Syeda Amtul Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The Socio Reforms Society Jeddah held a seminar on “Indian Growing Economy and the Minorities' Share” on Saturday at a local restaurant here. The seminar, which was largely attended by the Indian community, was addressed by key speakers Dr. Abu Saleh Shareef, Rasheed Ansari, Aleem Khan Falaki, Dr. Israrul Haq and Abdul Qader Maiman. “Although the Muslims have equal rights like other citizens of India, they still they enjoy extra benefits like funds from the central government on the basis of being a minority,” said Shareef, who has had the privilege of being an advisor to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and has been part of several commissions and research projects under the Ministry of Finance including the Justice Sachir Committee. Shareef added that unfortunately these funds hardly reach the common man and infrastructures like roads, hospitals and other facilities are always lacking in the Muslim areas, according to the Sachir report. He said the basic reason of this problem is that Muslims lack the art of representation. The leaders do not have the vision of how the government plans, allocates the budgets and how to utilize these funds for the community. Rasheed Ahmed, president of Indo-US Policy Institute, said that all the efforts of the Muslims at present are concentrated on the micro level like building madarsas, colleges, among others. It is a rarity that leaders concentrate on macro level activities. CCRD in Delhi is working on establishing offices in every city to get the right representation of the Muslims. Aleem Khan Falaki, president of Socio Reforms Society, said that to work on macro level the thinking process must begin soon. Depending upon the leaders or the parties is useless unless the people themselves move forward and identify their needs and areas. Dr. Israrul Haq, an Islamic Micro Finance specialist working at Batterjee College, said that the FDI is damaging the Muslim merchants. Since the small businesses are in the hands of the Muslims in most of the cities, business giants like Walmart will sweep away the small businesses from the poor Muslims. Haq emphasized on adopting Islamic Microfinance as it could eliminate many problems that Muslims face now. Abdul Qader Maiman, a businessmen and economist, said that India's economy is now reaching a trillion and small scale industries could me more fruitful for the Muslims. The seminar was hosted by Atif Aziz and moderated by Mohammed Abbas Khan and Dr. Haroon Sayeed. A question and answer session was also arranged for the participants.
