Sir Syed Day Celebrated With Great Enthusiasm, Many Constructive Projects Initiated

Prof. Obaid Siddiqi receiving the Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Intrnational Award for Life Sciences 2009 from AMU Chancellor, Justice A. M. Ahmadi

Prof. S. Zahoor Qasim addressing the gathering at Commemoration Meeting on the occasion of Sir Syed Day 2009

Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah receiving the memento

ALIGARH October 17: “In order to resolve energy crisis and to cater to ever growing energy needs of the country the Central Government will launch Solar Mission on November 14 and Aligarh Muslim University may also set up a separate Department of Renewable Energy”, said Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy while speaking at Sir Syed Commemoration Meeting today.

He said that the government will launch a solar mission to mark the birth anniversary of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. Our country imports petrol, oil, coal and millions of rupees are spent on it but enormous resources of solar and wind energy remains unused. The government has decided to tape these natural resources and Aligarh Muslim University can play an important role in setting up renewable energy department. The country will produce 20000 megawatt electricity through solar energy by 2020, he added.

Paying rich tribute to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the most seminal figure in the 19th century India, Dr. Abdullah said, “Sir Syed was fully committed to the well-being of his countrymen and for him caste, creed and religion had no meaning. If Sir Syed’s Ideals of large hearted tolerance and peaceful co-existence are adhered to, regional differences will disappear. At political level SAARC countries emulate European Union model and use their resources on the well-being of people”.

Dr. Abdullah asked AMU students to concentrate on achieving excellence in every walk of life and they should work towards shaping the destiny of India. He asked the students to zero in on what is coming in their way and hoped that AMU will produce a Nobel laureate.

On this occasion, AMU Chancellor and retired Chief Justice of Supreme Court Justice A. M. Ahmadi conferred the prestigious Sir Syed Ahmad Khan International Award-2009 in the field of Life Sciences on eminent scientists and researchers and AMU alumni, Prof. Syed Zahoor Qasim and Prof. Obaid Siddiqi for their remarkable contributions in Marine Biology and Molecular Biology respectively. The winners of the All India Essay Writing Competition on “Sir Syed’s Vision and Mission: Relevance in the New Millennium” were also awarded prizes by the Pro-chancellor Nawab Rahmatullah Khan Sherwani.

Welcoming the guests from all parts of the globe, the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, Prof. P. K. Abdul Azis said that the University is on resurgent track. The University has been able to get Rs. 185 Crores for various development initiatives during the XI Plan. The Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College has been declared for upgradation at a cost of Rs. 150 Crore. The Government of India has sanctioned Rs. 50 Crore for starting two special Centres of AMU in Wes Bengal and Kerala. A residential Civil Services Coaching Academy at a cost of Rs. 14 Crore is to start soon. The Schools under the AMU are on a modernization drive. The University is expecting support to the tune of Rs. 85 Crore for creating facilities including appointment of 120 teachers, badly needed at these Schools.

He announced that the Aligarh Muslim University has the 8th Rank among the Indian universities in terms of research publications. The Government of India has granted a sum of Rs. 9 Crore for the promotion of advanced research in the University.

Prof. Azis said that the AMU believes that it has a role to play in making quality education accessible to people in different parts of the country. In response to the status of backwardness brought out by the Sachar Committee, the Aligarh Muslim University has decided to establish 5 special Centres of the University: Murshidabad in West Bengal, Katihar in Bihar, Malappuram in kerala, Pune in Maharashtra and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. The Government of India has been graceful in approving the idea and allocated Rs. 50 Crore as a token grant to start these Centres during the current year.

The Vice Chancellor said that the Deans of various faculties of the University have been requested to initiate consultations with Faculty members for preparing e-lessons and e-learning tools. He said that the Controller of Examination is working on the possibility of making online submission of admission forms, online counseling, online admissions, online internal assessment and online University examinations.

The commemoration programme was conducted by AMU Registrar, Prof. V. K. Abdul Jaleel and the Dean, Students’ Welfare, Prof. M. Zubair Khan proposed the Vote of Thanks. Apart from the alumni from all over the world including Pakistan and Tanzania, the programme was attended by the diplomats of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Libya. Earlier in the morning the recitation of the Holy Qura was organized at Jama Masjid and a flower bed was laid on Sir Syed’s grave by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. P. K. Abdul Azis. Later an exhibition of Sir Syed’s books and photographs was inaugurated by the Vice Cahcellor at Sir Sye Academy.

All India Essay Writing Competition on Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Winners Declared

Tahir Ashraf Siddiqui

Jyotsana Gautam

Bharat Bhatti

ALIGARH: Tahir Ashraf Siddiqui of National Law Institute, Jodhpur, Rajasthan bagged the first prize of All India Essay Writing Competition on Sir Syed Ahmad Khan organized by the Aligarh Muslim University, while Jyotsana Gautam of Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla and Bharat Bhatti of Delhi University got the second and third prizes respectively.

The Essay Writing Competition carried cash prizes of rupees twenty five thousand for first, rupees fifteen thousand for second and rupees ten thousand for third position. Besides these cash prize of rupees five thousand are given to individual participants each from different states as state topper.


In addition to the above, prizes for the best essays from each state have also been announced. The winners are – Vivekanand Kumar, St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi (Jharkhand), Amit Laddha, Gujarat National Law Institute, Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Tarique Ashraf Siddiqui, National Institute of Technolog Kurukshetra (Haryana), Mushtaqul Haq Ahmad Sikander, Univesity of Kashmir (J & K), Shaikh Sadab A Gulab, Nowrosjee Wadia College, Pune (Maharashtra), Mahmood Alam Siddiqui, Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), Bhupinder Singh Bedi, Punjab University, Chandigarh (Punjab), Anusha N., Jaya Engineering College, Thiruninravur, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Abhishek Kumar, Chanakya National Law University, Patna (Bihar), and Asma Shahid from Raza P.G. College, Rampur (Uttar Pradesh) and Arina Khan, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (Uttar
Pradesh) shared the prize of state topper from UP.

The prizes will be given away to the winners at the Sir Syed Day Commemoration Meeting to be held on October 17^th at 10 am at University Athletics Ground.

Sir Syed Day Ki Dili Mubarakbad

Diwali Mubarak

May the Divine Light Of Diwali Spread Prosperity, Peace, Happiness And Good Health In Your Life.
Wish You And Your Family A Very Very Happy Diwali.

AMU Digest October 2009 1st Edition

CONTENTS
10 Facts About Sir Syed, Every Alig Should Know   
59th Annual Convocation of AMU, A.R. Rahman An AMU Degree Holder Now   
Khushboo Mirza: The Girl Behind Glorious Voyage of Chandrayaan-1   
JNMC To Enjoy Institute Status , Just Like AIIMS   
AMU Will Now Spread To Educate    
Rapid Fire News    5
Prof. Akhtar Haseeb Awarded With “VIGYAN GAURAV”    
Tanveer Azam conferred upon "Young Scientist Award-2009"   
ZHCET among TOP 5 in GOOGLE’s Challenge   
Feel The Zeal of JNMC   
Dr. Nadeen A. Ansari Presented Paper on Novel Diagnostic Biomarkers Of Diabetes in Turkey   
7 Reasons That Make Aligs An Unbeatable Blogger   
3 Indispensable Tools To Make Research Work On Web, A Breeze   
List Of Institutions Providing Scholarships    
Dr. Rafiuddin Ahmad "The Father Of Indian Dentistry" Was An AMU Alumnus    

AMU Digest October 2009 1st Edition

The Tastiest Bites Of AMUNEWS

Find the tastiest bites of AMUNEWS here

Challenges Among Civilizations By :Syed Waris Shere

A great visionary of all times Mohandas K. Gandhi in his article in 1938 writes his views about the Arab-Jew question on Palestine and the persecution of the Jews. At that time, Hitler was ruling Germany and the clouds of a terrible conflict begun to form shows his incredible sense of right and wrong. He writes, “My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa . Some of them became life-long companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age-long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close. Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews. But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice.

The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine . Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood? Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French. If the Jews have no home but Palestine, will they relish the idea of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which they are settled? Or do they want a double home where they can remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a colorable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews. But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which many inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter.

The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province." According to Mahatma Gandhi, let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home including Palestine, not by aggression but by loving service."
 
Mahatma Gandhi sums up very profoundly with a word to the Jews in Palestine. "I have no doubt that they are going about it the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart. The same God rules the Arab heart, who rules the Jewish heart. They can offer satyagraha in front of the Arabs and offer themselves to be shot or thrown in to the Dead Sea without raising a little finger against them. They will find the world opinion in the their favor in their religious aspiration. There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if they will only discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them." Victims who rose up against human indignity in the Warsaw Ghetto are called heroes. Those who lost their lives are called martyrs. On the other hand the Palestinian who tosses a rock in desperation is a terrorist according to Judith Tamar Stone, a jew, who founded Voice Dialogue Connection. As an internationally renowned Psychotherapist, Teacher, Facilitator and Communications Leader, she writes that the Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion once said, "Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves...politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves. No body can deny that Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. Its cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of God. According to Stone, Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fiat accompli realised through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. Human atrocity was and continues to be perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people, concludes Judith Stone.
About the Author: WARIS SHERE was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University, University of London and Technische Hochschule, Aachen Germany. He has authored eight books in the field of Applied Mathematics, International Affairs and Academic Futures: Prospects for Post-Secondary institution. He has taught Applied Mathematics at the University of Manitoba, Canada and Red River College, Canada for several years. His work on critical issues of International Affairs has been published globally. His main interests are Emerging International Order, Security and the Prospects for East-West relations and Dilemmas in Policy-Making for Education.