Mirwaiz again in list of ‘500 most influential Muslims’

The Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has for the fourth consecutive time been chosen among 500 most influential Muslim personalities across the globe by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Jordan, a spokesman of the Hurriyat said here on Monday. The spokesman said that Mirwaiz was been declared as one of the five topmost influential persons in the sub-continent.

The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre is an independent research entity affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, an international Islamic non-governmental, independent institute headquartered in Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Quoting the RISSC annual report for 2018 tilted “The Muslim 500”, the Hurriyat spokesman said that Muhammad Umar Farooq “inherited the title of Kashmir’s 14th Mirwaiz in 1990 after the martyrdom of his father. At the young age of 20, he became the chairman and founder of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a grassroots coalition of pro-freedom parties in J&K. He has raised the Kashmir problem at the United Nations, the European Parliament and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, advocating dialogue with both India and Pakistan so that the aspirations of the Kashmiri people may be realised.”

“Declaring Mirwaiz among the most influential 500 Muslims across the world and among five in the sub-continent is a matter of pride and honour for the people of Kashmir and an acknowledgment of their rightful and just struggle,” the Hurriyat (M) said.

Meanwhile, the spokesman condemned the continuous denial of travel documents to Mirwaiz for the past five years, disallowing him from traveling outside to represent the case of subjugated Kashmiris demanding their fundamental human and political rights.