Author: Mohammed Wajihuddin
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 14, 2012
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Mumbai-violence-London-returned-preacher-scrap-dealer-main-organizers/articleshow/15486056.cms

A host of Sunni groups have come under sharp criticism from community leaders for collaborating with a fringe organization which took lead in organizing Saturday's protest rally at Azad Maidan. Madinat-ul-Ilm (House of Knowledge), a little-known socio-religious outfit which is not even registered and runs from a rented room at Kurla, had secured police permission for the protest meeting which turned violent.

 Founded by Maulana Ahmad Raza, a Kurla-based preacher who originally hails from Purnia district in Bihar, and Rizwan Khan, a scrap dealer from Ghatkopar, Madinat-ul-Ilm runs classes for English speaking, deeniyat (basic knowledge about Islam) and occasionally holds social awareness programmes . It had no experience of organizing public demonstrations or protest rallies before it decided to call for a march to Azad Maidan. Raza and Khan took help of several other Sunni organizations like Raza Academy, Sunni Jamiatul Ulema, Sunni Tablighi Jamaat and Sunni Tanzeem-e-Imam in mobilizing the crowd.

 "It was the duty of Raza Academy and other Sunni organizations which helped Madinat-ul-Ilm to seek police permission to ensure that they had enough volunteers at the venue," said Shia scholar Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi. Rizvi said that when a group of boys began torching OB vans and attacking police, the organizers should have come out and tried to stop them. "They were issuing appeals to remain peaceful from the dais, but why didn't they personally come down and intervene?" asked Rizvi.

 Raza, who came to Mumbai in 1998 from Bihar, studied at a madrassa in Kural before he went to England and worked as an imam at a mosque in south London. Six months ago he returned and floated Madinat-ul-Ilm at Kurla. He admitted that he had never organized a big rally and felt helpless when he saw a section turning violent.

 Raza Academy, the Sunni advocacy group which actively helped Raza and Khan in mobilizing the crowd, has ample experience of holding protest rallies. But this time even they failed to estimate the number of the crowd and they didn't have enough volunteers to pacify the enraged section of protesters . In fatc on August 3, Raza Academy had carried out a similar protest rally at Minara Masjid on Mohammad Ali Road. But Raza Academy general secretary Muhammed Saeed Noori denied that Saturday's protest was organized by them. "We had only backed them (Madinat-ul-Ilm )," he said.