By Ashraf Padanna/Kochi

Ma’din Academy, a leading institution offering religious and modern education in Kerala, has launched an intense campaign to promote unity and harmony among diverse religious communities.
Ramesh Chennithala, the state minister for home, yesterday inaugurated the Ma’din Harmony Campaign and Lingua Magia at the group’s Swalath Nagar campus in Malappuram.
As part of World Interfaith Harmony Week programmes supported by UN, Ma’din volunteers with the help of other social organisations and students of the Academy will visit hundred thousand houses throughout Kerala to spread the message of togetherness.
“We feel it’s the duty of every individual to spread the message of love and harmony and we are committed to promote this noble cause based on Islamic principles,’’ said Sayyid Ibrahim Khaleel Al Bukhari, chairman of the Ma’din Academy.
Pamphlets and visual brochures will be distributed during the campaign which will culminate in a mammoth closing session on March 27.
The Academy has been actively participating in the annual Interfaith Harmony and Tolerance programmes on the campus of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in Kuala Lumpur in collaboration with the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department and the OIC Today magazine.
Ma’din also connects this programme with the celebration of International Mother Language Day in the third week of February.
“This is the message of Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah that languages, castes, creeds or nations are meant only for knowing each other and not for spreading hatred,” Bukhari said.
In his inaugural address, Chennithala appreciated the initiative and praised the contribution of the group in building bridges between the communities at a time when the politics of hatred is being promoted.
“Language has a magical power. If you are well-versed in a language, you can create wonders around you’’ said the home minister. “And languages open up new windows of wonders. It must be a tool to unite minds, not to divide them. The initiatives of Ma’din in promoting the interfaith dialogue and tolerance are commendable’’.
Legislator P Ubaidulla was the chief guest at the function presided over by the Bukhari. Dr KKN Kurup, director general of Ma’din Academia for Research and International Studies, made introductory remarks.
Dr Nagendra Sreenivas, professor of Russian studies at the University of Calicut, Mohamed Shakir Misbahi Jarkhand (Arabic), Hussain Master (French), P Zubair, research scholar EFL University, Hyderabad (German), Dr Hamid Hussain (Spanish), Mohamed Saheer (Ma’din Institute of Turkish Studies), Prof Mohamed Alungal (Head of Department of English, EMEA College, Kondotty), Mohamed Musthafa Kodur (Urdu) and Ibrahim Baquavi (Persian) spoke representing their respective languages.





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