Muslims In Japan To Hold A Peaceful Protest Rally

 And March To Danish Embassy in Tokyo

On March 3, 2006 After Friday Prayers

FORMATION OF

JAPAN MUSLIM PEACE FEDERATION

Hussain Khan, M.A. (Tokyo)

A meeting of active Muslims from various parts of Japan was held in Soka city, near Tokyo in a Pakistani restaurant, Punjabi Dining, on Friday, February 25, 2006 followed by a dinner.  It continued from 8 to about 11.30 p.m.  It was unanimously decided to hold a peaceful protest rally and march to Danish embassy in Tokyo.

Speeches were delivered by Hafiz Ahmad Qamar, Imam, Isezaki Mosque, Qari Ali Ahsan, Mr. Inamaul Haq, President, Minhajul Quran, Japan and Mr. Hussain Khan, President, Japan Islamic Foundation.  Islamic Circle of Japan was represented by Mr. Mushtaq Zaman.  Representatives of Anjuman Ghulama-e-Madina were not only present, rather they had taken initiative to organize this meeting.  Mr. Naeem Arain, Mr. Syed Azam Shah and Mr. Zakir Quadri were the persons, among others, who had played active role in extending invitations to prominent Muslims from all over Japan.  They were later elected as Office-bearers of the newly formed organization, Japan Muslim Peace Federation.  Most of the participants were the business people and the used cars' dealers, who had rescued Yashio Mosque by donating large amounts and collecting over 20 million yen, say about $200,000 some time back.

It was decided that the rally and the march should be peaceful at all costs.  The success of the rally depends on how peaceful it remains. Not only this had to be emphasized by all speakers and participants in the proposed rally but a brigade of about 25 to 30 able-bodied volunteers was formed.  This brigade will bind black clothes on their shoulders as their identity and physically stop and control, if any participant in the rally goes out of control and starts disturbing the peaceful nature of the proposed rally.

An effort is also being made to hold a Press conference at Foreign Correspondent Club on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 at 5 p.m. on behalf of Japan Muslim Peace Federation.

Those brothers who could not attend this meeting from Nagoya, Kobe, Toyama, Niigata and etc. have expressed their full support to all the decisions that were taken in this meeting.

The purpose of the newly formed organization is not only to organize protest rallies against the insulting caricatures of our respectful and beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) but also to continue to hold seminars and meetings all over Japan to explain the role of our Prophet (pbuh) to Japanese people as a greatest peace-maker of the world and a blessing for all humanity and thus try to clear all their misunderstandings, if any, about Islam, which is depicted as a religion of the terrorists by the Western and Jewish media nowadays.  We have to show to the world that it a religion of peace, social justice, democracy, tolerance, equality and fraternity.

It will also try to clarify Muslim and Islamic viewpoints on current affairs, as the media is usually giving a wrong picture of Muslim interests and preferences and trying to bring a bad name for Islam itself.

The significance of this organization also lies in the fact that it will try to be a representative of almost all Muslims of various nationalities, including thousands of Pakistanis, spread all over Japan.  At present, there are several Muslim organizations but most of them are either Mosque Committees or Dawah Organizations or educational institutions.  It is not in their agenda to represent the aspirations of thousands of Muslims all over Japan.  They are not supposed to hold any protest rallies or express any support to any Muslim cause of Ummah due to the very nature of their formation as a Dawah organization or educational institution or a praying place like Mosques etc.  Japan Muslim Peace Federation hopes to fulfill this long-existing vacuum in Japan and thus represent the true aspirations of individual Muslims in Japan, who, until now, have no proper platform to gather for Muslim causes of Ummah in solidarity with the Muslims all over the world.

Eleven persons were elected as members of the Executive Committee of Japan Muslim Peace Federation, four of them as office-bearers to carry on day-to-day activities of the organization. Their names are as follows:

Hussain Khan, Chairman, (ex-President and Chairman, Pakistan Association, Japan), Syed Azam Ali Shah, President, Naim Arain General Secretary, Zakir Quadri, Assistant General Secretary, Hafiz Ahmad Qamar, (Imam Isezaki Mosque), Hafiz Khalid Mahmud, Qari Ali Ahsan, Inamul Haq (President, Minhajul Quran, Japan), Mr. Mushtaq Zaman(Imam, Islamic Circle of Japan, Asakusa Mosque),  Ahmad Abbas Butt, Rana Umar.