Tribute Meeting to remember the life of Asghar Ali Engineer!
A tribute meeting was organized on 25th May at SPWD Conference hall, Near ITO, New Delhi to remember the Legacy of Asghar Ali Engineer who expired on May 14th. The meeting was addressed by Justice Rajindar Sachar, Irfan Engineer, Suhas Borker, Dipak Dholakia, Harsh Kapoor, Subhash Gatade, Sanjay Kumar, Noor Zaheer, etc.
The death of Asghar Ali Engineer has happened at a time when our country is passing through crossroads, when communal forces are trying to control the whole social life. The Sangh parivar, with its ideology of the Hindu Rashtra, now poses a grave and unprecedented threat to the secular fabric of our country, to the extent it is there. On the other hand Islamic fundamentalism is helping the Sangh parivar to grow by utilizing the former as a weapon.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Rajindar Sachar said “the death of Asghar Ali Engineer, who devoted his life to strengthen the secular forces in the country, is a great loss to all. As a scholar of Islam he tried to democratize his community from 'within'. He intensified debates and introduced reason in Islam. He also contributed much to women’s liberation in Islam.”
Shri Suhas Borker said “We should celebrate the boldness and frankness of that man who has struggled to defend secularism in our country. Asghar Ali Engineer advanced five points to put an end to communal riots in our country.
1. A total change in school syllabus with a total change in the history curriculum.
2. Give emphasis to value education and character building.
3. Reforming of the police system. Police have played a biased role in all incidents of communal clashes in this country.
4. Enactment of communal violence bill and
5. Mixed and cosmopolitan living.
He always said – denying education to girls is un-Islamic.
Shri Irfan Engineer said “In the course of reforming Islam, he was subjected to six murder attempts. Enormous pressure was applied on him to silence him. But he withstood all without moving an inch. No rethinking was there in his mind any time.
He said to the Marxists – there is a role of religion. He urged the dogmatic religious – get democratized and secularized. He was very much influenced by Marxism. He has completely gone through Das Capital and said – Marx was the greatest spiritualist of the 19th century. Asghar Ali Engineer always said – the approach of Muslims towards women discredits Islam. His last mission was codification of Islamic personal law – with a purpose to establish equal status to women. Such people with knowledge of Islam and can argue with fundamentalists uncompromisingly are no more there.
Shri Subhash Gatade narrated Asghar Ali Engineer’s struggle to reform Islam from within. Shri Harsh Kapoor discussed the necessity of adopting a scientific concept towards secularism. He said – the dimension of movement taken by Asghar Ali Engineer was unparalleled. Today we should continue with building up of the secular movement to carry his legacy. Smt. Noor Zaheer said – “His prolific writings molded the lives of hundreds belonging to his community; his sword was his pen”. Shri Sanjay Kumar said – “arrogance irrespective of its origin, like religious or even from the left origin should be fought out with determination.”
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