Indian American Muslim keen to make film on Sir Syed

By Rizwan Khatik - Wed Dec 28, 11:14 am

BHOPAL: Masarrat Ali, the first Indian-American Muslim to get a party ticket to contest in state elections in Texas, the United States, now wants to help make a full length feature film on Indian educator, reformer and modernist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.

Ali who arrived in Bhopal, a place he calls second home, shared his thoughts with the TOI on Tuesday. A member of the Democratic Party and head of American Muslim Democratic Party Ali said, “My wife belongs to Bhopal and my connections with the city have remained intact after the gas tragedy of 1984.”

Ali was a Democratic candidate for District No. 122 (in San Antonio) for the Texan House of Representatives (the lower house) in 2010. “I was questioned whether I was terrorist and something unheard of in Indian democracy,” said Ali whose father used to stitch suits for bureaucrats and ministers in village in Jhansi, (bordering Madhya Pradesh).

Now a biotechnologist-cum-entrepreneur, Ali’s elections campaign in American state-level elections was considered a game changer for immigrant Muslim families. He says that his humble Urdu-medium Wakf Board-run primary school background imbibed moral values in him. However, Ali, the entrepreneur who deals with proteomics to system immunomics, squarely blames the Muslim community for their selective isolation.

“The modernist views of Sir Syed are being lost. It is only through education that every community and society can prosper,” added Ali aiming to become the first elected Indian-Muslim in state election from Texas.