M. H. Jawahirullah

Jawahirullah was born in Udangudi Thoothukudi District in Tamil Nadu. He received his bachelor's degree in commerce from the Madras University. He then obtained masters in business administration (MBA) in 1983 and Master of Philosophy in 2000. He worked as a lecturer at Islamiah College, Vaniyambadi. In 2008, he was awarded PhD by the Madras University for his dissertation on "Performance Evaluation and Assessment of Service Quality in Islamic Banks: A Study with special reference to Bank Islam Malaysia".^[3] He was a member of SIMI until 1989 and left the organisation due to its involvement in violence.

Jawahirullah has been actively involved in the non-violent struggle for the rights of minorities especially Muslims in India. He calls for coordination of all Muslim groups in India for positive development.^[4] His Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagham (TMMK) organization mobilized hundreds of volunteers to help in rescue work when a tsunami struck the coast of Tamil Nadu in 2004 and it also played an important role in 2007 during negotiations to secure reservations for Muslims in government jobs. It has been praised by a Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, and won an award for recruiting the highest number of blood donors in emergencies. It runs 148 free ambulances in Tamil Nadu.^[5]

Jawahirullah, representing 25 Islamic trusts, societies and charities, sought a ban on Kamal Haasan's then-unscreened movie Vishwaroopam as "it will affect social harmony" and it gave the impression that "all Muslims are terrorists". The Tamil Nadu state government banned the movie from being screened in the state^[6] for a little over a week in 2013 until a compromise was agreed.^[7][8][9]