Residents of Dongri area were amazed last week when they saw a group of spirited activists, many of them holding torches and sticks, roaming their streets at night. The march was part of the ‘Drug-Free Mumbai Campaign’ being led by Maulana Syed Moinuddin Ashraf, popularly known as Moin Mian, head of Jamia Qadriya Ashrafia madrassa in Grant Road.
Clad in a white flowing robe and a cap, the senior cleric has declared a jihad against drug peddlers with a nexus with police. Moin Mian, accompanied by fellow protestors including MLA Amin Patel and ex-MLA Yusuf Abrahni, invariably invites local cops to the marches through narrow streets. “We have identified 19 localities including, Dongri, Nagpada, JJ, Pydhonie, and Agripada that are dens of drug peddlers. We have forced the anti-narcotics cell of the Mumbai police to crack down on the drug mafia,” says Moin Mian, who adds that ever since he launched the campaign, along with NGO Social Educational Welfare Association (SEWA) on August 15 at Islam Gymkhana, results have been encouraging. “Earlier people were too scared to speak out against the peddlers who don’t hesitate to attack anyone. Now people join the protests and direct police teams to the dens,” says the spiritual leader. “It is an encouraging campaign. We have given our cell numbers to the volunteers to inform us. We are committed to act against the offenders,” says DCP (Anti-Narcotics Cell) Namdeo Chavan.
But why did a spiritual leader who is mostly surrounded by disciples at his Agripada-based home undertake a cause, which may invite the enmity of powerful drug mafia? He says a couple of years ago one Aslam Abdur Rahman narrated to him a traumatic story. Rahman said that his son Qadeer was doing well till he became a drug addict. “He said the boy had sold out two of the three shops he owned and would often become violent when told to quit drug use. The man started sobbing. It moved me and I decided to launch a campaign against it,” recalls Moin Mian. Is he not scared? And is it not enough that like most other religious and spiritual leaders, he should confine his reforms through preaching? “I am not scared of anyone except God. And preaching has its benefits but the time has come when religious leaders should launch mass movements against social evils,” he says. Ex-MLA and SEWA’s president Yusuf Abrahni says: “I am amazed by his determination to fight the powerful drug mafia. For him there could not have been a better cause than this to lead and we will support it.”
Senior psychiatrist and former head of Bombay Psychiatric Society Dr Y A Matcheswalla says the battle against drug addiction can be won through two methods: lowering demand and reducing supply. “Supply reduction can be done by the Narcotics Control Bureau and Anti-Narcotics Cell of the police while demand can be lowered by creating awareness. It is here that spiritual leaders like Moin Mian have a role to play. “He has galvanised the masses,” says Dr Matcheswalla who adds that Mumbai is “the drug capital of India”. “Many of us wrongly think that it is the job of only police and psychiatrists to fight drug menace and addiction.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mumbai / Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN / August 24th, 2014