Sowing and Reaping of Destiny

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meaning youngsters end up being exploited by sweet talking 'Smart Alecs' promoting pet projects where accountability is never queried. The community will always remain grateful to many philanthropists from among the successful business families who have, over the years, contributed generously to the community projects. It is a unique culture of donating and creating endowments in the form of 'Trust' and 'Waqf' that the community can be justly proud of. At the same time this emerging additional potential source cannot be ignored. If professional youngsters get increasingly involved, they have a great potential to play positive role in the development of the community. Once actively involved, they will acquire a sense of ownership and will thus be more inclined to provide financial support also. Apart from the additional financial input that this segment of the society can provide, professional expertise that they will bring along will provide for some fresh air and open up new avenues for the community without any one promoting personal agendas. GENERAL COMPLAINT For the community settled in the West, a general complaint against a section of the migrants from Africa is that they tend to consider themselves as an elitist group who wittingly or otherwise discriminate against their compatriots from India and Pakistan. This attitude, taken to its logical conclusion two generations down the line would give rise to parochial tendencies where people living in North America would end up viewing themselves as superior to or different from those living in Europe, Africa and the Indian sub continent, not withstanding the fact that after all, they all originate from the same source. The East African Khoja on the other hand complain of their Indo-Pakistani brothers as being too traditionalists and not amenable to adaptations. Do East Africans feel too insecure within themselves to cling only to their own limited circles is a question that is often asked An interesting observation made about the state of the Muslim communities in the West is that many Muslim Community centers, Masjids, Mehfils are established by well meaning individuals, among them either Ulema or wealthy families who set up endowments. Unlike in the Khoja Community, where all such Trusts and Waqf are held in the name of the Jamaat or the community membership, majority of such centers established by the Indo-Pakistani, 34
Afghan, Arab and Irani communities are held in the name of individual founders or private Trusts. The Boards of Directors or the Boards of Trustees appointed are widely viewed as decorative figures with little effective say in formulating policies. It is the founders who are the effective owners of the place and who ultimately dictate policy and management. This trend, has been widely practiced in the Indo-Pak subcontinent, much to the disadvantage of the local communities. For whatever reasons, similar practice is now followed in the West also by certain factions. In the process, it is becoming increasingly fashionable as others also try emulate them. Despite their best intentions in promoting pet projects, in applying such individualistic attitudes, they often fail to draw lessons from the past. In the process, they remain oblivious of the possibility of long-term adverse effect. In terms of social services to the community, overall organization and management, the plight of the Muslim and especially the Shia communities in India and Pakistan today will help illustrate the point. We live in the world that has progressed faster in the last 20 years than at anytime in history. The changing world has actually brought us closer together and made us part of the most diverse society as one large community. Pragmatism calls for collective endeavours in planning and application. That would take us a long way in fulfilling our needs and in effectively reaching out to the needy. In so doing the community can become stronger to meet the requirements of the time and at the same time abide by the laws of the land and maintain dignity and honour. A painful scenario here is of little co-ordination among various Islamic centers despite espousing common faith and common ideals. Many such centers, among the wider Indo-Pakistani-Bangladeshi communities have emerged as a result of friction or disputes and end up being at loggerheads with each other. Similarly Arab and Irani centers operate with their nationalistic leanings. More often than not, there is growing rivalry and competition between the protagonists of such centers to the detriment of the overall long term interest of the wider community. Here, the Khoja, despite their limitations, stand out as a unique community operating on democratic principles and with transparency and open accountability. This innate realization among the Khoja and their desire to hold on to their outlook at times tend to play negative role towards their progressive involvement across the ethnic, linguistic and racial divide. 35
Page 3 and 4: The Sowing And Reaping Of Destiny W
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . .
Page 7 and 8: Hassan Ali M. Jaffer who has been a
Page 9 and 10: NORTH AMERICAN SCENE Writers with a
Page 11 and 12: A review of the history of printing
Page 13 and 14: Consequence of this introvert polic
Page 15 and 16: KHOJA IDENTITY Khoja are not a race
Page 17 and 18: HISTORY OF MINORITIES This is the h
Page 19 and 20: With the loss of language, over a p
Page 21 and 22: KHOJA MIGRATORY PATTERNS Phase (1)
Page 23 and 24: Phase (5) - 1860 onwards Into East
Page 25 and 26: In an Africana discussion forum (Se
Page 28 and 29: “ What we do today and how we now
Page 30 and 31: Leaders of the Community have alway
Page 32 and 33: REFORMS Common with all immigrant s
Page 34 and 35: attitudes towards women. Issues of
Page 36 and 37: “In Fraternity - A Message to Mus
Page 40 and 41: With parochial outlook gaining mome
Page 42 and 43: DANGER SIGNALS Success of the Khoja
Page 44 and 45: were kidnapped from West Africa and
Page 46 and 47: of Muslims would prove infertile, l
Page 48 and 49: The idea of this innovative project
Page 50 and 51: the Indian state or its educational
Page 52 and 53: In post independent Kenya, Sajjad R
Page 54: NOTES 50

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