Tiruchi:
Dr. Ameeruddin Ahmed – a noted eye-surgeon of Trichy, writes in the editorial of his monthly English journal, “Ad-Dawaa“, of June 1981, that Muslims are not interested in the conversion of untouchables.
As Dr. Ahmed, a noted Muslim leader of Tamil Nadu, is working close to the area where conversions have taken place and is familiar with the whole situation, his remarks will be of much significance. The editorial says:
“The national press was making a lot of noise to create reaction in the minds of the majority community and this may have repercussions leading to even communal conflicts.
No doubt every faith has a right to present its philosophy, belief, moral, ethical and national and international values to the world at large. But to blame the poor Indian Muslim community for these conversions is without moral justification. In fact, the Indian Muslim community is afraid of conversion nor they have any missionary or a body to undertake this task as some other communities are doing, we don’t even have an organisation or a set-up to give or distribute free Islamic literature as missionary institutions are doing. In fact, our dawath starts with Biriyani and ends with feerni. The Muslim community at large and the Indian Muslims in particular are indifferent to their own faith. But we would like to point out that if some members of the Harijan community have chosen to accept another faith for sheer emotional brotherhood of man nobody can help it or prevent it. In fact, people are attracted towards Islam for various reasons and only those people who had come over to the Islamic faith, alone shall explain as to why they changed their faith. By changing their faith especially, the Harijans are losing plenty of economic advantages and become inheritors of suffering and consequence of adverse history. But man does not live by bread alone. As we had pointed out in the earlier paragraph, there is no conversion missionary with us. So at Meenakshipuram, what has occurred is not a phenomenon of conversion, but a case of acceptance of Islamic faith for which the older Muslims are not at all responsible. The Harijan brothers have joined the Islamic faith for the reasons best known to them. So, it is better not to play this game of playing up in the press. The only difference between a communist and a non-communist state is the freedom of conscience. Let us uphold the same as the most tolerant of the religions in the whole world”.
