| The history of Rogaland Muslim Society |
IntroductionNorway is one of the most beautiful countries in Scandinavia. It is situated on the Northern hemisphere. A large number of tourists from European countries come here. The primary export of Norway was fish, small boats and ships till 1965.After this period oil research begun. Norway is vast land with about 4 million people, so there was a demand of skilled and unskilled workers. Pakistanis came here as guest workers in 1968, but Norway opened labour visa in 1970 to 1975. After this two ways were left to enter in the Norway to marry with Norwegian national or highly skilled. In 1970 Pakistanis came here in the search of job by roads and by other means. Norwegian nation and government received them without any prejudice. In fact at that time it was demand of labour in both private and government sector. Norwegian had got to oil industry and the gap, which was produced as a result of this change, was filled by hardworking Pakistanis. That contribution of Pakistanis helped Norwegian industry to carry on. Pakistanis went to other cities of Norway as well as Oslo, few of them settled in Stavanger. At that time few Muslims from the other countries were also here in the Rogaland. Muslims from Turkey Somalia, Arabs came here after the above said nations at that here were two main groups of the Muslims from Pakistan and other from Turkey. To fulfil the spiritual needs along with national needs an Islamic organization was founded in 1977 with the name Islamic Front. Following Muslims contributed in this task 1. Mr. Muhammad Iqbal Zafar This organization was not registered with local authorities due to which it had no funds to carry on. This organization was working on the basis of mutual co-operation but due to few numbers of Muslims and limited amounts of funds it could not carry on. In its accounts was 981 Kr. That organization had Danish translation of Quran, which was received by the new founded organization (The Rogaland Muslims Association) Which is available up till now in the Islamic library of Rogaland Muslim society. After some time Pakistanis felt the need of a common place to mark their religious days and a new organization was founded by Shaukat Mahmood Butt, Mr Aslam and Mr Sarwar, with the name of Mosque in Stavanger. During that period social and religious activities carried in Brødregata 20 Stavanger. These people raised a fund from Pakistanis which was 50 355 Kr, and was in the account number 9011-63 -13919. After raising the fund they could not carry on religious activities. That organization was closed and a new association "The Muslims Association of Rogaland" received that amount. Pakistanis and Turkish people carried out religious activities combined from 1981 to 1996. After this, due to increased population of Pakistanis, difference in Language and lack of space in the building, Pakistanis separated from Turkish community, and continued religious activities. Stavanger is a city that is considered important in the oil production became the centre of attraction for the peoples from the small cities like Kristiansand on the basis of job opportunities. Pakistanis also shifted from Kristiansand to Stavanger in 1978-79.One of new coming Pakistanis was Mr. Abdul Manan who shifted here with family in 1979and resided in Storhaug. He was very found of Islamic activities. He took active part in the activities of Rogaland Pakistan welfare organization. To share the joy of house purchase with Muslims he arranged Quran Khawani on the Brødregata 20, in which all Muslims were invited As common religious activities were not common in this city so he resigned from the duties of Rogaland Pakistan welfare organization and launched the plan to celebrate Eid-Milad-Ul-Nabi. Mr Muhammad Iskander, Sofi Muhammad Sarwar and Mr Abdul Manan collected the fund from Pakistanis, which was app. 7405 Kr. To arrange this celebration we called a meeting on the house of Mr Muhammad Sarwar, Mr.Abdul Quyuam and his friend. All people tried and took the following responsibilities to celebrate
functions successfully. Rifat Javid booked Våland gymsal (sport hall) and in
1981 without any organization we celebrated Eid- Millad-Ul -Nabi and in the
same hall Mr Iskander inquired from people "do you want to carry Mr Abdul Rehman When we asked Mr Abdul Quyyum to accept the post of general secretary, he answered that he would like to work in the company of Mr Abdul Manan and Mr. Iskandar, "Perhaps that service to God will help me in the time after death". We also requested other friends to help us After that we went to a Pakistan born American Muslim Mr. Hassan Mir on Tasta We were introduced with him on Pakistan day which was organised by Rogaland Pakistan welfare organization He was requested to work as President in executive and he showed willingness and also promised to get Pakistanis people gather at a platform. To fulfil his promise he wrote letters to all Pakistanis and organised a committee which was not only representing Pakistanis but Muslims from others countries also Among them Mr. Abrahim Yildiz Following members were nominated 1.Mr.Syed Mir Hassan (U.S A), President After short period Mr. Hamit migrated back to Turkey, and appointing Mr.Abrhim as a member of exective filled his vacant position. First meeting of executive was called on Sunday (5-4-1981) by secretary M:Maki and following members for branch committees was nominated. Islamic center: Mr Abdul Quyaum This association was named as Muslim Asssociation of Norway but when this was registered in FyIkesmannens office than its name was changed to 'The Muslim Association of Rogaland" and which was only associations of Muslims. In 1982 Mr. Mir Hassan was transferred to America and Mr Abrahim was appointed as president. For the first time we got the grant of 69155 Kr from government and that amount was used to buy office equipment for example Copying machine, Type writer, calculator, office table and chair and rest of money was saved. We had not permanent place until now. All things were kept in Mr. Iskandars house and address of Mr. Muhammad Sarwar was used as office address. There was no permanent place for Nimaze Ginaza and Nimaz-e-Eid, so we hit upon a plane to buy a house (Bait ul Masjid) Mr Abdul Manan contacted with many property dealers. One house in Sandeidgata was selected and requested to members to see it. A meeting was called on the house of Mr Khalid Munir and it was decided to buy that house. Rights to purchase this house were given to Mr. Abrahim (president) He purchased that house for 320,000 Kr, but it had need to be repaired. To repair this we collected money from Muslims of Sandnes and Stavanger. We got in 1983 approximately 200.000kr.Turkish people also contributed with 3100 Kr. God bless them. On various occasions Pakistanis collected donations from local people and people from other cities. Information for MuslimsAs a first religious association in the Rogaland we did the following jobs for muslims: 1.Purchase of Bait-ul-Masjid for 1.3 million Kr.(Verksgata 41, Stavanger) Different audio and video cassettes and books can be borrowed from Muslim library Few of them are these: "Five pillars of Islam" (to get the basic information about Islam) this book is compiled by Mr Abdul Manan and is free of charge and can be obtained on request. Telephone number: (51) 523369. Mr Abdul Manan, Mr.Riaz Mr.Muhammad Iqbal and Mr. Muhammad Ifzal have been taking part in collection of donations for Masjid. In 1984 following Numbers of Muslims were present in Stavanger: Pakistanis
During this period we saw one building (Lagårdsveien 13) to buy for Masjid. From Rogaland muslim association Mr Abdul Manan gave the auction and on the other hand Stavanger Kommune was also interested in that building. One of the Kommunes man Mr.Porsma told us that Kommune would purchase that building for every cost. So we offering you people to purchase Verksgata 41 Stavanger which was belonged to Stavanger commune and Statens Vegvesen After many meetings and showing the building many friends on 02-04-1990 that four stories building was purchased for 1 300 000 kr.with the signature of Mr. Muhammad Iqbal Zafar, Mr Abdul Manan and Mr Ibrahim Yildiz. To sell the old building (Sandeidgata 30) Mr. Abdul Manan and Mr Muhammad
Iqbal Zafar were deputed and that house was sold for 360,000 kr and rest of the
amount was paid to Vegvesen as net cash, debut was divided in instalments but
profit was not paid. From 1990 -1996 Turks, Somali and Pakistanis worked
together. On the basis of civil war in Somalia came here many Somalis and they
have to leave us on the base of language and to fulfill their requirements.
They are working in a private house (Møllegata 5) the same way Arabs also hired
a house and begun to perform religious activities in Arabic. But on the basis
of insufficient funding Somalis and Arabs begun to Pakistanis Representatives from both nations were agreed on every point. But both the buildings were registered for the name of The Muslim association of Rogaland. Pakistanis can own Store Skippergate 4 only by having a self governed executive body of Islamic organization. So Mr. Abdul Manan went to Mr Mirza Ghulam Hussain, Mr Nawab Ihtazaz-ud-din and Mr Sheikh Kurshid Anwar and asked to gather people to lay the foundation of a new national organization and to take the control of property, which had value of one million kr. They cooperated personally but did not succeed to gather the people for this purpose We tried ourselves to gather people and hold a general meeting of Pakistanis on 08.09.1996 for this good purpose. God bless them all. These took part in the voluntary task and duties that were assigned to them can be seen in this report. After a long tiresome process and with the help of Mr. Javid Mahmood Butt Mr. Abdul Rehman Mr. Rifat Javid, Mr. Muhammad Siddique and Mr. Zafar Javid. The following executive body were chosen. * Mr. Khawaja Kaleem, President, Sandnes Committee members * Mr. Nisar ahmad, Stavanger We should not separate completely but we can divide the building equally. The net amount that we have can be used for partition of building and on arrangements of separate passages we can continue our religious activities in our own language and under own imam. We called a meeting of Pakistanis people and got their willingness. Both nations were agreed with this plan Both groups begun work on this project and consulted building firms, "O. Torjussen og Sønner A/s" and got estimates and plan maps. On that time Store Skippergate 4 came for sale the SR Bank. Mr Abdul Manan brought the keys to show it to his friends because he wanted to purchase it for personal use. When he was seeing the building, Turkish imam came there and asked, "Is this building for sale?" Mr. Abdul Manan answered "yes". I want to purchase it for my personal use .At this imam answered that it is better to buy this building for masjid than to divide the old building. Mr. Abdul Manan said to him, first you should ask your nation. At this he called the meeting and decided that this building must be purchased and after this both nations can have self owned masjids. He advised to give up the idea for personal purchase Mr. Abdul Manan had shown that building to Mr. Javid Mahmood Butt, and he was agree with Mr. Abdul Manan to invest in that project. But Mr. Abdul Manan preferred common Islamic interests. Purchase of Store Skippergate. 4The executive council of "The Muslim association of Rogaland" gave the authority to purchase the building to Mr. Abdul Manan. He got sanctioned 600,000 kr loan and showed the building to Pakistanis to get confirmation that building is loan free. Now we turned our attention towards the alteration of the building. Before that building was to be sold for 1 200 000 kr but could not. We invited the owners and talked about the building and we agreed on the building price for 1 000 000 Kr. That price was our good luck. At that time we had 400,000kr net in the association account and 600,000 kr we loaned from Landsbanken. We paid 100,0000 kr to SR bank. In this way that building was also became the property of the Muslims. Separation from the Turkish brothersMr. Muhammad Siddique, Mr.Muhammad Iqbal Zafar and Mr.Abdul Manan represented Pakistanis and Mr. Mehmet and Mr. Ali Cochaic represented the Turkish, cooperating helpers were Mr Abdul Rehman Yildiz and Mr. Jodit. The old building’s value was estimated to approximately 1,3 million kroner. On different occasions Pakistanis had donated 500,000 kr. Because the building was loan free on that time, and we were equal partners on the base of thing, lack of funds as members were divided. Both buildings were used as Bait ul masjid. We were expecting lack of funds as members were too divided. We took one million kr in cash and Turkish had to take loan of 600,000 kr. They had a problem so we left some amount to them. It was decided that Pakistanis will take one million kr and will leave the rights of the building. Sri-Lankans and other nations still have unpaid rights in the Muslim association of Rogaland. Internal articles were divided on the basis of donation, which can explain as that person can take the donation back, which had donated. Mr.Abdul Manan collected all the articles according to the list and said to
Turkish people we owned these things and if you people think that is yours your
people can take them back now. They replied that your people pioneered of this
organization that is right which you people have claimed. The things that were
purchased combined were divided in that way, the things that were double in
numbers were divided and rest of things were divided according to need. We
separated in this polite and mannered way from each other after 15 years long
common Islamic brotherhood. We had two buildings for two nations, but decision of executive was not made yet that which building was owned by whom. Few Pakistanis were interested in Verksgata 41 and Mr Abdul Manan was agreed with them. The reason for that was that the building was already in use and that needed no repairing, as compared to Store Skippergate 4. Mr. Abdul Manan and Mr. Muhammad Iqbal Zafar prepared the constitution of Rogaland Muslim society. Letter pad and design for office stationary were designed by Mr. Abdul Manan and was improved by executive's body. Mr. Muhammad Iqbal Zafar and Mr Abdul Manan gave the idea of Islamic calendar. Timetable for Nimaz prepared by Mr. Abdul Manan and Mr. Rifat Javid, and got composed on computer by Mr. Muhammad Riaz. Calendars are divided without any cost among Muslims, and Muslims appreciate that, and demand for them from Oslo is very large as they got few of them. The executive body of The Muslim association of Rogaland sold Store Skippergate 4 to the executive body of The Rogaland Muslims society on 01.10.1996. The following members were present and signed on the papers of building registry. Mr. Shaukat Mahmood Butt Now this building is registered with the name of Rogaland Muslim society and was purchased for one million kroner. After purchase of building we spent all the money we had, and we had no money to register the building. One Turkish brother loaned us round about 30,000 kr, which was returned to him with thanks after the sanction of grant from state. Whenever Turkish brothers felt the need to borrow then Rogaland Muslim society also helped them and they kept their words in returning.
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