Faisal Khan brings Muslims into the mainstream by reviving a movement founded decades ago by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

In 2013, he led a “Dil Jodo Nafrat Choro” journey to bridge Hindu and Muslim hearts, travelling with a band of activists in a Tata van from a Sufi shrine in Panipat, Haryana, to Haridwar, Uttaranchal. The same year, he toured riot-hit villages in Muzzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims had staged a mass exodus. There, he, a practising Muslim, visited a series of temples and engaged with Hindus, frequently reciting verses from the Ramcharitmanas.

Faisal Khan is as well-versed in the slokas of that great Hindu epic as he is in the verses of the Quran (and he sings Kabir poems as easily as we croon the latest Hindi film chartbusters).

At 40, Faisal, who offers namaz five times a day, is a man in a hurry: His mission is to rescue his fellow faithful from religious fundamentalism, bring them into the country’s mainstream, present a peaceful picture of Islam, and eventually create a humanitarian secular society in India.................Read more

Source: livemint