Over 80 community leaders, legal experts, students, and activists participated in the Waqf Awareness Workshop organised by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
THONSE (Udupi) — The Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025 is a turning point for minority rights in India, senior journalist Shivasundar has said. Addressing a workshop organised by the Udupi chapter of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) in this Karnataka village on Sunday, Shivasundar compared the 1995 and 2025 Waqf Acts line-by-line, and mapped how successive legislative shifts have diluted constitutional safeguards under Articles 25 to 30, particularly threatening the autonomy of religious endowments.
“In a country where politics is land and land is politics,” he said, “we cannot afford to ignore these changes.”
Addressing over 80 community leaders, legal experts, students, and activists at the Waqf Awareness Workshop, Shivasundar emphasised the importance of speaking out, saying “silence is our worst enemy”.
Adding technical and operational urgency to the legal analysis, Mujibullah Zaffari, former CEO of the Karnataka State Waqf Board, conducted a live demonstration of the UMEED portal, the government’s digital interface for Waqf registration. He warned that “ineffective paperwork today is tomorrow’s litigation,” pointing out common data-entry errors, outdated property records, and procedural gaps that weaken Waqf protections.
The one-day workshop was designed with three clear objectives:
1. Demystify Waqf’s legal and historical landscape,
2. Train participants to handle real-life Waqf disputes using digital tools, and
3. Nurture a network of community ‘Waqf Ambassadors’ ready to intervene in public discourse, policy spaces, and courts.
The attendees — representing JIH’s men’s and women’s wings, SIO, GIO, Solidarity, Udupi Zilla Muslim Okkoota, lawyers, ulema, journalists, and social workers — were divided into five multidisciplinary teams. Each team tackled real Waqf case studies, including issues like mosque land encroachment, mismanaged trusts, and Waqf Board inaction. Under the mentorship of Afwan Hoode, Yasin Kodibengre, and Abdul Azeez Udyavara, teams presented their findings to a review panel composed of Shivasundar, Yusuf Kanni Sahib, and Zaffari.
The workshop stood out for its inclusive format: women, college youth, and even schoolchildren participated as presenters. Their clarity, confidence, and enthusiasm drew warm applause. One college student said, “I came in thinking Waqf had nothing to do with me. Now I know it’s my religious and civic duty.”
Participants described the training as a “thought-provoking experience” that linked religious, legal, and social dimensions. Many called for this case-study model to be replicated across Karnataka. “This wasn’t just theory — it was training for action,” said a local lawyer.
In his concluding address, Yusuf Kanni, State Secretary of JIH Karnataka, urged every participant to become an ambassador of Waqf, declaring, “Waqf integrity is a national trust, not a sectarian concern.” Feedback from the audience echoed a collective resolve: “We came confused. We’re leaving equipped, with clarity, tools, and purpose.”
Two follow-up workshops: UMEED portal optimization and land registration and conversion procedures were also announced.
The workshop’s success was rooted in two months of preparation. Participants were divided into study groups beforehand and tasked with examining real-life Waqf disputes and constitutional values, especially the Preamble and Articles 15, 21, 25, 26, 29, and 30. These pre-event discussions enriched the interactive and results-driven environment on the day of the workshop.
With legal awareness deepened and community motivation ignited, the Udupi Waqf Workshop proved that local initiatives, when grounded in moral clarity and constitutional understanding, can shape statewide reform. And as Shivasundar reminded: “If we don’t raise our voices now, we may not get another chance.”
