NEW DELHI: The Indian government tabled on Wednesday a bill in parliament aimed at making sweeping changes to the decades-old Waqf Act, which governs vast tracts of properties run and managed by Muslims in the country.
With over 200 million Indians professing Islam, Hindu-majority India has the world’s largest Muslim-minority population.
The country has one of the largest numbers of waqf assets in the world, including over 870,000 properties spanning more than 900,000 hectares, with an estimated value of about $14.2 billion. Domestically, only the military and railways control more land.
In Islamic tradition, a waqf is a charitable or religious donation made by Muslims for the benefit of the community. Properties categorized as waqf, which typically involve mosques, schools, orphanages or hospitals, cannot be sold or used for other purposes.
In India, where the tradition of waqf can be traced back to the Delhi Sultanate period in the early 13th century, such properties are currently managed by about 30 government-established waqf boards, whose members are all Muslims.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, proposes more than 40 changes to the 1995 Waqf Act aimed at shifting the management of waqf properties from the boards to state governments, including the inclusion of non-Muslim members.
“The government is not interfering in any religious practice or institution. There is no provision in this to interfere in the management of any mosque. This is simply an issue of management of a property,” Minister of Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju, who tabled the bill, said during a parliament session on Wednesday.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which works to safeguard Islamic law in the country, said the bill could weaken waqf properties and their management.
“I think this bill has been brought with an intention to destroy the waqf board, not to improve it. The new law is very weak and aimed at attacking waqf properties,” board member Malik Mohtasim Khan told Arab News.
“They want to make a waqf law which is free from the influence of Muslims. I feel that their main aim is to make Muslims a second-class citizen.”
Indian Muslims have faced increasing discrimination and challenges in the past decade, accompanied by tensions and riots ignited by majoritarian policies of the Hindu right-wing BJP since it rose to power in 2014.
“They want to weaken Muslims’ rights in India,” Khan said. “The existing government has created such an atmosphere that there is no respect for parliamentary values and judicial values are also getting diluted. Today the Muslim community is being pushed to the margins. This is a lived reality.”
The bill’s fate will be decided with a vote by the ruling alliance and opposition lawmakers in the lower house, before it moves to the upper house for another debate and voting. If approved by both houses of parliament, it will be sent to President Droupadi Murmu for her assent before becoming law.
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a New Delhi-based author and political analyst who has focused on Hindu nationalist politics, described the bill as an “unfortunate development,” referring to the way it was prepared without proper consultations with Indian Muslims.
“I’m deeply disturbed by the manner in which this government is going about enacting the waqf bill in complete disregard of the sentiment of the Muslim community and their representatives,” he told Arab News.
“The only message which this government is repeatedly making — because that is the only thing which is going to continue to keep its electoral support — is that ‘we are tightening the screws on the Muslims; we are forcing them to act as the majority community wants.’”
Indian government tables bill to take over centuries-old waqf management from Muslims
https://arab.news/my2mt
Indian government tables bill to take over centuries-old waqf management from Muslims
- India has one of the largest numbers of waqf assets in the world, valued at around $14.2bn
- Waqf tradition in India can be traced back to the Delhi Sultanate period in the 13th century
Vatican’s solemn run-up to Easter opens with recovering Pope Francis improving but on the sidelines
- Pontiff, who survived a life-threatening bout of double pneumonia this winter, is expected to make some appearances
- By all indications he is continuing to improve after his hospital stay and is slowly resuming some of his normal activities
VATICAN CITY: The Vatican on Thursday opened the most solemn period of Holy Week with a recovering Pope Francis largely on the sidelines, as cardinals were designated to take his place presiding over the most important liturgical services leading up to Easter.
The 88-year-old Francis, who survived a life-threatening bout of double pneumonia this winter, is expected to make some appearances, however. He made a surprise cameo at the end of Palm Sunday Mass last weekend and in recent days has made some unannounced visits – including one in which he wasn’t dressed in his papal white cassock – to pray in St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Mary Major basilica across town.
By all indications he is continuing to improve after his five-week hospital stay and is slowly resuming some of his normal activities. In recent outings, he has been seen without the nasal tubes that provide supplemental oxygen and Vatican officials say he is increasingly less reliant on the therapy.
On Wednesday, Francis held his first formal group audience since returning to the Vatican on March 23, meeting with the medical staff of the Gemelli hospital who cared for him during his 38-day stay. Gathered in a Vatican audience hall, Francis thanked the 70-plus doctors, nurses and administrators and asked them for their continued prayers.
“Thank you for everything you did,” Francis said, his voice still labored but seemingly stronger as he continues respiratory and physical therapy.
He gave special thanks to the rector of Gemelli’s affiliated Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Elena Beccalli, whom he praised for her strong leadership. “When women command, things go well,” he said in his longest public remarks since his hospitalization.
Francis has delegated the demanding Holy Week liturgical celebrations to hand-picked cardinals, but the Vatican says the pope himself composed the meditations that will be read aloud by others during the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession on Friday night at Rome’s Colosseum.
The Holy Thursday Mass, for example, during which the oils used in liturgical rituals throughout the year are blessed, was being celebrated by the retired head of the Vatican’s patrimony office, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno. Friday’s solemn commemoration of the crucifixion of Christ was assigned to Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, who heads the Vatican office in charge of eastern rite Catholics. Easter Sunday was assigned to the retired administrator of St. Peter’s, Cardinal Angelo Comastri.
It remains to be seen how Francis will handle Easter Sunday’s traditional “Urbi et Orbi” speech and blessing (Latin for “to the city and the world”). Normally the pope delivers a sometimes lengthy discourse on the state of the world from the loggia of St. Peter’s, and then imparts a special blessing to the faithful in the piazza below. In theory someone else could read the speech while Francis could impart the blessing.
Francis was admitted to Gemelli on Feb. 14 with bronchitis that quickly developed into a life-threatening case of double pneumonia. Upon his release March 23, doctors proscribed two months of convalescence at the Vatican with daily respiratory and physical therapy to improve his breathing and vocal function. With time, they have predicted he will be able to resume his normal activities.
Mass drone attack kills three, injures at least 30 in Ukraine’s Dnipro, governor says
- Pictures posted online showed a large blaze and firefighters working at the scene well into the night
A Russian mass drone attack killed three people, including a child, and injured many more on Wednesday evening in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said.
Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that 30 people had been injured, including five children. Sixteen people were being treated in hospital.
The attack triggered several fires.
Mayor Borys Filatov said one strike came within 100 meters (110 yards) of the municipal offices. He also said at least 15 dwellings had been damaged, as well as a student residence, an educational institution and a food processing plant.
Pictures posted online showed a large blaze and firefighters working at the scene well into the night, as well as gutted vehicles and buildings with smashed windows and damaged facades.
In northeastern Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said a Russian missile attack injured two people in the town of Izium. The town was captured by Russian troops in the early days of the February 2022 invasion, but was retaken by Ukrainian forces later in the year.
Colombia declares health emergency due to yellow fever cases, deaths
- The outbreak has resulted in 74 confirmed cases and 34 deaths since the start of last year
- Most critical situation is in Tolima, in central-west Colombia, where 22 cases have been detected
BOGOTA: The Colombian government declared a nationwide health emergency late on Wednesday due to an increase in yellow fever cases.
The outbreak has resulted in 74 confirmed cases and 34 deaths since the start of last year, said Health Minister Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo.
Yellow fever is a viral disease transmitted by the bite of Aedes and Haemagogus mosquitoes.
Jaramillo said the most critical situation is in Tolima, in central-west Colombia, where 22 cases have been detected.
Myanmar junta says to free nearly 5,000 prisoners in amnesty
- Civil rights groups say the junta has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since its 2021 coup
- Amnesties are regularly announced to commemorate national holidays or Buddhist festivals
YANGON: Myanmar’s military government said Thursday it will release nearly 5,000 prisoners in an amnesty to mark the country’s new year festivities.
Civil rights groups say the junta has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since its 2021 coup cut short Myanmar’s experiment with democracy and plunged the nation into a multi-sided civil war.
Amnesties are regularly announced to commemorate national holidays or Buddhist festivals, but most high-profile political prisoners including deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remain detained.
A junta statement said 4,893 prisoners will be pardoned “to participate in the state-building process, for peace of mind of people and on compassionate grounds.”
To convey the “loving kindness of the state,” the junta also said other prisoners would have their sentences reduced by one-sixth, except for those who had committed serious offenses.
The offenses include unlawful association and terrorism, as well as murder and rape.
The junta said 13 foreign nationals would also be pardoned and deported, without giving details of their identities or crimes.
Early on Thursday morning an AFP journalist saw crowds of families gathered outside Yangon’s Insein prison, prepared to meet those freed.
The amnesty announcement was made as junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was reportedly due to make a rare foreign trip to Bangkok to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is chairing the 10-country ASEAN bloc this year.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has in the past barred junta officials from its summits over lack of progress on a peace plan.
But Anwar said he would meet Min Aung Hlaing Thursday to discuss the safety of Malaysian humanitarian teams dispatched to Myanmar following last month’s magnitude-7.7 earthquake.
The junta has not confirmed the meeting.
Myanmar’s ongoing “Thingyan” water festival typically marks the country’s new year with water-splashing rituals representing cleansing and renewal.
But celebrations have been muted following the March 28 tremor in the country’s central belt, which has killed 3,725 according to the latest official toll.
China says it will ignore US threats to raise tariffs up to 245%
- Washington said Trump was open to making a trade deal with China but Beijing should make the first move, insisting that China needed “our money”
BEIJING: China will pay no attention if the United States continues to play the “tariff numbers game,” China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, after the White House outline how China faces tariffs of up to 245 percent due to its retaliatory actions.
In a fact sheet released on Tuesday, the White House said China’s total duties include the latest reciprocal tariff of 125 percent, a 20 percent tariff to address the fentanyl crisis, and tariffs of between 7.5 percent and 100 percent on specific goods to address unfair trade practices.
US President Donald Trump announced additional tariffs on all countries two weeks ago, before suddenly rolling back higher “reciprocal tariffs” for dozens of countries while keeping punishing duties on China.
Beijing raised its own levies on US goods in response and has not sought talks, which it says can only be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and equality. Meanwhile, many other nations have begun looking at bilateral deals with Washington.
Last week, China also filed a new complaint with the World Trade Organization expressing “grave concern” over US tariffs, accusing Washington of violating the global trade body’s rules.
China this week unexpectedly appointed a new trade negotiator who would be key in any talks to resolve the escalating tariff war, replacing trade tsar Wang Shouwen with Li Chenggang, its envoy to the WTO.
Washington said Trump was open to making a trade deal with China but Beijing should make the first move, insisting that China needed “our money.”
