Muslim elders host Peace Meet with NE students at Jama Masjid

M. PRADHAN & S. GYALTSEN BHUTIA
BENGALURU, 21 Aug: A ‘Peace Meet’ was held here at the Jama Masjid by the Jama Masjid Trust between the students from the Northeast, including Sikkim, living here and the Muslim community to jointly device ways to lift the fear psychosis which has gripped North-Easterners here and dispel the rumours being spread about the Muslim community planning retaliatory violence on them [for the rioting in Assam].
The Jama Masjid Trust was represented by senior and respected members of the Muslim civil society, elected people’s representatives [MLAs] and religious leaders, most notably, Hazrath Maulana, who had come in from New Delhi specifically for this meeting. It was clear to all that the Muslim community was earnest in its efforts to reassure people from the North East of their continued safety all over India and to reiterate that the panic was triggered by rumours spread by vested interests and not them.
The meet saw frank and warm interactions and delved extensively on how the frayed situation could be improved and a healthy relationship developed and maintained between the two communities. All present had seen the wave of fear which the rumours had triggered and seen firsthand the exodus and lived through the tense phase which is still palpable here. Today’s meeting will definitely go a long way towards restoring some sense of normalcy.
All at the meeting, particularly the NE students in attendance, were unanimous in their gratitude towards the Jama Masjid Trust for having initiated the Peace Meet and especially grateful for the direction the meeting took – not only to bury the tension caused by rumours but also to devise ways by which the two communities could come closer together so that such misunderstandings did not repeat in the future.
Speaking at the meet, Hazrat Maulana introduced the NE students to the basic tenets of Islam and stressed that their faith did not allow any form of violence, even intimidation, and admitted that although excesses have been committed in the name of Islam, the present wave of rumour-mongering and threats, he insisted, was neither the handiwork, nor had the support of the community.
Other religious leaders also spoke on similar lines and further reassured that if they learnt of any member of their community here having played any role in spreading the fear psychosis, they would take strict action against such agent provocateurs on their own apart from handing them over to the concerned authorities.
Similarly, NA Haris, a Karnataka MLA, in his address, assured all assistance towards the students and stressed that each and every person from the North East was safe in Bengaluru and should concentrate on making good futures for themselves here and not be dissuaded by rumours.
The Bengaluru Assistant Commissioner of Police, VS D'souza, who was also present for the meeting, students from the North East commended “has been a great help for the students right since the time the first SMS threats were forwarded”. He also assured students that if the culprit [behind the SMS threats] is discovered to be from Karnataka, exemplary action will be initiated to prevent such incidents from repeating in the future.
Ms. Reni from Mizoram, a Professor at an elite institute here, also spoke at the meet, detailing the scale of fear which had gripped students from the North East and the scale of trauma they suffered over the past fortnight. The Muslim community’s initiative to hold a Peace Meet to reassure the community was thus welcome, she shared, adding that even parents and relatives back home will be relieved now. This relief would not have been possible without the proactive initiative of the Jama Masjid Trust to engage itself, all agreed today, confident that normalcy will now return to the Garden City.
[M. Pradhan & S. Gyaltsen Bhutia are journalism students from Sikkim currently based in Bengaluru]