India Islamic Culture Center to set up regional chapters

April 29, 2012

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Riyadh, April 29: India Islamic Culture Center (IICC), an apex Islamic center with a mandate to provide a unified platform for promoting Islamic heritage and interfaith harmony, is planning to open regional chapters across India to give greater wingspan to its activities.


“A total of five chapters including one in the eastern Indian state of Bihar have been proposed,” announced Sirajuddin Qureshi, IICC president, in Riyadh Thursday night.


“The IICC will work with Indian government agencies and Saudi organizations including the New Delhi-based Saudi Embassy to generate support for the IICC’s expansion plan and for building its chapters in different provinces of India,” said Qureshi, while speaking at a function organized by welfare organization Bihar Anjuman in the capital. Qureshi arrived here on Thursday on a private visit. Nadeem Tarin, a prominent community leader and businessman, was the chief guest at the event, while Qureshi and Dilnawaz Roomi were the guests of honor.


Indian community leaders including S. Muneer Ahmed, Murshid Kamal, Faizan Balkhi, Jabed Hussain, Ziauddin Ahmed, Seraj Akram, Naushad Alam and Kaunain Shahidi were instrumental in organizing the event. A presentation about the activities of Bihar Anjuman was made by Shakeel Ahmed, the founder.


Qureshi said the state-level chapters would be launched soon. “We have already applied for the land allotments in some states,” said the IICC chief, adding that the IICC had called on the Kingdom's donor agencies and also the affluent NRIs living in Saudi Arabia and other countries to back the efforts to set up new centers.


To this end, he noted the IICC has become a hub of activities and program including seminars, symposiums and roadshows on mostly Muslim issues since its inauguration by Congress President Sonia Gandhi way back in June 2006. Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the center in 1984. The IICC chief, who held a luncheon meeting with a group of affluent Indian community members to conceive the idea of IICC chapter in Patna and to formally launch a campaign to generate support for Patna center, said the New Delhi-based main IICC needs more resources to expand its facility.


Qureshi, who is chairman of the world-renowned India-based Hind Group, also called on Indian youth and especially his co-religionists to launch their own business ventures. "Our young generation must venture into the business field," he said.


Qureshi, who wrote his own fate and amassed huge prestige and wealth after starting a small venture on the roadside of the Indian capital several decades back, said business relations between Indian and Saudi Arabia are progressively growing.


He said official visits by leaders of both countries have built on the existing partnership. “In forging strategic ties with Saudi Arabia, India is always at an advantageous position,” said Qureshi, adding the recent visit of Indian Defense Minister A. K. Antony has boosted our defense ties with this nation. Qureshi, who heads a big Indian industry conglomerate with businesses in the slaughtering, processing and export of meat and meat products, fast food chains, infrastructure and aviation sector, has also plans to expand his fast food network.


In the meat industry, he has the most modern state of the art Abattoir-cum-meat processing plant, which is part of the Hind Agro Industries Limited. It was established in the CDF Complex in north Indian city of Aligarh with the world-renowned companies of New Zealand and Australia as technical collaborators.


Bihar Anjuman, which has chapters across the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and India, is a premier welfare organization dedicated to helping poor Muslims. Qureshi has always been on the forefront in promoting social and charitable organizations like Bihar Anjuman. The foundation for Bihar Anjuman was laid on March 11, 1999, with some people joining hands to help those who may be in need of financial help, or in need of a job.


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Agencies
July 14,2020

Dubai, Jul 14: The UAE-based parents of children under 12 stranded in India are in a tight spot with multiple airlines refusing to accept unaccompanied minors.

Starting July 12, Indians wanting to return to the UAE have been given a 15-day window to travel back on the condition that they have valid residency permits. They also have to produce a negative Covid-19 test result.

But parents of minors said they are feeling helpless as children are unable to avail of the travel opportunity despite having return permits.

"It has been more than three months since my daughter has been stuck in India. We have GDRFA approval for her but the airlines are not accepting her booking, saying she is under 12," Poonam Sapre, a Dubai-based mother, told Khaleej Times.

Her daughter Eva Sapre, 10, is in Hyderabad and is awaiting a reunion with her parents.

"She is just 10 and it has already taken an emotional toll on her. She is eager to come back and is asking me every day about her return. This is so frustrating."

Barring Emirates and Etihad, other airlines including flydubai, Air Arabia and Air India Express are not accepting unaccompanied minors. With India extending the travel freeze till July 31, normal flights are yet to resume and only special flights are allowed between India and UAE under a bilateral agreement.

Sapre said only flydubai is flying the Hyderabad-Dubai route, and the carrier has restrictions on minors travelling alone. "My daughter is too young to fly through indirect routes," claims the mother.

When Khaleej Times reached out to the airlines for comment, they confirmed that such rules on unaccompanied minors were already in place even before Covid-19 travel restrictions came into effect.

Another Dubai-based distressed parent, who did not want to be named, said her eight-year-old son is in Kerala and is unable to fly due to airline policies on unaccompanied minors.

"I called up Air India Express and they said this has been their rule even before the Covid-19 outbreak. I am appealing to them to re-consider and make an exception during these trying times so that our children can come home safely," she said.

Faced with this eventuality, some parents are forced to fly out of the UAE so they can accompany their children on the flight back home.

An Indian mother, who is currently in Mumbai, said she flew out of Dubai on Monday morning solely for the purpose of bringing back her twin daughters, aged 10.

"I had no choice. Ideally, they could have travelled together, but under these circumstances I thought it best to get them with me personally," said the mother.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Riyadh, Mar 6: Saudi Arabia on Thursday emptied Islam's holiest site for sterilisation over fears of the new coronavirus, an unprecedented shutdown state media said will last while the year-round Umrah pilgrimage is suspended.

The kingdom halted the pilgrimage for its own citizens and residents on Wednesday, on top of restrictions announced last week on foreign pilgrims to stop the disease from spreading.

State television relayed images of an empty white-tiled area surrounding the Kaaba -- a large black cube structure inside Mecca's Grand Mosque -- which is usually packed with tens of thousands of pilgrims.

As a "precautionary measure", the area will remain closed as long as the umrah suspension lasts but prayers will be allowed inside the mosque, state-run Saudi Press Agency cited a mosque official as saying.

Additionally, the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque in the city of Medina will be closed an hour after the evening "Isha" prayer and will reopen an hour before the dawn "Fajr" prayer to allow cleaning and sterilisation, the official added.

A group of cleaners was seen scrubbing and mopping the tiles around the Kaaba, a structure draped in gold-embroidered gold cloth towards which Muslims around the world pray.

A Saudi official told news agency the decision to close the area was "unprecedented".

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia suspended the umrah for its own citizens and residents over fears of the coronavirus spreading to Islam's holiest cities.

The move came after authorities last week suspended visas for the umrah and barred citizens from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council from entering Mecca and Medina.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday declared three new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of reported infections to five.

The umrah, which refers to the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of year, attracts millions of Muslims from across the globe annually.

The decision to suspend the umrah mirrors a precautionary approach across the Gulf to cancel mass gatherings from concerts to sporting events.

It comes ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan starting in late April, which is a favoured period for pilgrimage.

It is unclear how the coronavirus will affect the hajj, due to start in late July.

Some 2.5 million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from across the world in 2019 to take part in the hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam as Muslim obligations are known.

The event is a massive logistical challenge for Saudi authorities, with colossal crowds cramming into relatively small holy sites, making attendees vulnerable to contagion.

Already reeling from slumping oil prices, the kingdom risks losing billions of dollars annually from religious tourism as it tightens access to the sites.

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Agencies
May 17,2020

Abu Dhabi, May 17: Another 731 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the UAE, pushing the total number of COVID-19 infections to 23,358, the Ministry of Health and Prevention announced on Sunday.

Six more deaths from the novel coronavirus have been also confirmed, taking the country’s death toll to 220.

The ministry also announced the full recovery of 581 new cases after receiving the necessary treatment, taking that number up to 8,512 of total recovered patients.

New tests conducted

The latest coronavirus patients, all of whom are in a stable condition and receiving the necessary care, were identified after conducting more than 40,000 additional COVID-19 tests among UAE citizens and residents over the past few days, the ministry said.

It expressed its sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and wished a speedy recovery to all patients, calling on the public to cooperate with health authorities and comply with all precautionary measures, particularly social distancing protocols, to ensure the safety and protection of the public.

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