Press Release 
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Fourth meeting of the World Federation Executive Council

Mombasa, one of the first places our great grandfathers from Kutch and Kathiawad migrated to, was the venue of the 4th Executive Council Meeting of the World Federation. It was also the place where Marhum Mulla Asgharali MM Jaffer was initially nurtured to eventually become that very champion, leader and personality that we admired and still do admire, so much. These aspects of Mombasa created a historical and memorable atmosphere as the 4th Executive Council Meeting convened in the impressive Mulla Asghar Memorial Hall, its opening taking place on Friday 4th January.

The road show of the World Federation, however, began on a spiritual Thursday night on 3rd January where a fitting atmosphere of contentment and peace began proceedings. The Secretary General of the World Federation, Dr. Sibtain Panjwani, who enumerated the many facets of the organisation’s services, controlled and performed at the secretariat. He made it explicit that the World Federation could not be compared to any other existing federation within our community because of its array of activities, exposure and services to the world. In addition, the Secretariat has to remain alive to the various developments taking place within the entire Shia world. He described the ‘Secretariat as a hub around which the whole wheel of the World Federation rotates.’ 

The Secretary General of the World Federation,  Dr. Sibtain Panjwani	The Chief Co-ordinating Officer,  Sheikh Mustafa Jaffer

The Chief Co-ordinating Officer, Sheikh Mustafa Jaffer, explained the important routine activities carried out at the secretariat and illustrated its reliance upon ‘teamwork’ for the efficient running of the World Federation. 

The Chairman of CETAB, Al Haj Murtaza Datoo, informed the audience on the progress made to date on the goals and objectives of the Career, Education & Training Advisory Board (CETAB). He reiterated the commitment of the entire team at the secretariat to continue to work closely with the education board of Africa Federation in order to provide sufficient loans to deserving students within our community and to that end, the World Federation has already announced MGN. Three MGN Loans have been offered by WF-CETAB to students of East Africa wishing to study abroad. The funds have been provided by Marhoom Mohamedhussein Gulamali Nasser (Congowala). CETAB invited students from East Africa to apply for the loans via the Education Board of the Africa Federation. The three loans have been allocated for deserving students wishing to take a career in Journalism, female student for any degree course and a student who has excelled academically and is financially handicapped. Each loan is for the value of Stg. Pounds 10,000 per annum for a period of three years. He also touched upon the aspirations of seeking excellence in the primary and secondary schools that exist within our schools in Africa. 

The Chairman of CETAB, Al Haj Murtaza Datoo	The Chairman of ZCSS, Al Haj Mohamed Visram

The Chairman of ZCSS, Al Haj Mohamed Visram, moved the audience when he described the desperate plight of the poor and the needy children within our own communities and the Shia communities’ worldwide. The shackles of poverty within the community can only be removed by educating its children and he reiterated the mission of the Zainabiya Child Sponsorship Scheme that: ‘no child in the community should ever be deprived of attaining basic education.’ ZCSS is presently sponsoring thousands of children in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Iran and Kenya. He was pleased to announce the success of the recently launched Yatim and Asir scheme to provide educational assistance for the deprived children of Shia Iraqi refugees in Iran. 

On behalf of the Chairman of the Islamic Education Board (Mulla Muhsin Jaffer) Al Haj Jaffer Dharamsi explained that understanding Islam and sharing the gift of Islam can only be effectively done if everyone of us participate in the activities of the IEB ranging from projects on the Holy Qur'an, Zakireen and Madressa to Media, Books and Internet. 

Al Haj Jaffer Dharamsi	The Hon. Treasurer, Al Haj Ahmed Daya

On behalf of the Chairman of Medical Advisory Board (Dr. Mohamedtaqi Walji) Dr Ahmed Hassam, a member of the MAB, reiterated the perils of ignoring WF resolutions relating to AIDS and Thalassaemia. He emphatically stated that only by ‘empowering the Health Boards of Regional Federations and Jamaats will we, as a community, be able to effectively promote health awareness and combat diseases.’ 

The Hon. Treasurer, Al Haj Ahmed Daya explained in details the various sources of revenue and ways in which these funds are disbursed. He provided a summary of movement of funds over the past 25 years that illustrated the growth of the World Federation and the wide-ranging activities in which it was involved.

The Vice President, Dr. Ahmed Hassam gave an update on the Marhum Mulla Asghar Memorial project and the progress on the 25th Anniversary Conventions. Although the Youth Convention that was to be held in Dubai had to be cancelled due to lack of response, it is anticipated that inshalla the event will be held in the near future. He also gave a detailed update on the progress on resettlement of our communities in Kutch and Gujarat who were affected by the earthquake of January 26th 2001. We are now in the final phase of the resettlement programme that is to provide assistance to build permanent homes and repair and build of the damaged Mosques and imamwadas.

Finally, the President of the World Federation, Al Haj Hasnain Walji, summed up the evening's proceedings by reiterating the ‘Vision to Reality’ document which sets out defined goals and objectives for our community world wide as well as acting as a mechanism for performance management which will move the community efficiently towards the defined vision, inshallah. He encouraged the leadership to empower the boards and subcommittees to implement the decisions of the conferences and Executive Councils. These are the 'Frontline workers' of the community who require all the management and resource backup in order to produce the most effective results. He emphasised to the attentive audience that the time has now come to ‘make this cultural shift and devolve responsibility and accountability’ to them so as to enable the community to make even greater strides to achieve our objectives. He acknowledged that the preceding presentations were but glimpse of the solid team that had been nurtured by Marhum Mulla Saheb, which he was now blessed to lead.

The Vice President, Dr. Ahmed Hassam	The President of the World Federation,  Al Haj Hasnain Walji

The venue for the Fourth Meeting of The Executive Council was also held in the Mulla Asgherali Memorial Hall on Saturday 5th January where participants from several different cities representing almost all the regions of the World Federation met to deliberate upon important issues affecting the community. The delegation from Africa was led by the Chairman of Africa Federation, Al Haj Zulfikar Khimji and the Vice Chairman, Al Haj Ramzan Nanji. Included within the delegations was the past Chairman of Africa Federation - Alhaj Mohammedbhai Dhirani as well as the President of Dar es Salaam Jamaat, Alhaj Asgher Bharwani, and the President of Kampala Jamaat, Al Haj Mustafa Kanji. The delegation from North America was led by the President of Nasimco, Sister Noorzehra Ebrahim. Councillors Manzoor Kanani and Mohammedraza Moledina were also present. The Presidents of New York, Alhaj Gulam Dinani, the President of Allentown, Alhaj Mohamed Khaku, the President of London Hujjat, Alhaj Mohamed Lalji, the President of London Hyderi, Dr. Liakat Dewji and the President of Milton Keynes, Alhaj Musaddiq Ladak, also graced the meeting.

In his quarterly review, the President of the World Federation outlined the overall activities carried out by the World Federation and emphasised the need to adopt change in the way we function in order to progress for the community. He could not over emphasise the role the youth have to perform in community activities. Youth, he said, is a phase of life that may need special attention but should be respected and strongly encouraged to be involved in community life. In particular, to further the community and move it to a better, more progressive level.

In the Councillors Forum, two papers of considerable interest were presented. The first paper, which was the result of the discussion initiated by the e-magazine: ‘The Community On Friday’, deliberated on the need to preserve Gujarati as our common language within the community. The Secretary General, Dr Sibtain Panjwani, in the preamble to the paper, explained that the Gujarati language strengthens our socio-religious culture, hence the need to preserve it in our society. He reminded the council of a resolution passed in 1991 for active preservation of the language within the whole community.

Furthermore, Councillors took part in a lively debate outlining their views, both for and against the preservation of the language. Many expressed that it was vital to maintain our cultural identity and that the Gujarati language was the vehicle to do this. Others, however, felt that the exercise was a fruitless one. Rather, we should be more practical and face reality that our children are growing up where other languages are more paramount and beneficial. Some also commented that parents have a more important role in cultivating the Gujarati language and that the community can only supplement efforts made by parents.

Councillor Mohamedraza Moledina of USA, with a characteristic clarity, presented the second paper in which he explained the turn of events on the 11th of September in New York detailing the incident and the consequences for the Muslims in America. He emphasised that within the political space that is available to Muslims, our community, as part of an overall Muslim society, need to engage vigorously in performing our duty in protecting the values of Muslims and educating the masses worldwide on what the true Islam is. The President of NASIMCO, Sister Noorzehra Ebrahim, as well as representatives from various European and North American jamaats, elaborated upon the impact and experiences within their own community and region and stressed the need to build closer relationships with other communities.

Being the term of education, the President of the World Federation, Dr.Hasnain Walji, announced the ‘Mulla Asghar Memorial Academic Scheme’ for the children in our community in Africa. The World Federation and Africa Federation, inshallah, will jointly carry out this scheme. Furthermore, he informed the Council of the intention to call an Extra Ordinary Constitutional Conference in September 2002 to specifically review the procedures of presidential elections and the proposals received from Karachi (Pirhai) Jamaat regarding proportional representation. To this end, a three men task force is already set up and headed by Al Haj Asaf Gulamhusein. The primary objective of the task force is to create a consensus around proposed amendments making the conference’s proceedings more efficient and less time consuming.

The Treasurer of the World Federation Alhaj Ahmed Daya, succinctly presented the financial report and the status of the World Federation which was noted by the Council. 

Our Commitment…
Finally, an important message which the World Federation always tries to impart to its people is to continue to understand this organisation, its vision and how the community, or more specifically, how you, the individual, can contribute. In this respect, the World Federation tries to bring itself to the people, via holding meetings in different venues. This is a testament to our commitment to inform areas of our worldwide community of the World Federation. Indeed, we try, using diverse resources, from Internet and literature to presentations and speeches, to bring ‘the organisation to the people.’ But as always, there are two sides to the coin. The people must also bring the organisation to themselves. 


SECRETARIAT
22 January 2002