Interview with Aamir Bhai on www.orkutheroes.com

Aamir Edresy is a man with the mission on orkut. Founder of Association of Muslim Professionals community Aamir is on the way to make an NGO for the noble cause of Muslim youths. Aamir Edresy is invited on Orkut’s hall of fame to give more from the assoc of Muslim professional and the future of this community which is one of very active community on orkut.
Welcome Aamir to Orkut’s Hall of Fame.

Its my pleasure that you invited me in this community. Thanks for such a warm welcome and the opportunity for an interaction. It will be my pleasure to talk about AMP, its Objectives, its Vision/Mission and My team. This will be a great opportunity for me to reach more and more people to help AMP. Thanks once again Zazo!!!

Infact its our pleasure to have you here with us. Can you please tell us about your professional and family background?

First of all I would like to say that, its a great idea to take interview like this. I was not aware of this concept before and it really rocks…Thumbs up to you Zazo. I come from a middle class business family. I am a Computer Science Graduate, Started my education from a Urdu Medium School and completed my graduation from Pune University. My parents wanted me to prepare for IAS after my graduation but I opted to go for job because of some personal reasons… And I still regret on my decision. I started working as a Lecturer in Saboo Siddik Engg College in Mumbai. After That I joined a small Software company as a Software Tester and gradually reached to a position of Team Lead. Currently I am working in a MNC as a Sr. Software Test Engg. I am married with one of the most wonderful, affectionate, considerate, intelligent and most importantly simple girl I found in the universe. We have a cute little daughter, and she has become the most important part of my life since last 3 years. In my free time I love to do social Work.

So how AMP(Association of Muslim Professional) started?

The importance of Social and Community service was always in my mind since my childhood days. This was because of my valued upbringing and my schooling system. Thanks to my Parents and Teachers!!!
Having an Organization which is Representative of all Muslims in India, and is as patriotic as any other Indian Organization, was/is my dream. After Sachar Committee Report it was always on top of my Priority list. We have seen the rapid growth of Internet technologies. It has touched life in many ways and it is impossible to imagine life without internet in today’s world. We have to make the best use of available technology for our community’s development. We want to utilize internet and technology to improve the life in some of the poorest parts in India.

I had many options to start with like Yahoo Group, Google Group, Orkut Community and many more. I found Orkut the best. AMP started on 6th December 2007 on Orkut.

http://www.orkut.co.in/Community.aspx?cmm=42562614

The driving motto of AMP is to urge the people to come together and pool their resources for maximizing the benefits to the Indian Society in General and Muslim Society in particular.

You will be surprised to know that many of our non Muslim brothers are also with us in this noble mission. Thanks to all of them.

Very soon we are going to register AMP as a NGO.

So is Muslim professionals community require any rule to follow for joining? Do you except memberships from all or a person should be only Muslim and professional. Can’t a student join it?

Nice Question Zazo. There are different membership types in AMP.

To become a basic member of AMP, one needs to be

1) Indian
2) Muslim and
3) Professional

that doesn’t mean that the person who doesn’t fall in all above category can not become a member. If someone is not Indian or not Muslim he should get recommended by at least 3 of our basic members or by a moderator and then moderators will think of taking him in or not. These members will be considered as our advisory members.

And yes, even students can become Member of AMP. Students are the biggest force for us. And they are the ones who will play important part in implementation of our programs Insha Allah.

We are also planning to start corporate membership. We will be having different membership types depending upon the donations. Please keep on visiting AMP Community to know details.

These rules can change in future.

What are the main discussions going on or i can say what is the objective of this community? How much you succeeded till now in Association of Muslim Professionals?

Aim:
We can bring together Muslims from all walks of life to interact and act jointly with an objective to educate, motivate, inspire and instill confidence in our young generation. We can join hands to eradicate miseries and evil practices from our society. Our objective is to see that the community puts its unspent energy to constructive use to make India the Super Power in the World.

Vision:
To be a model Muslim community which is:
* Educationally excellent
* Socially progressive and Culturally vibrant
* Politically influential
* Economically dynamic

Mission:
To play a leading and active role in the development and long term transformation of Muslim into a dynamic community taking its pride of place in the larger Indian society.

Currently we are focusing more on networking the people. Simultaneously we have formed some sub committees which will look after the specific tasks assigned.

We are also looking for some good people who can look after all the activities in other cities of India. Infact we have started it in some cities in India like Nasik, Pune, Bangalore, Aurangabad and some parts of UP etc.

We started on 6th December 2007 online and we are very close to 800 Members. I think this as a Big Success in a world of orkut communities where people only come for fun and Masti. In our community you will not find any single thread for fun/ masti/ jokes/ sheroshayri and games.

Offline also we have made around 500 members only in Mumbai. The list includes some big names from all walks of life.

All this has become possible because of all our dedicated and sincere members. I am very thankful to all of them. May Allah reward all of us for our efforts.

In start we want to work as a facilitator to other existing NGOs. Once we will feel that we are properly established than we will start our own projects Insha Allah.

Aamir what are your thoughts on Muslim society in general? Do you think there should be more development needed in some particular area ? If yes then what are those areas of development?

Very wast question indeed. Let me try to give precise answer.

The major issues of Muslims can be categorized into (compiled by one of the finest member of AMP)

1. Educationally Backward.
2. Health Issues
3. Security of Muslims
4. Issues related to Finance (Includes Zakat Management, Wakf Management, Need of more funds for Community development)
5. Social Issues
6. Less Media Representation
7. Lots of issues faced by Muslim Scholars (Alims)

Muslims may be portrayed world over as religious and devout but they are widely detached from the teachings of their own faith. The first word of the Holy Quran was not Namaaz (Prayers), Roza (Fasting), Hajj (Pilgrimage), Zakat (Charity), and certainly not Jihad (Struggle), which is bringing unwanted infamy to them. But, it was Iqra, which means Read.

The number of Muslims in India rank second highest in the world, only next to Indonesia, and almost equal to the population of the United States , if their population is tallied properly (Muslim leaders allege that Indian Muslims are deliberately undercounted). Dozens of countries have less population than Muslims in India, including next door neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh. But what do Muslims feel about themselves – a rudderless boat or critical mass.

At the beginning of the 21st Century, the stories of India’s success are reported very wildly but Muslims of India seem to be suffering from the hellishly helpless syndrome, which is leading them to the current state of colossal intellectual inertia and nudging them to radicalism and extremism. I can state that it is the best of the time for India, but it is the worst of the time for Indian Muslims.

Who is to blame? State and central governments, Hindus, creation of Pakistan syndrome, discrimination, Islamophobia, Sangh Parivar? The litany of negative excuses will go on as they are recounted at most of the Muslims Meetings.

In my view, nobody should be blamed but Muslims themselves. If Muslims had any respect for the first word of the Quran, they would have had sent their children to study at the nearest government schools, pathshalas, madarsas, colleges, or
universities, where almost free education was available, whether they were giving in Urdu or Hindi, Kannada or Bangla, Tamil or Telugu. Although these schools might not have had good chairs to sit on or clean sheets on the floor to squat on, the graduating students would have had the ability to move on further and mentor their next generations as the parents of Dalits and Backward groups have been doing.

And the solution to all these starts with Education..Iqra…

Iqra does not mean teaching only Arabic and Urdu, or Quran and Hadith or producing only Hafiz and Maulana, who may know all the by laws of the Jannat (heaven) and hereafter, but ignorant of the constitution of the country where they are currently
breathing in. All world languages are God given. Iqra also means to educate your kids to become a good wage earner, a nice human being, an exemplary role model for the society, a scientist who could develop medicines for dreadful diseases, The current world is also God created, and it has been in existence for millions of years, and most likely it will prosper for another millions of years, Insha Allah. Are Muslims going to be simply a visitor to an ongoing worldly circus or will they also contribute and improve it?

Courtesy to someone (I dont remember the name) Muslim should start doing IQRA-giri.

Being educated and rich should be fashionable among Muslims too.

And one more thing,

I would like to request all my Hindu brothers and sisters to help at their best to uplift condition of the Muslim Community. India can not become a Super Power leaving its 13-18% population in misery. No one likes to have an uneducated neighbor, friend and countryman.

Its duty of all Hindus and Muslims to unite and help each other to make more powerful India.

What are your future plan in developing the community “Association of Muslim Professionals”? Where you will concentrate more in spreading the words? online or offline?

I will start with a Sher of Galib

Hazaron khwahishen aisi ke har khwahish pe dam naikle
Bohat nikle mere arman phir bhi kam nikle

Till now the journey is very good Masha Allah. And we hope and pray for even better days to come. Currently our focus is Mumbai and Maharashtra. We will Insha Allah reach out to whole India

As I told you earlier we are focusing more on networking. We want to reach and work in each and every Muslim basti/area/mohalla.

Muslim lacks knowledge and information. You know the schemes as simple as Pre metric scholarship scheme by government of India doesn’t reach to Muslims properly. We want to fill up that gap by having our representative in each and every area.

As per our vision statement we want to start working towards Educational, Economical, Social and Political empowerment of Muslims in India.

We have formed sub committees to plan out our activities in Educational and Economical Fields. There are some best of Minds heading those committees. And Insha Allah very soon you will see some good projects running.

On ur question to online and offline ppl, I would like to tell u that Online ppl will be used as resources for implementation of our projects and offline ppl (mainly) will be benefited by those projects.

In AMP active people have a chance to cooperate with each other in carrying out their missions - of uplifting the Muslim condition without physically being in one place.

For example in scholarship program, we can connect sponsors and the students even though they are in different parts of the world. Similarly, members from Mumbai can raise money for a coaching center in Delhi in matter of days. Without use of internet, this is not possible for people of Mumbai to heed to the advice of someone they didn’t know or had never met.

Moderators and most of the active people of AMP have never met each other but are able to work collectively using the technology available to us.

How you manage your time in Doing this social work and handling the community Association of Muslim Professionals?

Thats the main reason to go online and we have taken help of Orkut.
Its really fantastic!!! May god bless the inventors of Orkut.

Aamir who is your idol? or you dont have any?If you have, Please share that outstanding personality who really inspired or motivated you.

Thank you for asking this question. I will give you the list of people who have inspired me. All for diffrent reasons which is very clear to everyone in the world.

1) The Great Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan
2) Shri Dhiru Bhai Ambani
3) Mr. Mohammed Yunus from Bangladesh
4) Mr. Narayn Murthy

Aamir what is your favourite pass time? any likes or dislikes?

Passtime, what is that . Really speaking I dont get free time to do anything else.
Though if have time I like to sleep so much….I like to listen old hindi songs and gazals with good lyrics.

Coming to my last question I want to ask that what help support or contribution you expect from the members of AMP?

A- 1) Time
2) Money
3) Resources

4) Contacts
5) The smallest thing one can give is 2 hrs per week to teach in some school

Thank you Aamir for giving your time and effort in making such a nice and informative interview. I wish the readers will get the message of AMP and all other noble works you are doing. Our best wishes and prayers are with you.