Various IMC-USA Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 2004
Indian Muslim Council-USA, a US based advocacy group, has announced the much awaited list of its annual awards for excellence in services to humanity in different fields.
The awards will be awarded at the IMC-USA annual convention in Chicago on August 7th to be held at the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington Heights in the greater Chicago area.
According to Dr. Shaik Ubaid, President of IMC-USA, the awards for 2004 are:
Maulana Muhammad Ali Jowhar Award in Journalism
For best in-depth coverage of Indian diaspora in the US
Jerome McDonnell and Andrea Wenzel
Worldview/Chicago Public Radio
Bahadur Shah Zafar Award
For promoting pluralism and communal harmony in India
Shri Kumar Poddar
Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment, Michigan
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award in Humanitarian work
For self-less service towards the upliftment of the poor and the oppressed classes in India
Dr. A.R. Nakadar
Former President, American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin, Michigan
Altaf Hussain Hali Award in Humanitarian work
For self-less service towards the upliftment of Muslims in India
Kaleem Kawaja
Former President, Association of Indian Muslims, Maryland
Tipu Sultan Award
For courageously serving India and India’s interests
Prabhudoss John
Executive Director, Policy Institute for Religion and State, Washington, DC
Indian Muslim Council - USA
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Award for excelling in education
To be announced for Chicago Area Student
IMC-USA's 2004 annual convention will focus on India's Muslims, the largest minority group in the world, and the highly focused activities and workgroups will address the contributions, present day issues and the future direction for Indian Muslims (and other minorities) to thwart the menace of Hindutva. The full day event with the theme, "Indian Muslims: Past, Present and Future", will be addressed by prominent scholars, historians, journalists, human rights activists and social scientists. Leaders and representatives of Dalit, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Indian-Christian communities will also address the convention.
"There is tremendous enthusiasm for the convention among the Indian Diaspora" said Syed Azmat Ullah Quadri, one of the organizers and a prominent Muslim leader from Chicago. Rasheed Ahmed, the president of the Chicago chapter of IMC-USA and 2004 Convention Chairman, reminded the delegates to pre-register before the convention.
For more information and to register, delegates and journalists can do the following:
http://www.imc-usa.org/convention2004
Phone: 630-926-2881
E-mail: chicago@imc-usa.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 26, 2004
Chicago, IL: "The momentum for the IMC-USA annual convention is building. I addressed a meeting in Milwaukee yesterday and many Indians are preparing to drive down to Chicago for the August 7th landmark event," declared Dr. Shaik Ubaid, President of IMC-USA, speaking to the leaders of Immigrant and African American communities of Chicago and northern Indiana on July 25th in Chicago.
The Keynote speaker will be Lord Adam Patel of Blackburn, Member of the House of Lords and Chief patron of Council of Indian Muslims, UK.
Other speakers for various sessions at the day long event include:
Dr. K.P. Singh, Eminent Dalit leader, Chairperson, International Association of the Advancement of Dalits.
Shrikumar Poddar, Distinguished Hindu Scholar, Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment.
Dr. Omar Khalidi, Independent Scholar of MIT, Specializing in contemporary Indian Muslim History.
Manzoor Ghori, Founder and Chairman, Indian Muslim Relief and Charities, IMRC.
John Prabhudoss, Indian Christian leader and head of PIFRAS, a think tank on South Asia.
Patrick Haithcox, Representative of Amnesty International.
Dr.Javeed Akhter, Chicago area Representative of Human Rights Watch.
Attorney Asim Ghafoor, Washington Expert and Lobbyist.
Kannan Srinivasan, Renowned historian and journalist.
Dr. Lise McKean, Ph.D., Eminent scholar specializing in Political Economy of the Hindutva Nationalist movement.
Nishrin Hussain, Human Rights activist & daughter of the slain former Indian MP. Ahsan Jafri.
Dr.Rahul Deepankar, Prominent Buddhist Leader.
Muqtedar Khan, Political Scientist.
Dr. Kamala Visweswaran, Anthropologist and Social Activist.
Prof. Hari Sharma, South Asia Expert and President of SANSAD and INSAF.
Kaleem Kawaja, Indian Muslim Leader and former President of Association of Indian Muslims.
Sapna Gupta, NRI's for Secular and Harmonious India (NRI-SAHI).
Rajinder Singh Mago, Sikh Leader.
Dr. Shaik Ubaid, President IMC-USA and Many others
The convention is expected to become an annual tradition for scholars, activists and all concerned about the brutal siege of India's pluralist and democratic ethos by Hindutva nationalists.
Eminent personalities will not only be addressing the delegates during the evening banquet and daytime sessions, but will also hold consultative meetings on how to strengthen India's secular democracy and promote social justice and economic prosperity.
Leaders of secular coalitions such as George Abraham from NRI-SAHI and Imtiaz Uddin from Building Bridges will be taking part in the deliberations.
Jumana Qamruddin, a World Bank expert, will address the focused session on NGOs.
"Last year's IMC-USA convention was unique and a huge success in that for the first time, all the groups that constitute India's beautiful diversity came together to analyze the dangers to India's democracy and to offer solutions," said M. A. Khan, President IMC-USA greater Washington DC chapter and member of convention program committee. "We are planning to build on that success and continue to work to safeguard India's pluralist ethos and to help in the progress of India and Indo-US relations," Khan declared.
For more information and to register, delegates and journalists are requested to visit:
http://www.imc-usa.org/convention2004
Phone: 630-926-2881
E-mail: chicago@imc-usa.org
India Symposium draws attendance by the hundreds
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL, August 9th 2004. The second annual convention of Indian Muslim Council-USA, held on August 7th 2004, was dubbed by both speakers and delegates as a major landmark in the quest for communal harmony among the Indian Diaspora.
Over twenty five speakers representing a diverse and impressive array of experts, intellectuals of secular persuasion and prominent representatives of all major Indian religious communities held groundbreaking discussions on important contemporary issues with special emphasis on the role of Muslims in India's past, present and future. The symposium was held at the Sheraton Hotel and was well attended.
Speaking in the final session of the day long event, Dr. Shaik Ubaid, President of IMC-USA highlighted his organization's vision of building a better India and a safer world by promoting pluralism and marginalizing hateful ideologies such as Hindutva-fascism in Indian society, and exposing Hindutva infiltration of US power centers. He highlighted IMC-USA's strategy of working with other religious and ethnic communities as well as with secular organizations, human rights and developmental groups. He called for the formation of a 'coalition of the informed' to strengthen pluralism and secular democracy in India to guarantee its economic growth, regional stability and world peace.
Lord Adam Patel of Blackburn, the keynote speaker and the patron of Council of Indian Muslims in UK declared that he was, "absolutely delighted to be addressing the IMC-USA convention." He highlighted the British Muslims successful strategy towards economic and political empowerment and advised the Indian Muslims living in the US to emulate it by getting involved in the struggle for social justice, economic welfare and mainstream political work.
Earlier in the banquet session, Dr. Omar Khalidi detailed the process in which the economic status of the Indian Muslims was undermined to an extent that the Muslim community in India were now worse off than all other communities. He suggested a strategy to reverse the trend and said that reservations in jobs and education will have to play a part in the strategy. Dr. Kannan Srinivasan described how the Hindutva groups had collaborated with the British occupiers in India and how they worked actively towards the partition of India.
Mr. M.K.Rahman, Secretary General of IMC-USA, inaugurated the convention and the delegates were welcomed to Chicago by Mr. Ghulam Rasul Mansuri of the Gujarati Muslim Association of Chicago. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, President of India's Congress Party; Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois; Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald of Illinois; Mr. Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago; Mr. V. P. Singh, former Prime Minister of India; and Arun Kumar, the Consul General of India were among the dignitaries who sent congratulatory messages to IMC-USA.
In the session on 'Politics and Policy Making', Dr. Muqtedar Khan explained why a pluralistic India is in economic and geopolitical interests of the US. John Prabhudoss informed the audience on how the Hindutva groups are working in Washington DC to increase their influence, a point later emphasized by Asim Ghafoor, a Washington lobbyist. Dr. Satinath Choudhry provided an analysis of the recent Indian elections where Hindutva-fascists were narrowly defeated. He opined that a system of proportionate representation was the needed to strengthen India's democracy.
Dr. Patrick Haithcox of Amnesty International and Dr. Javeed Akhtar of Human Rights Watch, Chicago addressed the session on Human Rights. Dr. Kamala Visweswaran described how the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 was planned and executed by the Hindu ultra-nationalists and the importance of bringing the perpetrators of massacres, mass rapes and ethnic cleansing to justice as a deterrent to prevent future genocides.
Dr. K.P.Singh, Acharya Shrikumar Poddar, Rajinder Singh Mago, Raju Rajgopal, Sapna Gupta, George Abraham, Dr. Hari Sharma and Mr. M.A.Khan addressed the coalition building session. The leaders of Dalit, Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Muslim groups as well as those of coalitions such as Promise of India, South Asian Progressive Action Collective, NRIs for a Secular and Harmonious India, Building Bridges and South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy gave their perspective on forming a broad based and effective coalition to build a better India.
Mrs. Nishrin Husain and Dr. Lise Mckean chaired the session on Women's issues and described ways in which women can assume a leading role in combating religious hatred. They pointed out that women are always the worst victims of pogroms and genocide.
The convention also held screenings of documentary films as well as an auction of cricket bats signed by Cricket icon Irfan Pathan. The money from the auction would be sent to the charity of choice of Irfan Pathan.
The two new initiatives of IMC-USA, the focused sessions on Indian Muslim NGOs and Muslim businesses were well attended and praised. Mr. Manzoor Ghori of IMRC and Mr. Kaleem Kawaja of AIM were among the speakers at the NGO session. The other speakers were Mr. Quadir Husain Khan (IMEFNA), Mr. Ghulam Rasul Mansuri (GMAA), Dr. Abidullah Gazi (Iqra Foundation), Mr. Abdussamed Patel (IMESG) and Quaid Saifee. Manzoor Ghori described the IMRC's efforts to build a Muslim university in Jehangirabad, UP where a Journalism college is being planned. The NGO representatives were all ears for Jumana Qamruddin a
World Bank specialist who described the various options of getting funded by the World Bank.
Among the highlights of the convention were the presentations of IMC-USA's annual awards by Mrs. Ehsan Jafri, Mr. Raju Rajgopal and Mr. Manzoor Ghori in the fields of communal harmony, humanitarian work, journalism, and education and for defending India's interests.
As with the last year's convention, delegates came in early and participated in the daylong events with passionate enthusiasm. When asked, most of them pointed out to the participation by the diverse religious groups and the emphasis on coalition building and educational and economic empowerment as the most inspiring part of the convention. They were all praise for Rasheed Ahmed, the IMC-USA vice President and Convention Chairman, and the volunteer team led by Ameena Waheed.
A detailed report of the convention by Khalid Azam along with photographs is available on the IMC-USA website.
Contact:
Rasheed Ahmed
IMC-USA Vice President and Convention Chair
E-mail: rasheed@imc-usa.org
Phone: 630-926-2881
Web: http://www.imc-usa.org/convention2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2004
Chicago, IL - IMC-USA, an advocacy organization working to promote values of pluralism, tolerance and respect for human rights, with a particular focus on the Indian Diaspora in the United States, has launched a nationwide campaign to promote and invite concerned individuals and groups to its second Annual convention in Chicago, IL.
IMC-USA's convention last year in Santa Clara, CA focused on the rise of religious fanaticism in India and the threat to India's secularism and democracy. The recent changes in India's political climate is a welcome sign, but the threats still persist. Hindutva ultranationalist forces, that espouse a hate-based and divisive ideology, point to the failure in implementing Hindutva as the main reason for their recent political misfortunes. Hindutva leaders are now calling for their cadres to go back to hard core "muscular" Hindutva. This is a dangerous trend as Hindutva has a hidden agenda for the marginalized and as an ideology, needs a hate-object to keep itself alive.
IMC-USA's second annual convention will focus on India's Muslims, the largest minority group in the world, and the highly focused activities and workgroups will address the contributions, present day issues and the future direction for Indian Muslims (and other minorities) to thwart the menace of Hindutva. The full day event with the theme, "Indian Muslims: Past, Present and Future", will be addressed by prominent scholars and social scientists. Several prominent leaders, activists and representatives of Dalit, Hindu and Indian-Christian communities will also address the convention.
Rasheed Ahmed, the president of the Chicago chapter of IMC-USA reminded the delegates to pre-register before the convention as the tickets will likely be sold out and no tickets will be sold at the door.
For more information and to register, delegates and journalists can do the following:
Visit: http://www.imc-usa.org/convention2004
Phone: 630-926-2881
E-mail: chicago@imc-usa.org