PM's Egypt Mosque Visit Sends A Message To India's Dawoodi Bohra Muslims

PM Modi has shared an old and warm relationship with the Dawoodi Bohras for many years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Imam al-Hakim bi Amr Allah Mosque, a nearly 1,000-year-old structure in the heart of the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Saturday, will have a special connection with a community of Muslims in India that the PM has shared an old and warm relationship with for many years.

According to the Egyptian government's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the mosque reopened following extensive renovations that took six years to complete. The renovations were part of a large-scale plan to boost tourism to Cairo's Islamic sites. The work was co-funded by the Dawoodi Bohra community, the same community that PM Modi has often thanked for helping him govern the state of Gujarat well and for being "patriotic, law-abiding, and peace-loving." The mosque is an important cultural site for the Dawoodi Bohra community in Cairo.

Who Are The Dawoodi Bohras?

The Dawoodi Bohras follow the Fatimi Ismaili Tayyibi school of thought. Their distinctive heritage originated in Egypt and later shifted to Yemen before establishing a presence in India in the 11th century. After 1539, by which time the Indian community had grown quite large, the seat of the sect was moved from Yemen to Sidhpur (Patan district of Gujarat), India. Even now, Siddhpur has the iconic ancestral havelis (homes) that belong to the community. The men of this community wear distinctive white clothes and golden caps, while the women are known to wear colourful burqas, and not the black ones some other sections of Muslim women wear.