissident member in India. One wonders why Quresh B.S. is not ordering all the Mohammeds to change their names as there are Mohammeds who belong to the so-called dissident\progressive wing of the Community in Canada).
It is also known that Sheikh Hakim Abdulhusein Shakir has been given a substantial amount of interest-free loan (Quarze Hassana) from the Community funds. Is this or the payment of fat legal fees paid or payable to the lawyers to incorporate the Dai Al-Mutlaq or the alleged political donations paid to a political party allowed under the Charitable institution regulations?
v.On September 22, 1992, Senator Atkins stated that adherents of the Community are required by their religious beliefs to be patriotic and loyal to their adopted nation and to participate in its economic, cultural and educational developments ... and participate in the milieu of Canadian life.
This statement, presumably prepared for Senator Atkins, by the Amil Quresh B.S. is far from true for the following factual reasons:
•Genital mutilations of clitoris under the guise of female circumcision is actively enforced by the Community in Canada - although this is not an Islamic tradition or custom. One of the cousins of Quresh B.S from California - a lady with medical background or qualifications visits Ontario regularly to conduct these procedures on little girls of the Community. Female circumcision is a crime in Ontario. This fact can be verified by having the Children Aid Society's doctors physically examining all the female children of the Community over 4 years old who have been born in Canada.
•Members of the Community in Canada who work for Banks or Insurance Companies have been directed by Quresh B.S. to be socially and religiously shunned, harassed, intimidated, threatened or boycotted by other Community Members (Baraat - meaning ex-communication which by the way is not recognised in Islam).
The shunning entails refusal by Quresh B.S. to conduct naming of child, Misaq, wedding ceremonies, funeral rites or memorial services. Members of the Community are compelled not to associate with people who have been “red-listed” as such - or else they will face the same fate. They practice their own version of “Bohrapartheid” on the followers.
•Female members are compelled to wear Rida (Chador), or else baraat!!
•Male members are compelled to wear a full beard, or else baraat!!
•Members of the Community who have any mortgages, RRSPs or loans suffer the same fate. The Akbarally Family of Montreal had to give up their lucrative I.G.A. franchise and a Cash and Carry Store after being coerced by Quresh B.S. to do so. Other members throughout Ontario had to sell their residences at a substantial loss of their equity because they had mortgages on the properties.
•A female member of the Community, Ms. Yasmin Tayabali Ajmerwalla invited some members of the Community for a recitation of the Holy Quran at her residence in commemoration of her recently deceased father's rites. She and all the people who participated in these rites were ordered to apologise in writing by Quresh B.S. because the recitation of the Holy Quran was held on His Holiness's birthday and because permission was not sought from Quresh B.S. Since when is the recitation of the Holy Quran a sin in Islam? And why does recitation of the Holy Quran require permission from the priest? What a sacrilege?
Aren't the above practices against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Canadian Human Rights Code and abuse of Civil Rights?
•All members of the Community (especially in B.C.) have specifically been ordered NOT to associate with another Shia sect called the Ithna Asheri Community and Quresh B.S. has directed the Community in other Canadian cities that they should not hold their functions in Churches as their children will be contaminated by Christian influences. Isn't this against the Criminal Code - spreading racial hatred?
•During the 10 days of the month of Mohorrum (when the martyrdom of Imam Husein is commemorated), Quresh B.S. has actively encouraged the members of the Community in Ontario to fake sickness and take sick leave from their employers to attend his sermons in Toronto.
Sheikh Hakim Abdulhusein Shakir, an appointed executive of the Community, is employed by the Toronto Transit Commission and has been known to be cautioned by his employers for taking excessive amount of time-off.
•Members of the Community, most of whom originate from the State of Gujarat in India, predominantly speak the Gujarati Language.
The Metropolitan Toronto School Board encourages the teaching of Heritage Languages. Gujarati is one of the languages being already sponsored and paid for by the Board for sometime. The teaching of religion is specifically excluded by this programme
.
In order to circumvent this regulation, Quresh B.S. and his clique, a few years ago, intentionally and under false pretences changed the name of Gujarati Language to Lisane Dawat - Komi Zabaan (language of the community) and applied to the Board and was granted funds to have this language taught as a Heritage Language. Sheikh Hakim Abdulhusein and his wife are being paid by the Board to teach the children. But instead of teaching the language, children of the Community are taught about the Dawoodi Bohra Community religion (!!) and songs of praises for His Holiness and curses against the Sunnis and dissidents and progressive members of the Community. One can easily verify whether the children have ever been taught the purported Heritage Language.
Two elderly widows from Brampton, Ontario, who were earning a meagre living from teaching the kids privately have been specifically forbidden by Quresh B.S. to continue as the Board will only pay for the teachers if the numbers justify.
•Jamie Lamb of the Vancouver Sun (British Columbia) wrote two feature articles on January 8, 1993 and January 11, 1993 on the above Bill. Quresh B.S., through his lawyers has threatened to sue Jamie Lamb and the Vancouver Sun for these factual articles.
Didn't the Reichmann Family use the same ruse and their billions to silence the media against some Canadian writers and publications a couple of years ago when the Canadian media wanted to expose the truth?
•A few years ago, an Editorial in the Daily Nation, a Nairobi newspaper owned by the Aga Khan (another Shia Sect), exposed the extortion, corruption and abuses by the High Priest's representatives on the followers of the Dawoodi Bohra Community in Kenya. After an intense pressure exerted by the His Holiness's administration in Kenya on the Aga Khan, the Editor was asked to apologize. The Editor refused on a matter of principle (truth) and was fired by the Aga Khan.
vi.I implore upon you to have this matter go to Committee. Invite through press advertisements or personal invitations and have any member of the Community testify in Camera, as under the threat of Baraat\excommunication and physical harm, nobody would dare come out in public to testify. Due to the adverse publicity on the opposition debates, Quresh B.S. has ordered all the Community members in Canada to sign a blank petition to be sent to the Senate and House of Common Chambers asking the Government to pass Bill S-13 by hook or by crook.
You must also subpoena Quresh B.S., as the sole representative of the Dai Al-Mutlaq, to appear before the Committee and ask him under oath about all the above abuses etc. in Canada. But I must warn you about the concept in the Dawoodi Bohra Community of what is known as Taquiyah. This principle allows a disciple to lie, perjure, cheat, steal, exaggerate or hide when in his opinion his faith is threatened by a non-believer of the faith.
Hence when Quresh B.S.'s lawyers, Borden & Elliott and Senator Norman Atkins allude that “...the Dawoodi Bohra in Canada represents a harmonious source of community traditions within the rich blend of Canadian Society” it is true for most of the law-abiding members of the Community. However, it is certainly not true for its leaders and the appointed henchmen who run the Community for their own selfish motives and profit at the expense of its docile and God-fearing followers - however naive and gullible.!! As George Bernard Shaw, after studying all religions, quite rightly surmised and quipped: “Islam is the best religion and Muslims are the worst followers.”
vii.The Community has not remained a glorious Community which it used to be some 30 years ago but a Family-controlled clan of slaves. In fact, the followers are compelled to call themselves “Abde Syedna” - meaning slave of His Holiness. Islam does not recognise institutionalised priesthood. A number of Community members have converted themselves to Christians, Sikhs, Hindus and Bahaais to escape the torture by the priests. Despite their conversion, their unconverted families, friends and relatives are being hounded by the priests and their cohorts.
viii.After the destruction of the mosque in Ayodhya (India) and the race riots between Hindus & Muslims, the Principal of Tyebiah Girls High School, Bombay (run by Saifee Mahal - Palace) was dismissed by the Bohra Community priests for producing a play on national integration and unity depicting the life of a Hindu family. This led to the launching of protests in media in favour of the principal's rights. This may have exacerbated the Hindu-Muslim tensions and led to the riots in Bombay just two weeks ago in which numerous Bohras were murdered.
ix.We do not want or need this situation to be transplanted in Canada. Passing Bill S-13 will enhance and compound Quresh B.S.'s delusion of grandeur and credibility in order to repress the Canadian members of the Community all the more.
Thank you for your support to the silent and suppressed majority of the Dawoodi Bohra Community. Some of these members had emigrated from their home countries to Canada to escape the religious persecution regularly practised by the Dawoodi Bohra Community priests as they could not seek any redress from the corrupted third world countries governments - only to find history repeating itself in Canada.
c.c.
Senator Hon. Philippe Deane Gigantes
Senator Hon. Royce Frith.
http://dawoodi-bohras.com/news/59/97/Ca ... l_article/
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Witnesses condemming corrupt Empire of Burhanuddin ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5WWYhNsbVo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5WWYhNsbVo
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
A century of oppression
The Bohra high priest and his hundred years
These days more than a million Bohras worldwide are furiously engaged in celebrating (or being made to celebrate?) the 100th birthday of their religious head, the 52nd dai, or ‘summoner to the faith’. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin is 52nd in the chain of duat (plural of dai) which started in Yemen with the first dai, Zoeb bin Musa (d. 1151 AD). However, when the political situation in Yemen became difficult to live with, the 23rd dai, Syedna Izzuddin, nominated an Indian named Yusuf Najmuddin as his successor and 24th dai and India has remained the main centre of the dawah, or mission, ever since. The Bohras belong to the Ismaili Shiite branch of Islam.
The Bohras in India are all converts from Hinduism to Islam who belonged mainly to the middle caste of traders. The majority of them are still traders who live mainly in Indian trading centres such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Indore and so on. They were all converted in Gujarat and speak Gujarati. The word Bohra is most likely a corruption of the Gujarati word ‘vohra’ derived from ‘vyavahar’ (to trade).
Today Bohras live all over the world. Most of them are of Indian origin and speak Gujarati wherever they are. Since they are basically traders, they, like other Muslim trading communities in India i.e. Khojas and Memons, are prosperous compared to other Indian Muslims (There is however a lot of poverty among a section of Bohras, many of whom live in slums in cities like Mumbai.)
The Bohras and Khojas are two communities in Islam that have developed a churchlike structure and are tightly controlled, particularly the former, by the priesthood. It is easier for the priesthood to control a community if it happens to consist largely of traders, as traders possess a very different psychology, that of submission and peace. There is hardly any dissent, as it leads to turmoil and affects the peaceful conditions necessary for trade and commerce. And being historically involved in commerce, they had little or no time for the intellectual activities so vital for dissent.
However, with the onset of modernity in the beginning of the 20th century, dissent did emerge as the younger generation took to modern education and entered the legal, medical, engineering and other professions. Two lawyers from Burhanpur challenged the then dai for his refusal to permit modern education; the dai responded by excommunicating them.
This marked the beginning of the reform movement in the Dawoodi Bohra community, a movement that has continued until today. Modernity created the space for such issues as modern education and other forms of intellectual dissent. The priestly establishment, unused to dissent in any form, required nothing but total submission which was no longer possible. The Bohra religious establishment (called kothar in Gujarati) let loose oppression to deal with the situation.
Moreover, with the growth of modern means of communication like railways, motor transport, the telephone and telegraph under British rule, trade expanded, becoming much more profitable than before. The Bohra dai became much wealthier by extracting more money from his followers and he used this money-power to wield greater political influence. The then dai, Syedna Taher Saifuddin, father of the present dai, shrewdly exploited his increased power to ruthlessly put down dissent in the community. Abdul Hussein Adamjee Peerbhoy – son of industrialist and philanthropist Adamjee Peerbhoy – the man responsible for the construction of the Matheran Hill Railway in the early 1900s, dared to challenge the high priest but was ruined in the process.
Notwithstanding all this repression however, dissent did not disappear; it flourished. When India became independent, reformists had new hope of support from a democratic India. But the priesthood attempted to “manipulate external democracy” (as the American scholar, Theodore Wright Jr, put it) “to frustrate the internal democracy” within the Bohra community. Fat donations to political parties (all except those of the left) bought the high priest their support. Even parties like the Shiv Sena and BJP obliged the syedna.
Worse still, the well-known Sunni ulema and Muslim political leaders all supported the high priest while he made donations to their organisations. The reformists were initially accused of ‘heresy’ and ‘non-belief’ and hence, according to these Muslim leaders, they had no right to challenge the dai. Even when in 1988 the Bohra dai openly pronounced curses on the first three caliphs – highly revered by Sunni Muslims as companions of the prophet – and there were riots between Bohras and Sunni Muslims in Mumbai in which three persons were killed, the Sunni leaders and Congress leaders came to his rescue. He tendered an apology and the matter was hushed up.
The Bohra high priest’s establishment is very powerful and, as we have always maintained, any religion which becomes an establishment loses its religiosity and spirituality and turns instead into a den of corruption. This is the history of all organised religions. Syedna sahib has a large family (consisting of more than 200 members) dependent on the income from seven taxes collected in the name of Islam, which runs into hundreds of crores of rupees every year. This income has multiplied several fold as Bohras went abroad and began to earn in pounds and dollars.
The high priest collects these taxes in ruthless and coercive ways, as shown by the report of the Justice Nathwani Commission appointed by Shri Jayaprakash Narayan (the then chairman of Citizens for Democracy) in 1978. The commission, comprising, among others, legal luminaries and eminent human rights activists like Justice VM Tarkunde and academics like professors Alam Khundmiri and Moin Shakir, concluded that: “Our inquiry has shown that there is large-scale infringement of civil liberties and human rights of reformist Bohras at the hands of the priestly class and that those who fail to obey the orders of the syedna and his amils [local priests], even in purely secular matters, are subjected to baraat [excommunication], resulting in complete social boycott, mental torture and frequent physical assaults.” (This writer was assaulted five times, including once in Cairo.)
The Nathwani Commission conducted its inquiry into the violation of human rights in the Bohra community in the late 1970s; little has changed since then. The violations go on and hundreds of Bohras continue to suffer.
The reformists want this to stop; they want democratic and accountable functioning by the priesthood. In fact, had there been any degree of religiosity, there would have been humane treatment of followers. The high priest turned 100 (according to the Islamic calendar; he is 96 according to the Gregorian one) but he and his establishment have not mended their ways. On the contrary, he has become much more repressive and now uses modern technology as an effective tool. The kothar has recently issued digital identity cards without which you cannot enter a Bohra mosque or jamaatkhana or mausoleum, and the card is only issued to those who have paid all taxes and not shown any sign of dissent.
On the syedna’s 100th birthday we saw an extensive propaganda campaign launched through newspaper advertisements projecting him as an ‘ambassador of peace, harmony and goodwill’. The Times of India alone carried nine pages of advertisements on the day of his birth and several other English, Gujarati and Hindi papers did much the same thing. Similarly, crores are being spent on several celebratory events and this will go on for a whole year. Are these the ways of a spiritual leader? A man is known by his actions, not by the outpouring of a propaganda machine.
(Asghar Ali Engineer is a noted Bohra reformist and human rights activist.)
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2011/ ... ights.html
The Bohra high priest and his hundred years
These days more than a million Bohras worldwide are furiously engaged in celebrating (or being made to celebrate?) the 100th birthday of their religious head, the 52nd dai, or ‘summoner to the faith’. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin is 52nd in the chain of duat (plural of dai) which started in Yemen with the first dai, Zoeb bin Musa (d. 1151 AD). However, when the political situation in Yemen became difficult to live with, the 23rd dai, Syedna Izzuddin, nominated an Indian named Yusuf Najmuddin as his successor and 24th dai and India has remained the main centre of the dawah, or mission, ever since. The Bohras belong to the Ismaili Shiite branch of Islam.
The Bohras in India are all converts from Hinduism to Islam who belonged mainly to the middle caste of traders. The majority of them are still traders who live mainly in Indian trading centres such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Indore and so on. They were all converted in Gujarat and speak Gujarati. The word Bohra is most likely a corruption of the Gujarati word ‘vohra’ derived from ‘vyavahar’ (to trade).
Today Bohras live all over the world. Most of them are of Indian origin and speak Gujarati wherever they are. Since they are basically traders, they, like other Muslim trading communities in India i.e. Khojas and Memons, are prosperous compared to other Indian Muslims (There is however a lot of poverty among a section of Bohras, many of whom live in slums in cities like Mumbai.)
The Bohras and Khojas are two communities in Islam that have developed a churchlike structure and are tightly controlled, particularly the former, by the priesthood. It is easier for the priesthood to control a community if it happens to consist largely of traders, as traders possess a very different psychology, that of submission and peace. There is hardly any dissent, as it leads to turmoil and affects the peaceful conditions necessary for trade and commerce. And being historically involved in commerce, they had little or no time for the intellectual activities so vital for dissent.
However, with the onset of modernity in the beginning of the 20th century, dissent did emerge as the younger generation took to modern education and entered the legal, medical, engineering and other professions. Two lawyers from Burhanpur challenged the then dai for his refusal to permit modern education; the dai responded by excommunicating them.
This marked the beginning of the reform movement in the Dawoodi Bohra community, a movement that has continued until today. Modernity created the space for such issues as modern education and other forms of intellectual dissent. The priestly establishment, unused to dissent in any form, required nothing but total submission which was no longer possible. The Bohra religious establishment (called kothar in Gujarati) let loose oppression to deal with the situation.
Moreover, with the growth of modern means of communication like railways, motor transport, the telephone and telegraph under British rule, trade expanded, becoming much more profitable than before. The Bohra dai became much wealthier by extracting more money from his followers and he used this money-power to wield greater political influence. The then dai, Syedna Taher Saifuddin, father of the present dai, shrewdly exploited his increased power to ruthlessly put down dissent in the community. Abdul Hussein Adamjee Peerbhoy – son of industrialist and philanthropist Adamjee Peerbhoy – the man responsible for the construction of the Matheran Hill Railway in the early 1900s, dared to challenge the high priest but was ruined in the process.
Notwithstanding all this repression however, dissent did not disappear; it flourished. When India became independent, reformists had new hope of support from a democratic India. But the priesthood attempted to “manipulate external democracy” (as the American scholar, Theodore Wright Jr, put it) “to frustrate the internal democracy” within the Bohra community. Fat donations to political parties (all except those of the left) bought the high priest their support. Even parties like the Shiv Sena and BJP obliged the syedna.
Worse still, the well-known Sunni ulema and Muslim political leaders all supported the high priest while he made donations to their organisations. The reformists were initially accused of ‘heresy’ and ‘non-belief’ and hence, according to these Muslim leaders, they had no right to challenge the dai. Even when in 1988 the Bohra dai openly pronounced curses on the first three caliphs – highly revered by Sunni Muslims as companions of the prophet – and there were riots between Bohras and Sunni Muslims in Mumbai in which three persons were killed, the Sunni leaders and Congress leaders came to his rescue. He tendered an apology and the matter was hushed up.
The Bohra high priest’s establishment is very powerful and, as we have always maintained, any religion which becomes an establishment loses its religiosity and spirituality and turns instead into a den of corruption. This is the history of all organised religions. Syedna sahib has a large family (consisting of more than 200 members) dependent on the income from seven taxes collected in the name of Islam, which runs into hundreds of crores of rupees every year. This income has multiplied several fold as Bohras went abroad and began to earn in pounds and dollars.
The high priest collects these taxes in ruthless and coercive ways, as shown by the report of the Justice Nathwani Commission appointed by Shri Jayaprakash Narayan (the then chairman of Citizens for Democracy) in 1978. The commission, comprising, among others, legal luminaries and eminent human rights activists like Justice VM Tarkunde and academics like professors Alam Khundmiri and Moin Shakir, concluded that: “Our inquiry has shown that there is large-scale infringement of civil liberties and human rights of reformist Bohras at the hands of the priestly class and that those who fail to obey the orders of the syedna and his amils [local priests], even in purely secular matters, are subjected to baraat [excommunication], resulting in complete social boycott, mental torture and frequent physical assaults.” (This writer was assaulted five times, including once in Cairo.)
The Nathwani Commission conducted its inquiry into the violation of human rights in the Bohra community in the late 1970s; little has changed since then. The violations go on and hundreds of Bohras continue to suffer.
The reformists want this to stop; they want democratic and accountable functioning by the priesthood. In fact, had there been any degree of religiosity, there would have been humane treatment of followers. The high priest turned 100 (according to the Islamic calendar; he is 96 according to the Gregorian one) but he and his establishment have not mended their ways. On the contrary, he has become much more repressive and now uses modern technology as an effective tool. The kothar has recently issued digital identity cards without which you cannot enter a Bohra mosque or jamaatkhana or mausoleum, and the card is only issued to those who have paid all taxes and not shown any sign of dissent.
On the syedna’s 100th birthday we saw an extensive propaganda campaign launched through newspaper advertisements projecting him as an ‘ambassador of peace, harmony and goodwill’. The Times of India alone carried nine pages of advertisements on the day of his birth and several other English, Gujarati and Hindi papers did much the same thing. Similarly, crores are being spent on several celebratory events and this will go on for a whole year. Are these the ways of a spiritual leader? A man is known by his actions, not by the outpouring of a propaganda machine.
(Asghar Ali Engineer is a noted Bohra reformist and human rights activist.)
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2011/ ... ights.html
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Big Brother is watching
New ID cards disconcert Bohra Muslims
BY SUPRIYA SHARMA
Rasheeda, a doctoral student in a university in America, recently received an email with a litany of instructions on how she should get herself photographed: “grey background, full face, front view, open eyes, centre of frame, 25x30 mm, 300 DPI, no flash reflection, ambient light, colour of kurta/ rida should not be grey or golden”.
“Even the US visa office issues fewer instructions,” Rasheeda thought, before dutifully reporting to a local mosque that was running a special photography camp. “I can’t afford to take this lightly,” she explains. “The photograph will be used for a card that’s my passport to my community. Without it, I will be an outcast.”
For the last few months, in different villages, cities and continents, lakhs of Bohras have been racing to get themselves photographed for the new ejamaat card. Ejamaat is an Internet database where every Bohra must enter his or her personal and professional details. The ejamaat card is an electronic encapsulation of this information – a sort of identity card. Both the database and the cards are controlled by the dawah.
The use of newer, more powerful technology has created ripples of anxiety within the community. “Please tell me what these cards are for. Are they like swipe cards to track entry and exit to the mosque?” asked a blogger on a reformist Bohra website. “I am worried about the protection of the information they hold,” said another.
In an emailed response, Qureish Raghib, a clergy spokesperson, described the upgradation of the card as “an expression of joy and gratitude for our spiritual leader”. He also listed the card’s multiple uses: “attending the local masjid, visiting shrines for pilgrimage, getting entry passes for religious and cultural events, solemnising marriage, participating in a community quiz or Koran memorisation competition or a community-organised car rally”.
The only time Abeeda Khokhawala used her previous card was to attend a Muharram gathering at Marol masjid in Mumbai. “With the new card I imagine our presence in the masjid, the number of times we visit, how long we stay, everything will be recorded seamlessly and entered into the database.” This makes her brother baulk. “I don’t go to the masjid often. Will they use the data to penalise me?” Another businessman worries he might get caught for “tax evasion”. He lives in Mumbai but pays religious taxes in his ancestral town in Gujarat. “The tax is 200 rupees in Gujarat but it is 1,000 rupees in Mumbai. The next time I go to pray in a mosque in Mumbai they could track me down using this new technology and confront me for evading tax.”
Many fear the card will unleash an Orwellian nightmare. “Please don’t quote me. I can neither get married nor buried without the clergy’s approval,” says a young student, before narrating how, a week before getting photographed, he stopped shaving his stubble, since adult males in the community are forbidden from trimming their beards. “If you’d noticed, the last line of the instructions says photographs should not be digitally altered,” he says, both amused and alarmed. “That’s a warning to those like me who might try a digital shortcut at getting a beard.”
(Names and identities have been changed or hidden on request.)
(This article was published on The Times of India website on March 6, 011.)
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2011/ ... ights.html
New ID cards disconcert Bohra Muslims
BY SUPRIYA SHARMA
Rasheeda, a doctoral student in a university in America, recently received an email with a litany of instructions on how she should get herself photographed: “grey background, full face, front view, open eyes, centre of frame, 25x30 mm, 300 DPI, no flash reflection, ambient light, colour of kurta/ rida should not be grey or golden”.
“Even the US visa office issues fewer instructions,” Rasheeda thought, before dutifully reporting to a local mosque that was running a special photography camp. “I can’t afford to take this lightly,” she explains. “The photograph will be used for a card that’s my passport to my community. Without it, I will be an outcast.”
For the last few months, in different villages, cities and continents, lakhs of Bohras have been racing to get themselves photographed for the new ejamaat card. Ejamaat is an Internet database where every Bohra must enter his or her personal and professional details. The ejamaat card is an electronic encapsulation of this information – a sort of identity card. Both the database and the cards are controlled by the dawah.
The use of newer, more powerful technology has created ripples of anxiety within the community. “Please tell me what these cards are for. Are they like swipe cards to track entry and exit to the mosque?” asked a blogger on a reformist Bohra website. “I am worried about the protection of the information they hold,” said another.
In an emailed response, Qureish Raghib, a clergy spokesperson, described the upgradation of the card as “an expression of joy and gratitude for our spiritual leader”. He also listed the card’s multiple uses: “attending the local masjid, visiting shrines for pilgrimage, getting entry passes for religious and cultural events, solemnising marriage, participating in a community quiz or Koran memorisation competition or a community-organised car rally”.
The only time Abeeda Khokhawala used her previous card was to attend a Muharram gathering at Marol masjid in Mumbai. “With the new card I imagine our presence in the masjid, the number of times we visit, how long we stay, everything will be recorded seamlessly and entered into the database.” This makes her brother baulk. “I don’t go to the masjid often. Will they use the data to penalise me?” Another businessman worries he might get caught for “tax evasion”. He lives in Mumbai but pays religious taxes in his ancestral town in Gujarat. “The tax is 200 rupees in Gujarat but it is 1,000 rupees in Mumbai. The next time I go to pray in a mosque in Mumbai they could track me down using this new technology and confront me for evading tax.”
Many fear the card will unleash an Orwellian nightmare. “Please don’t quote me. I can neither get married nor buried without the clergy’s approval,” says a young student, before narrating how, a week before getting photographed, he stopped shaving his stubble, since adult males in the community are forbidden from trimming their beards. “If you’d noticed, the last line of the instructions says photographs should not be digitally altered,” he says, both amused and alarmed. “That’s a warning to those like me who might try a digital shortcut at getting a beard.”
(Names and identities have been changed or hidden on request.)
(This article was published on The Times of India website on March 6, 011.)
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2011/ ... ights.html
-
Al Zulfiqar
- Posts: 4618
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:01 am
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
m'adam,Adam wrote:
Once that is clarified, it would would make more sense.
nothing will make sense to your brainwashed addled brain. sense only makes sense to someone whose cognitive and logical thought processes are working in a normally recognisable manner. but when fools like you who have swallowed the kothari nonsense hook line and sinker and are willing to lend their backsides to the rascals of kothar and permit them to peel off your khaal for the dai to make jootis for their luxurious use talk about sense, it makes no sense to thinking people.
time for you m'adam to go back into the dungeons of saifee mahal to inhale its poisonous fumes and knock yrself out for another few years
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
Dungeons of saify mahal are vacant, no. the plumbing and fixtures being uprooted. Allah provides heavier baggage to the blessed ones.
Re: Criticism of Burhanuddin: A Legacy of oppression
When are you people going to get it through your head that EJamaat card, Mishaq, etc. are a series of nooses which are placed around your necks of for control today and the coming many tomorrows!
Ozdundee advises in his post to report the legality and subjugation of the Mishaq to authorities in western government. How easy it is to say that!
Just try and report it and see where it will get you. Definitely not in the mosque but out in no-mans land where you would rue to your death the stupidity of taking any action against Kothar.
Just sit back and let the drama of court cases, allegations and rebuttals, Mishaq, etc unfold to the entertainment us Reformists and non-Bohras. Do not hold your breadth for a 1-2-3 knockout.
I am glad I am living in these momentous times in our history where a group of non-Bohra grumpy old judges are adjudicating a dispute of two Jurrasic Park remnants parading in starched white robes whose sole purpose of existence is to separate Bohras from their hard-earned money.
"Deen'" is not and has never been in their vocabulary.
By the way, could someone tell me where I can get an application form to join the Jamea in Surat? All these years I have slaved and laboured and now in the sunset of my life I think I would like to join that esteemed elite school where I would like to learn how to s*r*w Bohras and supplement my Canadian pension!
Ozdundee advises in his post to report the legality and subjugation of the Mishaq to authorities in western government. How easy it is to say that!
Just try and report it and see where it will get you. Definitely not in the mosque but out in no-mans land where you would rue to your death the stupidity of taking any action against Kothar.
Just sit back and let the drama of court cases, allegations and rebuttals, Mishaq, etc unfold to the entertainment us Reformists and non-Bohras. Do not hold your breadth for a 1-2-3 knockout.
I am glad I am living in these momentous times in our history where a group of non-Bohra grumpy old judges are adjudicating a dispute of two Jurrasic Park remnants parading in starched white robes whose sole purpose of existence is to separate Bohras from their hard-earned money.
"Deen'" is not and has never been in their vocabulary.
By the way, could someone tell me where I can get an application form to join the Jamea in Surat? All these years I have slaved and laboured and now in the sunset of my life I think I would like to join that esteemed elite school where I would like to learn how to s*r*w Bohras and supplement my Canadian pension!