Why Mumbai is a draw for Muharram preachers

Recently, a journalist joked to leading Shia scholar and preacher Maulana Syed Aqeel-ul-Gharavi that there is no place on earth where Islam reached and he (Gharavi) has not gone, too. Jokes apart, Muharram majlises or assemblies across the world scramble to get him for the initial days of Muharram to deliver the sermons. “There were invitations from many places, but I chose Mumbai. The city and its people fascinate me,” says the London-based senior preacher.