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Dear Friends,

We all can witness the tremendous growth of AMP over the past year, both in terms of geographical coverage and scale of activities. This achievement would have not been possible without the efforts of AMP’s unique & diverse team of professionals and students spread across India, who are constantly engaged in numerous activities of AMP, giving shape to the one common dream.

We are proud that the scale of voluntary work has crossed all social and cultural boundaries. At the same time, we understand the fast pace and competent life of today’s era and the limitations it has set on our members to be updated about each and every activity of AMP.

To overcome this difficulty and to keep every member aware of all the big and small happenings in AMP, across the nation, we have come out with a simple and effective SMS scheme called “AMPIndia”. “AMPIndia” shall act as a link between all the chapters of AMP as well as be a common platform to share all general announcements concerning AMP.

To join this SMS group, please type on your mobile ON AMPIndia and send it to 9870807070;

Alternatively, click on the below link to subscribe:

http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/AMPIndia

We are a group, and it’s your right to know what all the group members are up to. Welcome aboard!

Thank You!

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AMP organizes an open Discussion on Women’s Reservation Bill

By Syed Najeeb-ur-Rahman

AMP is a non-political and non-sectarian organization, which endeavors to promote social welfare, community spirit and knowledge in our society. It is founded by a group of citizens in India who are professionals from various fields. AMP stimulates us to come forward and make that visible difference in lives of people and subsequently the whole nation. AMPians envisage a progressive Community which would form the foundation of an ideal society, a great nation and a peaceful world.



On Saturday the 20th of March,2010, Association of Muslim Professionals had organized an open Discussion on the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ which is to be presented in the Lok Sabha. This discussion was held at Urdu Markaz at Imamwada, Bhendi Bazar.

Women’s Reservation Bill is a contentious issue today, with many backing it and also people vehemently opposing it, In this light there was felt a need to analyze the facts of the matter, there needed to be deep study and greater understanding of the issue before we could take a stand on it. A pressing need was felt to sensitize the ordinary people especially the minorities on such an important issue. As such AMP took an initiative to provide a neutral platform for people concerned to come and discuss about the bill. It was clarified that AMP is providing an unbiased platform where People were invited to come and share their free opinion whether in favour or against, about what they thought about this bill. It was made clear that the discussions would proceed in a mature way without being directly critical towards and organization or individual and with mutual respect towards all.


The discussion was aimed at understanding what the views the Minorities have about the Women’s Reservation Bill and analyzing how beneficial or disadvantageous it is in the interests on the Minority community. Intellectuals, academicians and social activists had been invited to share their views.

The seminar started with ‘Tilawat’ by Maulana Mohammad Shoaib Koti. Mr.Aamir Idrisi , President AMP had coordinated the event and explained the objective of this event. There was a presentation by Mr.Sohel Ajani, Executive Council Member AMP, on the background of The Women’s Reservation Bill. Mr.Ajani spoke about how th bill was first introduced in the Parliamnet in 1996 and the various stages of its journey till the present Rajya Sabha where it was approved on 9th March,2010.

This was followed by a presentation by Mr.Tausif Mirza (Project Coordinator, AMP) about the history and the status of Women in Politics. He spoke about how women have always been empowered and how they have even ruled kingdoms like the famous Egyptian Queen Cleopatra to Razia Sultana in india and also Chand Bibi, Rani Laxmibai etc. He spoke about the present political heavy weights like the UP Chief Minister, Smt.Mayawati, Jayalalitha, the Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee, Vasundhra Raje Scindia ex-CM Rajasthan, Ms.Sheila Dixit the Delhi CM to Ms.Sushma Swaraj the Leader of Opposition which is a very responsible. He further said that none of these women have come through reservation but on the basis of their own political strength. Thus one can infer that had all the women been suppressed then these women might not have been able to come up with their own might but then yes certain sections o women are still being suppressed.

After the presentation the attendees were given about 5 minutes each to present their views. Various aspects were discussed including the present situation of women, their aspirations and their concerns and the concerns regarding the Minority Community as a whole. Further discussion were held about the remedial steps to be taken for the betterment of the women in the community.

The various points which came to the fore was that with the reference of history it could be seen that women in india especially Muslim women were never oppressed (except a few instances). It was agreed by the women present that the Muslim women have always been empowered but unfortunately the media has always portrayed a wrong picture as indicated by Mrs.Gazala Azad.
According to Mr.S.M.Aon who has done extensive research on the reservations and its implications, the concept of reservation itself needs to be discarded. The idea of reservation is to create a level playing field for those deprived but it has been observed that in reality the only people who stand to gain are those from the middle and Upper middle classes. The ones who are backward or deprived are still neglected and the actual benefits do not reach them. He said that infact reservation is the suppression of abilities and skills of the people who are actually deserving.

According to Maulana Daryabadi, it was irrelevant whether the Bill is passed in the Lok Sabha or not. In any situation the ruling party stands to gain. As it wanted to prove a point and it has done so by introducing the bill.

Some people said that the Bill is nothing but political opportunism as the ruling party wants to create its stronghold among the women and those opposing it in the name of neglect of backward classes, dalits and Muslims are actually concerned about securing their own seats and nothing more.

Some like Ms.Sameena and Ms.Shadab said that it was also discussed that we need to make our women capable first and only then can we derive the benefits of reservation as there are hardly any females in the Muslim community who can stand to gain considering their present detachment from the political scenario. Some suggestion came up about educating them, grooming them and making them capable for this task. Some schemes run by the government like the ‘Scheme for Development of Leadership of Minority Women’ were also referred to in one of the presentation.
Maulana Shoaib Koti raised concerns that now is not the time to plan and prepare, the situation is very critical and we need to act now in the larger interest of the whole of community.

As per Maulana Burhanuddin some of the points raised were that there are chances that the bill may be approved and it is more or less a conspiracy against the Muslim community to keep them out of power. He had done extensive research on the same and provided Statics from the various committee reports (like Sachar committee & The Ranganath Mishra Committee) were referred to and it was observed that as per the current trend of reservation for SC/ST, it was observed that mostly the places where there are Muslim majority is always reserved for SC/ST while where there is no Muslim majority such places are left open, as such the Muslims cannot compete and win and this is an indirect way and a planned process to keep them out of power.


It was echoed across that such conspiracy will again be hatched on the back of the Women’s Reservations and places where a Muslim leader can win might be reserved for Women and with no relevant Muslim women leadership we are bound to lose those seats. In light of these discussions one fact which was discussed was that the Reservation for Muslims were presented as a Bill during the early years of the parliament but it was put in cold storage. Even the recently constituted high level committee constituted by the Government like the Sachar Committee and the Ranganath Mishra Committee Report have verified the fact that the conditions of Muslims today is even worse than the Dalits and other backward classes and recommendations were made for reservations for Muslims.

Some views echoed were that we can push for acceptance of the bill with amendments such as further reservations within reservation for Dalits, backwards classes and Muslim women, and then later on ask for the implementation of the Muslim Reservations. While some vehemently said that we need to ask for the implementation of the Muslim Reservations which has long been pending with the Government and is long over-due and then later on we can talk about Women’s Reservation Bill.

Further it was seen that this is like a do or die situation for the Muslim and it was agreed upon unilaterally that the BILL IS NOT AT ALL ACCEPTABLE IN ITS PRESENT FORM. The need was felt for all the Muslim organizations and people to come together on a single platform to vehemently oppose the Women’s Reservation Bill in its current form and even if it has to be passed there should be reservation for Muslim Women as per their ratio in the population. AMP said that its aim has always been to bring all people on one single platform and it will continue its efforts to bring together all the Muslims together so that we can emphatically present our view-point to the concerned administration.

People from various walks of life including Social activists, professionals, Community leaders, political activists were invited to be a part of this discussion. The attendees included Gazala Azad, Shadab Siddiqui, Samina Asgarali, Nigar Usmani, Meher Tabassu, Shamim Shaikh, Maulana Mahmood Dariyabadi, Mohammad Shoaib Koti, Sayed Abdur Rahman Milli, Burhanuddin Qasmi, Syed Mohammad Moonis, Sayed Nizamuddin, Shakeel Dad Khan, Abdul Quyyum, Sayed Farman Ali, M.A.Khan, Tahir Qureshi, Mushir Ansari, S.M.Aon, Arshad Qasim, Farid Khan, Rizwan Ahmed Qasmi, Mustaqeem Makki, Maqbool Alam, Zuber Azmi, and some more.

Mr.Syed Najeeb-Ur-Rahman (Najeeb) Executive Council Member and Head P.R. & Communications, AMP presented a final brief and essence of the entire discussions and asked for people to come together for the betterment of our Community, its children, women and men. He also presented the vote of thanks as well to all participants.

The workshop was like a learning space for the participants as well as the space to share vision. The main focus of the Workshop was to get feedback and suggestions from the participants and intellectuals and try to have a creative approach. Individual opinions were invited with the idea of taking a collective view of the discussions and come out with a mutually agreeable mandate which would be conveyed to the agencies concerned.

AMP has declared that An online petition will be submitted to the government, UPA and the relevant authorities concerned and a signature campaign will be conducted to gather mass support to sensitize the authorities about the feelings of the Muslim Community and it has requested whole-hearted support from all in the community. AMP will drive these views through letters, communications, and press conferences.

This program conducted by AMP is one more step in its endeavour towards its Social Consciousness and Social Responsibility and its obligations towards the Community and service to the society. Such Knowledge Development initiatives taken by AMP including its Weekly Workshops across the Mumbai city have created a lot of good-will amongst the community and has endeared AMP to a good section of the society both in the academic and bureaucratic circle.
The participants appreciated the efforts of AMP in organizing this seminar and providing a platform fo them to showcase their views. They also appreciated the way this discussion was conducted in a very congenial and mutually respectful environment.

Syed Najeeb-ur-Rahman is a member of Association of Muslim Professionals, Mumbai.

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An elaborate REPORT – A discussion on Communal Harmony

Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) had organized a Discussion on Communal Harmony. The program titled “Building Trust and Partnership among communities in India” was conducted in association with the American Centre at the American Centre Auditorium, Mumbai.

Noted Human Rights Activist Ms.Shabnam Hashmi was in town and considering her contribution and efforts towards Community Service and welfare and in order to make the most of her presence in the city AMP had organized an ad-hoc Seminar on Communal Harmony inviting experts on the subject to a discussion on the same.

The invites consisted of people from different communities and various sections of the society.
The discussion was divide in 4 parts
1) Present communal scenario, the rise of Communal Forces and violence in India..
2) Suppression of voices of Democracy & Communalism..
3) Prevention of Communal Violence
4) Steps to be taken to develop Trust, Harmony & improve relations between communities.
Ms. Shabnam Hashmi,Founding & Managing Trustee ANHAD was the special guest for the event.

Mr.Javed Akhtar was the Chief Guest for the event but unfortunately he was unable to make it as he was suffering from Conjunctivitis.

Adv. Irfan Engineer- Dir. Institute for Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution, Centre for Study of Society & Secularism; Mr.Kumar Ketkar- Editor, Loksatta; Mr.Suresh Khopade(IPS)-Special Inspector General of Police-Maharashtra State & Adv.Zubair Azmi were the guest speakers for the event.

Ms.Christine, Consul – Public Diplomacy at the American Centre initiated the proceedings welcoming the guests on behalf of The American Centre and handed over the proceedings to Mr.Syed Najeeb-Ur-Rahman, Head P.R. & Communication of AMP who had hosted the event.

Mr.Syed Najeeb-Ur-Rahman (Najeeb) started with introducing the guests and welcoming them on the dais.

Adv.Irfan Engineer shared his knowledge about the advent of communalism starting with the history of India till today. He said that religion cannot be correlated with communalism. He reiterated that had religion been the base of communal vent then India, which has more than 2000 years of history of religion, should have witnessed Communal Violence since so many years. But he said communal violence is a recent phenomenon just about 2 decades old.
He said that The British Policy was responsible for the creation of communal identities for their own benefit and presented it to India as this suited them to rule India.
He said that the fanatic ideology of certain saffron parties since pre-independence, to push non-Hindus out in India was influenced by the likes of Mussolini and shaped by rise of Fascism & Nazism.



He said that apart from giving more power & authority, we should make the policemen and government officials more accountable for any communal violence.

He informed about the ineffectiveness of the bill against communal violence and said that it was unacceptable in its current form and said that we need to ask the government to include the amendments proposed by the Minority community.
He informed all about the Press Conference on 9th March at the Press Club to discuss about the Communal Violence (prevention) Bill.

Speaking about the suppression of voices of Democracy and Secularism and the medias role, Mr.Kumar Ketkar, said that we tend to discuss Communalism but not Terrorism.
He said that Terrorism had started raising its head since before 1970 but it was only in the 70s when Terrorism was started to be linked with Communalism. The term was first used together against Sikhs in 1979-80.

He further said that everyone speaks about Muslim Terrorism but people seems to have forgotten the serial transistor bombing in Delhi in 1981-82. He said that the attack on Sikhs need to be condemned but even the killing of thousands of innocent people including Sikhs at the hands of Khalistani people (who incidentally were Sikhs) need to be condemned as well. He said that creation of Muslim Fundamentalism wer5e certain sections of the US State who used them against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

He said that terrorism has been raising its head since last two decades. He said that initially they were known as militants, then were named as extremists, then fanatic, then fundamentalists and then as terrorists. He further that we need to be realistic and not romanticize religion or culture. He said that though we say that every religion preaches peace & harmony but history has it that since the very beginning most of the wars were waged based on religion.

He said that there are various steps to communalism. The initial phase starts with prejudice, then passive communalism, then active communalism which leads to violence and which further leads to partition of he minds. He said that communalism is being reared as well by the products of liberal secular democracy which are namely : Media, Academic institutions and political parties.

He said that media starts shouting in the name of censorship when it has to be restrained and show some sanity. He cited the example of Saamna which openly promotes and encourages violence but still no action is taken against them, which shows that media and political support go together.

He also reminded how Hussain was hounded out of India and also referred to the Shimoga issue.
He said that an educational reform is required to change the mindset of the people. Individual bodies need to act as well.

He said that the main culprit is the Middle Class. It has been seen that people who undertake act of vandalism and resort to violence are mainly from the middle class. He said that poor people have no time for violence as they are fighting it out with themselves in their daily lives.

He said that the poor have less stake in riot, infact they want to coexist. It is the middle class who when considering the poor, does not wish to talk about equality as they do not want the poor to become equal to them and at the same time when they look at the rich they start talking about equality.

He said that the way out is to Change the norms of media and to change the education standard so that we have more refined minds to think around.

Speaking about prevention of communal violence, Mr. Suresh Khopade, spoke about his understanding of how to contain the communal violence . He shared his valuable experience in implementing Mohalla Committee across Bhiwandi & other regions. He explained about the reasons for communal violence which mainly happed because of our History, Education, Provocative Speeches, Criminal Justice system, Elections. He shared the case study of 2 victims of the riots on Bhiwandi and who were the actual culprits. He further discussed the model on which the Mohalla Committee functions. He suggested increase of celebration amongst communities during religious and national festivals to increase harmony and participation of communities in sport activities to increase harmony.

When discussing about steps to be taken to develop trust, harmony and improve relations between communities Adv.Zubair Azmi had a very simple and basic suggestion. He advocated interaction between communities.

He said that we need to interact freely, openly and with due respect. He reiterated that till the time people are enclosed within their shell it will be difficult for them to understand eachothers view-point.

He shared his a couple of his own experiences about how a proper interaction was able to make the other person understand his aspect and in-turn that person appreciated this gesture.

Then Mr. Aamir Idrisi, President of AMP came up to the dais to give a brief about what AMP is all about its mission, vision and objectives.

He spoke about the various projects undertaken by AMP, the projects and Workshops already conducted and the ongoing projects like the Employment Cell, The Career counseling cell and Help centre and future projects of AMP as well. He also spoke to the audience especially about AMPs Skill Development Lecture and Skills Development Workshop and also about the AMP Skill Development Centre and the Scholarship fund.



Finally Ms. Shabnam Hashmi was invited on the dais. She highlighted the atrocities which are being done on Muslims & other minorities all over the country. She cited the Gujarat carnage and said that still there exists low-level discrimination which goes unreported except for a few organizations like hers (ANHAD) and Adv. Irfan engineers (Inst. Of Conflict Resolution). She said that not just people are allowed to come back only if they agree to the terms of VHP but also they are reclaiming the graveyards of Muslims. She said that the general perception is that “people will not let you live with dignity nor let you die with dignity”.

She expressed her concern of having very few Muslims who are involved in the fight for minorities while the battle for dignity, justice to minorities are fought mostly by secular hindus.
She said that the web of fanaticism is very vast with RSS and its affiliates running about 4000 Shishu-mandirs and 6000 NGOs run by them.

She said that we do not have to fight identity politics but we need to fight for democracy, secularism & equality. She rai8sed a questioned as to how there could be any peace without proper justice?

She said that minorities are being forced to a corner by fascist forces. The people who are going back to their homes in riot affected areas are being forced to negotiate their terms with the RSS. She said that there is no harm in a dialogue but we need to be clear about our ideology if we want to setup a dialogue with RSS.

She also said that no religion should interfere in state. Talking about secularism in the state police she said that the real test of secularism is not having places of worship of all religions in a police station but having no places of worship of any religion. She reasserted that religion should have no role to play in the state.

She said that we cannot refer to history and relate the wars with religion as the wars fought in history were to increase the territories and loot kingdoms and not to reassert religion.

She also questioned the intentions of certain other countries who donot want peace in this region and are talking about peace on one hand but constantly supplying arms to neighbouring countries on the other hand.

She said that we have to be careful of not just the normal enemy and problem creators within the country but we have o be on the lookout for international enemies as well.

She said that all we want is to live in a secular, democratic country. Taking a shot at certain politicians she said that, no one needs any passport to enter any state or city within India. Duty of all citizens to work towards peaceful society. She said that all of India is for everyone. She said that there is no need to be afraid of anyone. People who are fascist are actually cowards. We need to stand up against them.

She said that the maximum anyone can do is ‘kill you’ and nothing more. ‘if you have this mindset once and for all then you wont be ever afraid of anything.

Mr.Farid Khan, AMP Member, gave the vote of thanks and appreciated everyone for contributing with their time and presence.

This was a very engrossing discussion and the audience was totally captivated by this. Infact they wanted this to go on but we had to curtail it due to time constraints.

We are thankful to the American Centre for having allowed us to conduct this event at their premise. We are specially thankful to Ms.Tasneem Kalsekar, Cultural Affairs Specialist for her kindness and cooperation.

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