RIYADH, 2 August — A huge delegation of Muslim youths from South Asian countries will arrive in Jeddah today as part of a high-profile awareness program sponsored by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). This is the first program of its kind organized by the South Asian chapter of WAMY to educate Muslim youths from that part of the world. The program gives the participants an opportunity to perform Umrah and pray at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.
“These young Muslim leaders from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Burma will visit the Kingdom for one week,” Amanullah Khan, WAMY representative for Asia, said here yesterday. Khan, who is also the chairman of the Students Islamic Trust (SIT) in Delhi, is currently visiting Saudi Arabia at the head of a WAMY delegation.
During the trip, the delegates would visit major Islamic institutions in the Kingdom including WAMY offices, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Muslim World League (MWL) and the Islamic Development Bank.
Khan said that a delay in implementing new Umrah visa rules has affected the program as delegates from some countries could not obtain visas to join the delegation despite efforts exerted by the organizers.
Khan said WAMY’s priority was to educate Muslim youths and students with the aim of ensuring the all-round development of their personalities. With this objective, the South Asian chapter of WAMY organized a number of camps during the past few years in some South Asian countries and hosted a major conference in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in mid-February.
Asked about the new projects being funded by the IDB, Khan said the Jeddah-based bank had spent some SR225 million to support various projects in India. These include educational projects, social welfare projects, medical centers and scholarship programs.
The IDB, he said, had been providing substantial assistance to execute such projects in more than 55 countries where Muslims are in a minority. This is in addition to aid and credit facilities extended by the IDB to its member states.
The IDB, Khan said, was working on a plan to increase the number of scholarships for Indian Muslim students. There is also a proposal to award scholarships in disciplines other than medical, engineering, management and agriculture studies. The IDB has been giving scholarships to some 600 to 700 students in India every year and it has helped more than 2,000 Muslim doctors and engineers in their studies during the past 17 years.
Khan, who also heads the Rabita Committee in India, said the non-profit organization has plans to organize three educational caravans in October this year. The caravans in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal will help open new schools, launch drives to enroll Muslim children in schools and will promote educational awareness among women.
“Similar caravans organized in the past generated great enthusiasm among Muslims of UP and Bihar,” Khan said, adding that about 400 schools and other educational institutions sprung up in different parts of the region as a result.
