SHAS­TRI BOODAN

A Mus­lim cler­ic is call­ing on Gov­ern­ment to dis­trib­ute monies for char­i­ties not on­ly to re­li­gious or­ga­ni­za­tions, but al­so to in­de­pen­dent re­li­gious groups that do char­i­ta­ble work.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Imam Rasheed Karim, head of the Fe­lic­i­ty Mus­lim Or­gan­i­sa­tion, said in­de­pen­dent Masjids such as the one he heads, are by­passed when­ev­er the Gov­ern­ment sees it fit to send as­sis­tance to the com­mu­ni­ty through re­li­gious bod­ies.

The Imam told Guardian Me­dia there are some 128 Masjids in this coun­try, with some 30 of them be­ing in­de­pen­dent or­gan­i­sa­tions not af­fil­i­at­ed with any larg­er Is­lam­ic group­ings. He said the as­sis­tance giv­en to the larg­er groups of­ten does not trick­le down­wards to the small­er Masjids.

“There are many, many per­sons who are un­der­priv­i­leged, and they are chal­lenged at this point in time and con­sid­er­a­tion should be giv­en to these per­sons via as­sis­tance from the var­i­ous Jam­mats, at a Jam­mat lev­el, not on­ly from the Gov­ern­men­tal lev­el,” Imam Karim ex­plained.

He added: “From a Jam­mat lev­el means from a com­mu­ni­ty-based lev­el be­cause Imams like my­self—and many, many Imams in the coun­try we know the pulse of the peo­ple in our com­mu­ni­ty—we know ex­act­ly who are in need and who are not in need.  I think that the gov­ern­ment should at least con­sid­er us as per­sons of in­ter­est who can as­sist the im­pov­er­ished per­sons in the com­mu­ni­ty.”

Imam Karim said he has been mak­ing this plea for sev­er­al years, but it has been go­ing un-no­ticed.

“Imams of this coun­try play an in­te­gral role and we can as­sist by dis­trib­ut­ing to the cor­rect agen­cies and per­son­nel,” he said. 

The Imam said some­times, giv­ing ham­pers to Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment to dis­trib­ute may not be ef­fec­tive.

“They might give it to MPs or Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment for the ar­eas and some­times, you know, po­lit­i­cal­ly in­clined again, it doesn’t re­al­ly reach those per­sons who are in need. I am not say­ing that they will take it and use it for them­selves,” he clar­i­fied.  “What I am say­ing is that es­pe­cial­ly this sea­son, where the Is­lam­ic com­mu­ni­ty has been fast­ing and there are many, many poor Mus­lims we are as­sist­ing. The Jam­mat is as­sist­ing. Many of the wealth­i­er Mus­lims are as­sist­ing in what­ev­er ways they can.”

The Imam called for a more col­lab­o­ra­tive ap­proach to help­ing the vul­ner­a­ble be­tween Gov­ern­ment and the Is­lam­ic com­mu­ni­ty, not­ing that now was not the time to be bick­er­ing about dol­lars and cents, but to deal with curb­ing the ef­fects of COVID-19.  

“Re­mem­ber, the gov­ern­ment of the day has a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to shoul­der. Not be­cause we are in­de­pen­dent—the Is­lam­ic com­mu­ni­ty is in­de­pen­dent—we have to bear the full bur­den,” he not­ed.  “I am say­ing that the gov­ern­ment of the day needs to as­sist us in car­ry­ing about our day-to-day rou­tine.” 

Imam Karim said dur­ing the month of Ra­madan, Masjids were al­lowed five per­sons in­side to keep the de­vo­tions go­ing, and he com­mend­ed all Imams for “the char­i­ta­ble ser­vices they have been do­ing”.

He al­so said things have been par­tic­u­lar­ly chal­leng­ing this year, giv­en what is now tak­ing place in Pales­tine.

“It is dif­fi­cult to cel­e­brate Eid 2021 when Mus­lims in Pales­tine are un­der pres­sure,” he told Guardian Me­dia.

“In the Quran, the Is­lam­ic com­mu­ni­ty is like one body and when one part of the body aches, the en­tire body feels the pain,” he ex­plained.  “How can we cel­e­brate?”

He stat­ed: “I am say­ing this loud and clear, and I am send­ing a clar­i­on call to those in au­thor­i­ty, we need to stand up, we need to raise our voic­es and let the world know of the atroc­i­ties tak­ing place in Pales­tine, with the peo­ple of Pales­tine in Jerusalem.”

In his Eid Mes­sage, Imam Karim urged Mus­lims to look be­yond the present dark tun­nel they may find them­selves in and seek the light at the end of the tun­nel. He ob­served that fast­ing for Ra­madan is a great bless­ing that teach­es per­sons re­straint, along with em­pa­thy and kind­ness.

“COVID-19 here and it might be here for a bit longer.  As be­liev­ing men and women, we have to un­der­stand that we need to cope. We need to prac­tice what we have learnt in the blessed month of Ra­madan by help­ing, by show­ing care and by be­ing our broth­er’s keep­er,” he said.

Imam Karim al­so com­mend­ed all those in­volved in the bat­tle against COVID-19. 

“We are in a coun­try where there is peace. Where there is peace, there is hope. My Mes­sage to the whole of mankind is let us be­come our broth­er’s keep­er. Show kind­ness, show sol­i­dar­i­ty, show obe­di­ence to our Cre­ator and those in au­thor­i­ty who are guid­ing us,” he said.  “Ac­cord­ing to the philoso­phies that will be more pos­i­tive in the sense of bring­ing back some sort of san­i­ty back to hu­man­i­ty.”