VIJAYAWADA: Zahara Begum, organizer, Tahera Trust in on an unusual mission – she is exhorting fellow members of the Muslim community to contribute funds towards the construction of a grand temple for Hindu god Lord Ram at Ayodhya.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, she recalled that all communities, including Muslims, would pool efforts to support their Hindu brothers and sisters in organising Pooja for Vinayaka Chavithi, Dasara and Ram Navami by offering donations, in the true spirit and tradition of India, and its rich ‘Unity in Diversity’.
She appealed to Muslim community to come forward generously to cooperate in all possible manners, including offering donations, towards the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya in the same spirit.
Ms Zahara appealed to fellow Muslims to donate money through Nidhi Samarpana, during the Nidhi Sekarana program for building of Ram temple at Ayodhya, purely on a voluntary basis. She said that Muslims can start contributing donate from Rs 10 to any larger amount of their choice towards the fund.
She recalled that while working for years with villages, sometimes remote, though several of them have over the last decade advanced a lot, she had noticed that in almost all villages, Hindus have donated land for construction of mosques, idgahs and also for burial grounds for the Muslim community.
“Non-Muslims have donated a great extent of cultivable land of their volition to Muslims,” she said, adding not only giving land, Hindus have also helped construct masjids, Idgahs and kabarastans (graveyards).
Ms Zahara further said, “we are blessed to be in a country where Lord Ram was born. We are fortunate that the temple is going to be built during our time. Lord Ram has taught ‘Dharma’ as a way of life’ and stands as an exemplar for the entire world.”
“Let us come together and participate in this divine activity and help in construction of a great Ram temple at Ayodhya with an open heart,” she added.
She further said India means spirituality, a rich heritage, multi-traditional, multi-cultural, multi-linguistic milieu, unlike any other country in the world. People of all communities, including Muslims, have freedoms in India unlike in many other countries and share pride in being Indian.
