Addressing a press meet at Jamaat-e-Islami Hind headquarters in New Delhi on Jan. 14, JIH president Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Omari took up several topics, including upcoming elections in five states, continuous harassment of Muslim youth and growing friendly relationship of India with Israel.
Although he welcomed the move of Andhra Pradesh government of paying compensation to 70 youths falsely implicated in terror cases, he said that the move cannot replace what the youths have undergone. The years of agony, frustration, and the social stigma and the loss of career attached to the horrors of their detention cannot be replaced by merely paying the compensations, he said. He demanded a thorough investigation of all such cases all over the country and said investigation should be done before blaming any Muslim as a culprit or terrorist.
While considering the upcoming elections in five state assemblies, the JIH leader appealed to the Muslims in the regions to unite and select one candidate who is justice-loving, broadminded and carries good character. He said unity of Muslims would help them in getting a good candidate as disunity would only result in division of votes, which would ultimately make other candidates win. He warned people of the strategy of the division of votes. When asked whether he would point out one candidate for the Muslims to vote so as to make their votes valuable, he said, “Although no party has nominated their candidates as of now, however if the situation demands, we will do it.”
The Maulana expressed grief over the growing friendly relationship between India and Israel as Israel follows an anti-peace and expansionist activities which the Jamaat strongly condemns. He said the recent visit of our Minister for Foreign Affairs SM Krishna to Israel ignores the sentiments of the Muslims of the country. The Maulana said the fostering relationship may cost India its trade with the West Asian countries as the situation after the Arab Spring has become quite different. Almost all the countries in the West Asia are becoming wary of Israel and India’s increasing friendship with Israel may result in India’s loss in trade. He said India imports 12 per cent of oil from Iran to support its needs and as Iran is an ardent enemy of Israel, Iran may stop the supplies of oil to India which may cost India dearly.
JIH Secretary Engineer Mohammed Saleem conducted the press meet. When asked about the recent Rushdie row, he said we are not against freedom of expression, however freedom of expression does not mean demeaning and defaming others’ religious sentiments and inflicting gratuitous insults on someone’s beliefs and sentiments.