by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Abdul Sattar
The suicide of a young woman Ayesha from Ahmedabad has left many perplexed. Many a times, it’s the parents who let us fall into the pit of ignorance and commit acts like suicide that take us near to kufr (Disbelief in the will of God). One of the reasons why a person commits a suicide is because of the continuous chain of people who were never told about this or were made aware of the teaching and the principles of Islam which linked each individual from the beginning. Ignorance doesn’t see which community people come from, it’s a prevailing phenomenon that has been passed down through the generations.
While majority of the people who have this same mindset and lifestyle live in similar communities; so that they don’t get left out or be regarded as different from others or to get belittled for being different from them. If a person offers prayers regularly and if he has a neighbour who doesn’t, then that individual would refrain to have the kind of proximity with his neighbour. Imams do their best to deliver sermons on Fridays, but unless individuals bring about a change and start to implement those teachings of Islam and try to reform themselves, we will hardly see any change in the society taking place. There’s much more that needs to be done on a bigger scale in terms of educating children and as well as parents.
Incidents like these are a shocker in our community, to show how much hollow and the amount of vacuum we have in our societies, We can understand when an actor like Sushant Singh commits suicide, who doesn’t understand the meaning of what Kufr is as he was not a Muslim. But Ayesha was a Muslim, Hijabi girl, who so effortlessly said that: “She’s not sure if she would go to Heaven or Hell”. It’s a matter of grieve and pain to see our brothers and sisters in such a poor emotional maturity and intelligence, and it’s the pressure and the grief which kills them first to take on this grave step.
What we Muslims in India especially have been doing is; we still haven’t opened the Masjids for the women folks to come and have talks and get together. Still, we have made masjids as male-owned buildings to show our reserved mindsets. We are allowing these incidents to take place in front of our own eyes by neglecting one of the most quintessential aspects of our future to educate the womenfolk. We are undermining our opportunities to educate our young brothers and sisters without channelizing our resources into good effect.
We need our Masjids to hold regular programs and sessions to educate and hone our younger generation on topics like Suicide, Dowry, Marriage, Emotional Intelligence, and personality development in light of Islam on a weekly/monthly basis as appropriate. Because these are only places around which communities are formed and they are most convenient place to be visited by communities. Unless we don’t see any reforms taking place at the grass-roots level at our Masjids, we can’t expect to see our society addressing these issues.
The columnist holds an MSc in Engineering from the UK and can be contacted at sas_beck@hotmail.co.uk
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business
‘Dubious’ Maulanas convene closed door Jirga on ‘political scenario’
New Delhi: A “closed door meeting” involving Muslim community leaders, including some dubious Maulanas, held here on Wednesday to “chart out a strategy” to deal with the increasingly hostile socio-political situation vis-à-vis minorities, Muslims in particular, in the country.
While nothing in concrete came out in the open from the closed-door meeting, sources confided to the Muslim Mirror that most of the participants “have record of dubiously using political brinkmanship for their own interests.” The meeting, dubbed ‘Jirga for Strong India’ – a term borrowed from Afghanistan meaning consultation – broadly stated to set up “a platform” to oppose the contentious citizenship regime and other anti-people policies of the Narendra Modi government.
The sources, however, said that they “smartly stated oft-repeated claims to support the weak and marginalised” only to “protect themselves from community wrath”.
A journalist, who is in the know of the meeting, told Muslim Mirror that the “Maulana is known for organizing such meetings to serve his own interest. Notably, one of the tall figures in the meeting was part of the mega “Save the Constitution and Save the Nation” rally in Patna a couple of years ago which ended up in securing an MLC seat for an Urdu newspaper journalist in Bihar legislative assembly.
In the Wednesday meeting, he was not in the forefront but used his proxy to extend an invitation to people for the meet.
The proxy is a discredited person in the community who was made a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board by him despite knowing he had indulged in dubious activities during his stint as the Delhi Waqf Board member. It is said he was the person who invited community leaders for the meet.
Undoubtedly, there were some leaders who participated in the meeting who had impeccable character and their sincerity towards the community’s cause cannot be doubted. However, it is puzzling how they were trapped in this.
The journalist said the community should be made aware of such self-styled leaders who are having “ulterior motives” behind such exercise using Muslim Personal Law Board platform to achieve their self goals.
Most of the Maulanas who were present in the meeting are members of Board.
When one of the expected attendents inquired about the agenda of the deliberation, the proxy reportedly told him that the Maulana wanted to set up ‘sort of a platform having representation of Muslim bodies’, to chalk out future course of action’.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Uncategorized
In his new book on Climate Change and its adverse impact in the future, Bill Gates urges everyone to remember two things: Net Zero and 2050.
It seems as if, after having grappled with malaria, HIV, Ebola and COVID-19 thebillionaire philanthropistand Microsoft co-founder has a new passion now, to solve another intractable global problem: Climate Change.
Since the start of 2021, Bill Gates had been trying to focus everyone’s attention on the greatest challenge to the humankind i.e. Climate Change in the backdrop of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Gates in his new book ‘How To Avoid A Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have And The Breakthroughs We Need’, released in February earlier, argues for establishing new laws and putting practices in place, to ensure that the globe will be Carbon free by 2050.
His book provides advice from sources as diverse as climate scientists, like Vaclav Smil and Ken Caldeira, to John D Cox, author of Weather For Dummies. Gates avers that writing the book was an ambition to ‘cut through the noise’ and give consumers better tools for understanding what works.
The book repeatedly points at two figures: 51 billion and 2050. First one is the amount of greenhouse gases, in tons, which we emit annually, and the second is the year by which we have to become net zero or emitting zero amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, if we want the earth to survive. Gates argues that setting a goal to reduce our emissions won’t do it. The only sensible goal is to attain zero.
In a virtual session at the Jaipur Literature Festival last week, Gates said that climate change is too big a problem and it cannot be tackled without governments driving the mitigation efforts. Gates urged people to use their political voice to do so, and apply their purchasing power with a conscience, besides pushing the companies they work for to do the same.
Gates mentioned PM Modi’s name twice for having strongly supported emissions reductions.He explained, “in terms of future emissions and future suffering, India is paradigmatic. If we don’t help them and get them involved, then this whole thing doesn’t go well.”
Speaking about US President Joe Biden and his administration prioritising climate change and enlisting climate activists to help create policies, Gates said political parties need to prioritise the climate change issue.Meanwhile, the new US administration decided to return to the 2015 Paris Agreement last Friday.
In his address gates applauded the younger generation for raising the issue more coherently and continuously at the international forums, recently. He also expressed his admiration for Greta Thunberg and said that we need such attention to intensify and stay very, very high for all thirty years.
In an interview with Emma Brockes for The Guardian, Gates points out the extremely difficult problem of how to further global development while reducing emissions. This comes in addition to the political challenge or in other words changing our priorities.
Gates enumerates a list of culprits, which are more well-known, such as the transport industry or the electricity generation plants, in addition to cement and steel producing industries globally, which emit more harmful gases into the atmosphere as compared to well known culprits.
The way forward
In his book Gates avers that the small decline in emissions in 2019, in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic-which forced global industrial shutdown to a large scale, is proof that we cannot get to zero simply, or even mostly, by flying and driving less. He says just as we needed new tests, treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus, similarly we need new tools for fighting climate change: zero-carbon ways to produce electricity, make things, grow food, keep our buildings cool or warm, and move people and goods around the world.
Highlighting the vital and urgent need for innovation in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, he further argues that, if we don’t get to zero by 2050, the temperature rise will be so damaging that life will actually get worse for humans and most of the natural ecosystems. So, he urges everyone to innovate.
To achieve this, Gates underlines that we need international cooperation, first. When governments, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies worked together on COVID-19, the world made remarkable progress—for example, developing and testing vaccines in record time. He goes on to argue that the same is true for climate change. If rich countries worry only about lowering their own emissions and don’t consider that clean technologies need to be practical for everyone, we’ll never get to zero. In that sense, helping others is not just an act of altruism—it’s also in our self-interest. We all have reasons to get to zero and help others do it too. Temperatures will not stop rising in Texas unless emissions stop rising in India, he says.
Second he says, we need to let science—engineering, physics, environmental science, economics, and other related specialities to be innovative in their fields and also work collaboratively to achieve and guide our efforts to achieve net zero. As everyone can’t continue to work in silos and no country should preach others, but all should work collectively, as was evident appreciably during the pandemic.
Third, Gates says our solutions should meet the needs of the people who are hardest hit. The solution, he says, is to make clean energy sources such as wind and solar so cheap that every country will choose it over climate-warming fossil fuels.
In his efforts Gates is counting on a new generation of entrepreneurs who will drive economic growth through clean energy, regardless of climate-change deniers holding on for dear life in government. This is not pie-in-the-sky fantasy, he insists, and the figures back him up. According to reports, in 2019, for the first time in the US, renewable energy consumption surpassed coal consumption, despite all the incentives the Trump administration introduced for the fossil fuel industry.
In the book’s final chapter, Gates lays out specific actions that each individual can take to help mitigate climate change, from being a more engaged citizen to being a more informed consumer, with specific advice on reducing household emissions, switching to an electric vehicle, and setting up an internal carbon tax for businesses.
Gates includes an afterword on COVID-19 also, making the case that many of the lessons we have learned from the pandemic—the need for international cooperation, the importance of letting science guide our actions, the understanding that solutions should be designed to meet the needs of those who suffer most—also apply to climate change.
We are at a critical juncture, he rightly argues, and must commit to investing in new policies, market structures, and technologies over the next decade if we are to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. “It’s hard to think of a better response to a miserable 2020 than spending the next ten years dedicating us to this ambitious goal,” he concludes.
Indeed, such sagacious advice can only come from an individual who is committed to ameliorate the life of his fellow citizens, and if we don’t awake even now, we’ll have no else to blame but ourselves in 2050.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Islamic Banking, Islamic Finance, News
Dr. Nikhat Mushir
Dr. Nikhat Mushir for Maeeshat
Energy sector is comprised of energy producing products, production, distribution, market, producers, distributors and consumers. Energy producing resources are mainly categorised as renewables (hydal, thermal, nuclear, solar, wind etc.) and non-renewables such as oil, gas, coal. The importance of energy resources was well put in the opening remarks of World Future Energy Summit 2012 which was, “Energy is critical to everything we do, from powering our economies to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, from combating climate change to underpinning global security. It is a golden thread connecting economic growth, social equity and preservation of the environment”.
Need of Renewable Energy
According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s report, the global population is expected to be more than 9 billion by 2050. This rise in population will create an exceptional rise in demand for energy. The hydrocarbon fuel has already damaged the atmosphere and thus the call to reduce carbon footprint has been made.In World Economic Forum 2013 summit, it was concluded to alleviate risks from future climate change, the ‘green economic growth’ pathmust be formulated. Renewable energy can be successfully and fully adopted only when we have proper and affordable technology to harness full potential of renewable sources of energy.
The trans-national organisations such as World Bank, European Commission, United Nations Environment Programme and others took up green projects very seriously. There has been some advancement towards development of ‘green growth’ modality. In 2008, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development along with International Finance Corporation launched the ‘Strategic Framework for Development and Climate Change’ programme to integrate the public and private sector for the climate change. In the same year, the World Bank pioneered the ‘Green Bond’ initiative to support sustainable projects (The World Bank, 2014). The biggest achievement of such initiative was increased awareness towards renewable energy resource that led to six times greater investments in renewables in year 2011 than in year 2004.
The GCC and Renewable Energy
The GCC countries known for being oil rich states, with its hydrocarbon resources contributing to around 90 percent of its GDP are equally concerned about climate change as the rest of the world as it is a participant of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) and has pledged its commitment towards the initiative. Qatar even hosted the UNFCCC in 2012.
Apart from the challenge of climate change, GCC’s depleting non-renewable energy resources is also compelling it to diversify its energy sector. The rising population leading to current rates of consumption growth, if it continues in the case of Saudi Arabia, the oil exports could be reduced by the end of the decade or sooner than expected. In case of Oman and Bahrain, the two GCC states with the smallest hydrocarbon endowment, are already in depletion led decline.
The share of the installed capacity of renewable energy is only 7 percent of the total in the Gulf (UNDP, 2014). Thus, there is a significant need to develop renewable energy sector and financing channels for the development of green projects. In the GCC, success of the renewable energy sector relies highly on the structural changes and to this end, they have alray taken several steps. One was to liberalise the energy sector and other was policy changes to control the consumption of hydrocarbon energy in order to improve energy security and carbon footprint.
Recently, there has been surge in renewable energy projects in the GCC. Saudi Arabia desires to install as part of its ‘Vision 2030’ program, 9.5 gigawatt of power project based out of renewable energy. In 2011, the Saudi government established the King Abdullah City of Nuclear and Alternative Energy. The purpose of the city is to build up the knowledge base to develop the technique to generate alternative energies. The Kingdom also plans to make good use of wind, nuclear, waste-to-power and geo-thermal sources of renewable energy to produce power. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) has planned to build a wind plant of 15 megawatt and solar plant of 5 to 10 megawatt capacity. In Oman, there are facilities with about 235 kilo-watt of solar energy producing ability. Its purpose is to light the streets, remote watering, television transmission, monitoring earthquakes and heating. There are many pilot projects in renewable sector such as 105 mega-watt solar projects launched in 2010. The wind turbines project of the World Trade Centre in Kingdom of Bahrain is just another example of alternative energies project.
The GCC countries are one of the regions in the world that receives the highest sunlight, which can be utilised to establish an advantageous position in a world of alternate energies. Large number of private investors and government has already taken keen interest as discussed above in the development of green economy. They are also considering their priorities in the field of alternative energy and have conceptualised their plans and many projects have effectively begun like Masdar Solar City project of Abu Dhabi. Masdar city projects involves the features such as the least carbon emitting city in the world, using only solar energy for its power generation and wind energy for cooling with eco-friendly vehicles. A solar and wind field will be set up outside the city along with geo-thermal plants to create the largest hydrogen power station in the world.
Islamic Finance in Renewable Energy
There is a verse in Quran that states –
“Eat and drink, but waste not by excess; Verily He loves not the excessive.” [1]
Quranic teaching discourages extravagance and wastage and encourages one to be frugal and careful while using the bounties on the earth that are natural resources. To preserve the environment and all forms of life on earth is at the core of Islam. Islamic finance is a value based economic system, driven by the principle of public interest. Islamic finance and green energy development, both are for sustainable and balanced development of the whole community.
The Islamic Development Bank, a Jeddah based Islamic finance development bank mandates to use all efforts to use only the cleanest resources with minimum environmental destruction. It also will focus on hydropower generation which has been underutilised in many nations. The unused potential of hydropower for small scale will be explored by copying already existing innovative models. The nuclear power generation will be explored for electricity generation. It will embark on nuclear plan keeping in view all the hazardous nature of nuclear power plant well into consideration. Natural gas and oil transportation and distribution will be of top priority since the natural gas is the cleanest form of hydrocarbon fuel. It can take advantage of its location of highest solar exposure region in the world and lead solar energy development.
IDB is an important investor for renewable energy sector and its chief economist said, “Estimates for the 2030 agenda indicate that we need to move from billions to trillions of dollars of support annually for sustainable development. We will be using Islamic finance to bring new resources to the table”. The IDB pointed out that it might issue green sukuk climate related projects during the United Nations conference in Paris on global warming. This ‘green bonds’ have given people a new way to address and support the environmental issues.
Green Sukuk
Green Sukuk is akin to ‘Green Bond’ which are being utilised for sustainable or green projects. It is basically a form of sukuk which is issued to fund environment friendly projects. (Climate Bonds, 2016). It is suitable in the development of eco-friendly renewable energy projects. Moreover, such products are appealing to large number and varied investor base in the capital market.
Green Sukuk Working Group
In 2012, in order to assist the Green Bond concept, a Green Sukuk Working Group was established by the Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) of WANA along with the Gulf Bond and Sukuk Association. This group finds green energy projects for the shariah investors.
The CEO of Desert Technologies, a Saudi based renewable developer, said that the Green Sukuk could help launch more projects and products in markets where Islamic finance is strong and about two thirds of new renewables installations are expected to be in emerging markets.
The Dubai Supreme Council of Energy (DSCE) initiated ‘Green Economy for Sustainable Development’. It has joined the World Bank to design financing strategy for its green investment programme whereby it will use green bonds as well as sukuk. The DSCE has a green investment programme in place since 2010 as part of the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy (DIES) 2030 plan. It has a target of 71 percent of total power output from gas, 12 percent from nuclear energy, 12 percent from clean coal and 5 percent from solar energy. The plan’s second part is to reduce energy demand by 30 percent.
Conclusion
The investment in sustainable infrastructure should be the goal to conserve the environment, and Islamic finance is leading its way towards green projects. These projects are compatible with the spirit of Islamic finance. The GCC countries also seems enthusiastic towards green energy projects where Islamic finance sector could find opportunity.
[1] Al-Qur’an, Chapter 7 verse 31
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, News
Dignitaries seated on the dais in the inaugural function of Sahulat Cooperative Credit Society in Bhopal
By Pervez Bari
BHOPAL: In order to provide interest-free loans a new branch of Sahulat Credit Cooperative Society was inaugurated here in Bhopal by Shahar Qazi Maulana Syed Mushtaq Ali Nadwi the other day at local Nawab Hamidullah Community Hall.
Sahulat Credit cooperative society is a venture of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, (JIH). It is a National NGO to facilitate Interest-free Microfinance Institutions. It is a voluntary, non-political, non-profit making social service organization established to provide Interest-free microfinance options to the small traders and to small businesses for removing socio-economic disparity and to achieve justice and equity for educationally and financially backward sections of the public at large. People can also open their accounts and avail the facility of daily deposit schemes, he informed.
Speaking on the occasion Shahar Qazi expressed his happiness over the move to strengthen people’s economic condition without indulging into the scourge of interest phenomena. He emphasised that interest (Sood) is forbidden (Haraam) in Islam. He lamented that the bane of interest on which the world economy today revolves around leads to make rich people richer while poor is pushed into the quagmire of poverty and illiteracy.
Shahar Qazi Mushtaq said Islam has complete economic system based on Shari’ah. Islam accepts markets as the basic coordinating mechanism of the economic system. Islamic teaching holds that the market, given perfect competition, allows consumers to obtain desired goods and producers to sell their goods at a mutually acceptable price, he added.
Khadim-ul-Masajid Mufti Rahimullah Khan Qasmi and other clerics also spoke on the occasion expressing their views.
Meanwhile, from JIH Headquarters New Delhi Usama Khan, Deputy CEO at Sahulat Microfinance Society was especially present in the inaugural ceremony. He spoke at length throwing light on the mission and vision of Sahulat Credit Cooperative Society.
A ‘third way’
Addressing the assemblage, Usama Khan said that Sahulat Credit Cooperative Society is a National NGO to facilitate Interest-free Microfinance Institutions. It is a voluntary, non-political, non-profit making social service organization established to provide Interest-free microfinance options. Explaining he said, advocates of Islamic economics generally describe it as neither socialist nor capitalist, but as a “third way”, an ideal mean with none of the drawbacks of the other two systems. In Islamic economic system the gap between the rich and the poor will be reduced and prosperity enhanced by such means as the discouraging of the hoarding of wealth, axing wealth (through Zakat) but not trade, exposing lenders to risk through Profit sharing and venture capital, discouraging of hoarding of food for speculation and other activities that Islam regards as sinful such as unlawful confiscation of land.
Usama, who also leads operation, research, finance and administration related areas, said the mission of Sahulat Microfinance Society (Regd. under the Societies Registration Act, 1860) is facilitating the establishment of interest-free microfinance cooperative branches all over the country to uplift the poor families.
He said Sahulat aims at: (i) Facilitating, promoting and developing interest-free micro-finance institutions (IFMFI); (ii) Undertaking and promoting need based research and developing different products and financial instruments for IFMFI; (iii) Establishing training institutes and data banks for IFMFI and evolving internal check system and audit facilities and coordination with affiliated institutions and (iv) Advocating with policy makers for a justifiable national policy on interest-free micro-finance in India.
Sahulat’s definition
The Sahulat’s definition of interest free Microfinance through cooperative is: “A Cooperative Credit Society formed by its members for pooling their funds and creating loan-able funds there from for addressing their loan demands from time to time, mutually sharing the operational cost and owning the benefit and risk of operations”.
It may be mentioned here that Sahulat Microfinance Society was established in 2010. It is a voluntary non-political, non-profit making social service organization. It aims to provide interest free micro finance options for reducing socio-economic disparities and to achieve justice and equity for educationally and financially backward sections of the public at large. Its main function is to facilitating, organizing and developing institutions, more particularly in co-operative sector.
Working Model
Interest-Free Microfinance is an effective tool to fight against poverty. However, convergence of other activities in the field of education, health and self-employment is needed to raise the living condition of poor people. In India Interest-free microfinance institutions can be run as legal entities under various state cooperative acts or multi-state act. At present 26 such legal entities are working with 63 branches in 12 different states of India.
Meanwhile, JIH, Bhopal also launched “Lashkar Namkeen” with a view to create job opportunities to the people who might have lost their jobs during the pandemic.
At the outset, Ameer-e-Halqa, JIH Madhya Pradesh Dr. Hamid Baig, delivered welcome address. Maulana Naimatullah Nadwi conducted the proceedings of the function.
The program was attended amongst others by, Maulana Shamsuddin, members of JIH Mohammad Shakeel Ismail and Dr. Syed Shahid Ali, Nastaran Bano Masjid Committee president Mohammad Laeeq.
