Statement Asking Muslims Of India To Observe November 1st As "Muslim Countries Day"

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, President of the All-India Muslim League, has announced that November 1st should be observed as: “The day for the purpose of expressing and demonstrating the deep feeling of sympathy and concern of Muslim India, with the Muslim countries against any possible design or aggression upon the sovereignty and independence of those countries.”

The Council of the All-India Muslim League at its last meeting resolved that “in view of the repeated reports that have reached India recently that there is probability of war flames spreading and of aggression by Foreign Powers against the independence and sovereignty of the Muslim countries such as Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Turkey,” the President of the Muslim League should fix a day “for the purpose of expressing and demonstrating deep sympathy and concern of Muslim India with Muslim countries and also conveying to those who have any such design that in the event of any attack upon Muslim countries Muslim India would be forced to stand by them and give all the support it can….”

“I am enclosing a copy of the resolution of the Council of All-India Muslim League herewith, which should be supported and confirmed in public meetings throughout every province on that day and also I hope that during the Friday prayers special prayers will be offered in all the mosques throughout all the provinces for the safety and integrity of the sovereignty and independence of Muslim countries.

“I hope that this earnest appeal of mine will receive the fullest support of Muslims generally and of the Muslim League in particular and that this day will be observed in a manner worthy of Islamic traditions.”

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Source: South Asian Studies: bi-annual Research Journal, Vol. 17,No. 1 (Quaid-i-Azam Number) January 2002, PP. 92. Also cited in The Star of India, October 12, 1940.

Statement Regarding Palestine Conference Bombay, January 30, 1939

"In view of the forthcoming Palestine Conference, which is going to take place on or about February 7, 1939 in London, I have sent the following telegram to Mr. Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Great Britain: the Secretary of State for India and Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the Minister for Colonies:

"The All-India Muslim League urges upon His Majesty’s Government to give representation to the Muslim League on the Palestine Conference and concede the Palestine National Arab demands. Muslim India is most anxiously awaiting results. I cannot by means of a telegram express adequately and impress the intensity of feeling prevailing throughout India. The failure of the Conference will be most disastrous throughout the Muslim world, resulting in grave consequences. I trust that this earnest appeal will receive your serious consideration."

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Source: South Asian Studies: bi-annual Research Journal, Vol. 17,No. 1 (Quaid-i-Azam Number) January 2002, PP. 91. Also cited in The Civil & Military Gazette, February 1, 1939.

Statement On The Palestine Problem Bombay: November 10, 1938

The view that Muslims of India are solidly behind the struggle which the Arabs are carrying on in Palestine for their freedom was expressed by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, President of the All India Muslim League. Commenting on the declaration of policy by His Majesty’s Government on the Palestine problem, the Quaid said:

"I feel that Arab leaders of Palestine and the neighboring States will be far more competent to deal with the matter than any Indian can from this distance, as they not only are fully competent but also understand the situation on the spot better. I would not, therefore, at this stage venture to make any suggestion of a concrete nature, but would like to make it clear that Muslims of India are solidly behind the struggle which the Arabs are carrying on for their freedom. Their feelings and sentiments have been repeatedly presented to the British Government".

Muslims Resentment

"Only in September last, in a long interview with His Excellency the Viceroy, I conveyed to him and the Government of India the intensity of the feeling in India on this matter. It has been the greatest difficulty with us during the last few months to restrain and to hold the Muslims of India from openly revolting. The way in which the British Government have hitherto dealt with the Arabs is the greatest blot on their national honour. I trust that the British nation and His Majesty’s Government will make the fullest amends for their past mistakes before it is too late and not take shelter under the plea of that most unjust Balfour Declaration, which never ought to have been made, and further the plea of appeasing international Jewry.

Thank you Mr Jinnah

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By Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain

Unfortunately for the Palestinians, they had nobody like Jinnah leading them — someone who had the foresight and the courage to accept the partition of Palestine. Instead of accepting partition, the Palestinians and the Arabs attacked the newly formed Jewish state

Whenever a few Pakistanis or Pakistani expat ‘liberal’ types get together, after a couple of libations to lubricate ideas and speech, often the conversation comes to the question whether we in Pakistan would have been better off if there were no partition of India.

Now I am not a serious student of the history of partition and am aware only of the basic facts. These being that the Muslim League won most of the Muslim seats during the elections held in 1946 and as such also won the right to represent the Muslims of India. Jinnah, as the leader of the Muslims, decided to opt for Pakistan when the All India Congress led by Nehru and Patel rejected the Cabinet Mission Plan. And this Pakistan that came into being was not quite what Jinnah had expected.

Some historians have said that Jinnah referred to the country he got as a “moth-eaten” Pakistan. Whether that is true is not material since Jinnah accepted whatever he got and it laid the foundation of one and then two Muslim majority countries in the Indian subcontinent, something envisaged by the Lahore Resolution of 1940. It is also an undeniable fact that we in Pakistan could indeed have done a lot better for ourselves.