22 Indians among world’s influential Muslims

Parliamentarians Asaduddin Owaisi and Badruddin Ajmal, Hurriyat leader Dr Umar Farooq, actors Shabana Azmi and Aamir Khan, composer A R Rahman and industrialist Azim Premji are among the 22 Indians who figure in the list of the World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims. The other Indians enlisted in the compilation are all religious scholars, preachers and spiritual leaders.
The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISSC), an international non-governmental institute based in Amman, Jordan, has brought out “The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims” 2016 edition, which lists out these influential men in 13 distinct categories. Incidentally, this is the seventh annual publication from the Centre, an affiliate of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.
The RISSC points out that there are 1.7 billion Muslims across the world today, making up approximately 23 percent of the world’s population. Being citizens of their respective countries, they also have a sense of belonging to the ‘Ummah’, the worldwide Muslim community. The annual publication sets out to ascertain the influence some Muslims have on this community, or on behalf of the community. It defines an ‘influential person’ as one who has cultural, ideological, financial and political power or otherwise make a change that would have a significant impact on Muslims. Such an impact can either be positive or negative, depending on one’s perspective.
The influence can be of a religious scholar directly addressing Muslims and influencing their beliefs, ideas and behavior or it can be of a ruler shaping the socio-economic factors within which people live their lives, or of artists shaping popular culture. The list of Top 50 is dominated by religious scholars and Heads of State of Gulf, Arab and other Muslim countries, known for their dominant and lasting influence. The 13 categories of influential men include scholars, politicians, religious administrators, preachers/spiritual guides, Quranic reciters, social activists, business leaders, philanthropists, scientists, and celebrities from arts and culture, media and sports. Incidentally, the 13th category consists of “the extremists.” such as ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, Al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri, Boko Haram’s Abu Bakar Shekau, Abu Bakar Bashir of Indonesia and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi of Jordan.
Only two Indian religious leaders figure in the Top 50 List-- Mufti Muhammad Akhtar Raza Khan Qadiri Al-Azhari (Barelwi leader) and Maulana Mahmood Madani (Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader). Among the 450 other influential Muslims, 20 are Indians. Most of them are religious scholars, seminary administrators, preachers and spiritual guides.
They include Allamah Zia-al-Mustafa, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Maulana Rabey Hasan Nadvi, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin (the spiritual leader of Dawoodi Bohras), Dr Bahauddeen Muhammed Jamaluddeen Nadwi, Sheikh Aboobackar Ahmad, Maulana Sayyid Ibrahimul Khaleel al-Bukhari, Maulana Shakir Ali Noorie, Allama Qamaruzzaman Azmi, Maulana Syed Arshad Madani, Professor Sayid Ameen Mian Quadri, Dr Zakir Naik, Dr Thaika Shuaib, apart from Maulana Badruddin Ajmal Qasmi (MP and founder of All India United Democratic Front, Assam).
India is home to the world’s second largest Muslim population, after Indonesia (which ranks first). Muslims accounted for 17.22 crore (or 14.2 percent) out of India’s population of 121 crore in 2011 Census. Indian Muslims have excelled themselves in almost all the fields. However, many Indian Muslim celebrities from film industry, sports, politics, social activism and media etc have failed to make it to the List of 500. Two Indian personalities, who had figured in the list of 500 last year, have been mentioned under Obituaries this year due to their demise. They are Dr AP J Abdul Kalam, who passed away on 27th July 2015 and B S Abdur Rahman (Tamil Nadu based business magnate and philanthropist, who died on 7th January 2015).
Dr Kalam had figured in the list of scientists in earlier editions of the annual publication. “An engineer by profession, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was a former President of India. Before becoming President, Kalam was the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and Secretary of India’s Defence Research and Development Organization from 1992 to 1999, during which he led the weaponization of strategic missile systems and nuclear testing in collaboration with the Department of Atomic Energy. This moved India from being a State with nuclear technology to a State with nuclear weapons. Kalam was also author of India 2020, which presented his vision of an Indian superpower by the year 2020.
(The author is an MLC and a journalist)