PM's Egypt Mosque Visit Sends A Message To India's Dawoodi Bohra Muslims

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Imam al-Hakim bi Amr Allah Mosque, a nearly 1,000-year-old structure in the heart of the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Saturday, will have a special connection with a community of Muslims in India that the PM has shared an old and warm relationship with for many years.

According to the Egyptian government's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the mosque reopened following extensive renovations that took six years to complete. The renovations were part of a large-scale plan to boost tourism to Cairo's Islamic sites. The work was co-funded by the Dawoodi Bohra community, the same community that PM Modi has often thanked for helping him govern the state of Gujarat well and for being "patriotic, law-abiding, and peace-loving." The mosque is an important cultural site for the Dawoodi Bohra community in Cairo.

Who Are The Dawoodi Bohras?

The Dawoodi Bohras follow the Fatimi Ismaili Tayyibi school of thought. Their distinctive heritage originated in Egypt and later shifted to Yemen before establishing a presence in India in the 11th century. After 1539, by which time the Indian community had grown quite large, the seat of the sect was moved from Yemen to Sidhpur (Patan district of Gujarat), India. Even now, Siddhpur has the iconic ancestral havelis (homes) that belong to the community. The men of this community wear distinctive white clothes and golden caps, while the women are known to wear colourful burqas, and not the black ones some other sections of Muslim women wear.

The Bohras have two principal groups - a merchant-class Shia majority and a Bohra minority, who are mainly farmers. There are approximately 5 lakh Bohras in India alone, and around the same number in other parts of the world. The Bohras derive their name from the Gujarati word "vahaurau," meaning "to trade." While the community is found in different states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, Surat is considered their base.

PM Modi's Long Connection With The Community

PM Modi has had a warm relationship with the Dawoodi Bohras even before he became Prime Minister. In 2011, as Gujarat Chief Minister, he invited the community to celebrate the 100th birthday of the then religious head of the Dawoodi Bohra Community, Syedna Burhanuddin. After he died in 2014, PM Modi also went to Mumbai to offer condolences to his son and successor Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin.

In 2015, PM Modi paid another visit to Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the current religious head of the community, with whom he has always shared a cordial relationship. While inaugurating the new campus of the Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah (The Saifee Academy) in Mumbai's Marol, the PM had told the community he was a part of their family. In 2016, Syedna called on the PM, who fondly reminisced about his relationship with four generations of Dawoodi Bohra religious heads. He has often praised the business acumen and social reform measures initiated by the community, and at a diaspora event, praised their social service specifically in the context of fighting malnutrition to addressing water shortage and reminded them of their own past of hosting Mahatma Gandhi after his Dandi march.

He also met with a delegation of Dawoodi Bohras when he went to Bangladesh. In 2018, he addressed the Ashara Mubaraka, the Commemoration of the Martyrdom of Imam Hussain (SA), organised by the Dawoodi Bohra community, at Indore's Saifee mosque, where over one lakh members of the community participated.

Dawoodi Bohras Have Been An Integral Part Of All Of PM's Diaspora Events

The community too firmly stood by the PM when it mattered the most. For example, they were seen in large numbers at PM Modi's overseas events in 2014 - after he became PM - including the Madison Square Garden gathering in New York and the Olympic Park Arena address in Sydney. The community too has responded to the PM's admiration by often reinstating how they have been living peacefully in the country for centuries.

Challenges Before The Community

However, the community too is fighting its own battles, from women challenging the practice of genital mutilation in young girls prevalent in many of the sections of the community to the Supreme Court referring to a larger bench a series of petitions challenging the authority of Dawoodi Bohra community leaders to excommunicate their members earlier this year.