At a time when the world has turned online for education, work, shopping, business and whatnot, here is a couple from Malappuram district in Kerala who has brought out a new online method of learning, integrating computer coding with school subjects for kids. Let’s meet Aisha Sameeha and Shahid Jabbar from Nilambur.
Hailing from the village of Melattur, Aisha Sameeha was just one among the many girls in Malappuram – who studied well, graduated in BTech, got married and settled with her husband in his workplace Dubai.
Soon, they got their first child and Sameeha got busy with her daughter Eshal.
However, sitting idle or being content with the homely chores alone was not her cup of tea. Sameeha tried her hand at different trades such as content writing for technical websites, cooking and baking, stitching and embroidery etc. She also attended and won a few cooking competitions held in Kerala and Dubai.
Into the field of education
Having born and brought up in Kerala and abroad, Sameeha had got familiarized with different methods of education. And that encouraged her interest in learning and teaching. “Teaching has always been my passion, even when doing BTech. And that is also a reason I didn’t take up the job offers that came my way after the completion of my studies,” said Sameeha. She especially mentioned the methods followed in the PeeVeeS Public School, Nilambur, where she studied from class 1 to 6 and the MES Engineering College. The two institutions taught her the importance of encouragement by teachers and the effectiveness of grouping and sharing to learn better.
Once her daughter began to attend school, it opened her to another world in the field of education. The kindergarten that Eshal attended in Dubai followed the Reggio Emilia approach, which gave high importance to interaction between parents, teachers and students. Parents were encouraged to come to the school and be a part of various activities. Each class had a library and several other items that caught children’s attention and interest, where they could gain knowledge. “I had thought that I couldn’t manage small kids, but it was proved wrong when I began to go there,” confessed Sameeha. “I used to observe how they were doing things, dealing with the children, the method of teaching etc. That was a sort of experimental and experiential learning. Eshal liked it a lot there.”
source: http://www.thesite.in / The Site / Home> Empowerment / by Najiya O / December 07th, 2020
Noted NASA scientist Dr Hashima Hasan, who is the Program Scientist for NuSTAR, has thanked the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) helping her materialise her dream. According to an official AMU press statement, she thanked the university during the interview to NASA STEM Stars.
“The student life at AMU from 1968 to 1973 and the academic credentials gained there helped me attain a prestigious scholarship to further pursue higher studies in Nuclear Science at the University of Oxford,” Hashima said.
“I worked hard and gave this land all I had, and this great nation paid me back in spades, but it all started at AMU,” she added.
“I was a little girl back then, but the spectacular satellite launch made me eager to follow every success and failure in the newspaper. I clearly remember the day man landed on the moon,” she said. The work at NASA is dynamic, challenging and energizing and my journey to become a space scientist began after a post-graduate degree in Nuclear Physics at the Aligarh Muslim University, reminisced Dr Hashima.
She attended Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for a postdoc and worked at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai before reaching the United States on a US Council Fellowship.
“Later in life, I worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, writing the simulation software for the optics of the Hubble Space Telescope and its science instruments, using it to analyse the optical error of Hubble after launch,” she shared in the interview.
Dr Hashima recalled that as the Optical Telescope Assembly Scientist, it was her job to keep the telescope in the best focus until a fix could be installed.
“Then I was ready to achieve my dream of working directly for NASA. An opportunity arose in 1994 when a job for a Visiting Senior Scientist was advertised. Although it was a two-year job, I found working at NASA Headquarters so exhilarating and rewarding that I stayed on,” she said adding that NASA’s space science program gives her the opportunity to lead cutting edge science, work with world-class scientists and write research papers on astronomy.
source: http://www.thesite.in / The Site / Home> Inspiration / by The Site Reporter / December 12th, 2020
Currently, Lulu imports apples and saffron from Kashmir and imports will significantly increase in the coming years.
Image used for representatio
The UAE-based Lulu Group International has announced a plan to set up a food processing centre in Srinagar for sourcing a wide range of agri products from Jammu and Kashmir.
The announcement was made by Lulu group chairman Yusuffali MA on Thursday during a meeting with a delegation from Jammu and Kashmir headed by its Principal Secretary (Agriculture Production and Horticulture) Navin Kumar Choudhary on the sidelines of the UAE India Food Security Summit 2020.
“As per the commitment made during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to UAE in 2019, Lulu Group is fully focused on sourcing a wide range of agri products from J&K,” Yusuffali, who is from Kerala, said.
“Setting up of a new food processing and logistics centre will further boost the export of Kashmiri products,” he said.
Currently, Lulu imports apples and saffron from Kashmir and imports will significantly increase in the coming years.
The group imported more than 400 tons of Kashmiri apples till date, despite several challenges in the recent past due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an official statement.
Yusuffali said Lulu group is one of the leading importers of food and non-food products from India and setting up of a new food processing and logistics centre will further boost export of Kashmiri products to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other countries.
GCC is a political and economic union of six Arab states bordering the Gulf.
Its members are the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Describing the meeting as “very productive”, J&K Principal Secretary Choudhary said a large number of decisions were taken to promote the export of agriculture and horticulture products from the union territory to the entire Gulf region using stores of Lulu group.
He assured all help to Lulu group for setting up logistic facilities and offices at identified facilities in J&K.
Choudhary also welcomed the initiative of Lulu group to host a “J&K special” fortnight at all super markets at its group across the Gulf region on the occasion of Republic Day-2021 as part of Incredible India.
This fortnight celebration will begin on January 24 next year and will showcase J&K’s famous products like cuisine and cultural heritage, the statement said.
The discussions also focused on exploring the possibility of direct passenger as well as regular cargo flights between Srinagar and Dubai.
An MoU was also signed between Lulu group and Fruit Master Agro Fresh J&K for the supply of apple and other fruits for the super markets of Lulu group across the Gulf countries, the statement said.
Indian Consul General Aman Puri congratulated Lulu group for announcing a host of initiatives and the long-standing commitment and partnership in achieving the target of doubling J&K’s exports and expressed his gratitude to the company chairman for his initiatives in the union territory which would generate employment opportunities for local youths and contribute to the economic development of the region.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Business / by PTI / December 11th, 2020
According to Dr Khurshid Imam, understanding Judaism is essential to fully comprehend the Quran.
Navras Jaat Aafreedi/jnu.ac.in
The only Hebrew language teacher who holds a position in Indian academia is Dr Khurshid Imam, Assistant Professor at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University. In this conversation with Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi, he reveals the secret of a Ben Gurion “mosque” and tells us about a hadīth in which Prophet Muhammad encouraged Muslims to learn Hebrew.
Please correct me if I am wrong in understanding that you are the only person teaching Hebrew at any Indian university?
Not only am I the only person teaching Hebrew at any Indian university, but I was also instrumental in getting Hebrew introduced at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Although officially speaking it was introduced at the university only as a result of a bilateral agreement between India and Israel, yet had I not made efforts for it, I doubt if this would have happened when it happened. (This interview was conducted in 2011. Since then, Dr Imam has been joined by Achia Anzi in teaching Hebrew at JNU, but Anzi teaches on a contractual basis. Hence, Imam still remains the only Hebrew teacher to hold a tenure track position in Indian academia.)
There are two divisions in any religious community, one of the observant followers and the other of the non-observant ones. You clearly belong to the observant section of Muslims. Considering this and given the tensions between Jews and Muslims today, it is surprising to come across you, an observant Muslim, as the only Hebrew teacher in India. Although Islam does not forbid learning any language, it is hard to find somebody like you.
It is only because of the stereotyping of Muslims that people are surprised when they find me teaching Hebrew. Stereotyping can have very dangerous ramifications as witnessed in the post-9/11 fatal attacks on Sikhs in the US when they were mistaken for Muslims because of their beards and turbans. Also, generally Muslims know their religion not as a result of self-study but as a consequence of how it is interpreted to them by the clerics, which shapes their understanding of how a Muslim should conduct himself. Hence, they are often suspicious of those among them who study the Torah or have Jewish friends.
Similarly, instead of appreciating a Muslim studying the Hebrew language in which one of the most important sacred texts, the Torah, was received, it is seen with suspicion and even condemned. There was a time when the Indian Muslims had a similar attitude towards English, then seen by them as a language of the imperialists and enemies of Islam which would distance the Muslims from their religion, Islam. But today not only is English taught even in the Islamic seminaries, its importance is realised by one and all across the Indian Muslim community.
My family, friends and wider community were all surprised when I decided to learn Hebrew. Even in Israel, everybody seemed to be surprised to find a visibly observant Muslim like me with a beard and Islamic skull cap desirous of learning Hebrew. For the Israelis, it was their first ever interaction with a non-Arab Muslim, and that too an observant one and on top of that interested in learning their language, which took them by surprise. So, among both, Muslims as well as Jews, there were people who felt I had gone crazy. And I was met with this response only because of the stereotype of a Muslim that these people had. As for me, my interest in Hebrew was driven by my desire to learn about the Jewish version of the Middle East conflict, as my Jewish brethren expressed it in their language Hebrew. I could already access the Arab version in their language because of my knowledge of Arabic. I did not want to know about the conflict between the Jew and the Muslim through a third person.
During the time you spent in Israel for your studies, the consciousness that the people there would form their perception of Indian Muslims on the basis of their impression of you must have put some pressure on you?
It was after my MPhil at the Jawaharlal Nehru University that I went to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for some time for specialising in the Modern Middle East. Initially I went to Israel on a Government of Israel Scholarship, but after that I was supported by Golda Meir scholarship to continue my studies there. The various courses that I took under these two scholarships were cumulatively considered at par with MA.
Although lessons in Hebrew language are not a part of MA in Middle Eastern Studies, yet knowledge of Hebrew is considered mandatory for it. Hence, I learnt Hebrew along with my MA and attained knowledge equivalent to seven levels. I was in Israel from 1998 to 2000. I registered for PhD in 2002 and was awarded the degree of PhD in 2009. I was the first non-Arab Muslim that the Israelis had any interaction with. And they started trusting me so much that some of my Jewish friends even visited the Palestinian Authority-administered Bethlehem with me for the first time in spite of all apprehensions. I got invited to their homes on Jewish festivals just as I was invited by my Palestinian friends on Muslim festivals. My having relations with both parties sometimes made people suspicious of me. Palestinians would think of me as a Yemenite Jew while the Ashkenazim would consider me an Arab. Hence, I was under threat from both sides. In this respect, mere glares would say a lot to me even if the people did not utter a word.
When I tread on areas beyond the university neighbourhood, people would look at me with suspicion. Muslims would look at me in the same manner if I visited a mosque not accompanied by any local Arab Muslim friend. The very atmosphere is such that people get easily suspicious of strangers and fear them to be suicide bombers or fanatic attackers. Later, I started empathising with them. I used to offer namāz (Islamic prayers) in the balcony of my flat in Israel. The door to the balcony had a picture of [Israel’s first prime minister] Davd Ben Gurion. I never thought of removing the picture, and as a result my flatmates started calling it Ben Gurion mosque.
Without exaggeration, at least 20-25 Jews wept when I left Israel. Relations are still such that whenever anybody from this university goes to Israel, he is asked about my well-being. I see it as an achievement that I left behind weeping Jewish friends when I returned to India, given the fact that I had gone to Israel all alone, despite discouragement from family and friends and their warnings that according to them, I, a devout Muslim, was risking my safety by heading to an enemy country. Later, Israeli TV channel, Channel 8 Avutz Shimoni, invited me to Israel for two weeks for an interview for a six or seven episode documentary series on identity.
How and when did you develop an interest in the Hebrew language?
Conscious as I was that there was more to the animosity and the tensions between Jews and Muslims than just the Arab-Israel conflict, I decided to interact with Jews in their own language to get to the very root of the problem. It was an attempt on my part to understand their outlook, their point of view, right from the horse’s mouth, instead of being informed through the press, predominantly by the third party, which is neither Jewish nor Muslim.
Secondly,there is a hadith according to which Prophet Muhammad asked his followers to learn Hebrew. It is said that two of the sahābā attained command of Hebrew, one in thirteen days and the other in fifteen days. Hebrew of those times was very close to Arabic. By learning Hebrew, I also followed a sunnat, according to which one should learn as much as possible. My knowledge of Hebrew has also enabled me to bridge the communication gap between me as a Muslim and Jews. I also felt that with the increasing strengthening of relations between India and Israel, knowledge of Hebrew would brighten my career prospects. The first organisation to employ me upon my return to India was the Indian Defence School where I taught Hebrew. Even today, when I do not teach there any more I am still requested to come from time to time whenever there is anything involving the Indo-Israel defence deals. Hence, I have served my religion as well as my country by learning the Hebrew language.
What did you propose to study when you applied for the Government of Israel Scholarship?
I proposed to research the Role of Extremist Writers in the Peace Process.
After your return from Israel on the completion of your studies, did you face any opposition or resistance to your academic endeavours in India?
I am often called a Mossad agent who has been planted among Indian Muslims. Jawaharlal Nehru University is politically a very sensitive place given the dominance of the Left at the campus. It is the Left which is considered secular and it is anti-Israel. Hence, I could not expect any support from them. And as far as the Right is considered, even if they were sympathetic towards the cause of Hebrew, they were suspicious of me because of my religious Islamic demeanour. Therefore, of the two main political factions active at the university campus, I could not get support from either.
In this situation, it was not easy to introduce and promote Hebrew in the university and all I could do was to keep a low profile. Conscious of the fact that Muslims and Jews are seen as political adversaries, I urged the people to see my attempt to introduce Hebrew as a purely academic act, rather than driven by any political agenda. JNU is particularly known for the study of modern foreign languages. I tried to draw attention to the need for the introduction of classical languages and projected Hebrew as one. Introducing Hebrew in the garb of a classical language was the only strategy I could think of for countering the forces resisting it.
What I teach today is actually Modern Hebrew. I neither find myself qualified to teach the classical form nor is there any demand for it as the students are largely market-oriented and not research oriented. It is the knowledge of Modern Hebrew which would serve them better.
Could you, please, narrate a few interesting anecdotes or experiences of Israel.
When I got off the taxi at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem after my arrival in Israel, a heavy suitcase of mine, which did not even have wheels, was lifted for me for a long distance, until I reached my destination, by a stranger. It is interesting to note here that I had been cautioned against going to Israel by friends and family, and now my very first experience there was so pleasant.
Once a bomb explosion took place in the university library and the old librarian got injured. I also happened to be there. The librarian was so impressed with my gesture of immediately getting him water to drink and also with my washing his wounds, that after that incident he always introduced me to the people as the gentleman who came to his rescue immediately after the explosion. As a result of this and many other incidents, I got the happy feeling that I was positively contributing to Jewish-Muslim relations by leaving behind a positive image of Muslims, unlike the one the Jews had before. There were even articles on me in the Israeli press after this incident.
Before I went to Israel, I did not use to allow anyone to take pictures of me, but in Israel I was photographed so much that I stopped resisting.
One day, I was on my way to see a filmmaker who had interviewed me for a documentary he was making on Jihad. I had with me a book for him, titled Killing in the Name of God. Just when the bus arrived at the stop a police car stopped right in front of it after overtaking it and the policemen signalled to the driver not to open the door. With the pistols pointed at me, I was asked to raise my hands. After which I was asked to lift my shirt and then to open the bag. Upon my opening the bag came out that book, which made them all the more suspicious. However, I was let off when I showed them my University Identity Card. They explained that they did so because they had some input about a suicide bomber.
I would admit that I did have the same perception of Jews as common among the common Muslims, that they are a people guilty of the falsification of religious texts. It was after going there that I realised that the Jews were not any different and were regular, ordinary people like us, with good as well as bad among them. The Indian Muslims do not seem to be prepared as yet for greater interaction with Jews, for many among them have cancelled their visits to Israel out of fear of being ostracised by their community or instead of going there directly have gone there secretly via some other country.
The Urdu press does play a negative role in shaping the Muslim perceptions of Jews and Israel. I do not know where this misconception came from that the Muslims are not free to pray in the Al Aqsa mosque, but it is very widespread among them. It is silly of the Muslim countries to not grant visas to those who have been to Israel. Just as we Muslims resent being stereotyped, the same way, we Muslims too, should not stereotype the other communities.The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has a Department devoted to Islamic Studies. When the Jews can study about Islam and its history why cannot the Muslims study about Jewish theology and history and culture. It is necessary to understand the Jews in order to understand the Quran, which is full of references to Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon.
Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi is an Indo-Judaic studies scholar and a Muslim-Jewish relations activist, employed as Assistant Professor in the Department of History & Civilization, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida.
The World’s First Halal Angels Network was launched to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and startups to tap $5 trillion, Halal consumer market, and would grow to USD 9.71 trillion by 2025. It was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to help investors, businesses, entrepreneurs & startups overcome these challenging times.
It is founded by Indian American Dr. Tausif Malik , who is a serial entrepreneur based out of Pune, India, and Chicago, USA. India is the biggest manufacturer of Halal consumer goods and has huge market opportunities in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Halal Angels Network would be the 1st Angels Network backed by Blockchain technology. The areas of interest for investments would be future technologies (Blockchain, Fintech AI, etc), Modest Fashion & Cosmetics, Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Food Cafe & Restaurants, Processed Food & Tourism.
According to Dr. Malik to it is an extension of his earlier initiative of All India Muslim Business Startup Network (AIMBSN), India’s only (AIMBSN) is a very unique business ecosystem and the objective of the All India Muslim Business Startup Network (AIMBSN) is to create an entrepreneurial spirit and participation amongst the Indian Muslim community, so they can participate and contribute back to the economic activity of their motherland INDIA.
Halal Angels Network would be based on the traditional format of Angels Network where membership would be offered to Angel investors, Investment corporations, organizations, and, startup and they could network with each other for investments and business.
Halal Angels Network is also setting up offices in GCC, Europe, and South East Asia. Halal Angels Network would be hosting Halal Angels & Venture Capital Two Day Summit 2021, for Networking, Startup Showcase & Strategic Partnership.
Dr.Malik concluded by saying that ” When discussed this idea with the investment and startup community; they all got excited about the Halal Angels Network platform and the consensus was this would be win-win situation for everyone to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic”.
source: http://www.maktoobmedia.com / Maktoob / Home> Business / by Maktoob Staff / May 11th, 2020
Thoufeek Zakariyah, Sarah Cohen and Isaac Ashkenazi inspecting a Torah that Thoufeek designed.
Down in the heart of “God’s Own Country,” as the Indian state of Kerala is affectionately known, an Indian Muslim calligrapher is using his skills in the art of the ink flourishes to bridge Jewish and Muslim communities.
Thoufeek Zakriya is an Indian Muslim from the city of Cochin who does calligraphy in a number of languages, including Arabic, Samaritan, Syriac and Sanskrit. More interestingly, he is a Muslim who does masterful Hebrew calligraphy.
While studying in madrasa, he learned that the Jewish people were considered by Islam to be ahl al-kitab (“People of the Book”), which sparked a curiosity in him to learn more about this religious community. His curiosity led him to find a copy of the Gideon’s Bible, which had a page with prayers in 23 different languages. He decided to find what encompassed the Hebrew word for God, so using the page as his “Rosetta Stone” he was able to decipher what letters entailed the Hebrew name for the Lord.
Jewtown – home of the tiny yet historic community of Jews in Cochin
Thoufeek became more interested in Judaism and Hebrew calligraphy, and reached out to the tiny yet historic Jewish community in Cochin . Thoufeek purchased some Hebrew texts he found at a streetside book shop and he went about learning the Hebrew alphabet. His studies in Hebrew led him to begin crafting calligraphy of Jewish prayers such as the Birkat haBayit (prayer for the home) in golden resplendent brilliance.
Birkat HaBayit, the blessing for the home.
Thofeek even began creating calligraphic replicas of the Torah.
More importantly, Thoufeek does something very unique: he has crafted Hebrew calligraphy in the ancient Kufic Arabic script. Such work is a rarity in the calligraphic world, and his innovations in the Kufic/Hebrew calligraphy has brought Thoufeek accolades from admirers from all over the world. Zakriya has been commissioned as far away as Ukraine and the United States to create works that combine Arabic calligraphy with Jewish prayers.
Birkat Kufic in Jerusalem Stone. The Hebrew letters here are turned into the Kufic Arabic script.
Thoufeek’s work and his dedication to study Jewish history and culture led to a close friendship between him and Cochin’s Jewish community, including his warm friendship with the community’s matriarch Sarah Cohen. Cohen has hosted Thoufeek for Passover seders and other Jewish holiday celebrations.
Thoufeek with Sarah Cohen
I met Thoufeek at Sarah Cohen’s embroidery shop, where she stitches yarmulkes and other Jewish-Indian embroideries. As we sat sipping tea and eating watermelon squares and black helwa (sweets), she remarked that she considers him to be like a grandson and a real mensch.
Birkat Kufic in stone. The Hebrew letters here are turned into the Kufic Arabic script
Thoufeek Zakriya is a wonderful symbol of India’s legendary tolerance for religious communities. “At a time when Jews and Muslims are sadly seen as natural adversaries, Thoufeek’s Hebrew calligraphy emerges as yet another example of Muslim-Jewish amity from India,” says Dr. Navras Aafreedi, an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Gautam Buddha University. Professor Aafreedi studies Jewish communities of India, and noted that Zakriya is the only known Muslim Hebrew calligrapher in India
Card for Rosh Hashanah reading, “Good New Year.”
“Thoufeek’s work shows us that the way to peace is through the exploration of each other’s culture and the commonalities between them,” says Dr. Aafreedi, “His work is a reminder of the shared cultural and religious heritage of Jews and Muslims, which definitely needs to be brought into sharper focus in such a manner that it overshadows the disputes, conflicts and differences.”
Photographs courtesy: Paul Rockower & Thoufeek Zakariya
This article first appeared in Huffington Post, and has been republished here in arrangement with the author. Follow Paul Rockower on Twitter: https://twitter.com/levantine18
source: http://www.thebetterindia.com / The Better India / Home> The Better Home / by Paul Rockower / January 02nd, 2013
At age 24, this college dropout helps companies like Airtel, Truecaller and Justdial protect their users’ personal data. Incredibly, however, he learnt all the necessary skills not through formal courses, but research on Google!
Meet Ehraz Ahmed, a 24-year-old, independent data security researcher from Mysuru, Karnataka, who since last year has protected the data of 700 million users by helping companies like Airtel, Justdial and Truecaller detect major flaws in their data security architecture. Simultaneously, he runs a fintech and a web security company.
What’s particularly remarkable about this first-year engineering college dropout is that he learnt all the necessary skills not through formal courses, but research on Google. A real online prodigy, Ehraz is looking to protect the data of 1 billion users by the end of this year. So, how did this ethical hacker and serial entrepreneur get to where he is today?
Early Days
“I began using computers when I was just 10. I remember accompanying my brother to the local cyber cafe paying Rs 30 an hour and playing games like Counter Strike or browsing the internet. Besides playing games, I was exploring different facets of the online world from social media sites like Orkut to finding ways of building a website because my elder brother was a web developer. I would peek into the source code of the websites he built and try to learn things independently through Google. Whatever I have learnt about computers, web security and the online world is through Google,” Ehraz tells The Better India.
It was while playing Counter Strike with his friends when Ehraz found his first opportunity at entrepreneurship. Understanding the craze for the game amongst his friends, at age 14 Ehraz started a game server hosting venture. However, besides providing online gaming servers for players to connect and play the game for just Rs 200 per player, his venture also began offering web hosting services to different websites.
The reason he ventured into the world of entrepreneurship this early was because of a few tragedies in his life. As an 8th grader, he recalls witnessing his brother meet with a serious road accident. Two years later, his father suffered a heart attack.
“My interest in my venture had dimmed after my father’s heart attack. I lost interest in my studies as well. That’s when I put everything on hold to make a fresh start. I wanted to stand on my own feet by doing something better and more significant than what I was doing. These incidents made me realise the value of time and money. Life is short and there is so much left to do not just for yourself but others as well. Nonetheless, by this time, I had grown into a competent web developer, picked up real-life entrepreneurial skills and began understanding some of the basic nuances of data security,” he recalls.
Meanwhile, by the early 2010s, discussions surrounding data security in the online world had begun to take off in India. One day during high school, he read a post on Facebook by a security researcher who was listed in Google’s Hall of Fame for finding a flaw. This researcher was even paid for it. This inspired him to learn how he could do the same.
That’s when he began targeting companies that offered bug bounties to hackers who would help them find flaws in their data security architecture. By the age of 16, Ehraz got listed in 50 Security Researcher’s Hall of Fame for finding security breaches in companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Blackberry, Soundcloud, and EBay. These Halls of Fame are listings compiled by major tech companies of online security researchers who helped find these flaws.
Besides recognition and a certificate, there was monetary compensation involved which depended on the magnitude of the flaw found. In India, however, he observes that the concept of bug bounties are still very new and not many companies operating here have that facility for freelance security researchers.
His first hall of fame listing was on Facebook, where he discovered a cross-site scripting vulnerability that could have allowed attackers to steal a user’s browser cookies. With this, any hacker could log in to a user’s account without a password and users are vulnerable to extortion and blackmail.
Ehraz Ahmed: The ethical hacker who has helped companies like Airtel address their user data vulnerabilities.
Serial Entrepreneur
“Although I was good at finding security flaws, I was not making enough money from it. Not all companies offer bug bounty programs, while only a few provide monetary rewards. But most of them do acknowledge your efforts in finding that flaw,” he says.
Looking for ways to make money, one day he found someone trading in the financial markets talking about making money in a Facebook post. It piqued his interest and he began exploring this field. Ehraz admits that it took him a while to figure out how it all works because he was sifting through hundreds of blogs.
“It wasn’t the most efficient way of learning, but I wasn’t interested in studying courses. My interest lay in obtaining that raw information about how to navigate this world. In the initial years, I lost a lot of money trading from my brother’s account. Since I was still under 18 during my PUC days, I couldn’t really open my own trading account,” he recalls.
By the time he enrolled into an engineering college at the age of 20, in Mandya, to pursue a course in computer science engineering, he started a fintech company called Voxy Wealth Management that engaged in offering financial advice and analytic services to traders and other consumers who wanted to manage their stock portfolios.
But travelling 80 km up and down from Mysuru to Mandya everyday, attending classes and running a fintech company was becoming very stressful. Although he finished his first semester with good marks, when the time came to enroll for the second semester, he began questioning why he was studying these heavy theoretical courses.
“What am I learning all this for? Completing these courses felt like climbing a mountain, reaching the top and then seeing nothing. I had already begun earning money through my company. Meanwhile, I was already getting job offers because of the work I had done detecting security flaws across different websites. I eventually figured out engineering college wasn’t meant for me and before the second semester in 2017, I decided to drop out to start a web security company as well,” says Ehraz.
After launching Voxy Wealth Management, he started Aspirehive—a web security company that offers solutions for small and medium-sized companies—in December 2017.
Unfortunately, as he was making his way simultaneously in the world of financial markets and web security, another tragedy struck home.
In April 2018, his elder brother met with another road accident. He suffered an injury and upon recovery, his brother expressed a desire to start a company together. Following this conversation, he began work on launching a new company called StackNexo.
The premise for StackNexo is to offer all web services and solutions on a single platform. He describes it like an Amazon for users wanting to start their own website.
“We seek to provide all necessary services for starting your own website on one platform instead of compelling you to visit different websites for domain services, hosting services, etc. This is for entrepreneurs or users looking to start their own website without the necessary IT expertise. I have partnered with 20 companies like Stackpath, Cloudflare and Google to integrate their services on our web platform. I have spent over a year developing this platform and our plan is to launch the company in two months,” he says.
Protecting people’s data
While working on all these companies, Ehraz also began reading news of major data breaches in Indian companies last year. Using his expertise, he decided to help.
His work commenced in August 2019, and by December he had safeguarded user data of over 700 million users. In Airtel, for example, which is India’s second-largest telecom network, Ehraz had found a security flaw that could have allowed hackers to steal sensitive data of 320 million users. By December, he had discovered and reported data breaches to 10 companies, including Truecaller, Justdial and Nykaa.
By the end of this year, his objective is to protect the data security of 1 billion users. His work in this regard hasn’t stopped. Most recently, he detected and reported a major security flaw in a company called Thrillophilia that risked sensitive data of 2 million users.
“We don’t fix data breaches, but find them, report and notify the said company via email. With Airtel, for example, I began scanning their My Airtel app. I found a very simple flaw in the their application programming interface (API), which hackers could exploit to gain access into users’ personal data (address, location, IMEI, sex) through their mobile number. It took me just 15 minutes to find this flaw and access all this confidential data. Honestly, I was shocked to find such a basic flaw. Moreover, I am an Airtel user and it scared me how vulnerable their data was to this breach. With a user’s IMEI number, hackers can organise spear phishing attacks into your system using just a simple SMS,” he says.
With Truecaller, he had found a vulnerability on the app’s backend attached to the user’s profile picture. With this breach, if a user is trying to find out about who’s calling from an unknown number, a hacker could mine their location, figure out their IP address and their identity. As a result of this breach, nearly 150 million users were at risk here. Another major Indian company he assisted was Justdial, which has over 165 million users.
Through the breach he detected, hackers could log into a user’s Justdial account, access their JD pay (their payment gateway) and divert payments away from a particular merchant into another account. He approached the company and got this major flaw fixed.
Most small companies/startups, he believes, don’t focus on data security, and instead look towards getting the venture off the ground and earning all the money back that was invested. But these breaches are not restricted to small startups.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Big Basket suffered a major data breach.
“Government must make data security auditing mandatory. Secondly, we don’t have the legal architecture in place for independent security researchers like me to disclose to companies about major flaws in their data security. Indian companies, particularly the major ones, don’t have a responsible disclosure policy in place. Without such a policy, companies get intimidated when we find flaws and begin questioning us even though our intentions are good. There are no laws to govern and protect security researchers like us. International companies, meanwhile, are a lot more accessible and we can easily help them find flaws without any threat of a blowback. Indian companies have to start promoting bug bounty programs so that independent researchers can help them find flaws,” he says.
After all, there isn’t a bigger commodity out there than user data.
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)
source: http://www.thebetterindia.com / The Better India / Home> The Better Home / by Rinchen Norbu Wangchuk / November 30th, 2020
Ballia District, UTTAR PRADESH / Kalimpong, WEST BENGAL / Birmingham, UNITED KINGDOM :
Professor Ataullah Siddiqui passed away on the night of 8 November 2020 aged 66, after battling cancer courageously for six months, at his home in Birmingham, UK. His sad demise has brought about a huge loss to not only the Muslim world but the world at large – to all concerned about a meaningful dialogue amongst communities whose relationships are so much mired in past memories of distrust and conflict. Tributes paying their last respects and condolences to the family members have been pouring in from all over the world. Some have written that with his passing ‘the world of British Muslim Studies [has] lost one of its most thoughtful founding scholars’ and described him ‘as an academic who did not seek distinction or accolades, but who selflessly and reliably supported the work of others’, as ‘someone who embodied the spirit of self –sacrificial and humble service – and whose legacy needs to be kept alive’. Another well-known scholar in his obituary describes him as ‘an efficient educator whose contribution to the Muslim community worldwide has been huge’, as a ‘credible scholarly, patient, insightful, caring, very respectful to women, humble and hardworking man’, as a gentleman in the true sense of the word: kind, compassionate, considerate, who never had a bad word to say about anyone’, ‘an immensely kind, gentle, humble, upright, deep and a wonderful human being’ and a ‘great soul’.
In a memorial meeting conducted over Zoom yesterday, a person who attended his funeral described the testimony of the common note of most of the attendees about him being one of the best role models of a good da’i. In an age where we are flooded with information and yet are deprived of the ‘reality’; where relations only tend to gravitate in one direction and any form of disagreement is intolerable, leading to the disintegration of trust and even society at large, in an almost civil war-like situation, Professor Siddiqui was nothing less than a beacon of hope for the future of communities. I should not thus fail to share some of his own views on the three basic beliefs that constitute the core of the Islamic faith which all would do good to know.
First is the concept of the Oneness of God and devotion to it alone. Nothing should stand in the way of sincere loyalty, honour and pursuit of this goal. God alone becomes the centre of all activity and devotion, and any deviation from this goal towards false values – which may include the love and adoration of wealth, power and prestige – becomes shirk and idolatry.
Corresponding to this is the second belief that God is not a passive God but involved in the world and provides constant guidance to human beings. God has not only provided human beings with intellect to understand nature and discover the world around them but also revealed to them the purpose of human creation and responsibility in the world so that they may wonder, reflect and acknowledge the beauty and worth of being part of Creation. This has been done through individuals gifted with outstanding character and conviction. They are the prophets, the final such individual being the prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him). The prophets have not been sent to human beings as fallen and hopeless. In fact, human beings are made the crown of God’s creation, and given the status of vicegerents on earth with intellect, free will and ability to communicate through speech.
Thirdly, the human body, the material part which will perish one day also houses the spirit which continues its journey even after the body perishes. Muslims believe that all good and bad deeds make an impact on the individual’s soul, which then carries its deeds with it and is accountable to its Creator.
These three concepts; of the Oneness of God, the office of prophethood and the accountability of the soul – tawhid, risalah, akhirah form the crux of the Muslim faith.
Professor Siddiqui strived to live his entire life in complete accordance with these beliefs constantly. He always reminded us that ‘good intentions change acts of habit adah into acts of worship ibadah’. Every aspect of his own life – through which he touched the hearts of thousands all over the world – including his livelihood, his love and care for all, and particularly his contribution to the field of his research on building trust and relations where it is fast disappearing between communities and individuals that already know each other – were performed with the pure motive of carrying out God’s commandment. He was a perfect da’i in the sense that he did not wish to impose his views on anyone else but make it, to put it in his own words – ‘dual tracked, multi-focal and multi-layered’. ‘We are in reality, living a “hyphenated” coexistence where multiple communities are at different stages of engagement, with their own pasts and carrying their own memories’.
For those who may have not known him personally, he was not only one of Britain’s, but Europe’s, and even the world’s leading scholars on Islam, particularly in the field of religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue. His father, Maulana Md. Sibghatullah Siddiqui and mother Zafrun Nisa, hailed from the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh and migrated to Kalimpong quite early in their life. Maulana Sibghatullah Siddiqui himself was an epitome of humility and self–sacrificial service who dedicated his entire life to the welfare of the Muslim community of Kalimpong, guiding them spiritually and keeping them united and free from all forms of sectarian factionalism that plagues communities today. Professor Ataullah Siddiqui began his humble educational career in the hill town of Kalimpong and from a very early age was actively involved in initiating the translation of the writings of key Islamic thinkers of the time into the Nepali language with the help of some of the best scholars of the region.
In 1982 he left for the UK to join the Islamic Foundation as a Research Fellow, an organization that he remained loyally associated with till the end of his life, contributing significantly to its academic life as well that of the British Muslim community. He completed his PhD in Theology in the subject ‘Christian Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth Century’ from the University of Birmingham. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of its sister institute, the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, from conceptualizing and designing its curriculum for doctoral, postgraduate and undergraduate degree programs, to its administration as its Director from 2001- 2008. He taught in the Institute as Reader, and later Professor, of Religious Pluralism and Inter-Faith Relations. He also held several honorary posts as Visiting Fellow and Visiting Professor at the University of Leicester, York St. John’s University, Gloucestershire University to name only a few.
Among his chief achievements during this phase was becoming the founder President and Vice-Chair of the ‘Christian Muslim Forum’ launched by the then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and was also the founder member of the Leicester Council of Faiths. He published several important books on the subject and contributed regularly to some of the most prestigious journals internationally.
In 2007 he was appointed by the British Government to submit a report on the state, and recommendations towards improvement, of the study of Islam as an academic subject in Universities throughout Britain. At a time when the relationship between communities are growing more and more estranged because their memories are vested with perceptions as well as misperceptions, concordances as well as conflicts, he was found the most suitable person to carry on this task of building bridges. The report titled, ‘Islam at Universities in England: Meeting the Needs and Investing in the Future’, also known as the Siddiqui Report, was the fifth of its kind to be tabled in the British Parliament, preceded by the Reay Report (1909), Scarbrough Report (1947), Hayter Report (1961) and the Parker Report (1986); all four are significant to students interested in the field of Orientalist Studies. In the wake of catastrophic events like 9/11 and 7/7, the Siddiqui Report was one with great responsibility and a genuine vision for a pluralist society.
Now that we have lost this great and humble soul and deep mind, it is for all people committed to a vision of a future built on peace and coexistence, tolerance and respect for all communities and most important of all, committed to dialogue, not diatribe, to carry on his spiritual legacy.
Let us make our own humble supplication and petition to the Almighty to keep alive the memory of this gentle soul in our hearts, give solace to his family in the UK and in India, and raise his ranks in Jannah.
Today is the Birth Anniversary of renowned ornithologist Salim Ali. Born in Mumbai on 12th November in 1896, Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was not only a bird lover but also a naturalist. He is often referred to as the ‘Birdman of India’. He was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and wrote several books that popularized ornithology in India. His research work is considered highly influential in the development of ornithology. He was a well-known environmental crusader who often stood for protecting the wildlife.
Salim Ali played a pivotal role in establishment of Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary (Keoladeo National Park) and prevented the destruction of what is now the Silent Valley National Park. Along with Sidney Dillon Ripley, he wrote the landmark ten-volume Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, a second edition of which was completed after his death.
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1958 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1976, India’s third and second highest civilian honours respectively. Besides the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan, Ali received the Gold Medal of the British Ornithologists’ Union in 1967. He was the first non-British citizen to receive the honour.
source: http://www.newsonair.com / All India Radio (AIR), News Services Division / Home> News Highlights / November 12th, 2020
Allah Baksh Sumroo, a premier of Sindh province—equivalent to the current post of a chief minister—was a committed patriot, whom the Muslim League hated to the extreme. Sumroo’s story directly challenges the ongoing communal and divisive rhetoric where Muslims are projected as a comprador class that was wholeheartedly behind the Muslim League’s two-nation theory.
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The narrative that all Muslims got together to seek India’s partition on the basis of the two-nation theory is now a few decades old. It has acquired salience again, with some hyperventilating neo-nationalists reiterating that all Muslims are traitors as they joined Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his Muslim League to divide India. These people forget that a large number of Muslims, who consciously decided to stay back, had a choice—either to leave and be Pakistanis or stay back in India and choose their homeland. Many opted for the latter. A similar choice was made by many Hindus who decided to stay back in Pakistan. However, staying back in a democratic, secular and plural India was different from opting for a regressive and sectarian Islamist Pakistan. The future of both, who stayed behind, has proved that so tellingly.
Unfortunate political developments and the prevalent communal rhetoric in India has forced me to go back to the history afresh. There is a concerted campaign to malign all Indian Muslims as leftover Pakistanis, who are enemies within the country; the narrative is that these fifth columnists should be shunted out to Pakistan in the so-called national interest. But merely indicting all Muslims for the sake of petty majoritarian politics goes against the facts of history.
We are a nation obsessed with history, more often concerned with correcting the presumed historical wrongs than learning anything from the past. With this compulsive preoccupation, some of us live perpetually in the past. Even so, most people believe that Maulana Azad, an Independence-era leader, fought a lone battle for a united India, while a majority of Indian Muslims vouched for Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and his Muslim League. This has no factual basis and any extent of living in the past will help unravel actual facts.
To put the record straight, some unsung heroes from our recent history should be talked about. There are many historical characters that were crucial to countering the politics of hate and division of the country around the time of partition. Among them was Allah Baksh Sumroo, who served as a premier of the Sindh province—equivalent to the current post of a chief minister—for two terms between 1938 and 1942. Sumroo was a committed patriot, whom the Muslim League hated to the extreme. He belonged to a feudal Sindhi family but was known for a frugal living and commitment to democratic values. Sumroo wore khadi even as a young man of twenty. We hear about using flags as a power symbol so often these days, but he never used a flag on his official car even in those feudal and colonial times.
What is important to remember today is his commitment to undivided India. Sumroo emerged as a major challenge to the divisive politics of communalists of all hues, particularly the Muslim League. Azad was undoubtedly a national face, espousing composite nationalism, but he actually derived strength from such regional but powerful voices like Sumroo.
To go into the details of his massive anti-Muslim League politics would require a much longer discussion. Let me just refer to one of the most important episodes in the history of our sad partition of the country. The Muslim League passed a resolution recommending the creation of an independent state of Muslims on 23 March 1940 at Lahore. Soon, Sumroo organised a huge conference of patriotic Muslims between 27 and 30 April 1940 in Delhi, called the Azad Muslim Conference. According to some estimates, there were not less than seventy-five thousand people who gathered from all over India to condemn the Muslim League for its divisive politics.
Most of these people came from a large number of political and social organisations, largely representing the backward and artisanal sections of the Muslim society. This representation at the conference was an indicator that the Muslim League spoke for the ashraf, or the privileged sections of the Muslim society while the majority of Muslims—the ajlaf, or the backward sections—remained almost untouched by the League’s rhetoric. The British identified a collaborative section of the Muslim community, helped in forming the Muslim League but this section largely represented the affluent—the zamindars, and business and professional classes. The leadership that emerged in the League had little clue to the highly differentiated Muslim society they claimed to represent. Azad could see this early. Referring to Indian Muslims at the time, he wrote in his weekly Urdu language newspaper, Al Hilal, in 1912:
The most unfortunate part of their life is that they have a section of elite who are in the forefront and leading them. Those are the self-proclaimed leaders of the community. They have put the crown on their own head, with their own hands, instead of the masses doing the same. They indulged in all sorts of exhibitionism of power and the worst is show of their wealth. And by so doing they had converted the millat [class] of downtrodden men in their community as their slaves and camp followers. And now if anyone tries to question their validity as leaders or defy them, they are successfully suppressed and annihilated by those selfish leaders; as they have the power of money.
Sumroo’s presidential address at the Azad Muslim Conference in April 1940 also exposed the misplaced arguments of the League, particularly in the name of religion and culture. All through his speech he spoke extensively on the shared history and heritage, stressed on the compositeness of Indian nation and nationalism and emphasised that the compact between diverse communities cannot be severed. Strongly condemning the two-nation theory exponents, The Sunday Statesman of 28 April 1940 quoted him saying in his speech:
A majority of the 90,000,000 Indian Muslims who are descendants of the earlier inhabitants of India are in no sense other than the sons of the soil with the Dravidian and the Aryan and have as much right to be reckoned among the earliest settlers of this common land. The nationals of different countries cannot divest themselves of their nationality merely by embracing one or another faith. In its universal sweep Islam, the faith, can run in and out of as many nationalities and regional cultures as may be found in world.
He underlined the long history of shared heritage of Hindus and Muslims, as mentioned in a Hindustan Times report on the same day:
It is a vicious fallacy for Hindu, Muslim and other inhabitants of India to arrogate to themselves an exclusively proprietary right over either the whole or any particular part of India. The country as an indivisible whole and as one federated and composite unit belongs to all the inhabitants of the country alike and is as much the inalienable and imprescriptible heritage of the Indian Muslim as of other Indians.
Sumroo made these detailed references to the shared history and intermixing of Hindu and Muslim cultures over the centuries to counter both the League as well as those who were arguing for Hindutva majoritarianism. He was aware, like Azad, of the forces which threatened the future of united composite India. Sumroo needs to be talked about today more seriously to counter all those who threaten fellow Muslim citizens to go to Pakistan.
In his address, Sumroo provided a counter for another argument put forth by neo-nationalists today—that Muslims asked for Pakistan and once it was granted by dividing the country, all of them should have moved there. This would have settled the issue forever. All those who make such insinuations today need to know what popular Muslim leaders like Sumroo said of the creation of Pakistan:
It was based on false understanding that India is inhabited by two nations, Hindu and Muslim. It is much more to the point to say that all Indian Mussalmans are proud to be Indian nationals and they are equally proud that their spiritual level and creedal realm is Islam. As Indian nationals—Muslims and Hindus and others, inhabit the land and share every inch of the motherland and all its material and cultural treasures alike according to the measures of their just and fair rights and requirements as the proud sons of the soil.
Azad, too, sent a message of support to the Azad Muslim conference as he was not able to attend it. He expressed his solidarity with the conference and wished that the deliberations would be fruitful for the great cause of the freedom of the country and the Muslims.
This fight for composite and inclusive Indian nationalism, which looks so alarming and threatening today, is more than few decades old. Azad and Sumroo challenged these regressive and divisive forces in the 1930s and 1940s. They almost took the battle to the enemy’s camp by organising a huge conference in Delhi, which unnerved the Muslim League leadership. Sumroo was assassinated in 1943. It was suspected to be the League’s handiwork.
We can comprehend his stature and the sense of loss on his death by reading some of the reactions in contemporary press and also the pain expressed by several nationalist leaders. The Hindustan Times described him as follows:
… finest of Sindhis, one of the truest of Musalmans, one of the noblest sons of India who loved his peasants for he loved the land; and he used to wear khaddar even in the twenties, for he loved the poor. Both the Hindus and Muslims looked up to him as a leader … He had an all-India mind and in the midst of division and strife, pinned his faith on an independent united India, and dreamt the dream of the united State of Asia in the years to come …
His murder was seen as a national calamity by several papers. The Amrita Bazar Patrika called him “one of the most vigorous personalities, endowed with a high sense of duty and rare courage of conviction, who easily commanded the respect and admiration of all, even of those who differed from him on some or the other public questions.” Commenting on his death, the newspaper added, “A life so full of promise has been cut short. And India is much poorer today by the death of the young man of 42 whose sturdy patriotism and devotion to duty would be cherished long after the present unhappy situation has ended and India has come into her own.”
The right wing in India often says that Subhas Chandra Bose, a leader of the anticolonial struggle, did not find his rightful place in Indian history. I find it politically motivated and not really a sincere observation. It is people like Sumroo, who seem to be lost in our history records, even in the writings of the so-called liberal and Marxist historians, except for a chapter in a book by Shamshul Islam titled Muslims Against Partition of India.
Another prominent Muslim voice from the past, who can rightfully represent our composite nationalist ethos is Saifuddin Kitchlew, a Kashmiri freedom fighter whose family moved to Punjab. It was his arrest along with Dr Satyapal, a political leader, that triggered the protests leading to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. Most of us are oblivious to his contributions as well. Kitchlew had also mourned the loss of Sumroo saying:
At this critical period of the freedom movement in the country the death of a man like Mr Allah Baksh is a thundering blow to the forces of nationalism. Mr Allah Baksh was a thorough going nationalist. Mr Allah Baksh is dead but his work will remain.
It is necessary to know about such men and women from our past as their profiles directly challenge the ongoing communal and divisive rhetoric where Muslims are projected as a comprador class that was wholeheartedly behind the League’s two-nation theory. Azad was surely the prime political figure, an Islamic scholar, who stressed on the composite nationalism. However, he was not fighting a lone battle against the Muslim League, as Jinnah wanted the British and the Muslims to believe. He was hated and derided as a show boy of the Congress party, precisely to show that most of the other Muslims and their leaders were with the idea of Pakistan. This falsehood needs to be exposed, particularly in the midst of the ongoing divisive politics.
S IRFAN HABIB is a historian and author. He was earlier the Maulana Azad Chair at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi.
source: http://www.caravanmagazine.in / The Caravan / Home> Commentary – History / by S Irfan Habib / July 28th, 2020
