To hit at the root of terror, global sufi alliance to spread peace

On the day that it will conclude, the three-day World Sufi Forum will declare a global alliance at the Ramlila Maidan, in the presence of world sufi leaders with a special focus on combatting terrorism. The grand alliance will announce in its 25-point declaration, its resolution and demands in the presence of over 60 international delegates, and several participants who are slated to be there.

The 25-point declaration, which has earned endorsement from the gathering of world sufi leaders, has several demands from the Indian government by the All Indian Ulama and Mashaikhs Board (AIUMB), the organisers of the event. The key demands among these include the plea to confer Muslim women their hereditary rights, to grant minority statuses to Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and other Muslim educational institutions, and the plea to pass the Central Madrasa Board Bill.

There is also a demand to have a monitoring committee in the ministries of Human Resources Development, Information and Broadcasting and the ministry of Minority Affairs, to "monitor print and electronic media so that a vigil eye can be kept on the news and views and editorial content released by the extremist news agencies that may propagate extreme thoughts and radical messages."

There is also a plea to the Indian government to "extend its full cooperation for the revival of sufism", the demand that Sufi literature be "taught and practiced in schools and madrasas", and that the government establish "a university in the name of the most revered sufi saint of India Khwaja Gareeb Nawaz named as 'Gareeb Nawaz University'.

Apart from that, the AIUMB also states that they are "adamant" that all sufi shrines be bought into the mainstream, and have also outlined a roadmap to achieve it. This includes the formation of a sufi circuit, under which shrines will "provided with electricity, roads, and shelter for during rain", the formation of sufi centres with a central one in New Delhi, and the formation of a sufi corridor under which all shrines are connected to each other. "All the shrines should be connected with railway and roadways so that national and international tourism is easy. This is important in terms of tourism also and Indian tourism industry will also benefit from such corridors," reads the declaration.

The AIMUM has also asked for the development of the Persian language, as most Sufi literature is in Persian, and has called for the inclusion of Urdu and Persian in the civil services exam.

AIMUM also states that Muslims with a faith in Sufism be given adequate representation in Waqf and Hajj bodies. Apart from that the declaration says that the AIUMB "does not endorse NAWADCO and Waqf Amendment Bill."

Speaking to dna, Salman Chisti of the Ajmer Sharif, said that the World Sufi Forum has come in the times of "immense extremism and intolerance." "The World Sufi Forum seeks to combat extremists views and to bring sufis to the mainstream from their within the shadows; their inherent message of peace can help us in peace-building initiatives globally," he said.

Kabir Edmund Helminski, the director of the Threshold Society, and a follower of the Mevlevi tradition of sufism, is attending the forum from the US. He says that the idea of a sufi alliance was first heard in California in the early 1990s and then in Turkey. "The need today is greater than ever; sufism needs to come out into the mainstream, because its deeply coherent ideals despite regional differences seeks an unified message of peace," said Helsinki.