A Foster City-based group is gearing up to celebrate the 194th anniversary of the founder of one of Asia’s oldest and most respected learning institution’s birth in grand fashion.
The Alumni of the Aligarh Muslim University’s Northern California chapter will raise money for a scholarship fund that has already served more than 1,500 students since its inception in 1996. It is among about 13 such chapters in the United States and 100 or so around the world.
The event, which is expected to draw about 400 alumni and friends of the AMU, will be held at the India Community Center on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Dr. Farid Senzai, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Santa Clara University will be the event’s keynote speaker. Senzai also heads the Research Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the plight of Muslim communities in the United States.
The AMU was originally founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in India as the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College in 1875. It has existed under its current name since 1920.
“Education is the key, and this is our way of giving back,” said Shaheer Khan, who chairs the event’s organizing committee.
Sir Syed was born in India on Oct. 17, 1817. The approximately 150 million Muslims who lived in India under the British Empire during his life lacked adequate resources.
The AMU Alumni Association of Northern California was founded in 1996 as a secular, non-partisan, non-political organization serving the educational, social, literary and cultural needs of the Muslim community.
