Maulana Mahmood Madani is the President of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) where he also served as secretary-general for 13 years. He has gained influence for his forthright condemnations of terrorism and unfaltering support of the Indian Muslim community.

Lineage: Maulana Mahmood’s grandfather Maulana Syed Hussain Ahmad Madani was a great scholar of Islamic theology, teaching hadith in Madinah, and Deoband. He was the president of the JUH until his death in 1957 and was then succeeded by his son Asad Madani (the father of Maulana Mahmood), who was president until his death in 2006.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH): JUH was estab­lished in 1919 by leading Deoband scholars who argued for the concept of composite nationalism, be­lieving that a nation should not be formed on the ba­sis of one factor only (e. g. religion, ethnicity etc), but rather should be based on many factors. Maulana Mahmood has strived to keep this concept alive amid all the tur­moil of nationalistic politics in India. After graduating from Deoband in 1992, he became actively involved in the JUH, organizing conferences and meetings across the country which saw a rapid rise in mem­bership. He became the General Secretary of JUH in 2001 and continued to invigorate the organization. When his father passed away in 2006, a dispute arose between him and his uncle around the leadership of the organization leading to a bifurcation.

Activism: He has advocated for Muslim rights in In­dia and been outspoken in his opposition to the mis­use of the term “jihad” as a tool of terrorism in India. Following fatal bomb blasts in 2008, he mobilized Darul Uloom Deoband institutions to host events condemning terrorism as inherently un-Islamic. This had a major impact on the community. He has been at the forefront of relief work (earthquakes in Gujrat and Kashmir), health and social development (Kashmir).

Legal battles:  Maulana Madani leads numerous legal battles in various courts of the country fighting to secure the rights of Indian Muslims in cases covering Right to Citizenship, Right to Practice Religious Duties, as well as defending those Muslims who have been falsely implicated in terror cases.

Combating Islamophobia: With RSS ideology growing ever menacingly, Maulana Mahmood Madani has supported a number of initiatives to counter the impact of hatred and religious-based crime against Indian Muslims. The JEIM (Justice and Empowerment Initiative for Indian Muslims) records cases of Islamophobia in a systematic manner and provides advocacy and other forms of assistance to the victims. This is the first such attempt by Indian Muslims to record such cases and present them to human rights organizations.

“Hate can’t be solved by hate.”

12 million Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind followers

1919 the year Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind was established