(Ramazan) Roza, Hazare agitation go hand in hand in Mumbai-DNA | Wary of BJP, Muslims stay out - telegraphindia.com

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_roza-hazare-agitation-go-hand-in-hand-in-mumbai_1577345

Roza, Hazare agitation go hand in hand in Mumbai

Published: Friday, Aug 19, 2011, 5:00 IST | Updated: Friday, Aug 19, 2011, 1:20 IST
By Manoj R Nair | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Taking part in the anti-corruption protests while observing their day-long Ramzan fasts, Muslim supporters of Anna Hazare’s campaign say that they are fulfilling doing both their religious and national responsibilities.
Among those on a hunger strike at Azad Maidan since Tuesday are Muslims who are also observing the Ramzan fast.

Shadab Haidar, a resident of Mumbai Central, was one among them. On the evening of August 16, the first day of the protests, Haidar did not have a full meal after breaking the fast. Instead, after breaking the fast with some dates and water, Haidar joined other campaigners in an ‘indefinite fast’. More than three days into the protest, he said he will continue his fast till Hazare ends his campaign in Delhi.

Firoze Mithiborewala, another member of the group that is on an ‘indefinite fast’ said he had decided to take part in the anti-corruption movement after Hazare’s first protest in April. He is also observing the Ramzan fast. “It is just a coincidence that it is a holy month for both Hindus and Muslims. Hindus are also observing the Shravan fast. We pray together,” said Mithiborewala.

Aslam Gazi, Mumbai-based worker of Jamaat-i-Islami Hind said that while he observed his day-long fast, he spends a few hours daily at Azad Maidan.

“Our organisation has been associated with Anna Hazare for the last 10 years and have supported his work. I have even visited his village,” said Gazi.

Dr Riyaz Pathan, a homeopathic doctor from Khopoli near Panvel, has been taking part in the anti-corruption protests in the town since Tuesday while following the Ramzan fast.

On Thursday, he took part in a 3-km-long cycle rally that was organised as part of the anti-graft campaign in the town. The cycle rally began at 6pm and ended an hour later after covering most parts of the town. At 7.30 pm, Pathan ended his fast with a glass of water.

He said he is not exhausted by the demands of the day-long fast and the hectic protests.

Pathan said, “It is not at all tiring; it is a privilege to take part in the protests and do something for the country.”
Mithiborewala said: “It is as spiritually rewarding as a Roza.”
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Wary of BJP, Muslims stay out

RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

Delhi Municipal Corporation workers clean up Ramlila Maidan on Thursday ahead of Hazare’s fast. Picture by Prem Singh New Delhi, Aug. 18: Many Muslims feel Anna Hazare’s drive against corruption deserves their support but their backing is clouded by the apprehension that the RSS and the BJP are “exploiting” the momentum his campaign generated to their political advantage. Citing such misgivings, some members of the minority community said they were chary of hitting the streets with the other protesters and chose to express their solidarity “silently”. The Ramazan month, when daytime fasting has to be broken after sundown, also made participation in a round-the-clock hunger-strike “more impractical”, they said. An editorial in the Urdu daily Jadid Khabar, published from Delhi and Moradabad, said corruption had to be dealt with head-on. But it also spoke of how Hazare’s self-professed ethical movement had virtually morphed into a call for ousting the “secular” UPA government and, therefore, acquired an overt political colour. The paper stressed it would not support an initiative to topple the Centre, however “laudable” the intentions were. It debunked the comparison between Hazare and Mahatma Gandhi, contending that while Gandhi fought for freeing India from colonial rule, a movement to get rid of a “democratic set-up” was not the same. Democracy, the editorial said, vested every adult with the right to vote, and this was the accepted process to make and unmake governments and not the “street crusades” launched by “civil society”.  “I made it clear that Hazare’s movement smacked of fascism, it was unconstitutional. If I had to make a moral choice between fascism and corruption, I would say better to live with corruption instead of fascism,” said Masoom Moradabadi, the editor of Jadid Khabar. A government employee, not wanting to go on record, conceded that while the Centre had botched up Hazare’s arrest, it was “extremely reasonable” earlier by engaging him and his team in a protracted dialogue on the Lokpal bill. “If the government is run according to their agenda, Parliament is rendered irrelevant,” he said. He questioned the “moral” underpinning of the Hazare campaign and asked why it counted Delhi’s traders’ associations as a principal supporter. “These organisations are circulating pamphlets eliciting backers. But do Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal realise that barring exceptions, they rarely file income tax returns scrupulously?” he asked. The Hazare team had attempted to reach out to Muslim representatives before he embarked on his fast this time. One of them was Delhi’s Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. About two weeks ago, Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi called on its president, Maulana Sayeed Jalaluddin Umary, and sought his co-operation for their “good work”. They claimed that the movement was “apolitical” and it had nothing to do with the RSS. When Hazare was picked up by police, the Jamaat issued a statement condemning his arrest and advising the government to elicit his group’s opinion while framing the Lokpal bill. “But let me tell you that we are not that exercised over the violation of civil rights. The Muslims fear one thing: that the events would most likely favour the BJP in the next election and damage the Congress. Everybody wants corruption to go but we don’t want the BJP at the Centre,” a businessman and social activist said. [ Regretfully, the news of the visit of Anna Team led by Kejriwal and Kiren Bedi to Jamaate Islami Hind's President Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, was not carried by even most of the Urdu newspapers that have direct access to Muslim community in various Muslim majority areas of the country. It does smack of a rather imposed ban on Anna news in Muslim media by some influential quarters. GM]