Learning love from New Zealand

Harsh Mander

MARCH 26, 2019 00:15 IST

UPDATED:  MARCH 25, 2019 22:50 IST

       Hate that has curdled the capacity for compassion in India. Will Indians take a leaf out of New Zealand's book?

"We are broken-hearted, but we are not broken," declared Imam Gamal Fouda, while leading Friday prayers in Christchurch in New Zealand one week after the terror attack. "We are alive, we are together, we are determined to not let anyone divide us."

In a moment of immense tragedy, the people of New Zealand have shown a world riven by bigotry and hatred what solidarity and love can accomplish, even in the darkest times. It is a lesson which Indians, more bitterly divided today than ever since the blood-drenched days of Partition, must heed. But will we?

Display of solidarity

The azaan was broadcast before the memorial service all across New Zealand. Outside the mosques where the terrorist had massacred the worshippers, and in mosques around the country, hundreds of men, women and children assembled in solidarity with the families of the dead. They locked their hands with each other, creating a wall around their Muslim brothers and sisters who prayed. Many of the women wore hijabs.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attended the prayer meeting, her head covered by a black dupatta. After the prayers she quoted Prophet Mohammad. "According to Prophet Mohammad... the believers in their mutual kindness, compassion, and sympathy are just like one body. When any part of the body suffers, the whole body feels pain," she said. "New Zealand mourns with you; we are one."

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Earlier too, when Ms. Ardern visited the mourning families to comfort them, her head was covered by a black dupatta. As she embraced them, her face mirrored their pain, making plain to those who had lost their loved ones in the shootings that she shared their suffering.

The contrast with India over the last five years could not have been more telling. There have been many brutal mob attacks against Muslims, videotaped and circulated widely on social media. These hate attacks — by individuals and mobs — have spread fear and anguish among Muslims across the land. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has never once visited the bereaved families and has never communicated his empathy in a public address or through social media. When Kashmiri students were being attacked in many parts of India after a suicide bomber killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Pulwama, Kashmir, Mr. Modi declared that the rage that burnt in the hearts of people burnt in his heart too. It was an unambiguous message encouraging revenge.

While Muslims constitute 14% of India's people, in New Zealand they are only over 1%. Ms. Ardern recognised that many of them could be migrants or refugees, but "they are us... The perpetrator is not". The message that Mr. Modi communicates with his deafening silences is exactly the opposite. He is rooted in the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which believes that the Muslim who has been part of this country for centuries is not one of "us", but the perpetrator of violence is.

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In the last several months, we have made 27 harrowing journeys of the Karwan-e-Mohabbat into 15 States of India. In each, we have gone to the homes of the families of those who have lost their loved ones to hate and violence. Each time we have learnt afresh how much our simple gesture of reaching out means to these distraught families. They feel alone and abandoned as they battle loss and the hate of their neighbours or strangers who attacked their loved ones. As we embrace and hold each other's hands, our eyes turn moist as they weep. Often, families in distant parts say that we are the first people who reached out to them.

It is this that Ms. Ardern did for the loved ones of those slaughtered while in prayer in Christchurch. I have often wished that this is what our Prime Minister and leaders of the Opposition who claim to stand for secular politics would do. But none of them has shown the spontaneous compassion or the political courage to reach out to these stricken victims forced to battle hate alone.

Take also the symbolic question of headgear. Ms. Ardern covered her head with a dupatta to show respect to a stricken people, not necessarily as an endorsement of the practice. Inspired by the Prime Minister's gesture, women all over New Zealand — newsreaders, policewomen, ordinary people — covered their heads with hijab scarves. Imam Fouda said to Ms. Ardern, "Thank you for holding our families close and honouring us with a simple scarf." By contrast, Mr. Modi has worn every conceivable form of headgear in his travels across a diverse India, but he has pointedly refused only one, and this is the Muslim skull cap.

Ms. Ardern also took firm steps to not allow the hate propaganda of the killer or the video he live-streamed to be circulated, and pledged never to utter his name publicly. By contrast, the videos that perpetrators of lynching and hate attacks shoot and upload in India are freely circulated. So are the hate speeches by them and indeed by many leading members of the ruling establishment. Those charged with hate killings are celebrated by Union Ministers, with garlands and the national flag.

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Religious leaders of Christian and Jewish faiths in New Zealand, Australia and around the Western world have come out in iridescent solidarity with the Muslim community, and have attended joint prayers in mosques. Stu Cameron, Minister of Newlife Church on the Gold Coast, said, "Good neighbours always weep when the other is weeping, and stand together in solidarity when the other feels threatened." Sikh gurudwaras in New Zealand opened up for the survivors' families. In India, there have been no similar demonstrations of care by religious leaders after brutal hate attacks.

Lack of compassion

However, what is even more worrying than the failures of political and religious leaders in India to resist hate violence is the profound lack of compassion and solidarity in local communities wherever these attacks have occurred. There is no empathy with people who are so pushed into fear that they can no longer recognise this as a country to which they belong. Nowhere in our journeys of the Karwan have we heard reports of care and support for survivors of hate attacks by neighbours from other religions and castes. In upmarket Gurugram, mobs supported by the administration have succeeded in bullying Muslim worshippers to reduce the numbers of places where they can worship on Fridays to a tenth of the original number. It is nothing short of a civilisational crisis that we have allowed hate to curdle even our capacity for compassion.

(Courtesy : The Hindu dated 26th March 2019)

Alas Hasan is no more...

In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful 

K. Mohammed Hasan, son of late K. Abdul Azeez bhai sahib breathed his last yesterday, Monday,18th March 2019. When I received this sad message on WhatsApp from Peerva Akbar, it shocked me as it should have shocked everyone who knows him. He was a soft spoken young shoe factory MD engaged in exports. He was interested in religion. I was told sometime ago that he was memorising the holy Quran in the midst of his busy business schedules - an excellent and pious trait, very rare in the business community. His father-in-law Janab N. M. Zackeria sahib, an octogenarian respected footwear giant, was a pillar of strength to him.

I have seen Hasan from his elementary school to college days. He was a humble and smiling person behaving well with one and all. 

Let us pray for his "maghfirath" and "Sabr" to his father-in-law, mother, wife, children, younger brother, sister  and all other near and dear ones.

Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 153:  

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ 

  
O you who believe! seek assistance through patience and prayer; surely Allah is with the patient.

V. M. Khaleelur Rahman 

A Tamil Nadu based socio religious group

http://caravandaily.com/tn-mosques-defy-stereotypes-offer-food-education-jobs-and-slew-of-other-services/#

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TN Mosques Defy Stereotypes; Offer Food, Education, Jobs and Slew of Other Services

March 7, 2019

A socio-religious group from Tamil Nadu is making mosques the pivotal point to usher in social reform by providing food, job opportunities, education and 25 other allied services

Waquar Hasan| Caravan Daily

CHENNAI – If you thought that a mosque is only good for offering namaz or prayers, then it's about time for you to change the way you think. Masjid Sevai Kuzhu (Mosque Service Committee), a socio-religious group in Tamil Nadu has been using mosques to do social service for almost half a decade now.

For the past five years, this group has been using mosques, in a unique and practical way, to provide food, jobs, education, medical treatment and 25 other services to those in need.

Interestingly, their service is not limited to any particular area, region and state. They claim that they can provide solutions or help for any social issue, but only through mosques. For instance, if a particular person approaches them for any aid, then they visit the mosque located in the area, survey the area and conduct the program and decide on the solution that needs to be provided.

"We offer all type of social services, but only through the mosque. We are following Sunnat-e-Rasul (practices of Prophet Mohammed). Doing social service through mosque is the practice of Prophet Mohammed. We initiated this practice on January 1 of 2013, in Erode, Tamil Nadu. It was welcomed by all kind of people. As of now, we have initiated social service programmes through this model in 700 mosques of Tamil Nadu," said A. Syed Ibrahim, National Organizer of Masjid Sevai Kuzhu, while talking to Caravan Daily.

Ibrahim, for his social service model, was honoured with the social leadership award at the Social Leadership Summit, organized by Movement of Empowerment of Muslim Indian, in New Delhi. Ibrahim, a resident of Erode is a businessman by profession.

National Organizer of Masjid Service Committee Syed Ibraheem

With the mosques being the centre for social service work, a number of people help and support the projects initiated. They get their volunteers from the mosque itself.

"Called the one-week project – Friday to Friday, we first get the permission from the mosque, then come over and conduct a survey. Then, we list the issues and we give them solutions within a week," said Ibrahim.

In the past, through such programs, they have successfully set up tuition centres and schools, provided education and job assistance to women, helped the needy to avail educational scholarship, arranged marriages, set up interest free banks, provided food kits to the needy, rehabilitated drug addicts, provided accommodation for the orphans and the elderly and even helped people to set up small business.

They have also organized medical awareness camps, law awareness camp, job placement camps and even conduct educational counselling for the youths.

"We are offering over 40 services. We have a network across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and collaborate with other organizations," he said.

The model for providing these services is simple – connect the poor with the rich. "We actually connect the poor with the rich. Simply put, we connect the solution providers with the ones who are in need of a solution," said Ibrahim. "Every month we are distributing 80 lakh food kits," he added.

Talking about medical treatments, he said, "We are having a tie-up with 2500 doctors of which 100 doctors are very close to us. They are giving treatment at low cost and we are also utilizing government schemes."

Speaking of how they solve the issue of unemployment, Ibraheem said, "We collect the resumes of those in need of a job and share it with 160 companies that we have a good connection with. These youths are then selected on the basis of their interview performances."

They have even set up coaching centres within the mosques, where students both from the Muslims and non-Muslim community study together. They collect money from the neighbourhood to set up the system of education.

Ilyas Asad, a resident of Tamil Nadu's Vaniyambadi, feels that they are doing a wonderful job. He said "In our area, they have used the mosques in a very creative way to provide social services. They visit mosques of every cult and sects and they don't talk about sectarian differences. They say that they have to just do services and they have no relations with any sects, cults, groups and associations. They have been doing wonderful jobs."

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Chennai Leather Market - March 2019

CHENNAI  LEATHER MARKET

V M Khaleelur Rahman

Chennai leather market continues with limited transactions in tanned goat skins. Routine business is taking place in higher grades but big business is absent. As usual some big exporters of leather and leather products are in the market buying 5/7 sq. ft. Run at around Rs.100 per sq. ft. There is also a report of goat lots sold at around Rs.45 and 50 per sq. ft. depending on quality and selection to local traders.

Tanned goat skins 4/6 sq. ft. Suede is sold at around Rs.39, 4/6 sq. ft. Lining at around Rs.34 and 5/7 sq. ft. Lining at around Rs.38 per sq. ft. respectively whereas local Rejection and Langda are sold at around Rs.12 and 9 per sq. ft.

Prices of raw goat skins are erratic but generally speaking sold at around Rs.30 per piece but good quality and selection skins fetch higher prices.

Export Contracts

Leading exporters have sold S/C goat upper and lining leathers at around US$2.35 and 1.75 per sq. ft. respectively and S/C suede leather at around US$1.90 per sq. but business continues to be slow. There is no report of any business with Japanese customers.

Quotations of Tanners

E.I. Tanned Goat Skins

Grain Selection:

4/6 sq. ft. Run Rs.95, V/IF/LIF Rs.75, Lot Rs.50

Suede Selection:

4/6 sq. ft. Rs.40

Lining Selection:

4/6 sq. ft. Rs.35 and 5/8 sq. ft. Rs.39

Quotations of Exporters

F/C sheep leather

4/6 sq. ft. All Suede JY 180, LIF Suede JY 145 and Rejection Suede JY 90

5/7 sq. ft. All Suede JY 190, LIF Suede JY 155 and Rejection Suede JY 100

                              S/C OR F/C GOAT LEATHER

Material	Size/sq. ft.	Substance	Selection	Price US$ per sq. ft. C&F
Goat upper leather	4/7	0.6/0.8 mm	ABC	2.35
Goat milled leather	4/7	0.6/0.8 mm	TR-1	1.75
Goat suede leather	4/7	0.6/0.8 mm	All Suede	1.95
Goat lining leather	4/7	0.5/0.7 mm	TR-1/2/3	1.75/1.65/1.55
Goat lining leather	5/8	0.6/0.8 mm	TR-1/2/3	1.80/1.70/1.60

                                    F/C SHEEP LEATHER

Material	Size/sq. ft.	Substance	Selection	Price US$ per sq. ft. C&F
Sheep cabretta leather	4/7	0.6/0.8	ABC	2.10
Sheep cabretta leather	6/9	0.8/1.0	ABC	2.25
Sheep lining leather	4/7 5/8	0.5/0.7 0.6/0.8	TR-1 TR-1	1.75 1.85

Shoe Business

Shoe factories situated in places like Ambur are endeavouring their best to fetch export orders from different countries in order to keep their factories running. Quite a large number of people particularly women are employed in these units. It is said that in Ambur alone about 20,000 people are working. In the present difficult period it is the shoe units which give a sort of hope and confidence to the people engaged in the leather industry. The whole glamour of the leather industry is in the shoe business.

The International footwear show Micam held at Milano from 10^th to 13^th February 2019 was highly successful, perhaps more than expected, with more visitors particularly from USA and Canada. This has encouraged the shoe manufacturers the world over. It is hoped that in the days to come Indian shoe manufacturers can expect good volume of business from these two countries which are well known for big contracts.

(Writer’s e-mail id: vmk1234@yahoo.com)