Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to 11th century Al-Hakim Masjid in Cairo in Egypt, during his return visit from the United States, was an extremely good gesture. This also sent a message to his detractors in the US that he was not against any religious community, including Muslims.
People from several faith groups from India and from other countries living in the US had staged a strong protest accusing Indian Prime Minister of tormenting India’s minorities, particularly Muslims, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002, and Muslims suffering increased nationwide after he took over as Prime Minister in 2014.
Nobody in India knew about the Egyptian mosque till PM Modi visited it which is under the management of Indian Dawoodi Bohra community. This mosque is little known even in Egypt and Arab Muslim world.
Reports say that the miniscule Dawoodi Bohra community that has personal friendly relationship with PM Modi had invited him to the mosque during his Egypt visit. Dawoodi Bohra population is reported to be a little over five lakh or half a million in India and about one million all over the world. They are mostly in business and trade all over the globe.
The only global Islamic centre in Egypt is Al-Azhar University which is held in high esteem all over the Muslim world. However, PM Modi missed a chance to visit it. Had he included Al Azhar in his itinerary as well, it would not have only enhanced his status as a global leader in the Muslim world but would also have effectively countered his critics in the US.
Al Azhar had been sending its faculties to Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh for decades who taught special subjects to Indian and foreign students at Deoband seminary. Unfortunately, the seminary was forced to send back all the foreign faculty after Modi became prime minister. It is, however, not known if this became the reason for PM Modi to visit the world renowned seat of Islamic learning.
Al Hakim is the second mosque in the Muslim world he visited after becoming PM. The first mosque he visited was Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the third largest in the world, in 2015. He got huge publicity for the Dubai mosque visit. United Arab Emirate rulers also allotted a big plot of land for a Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi after Modi’s visit. Till then, there were only two Hindu temples and a Sikh Gurudwara in Dubai, but none in Abu Dhabi though there is a large population of Hindu immigrants in Abu Dhabi. This was a good gesture on the part of the UAE rulers who took care of the religious requirements of Hindu immigrants.
PM Modi at Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque 
PM Modi at Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
PM Modi’s visit to the mosques in Egypt and Dubai, and UAE ruler’s gesture to give a plot of land for a Hindu temple, are highly appreciable in the context of growing multi-culturalism in the wake of people of different faiths migrating from one country to another in search of better opportunities. If the governments do not allow the new immigrants to fulfill their religious and spiritual requirements which is too vital for existence of human society and growth of human civilisation, it will put an immediate break on the movement of people and growth of cultures, civilisations, interaction among people of different cultures and traditions, and ultimately on the growth and research in the field of science and technology.
If the US is a superpower today, it is because it welcomed people from all over the world by permitting to freely profess and practice their faith by constructing religious buildings while working in their universities, research laboratories, industries and corporate houses. Even Italy has allowed a mosque in Rome, which is just four kilometres or less from Vatican, the seat of Catholic Christians religious centre. It is the biggest mosque in the Western world spread over 30,000 square metres with a capacity to accommodate 12000 worshippers.
It is in this context it would be justifiable to draw the attention of PM Modi to the condition of mosques in his own country. There are a large number of mosques in New Delhi, the national capital, which are in complete ruins because of their neglect by the Archaeological Survey of India and other government departments that have been assigned to maintain and take care of them.
Unfortunately, condition of mosques in the control of ASI and other government departments is the worst. Against it, the mosques and other Muslim religious places and monuments under Muslim managements are much better. The architecture and grandeur of these mosques are not less than the mosques in UAE and Egypt. In many respects, the architecture of mosques in Delhi are even superior to that in other countries. Some of these mosques are not far away from PM’s official residence in New Delhi and he will be certainly watching them whenever he drives on Delhi’s roads.
Would it not be morally proper for PM Modi and his government to order the concerned ministry and authorities to immediately carry out repairs of mosques and hand them over to the local Muslims to use them for prayers?
After all, mosques were built even centuries ago for prayers, not as monuments to be kept unoccupied. The 11th century mosque he visited in Egypt is now totally functional after repairs by Dawoodi Bohras a few years ago.
So, why can’t the old mosques in Delhi and other parts of India be handed over to Muslims either after getting them repaired them by the ASI or asking the Muslims to repair themselves and use them for prayers for which these were built. None of the mosques in Delhi or other parts of India are older that the Al Hakim mosque.
There are private agencies also, other than ASI, that have expertise to repair old buildings and restore them to their old glory. Aga Khan Foundation that repaired the Blue Dome and Humayun’s Tomb in Hazrat Nizamuddin is an international organization equipped with technology and trained manpower to repair monuments and ancient buildings. Can’t PM Modi intervene with the ASI and other government departments to ensure the repair of old mosques and transfer them to Muslim trusts or the Delhi Wakf Board and the wakf boards in other states? But a strong political will is needed to do this. The question is: Will PM gather enough courage to undertake this project because of extreme radicalization of a large segment of his party workers and supporters in the last nine years of his rule at the Centre that was allowed for sheer political purposes?
Another thing that I would like to highlight and bring to PM’s notice is the competition among various states under BJP rule about bulldozing Muslim religious places and mosques. Hundreds of mosques and mausoleums have been bulldozed by state governments in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Maharashtra on the pretext of them having been constructed either illegally or being encroachments on government land. The same thing has happened with churches in these states.
If there are some mosques and churches constructed without official permission or on government land as alleged, then there are thousands of Hindu temples built all over the country on roadsides, on government land, in government premises, chief minister’s official residences, police stations, government office premises, in forest areas and public parks.
But the state governments are only targeting Muslim and Christian religious places, indicating his party governments discrimination against Islam and Christianity and favouring Hindu religion though Indian Constitution says that the state will remain impartial and it will have no religion. It is quite important to note that the bulldozing of religious places of Muslims and Christians by state agencies and some non-state actors who belong to BJP and RSS-parivar, began only after Modi took over the reign at the Centre.
It is hoped that PM’s visit to the mosque in UAE, and in Egypt now, will make him realise the importance of preserving the symbols of multi-culturalism. It is expected that he will order his government to restore the mosques under the control of central and state governments and no mosques, churches or any other religious place, are demolished by state or non-state actors, and those found in demolition or vandalizing of religious places would be penalized irrespective of their faith, and their position in the government and administration.
