Mosques lead attack on terror

HINDUSTAN TIMES

Mosques lead attack on terror

Shahkar Abidi, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, August 25, 2008
First Published: 00:41 IST(25/8/2008)
Last Updated: 01:25 IST(25/8/2008)

From Friday, the old, rusty loudspeakers atop the numerous mosques in
Mumbai’s far-flung northern suburb Mira Road started beaming a
distinctly new message.

Before and after each azaan or prayer, imams of at least 24 of the
30-odd local mosques are asking residents to report suspicious
terror-linked activity to either the mosque authorities or the police.

With the tremors of 31 bombings in Gujarat and Karnataka in the last
two months still being felt across the nation, Mira Road, usually in
the news for drinking water crises, has had a bigger reason to worry.

While all 16 suspects in these bombings are Muslims, Mira Road has
housed the A-League of suspects like prime accused in 11/7 Mumbai train
blasts Asif Khan and Ehtesham Siddique and Ahmedabad serial blasts key
suspect techie Abdul Subhan. Two months ago, the Anti-Terrorism Squad
gunned down two suspected Bangladeshi militants in Mira Road.

The suburb is home to about six lakh people, a third of whom are
Muslims.

And now, from the heart of what seemed the transit camp of India’s
homebred terror, voices of introspection and change have ironically
started emerging.

“We are making the masses aware through hadis (teachings of Quran and
the Prophet deli
vered before the Friday prayers) that terrorism is
against Islam,” said Maulana Mansoor Ahmed, the chief priest with Jama
Masjid Ashams, the largest mosque in Mira Road.

It is as if an entire community has come alive — thinking, acting with
urgency — to tear off the invisible terror tag from its sleeves.

A drive has started to make a database of people living in every flat.
Since men from most families work in the Gulf and women are not
comfortable speaking to unknown men, a team of women has been formed to
visit homes that do not have male members.