At least 30 people were injured in clashes with police after thousands of angry protestors gathered outside a shrine housing Islamic relics that caught fire Saturday in Indian Kashmir's largest city.

The blaze sparked fresh religious tensions in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region, which has already seen days of violent protests over plans to transfer land to a Hindu pilgrims' body, as rumours spread that police had set the fire.

Police said the fire at the shrine in Srinagar was accidental.

"Initial reports suggest that the fire was caused by a short circuit," said a police officer, who did not want to be named.

"We brought the fire under control," he said, calling the rumours "base and misleading."

All the centuries-old relics at the shrine were safe, he added.

But news of the fire at the Jenab Sahib shrine, which is said to house a relic of the Prophet Mohammed, drew thousands of Muslims onto the surrounding streets, shouting "Allah is great" and "Long live Islam."

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With its West Bengal unit finding to its dismay that it's difficult to court Muslim opinion, the CPM appears to have decided to use its opposition to the Indo-US deal for its Muslim outreach. This is a tested strategy as communalisation of the foreign policy had fetched the CPM liberal electoral dividends in Kerala.

The plan is premised on two assumptions — President Bush represents a politically incorrect view point and that India's engagement with the US is a cause of concern for the community members. The Left has been using disparaging labels against those supporting the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Flashing an aggressive Muslim sensitivity card, the party believes, will help it contain the erosion of support from the community. A steady drop in the Muslim membership in the party over the past seven years and an erosion in the minority community's votes are discomforting signals for the CPM. The party's own report shows a decline in the Muslim membership from 14.9% in 2004 to 14.67% in the state where the minority community forms nearly 25% of the population . The Muslim membership figure stood at 15.2% in 2001.

At present, of the total membership of 3,21,682 in West Bengal, only 47,190 are Muslims. The party has said that the Muslim membership has declined in 20 states, including Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan (where it has dropped by nearly half from 4.4% to 2.74%) and Gujarat.

The CPM, which is jittery about the slide in the Left bastion than losing its clout in Delhi, is not taking any chances. The party is expecting its unbending anti-deal stand to help woo back some of the Muslim voters.

Though statistics are yet to be made available , Left sources said a slice of the Muslim votebase had gone to the Trinamool Congress in the recent panchayat election in West Bengal. The CPM had suffered losses in districts like 24 Paraganas, Malda and North Dinajpur with a high Muslim population.

At a time when the party, which grabbed an all-time high of 8.34% of the vote share during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and a record performance in terms of seats, is faced with the prospect of a drop in its score, the Muslim ire would only add to the Left's gloom. The party's political organisational report finalised at the recent Coimbatore Congress said more efforts needed to be made to recruit Muslims.

The party had anticipated a Muslim backlash in the panchayat polls, but by then it was too late. By the time it began a damage control exercise, the Muslims had started to distance themselves disillusioned with the Left Front in the wake of the Sachar Committee report showing that the Muslims were way down on the social and economic ladder in West Bengal and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's utterances about clearing madrasas.

What made matters worse was the state government's land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, in which the community was affected severely.

The Muslim population is over 50% in some districts of the state, including Murshidabad and Kishanganj.

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Atiq Khan

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s efforts to create a dent in the Muslim support base of the Samajwadi Party (and the Congress), and to further consolidate her party’s hold on the minority community, intensified with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president meeting a delegation of leading Muslim clerics at her official residence on Wednesday.

They had come to thank Ms. Mayawati for her stand on the nuclear deal with the United States.

The delegation comprised the vice-chairman of All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and leading Shia cleric, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, the Naib Imam of Lucknow’s Aishbagh Idgah and AIMPLB member, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, the Muslim Personal Law Board member, Maulana Hamidul Hasan, the Imam of Lucknow’s historic Tilewali Masjid, Maulana Fazlur Rahman Waizi Nadwi, Maulana Aleem Farooqui and Maulana Naeemur Rahman. Another important cleric, Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, who is in Iran, had a telephonic conversation with the Chief Minister.

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Samajwadi Party rebel MP Munnawar Hasan, along with a rebel MLA Gauri Shankar, declared that even if the SP issued a whip to support the UPA on the issue, they would vote against it. A third MLA, Qadir Rana of Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, too joined the chorus against the deal.

Though officially still in the SP, Hasan, who has changed party affiliations more than once, had recently announced his decision to quit the SP and join the BSP. The BSP has already nominated him for the next Lok Sabha elections. “Support to the nuclear deal is tantamount to back-stabbing Muslims. Muslims across the world are opposed to the US,” said Hasan, charging that the SP had compromised so that Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh would be protected from the CBI cases lodged against them.

“We are opposed to the nuclear deal and any party extending support to the Congress will be opposed,” said Maulana Khalid Rashid.

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Jamiat ulama-e-Hind has decided to start a movement for the amendment in articles 341 to pave way for Muslims’ reservation. In a meeting of working committee of Jamiat the members discussed the need of reservations for Muslims and need of law to prevent riots.

In the meeting the committee decided that Maulana Qari Syed Mohammad Usman has chosen the post of Jamiat as in the Shura meeting of Darul Uloom it was decided that they have to opt only one. They were told by Deoband Shura to be in Jamiat or at Darul uloom Deoband.

During the meeting it was decided that the annual general meeting of the Jamiat will be held at Hyderabad. Exact date of the annual meeting will be announced later.

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The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has submitted a memorandum with the Planning Commission of India urging it to promote interest-free banking in the country. The monetary system should be based on profits, not interest, the organization demanded.

That kind of financial system is what is called Islamic finance and Islamic banking. IUML president Ghulam Mahmood Banatwala submitted the memorandum with the Planning Commission’s committee for monetary system reform set up to suggest ways to reform the system.

Headed by Raghuram Rajan, member of the Working Group for the formulation of Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007), the committee submitted its draft report in April this year and has asked public to come up with suggestions. After going through those suggestions, the committee will present its final report.

In the memorandum, Banatwala said that interest-free monetary system will open a floodgate of investment from Gulf region and other Muslim countries. That system will also attract hundreds of millions of Muslims in India also because interest is prohibited in Islam. The profit-based system has been a hit in the Muslim countries. It has helped them keep the annual rate of development between 15-20% and register the investment of Rs 30 trillion US$.

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