AIJAZ ZAKA SYED | ARAB NEWS
Extremism: Inaction is no longer an option
What a life!From what little one has read and heard about Salman Taseer, he lived life king size with an irrepressible, in-your-face contempt for everything that ordinary Pakistanis – and Muslims everywhere – love and hold close to heart. The slain governor of Pakistan’s Punjab was both a successful politician and a successful businessman, building a nice, little media empire of his own.
Taseer certainly knew how to work his way up the slippery pole of power in the rough and tumble of Pakistani politics, having been close to both the powers that be – President Asif Zardari — and powers that were – Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He even had an Indian connection, having married journalist Tavleen Singh and fathered a son, Aatish Taseer, with her during his brief stay in India.
A slick operator and maverick to the core, Taseer had developed a taste for “good things of life” and lived dangerously in every sense of the term. But did Salman Taseer deserve to be killed, as he has been? That too in the sweet name of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the blessed faith that he brought?
I know we have been here before but how much more infamy and disgrace Muslims will inflict on their faith in the name of protecting it? Every time we target someone in the name of Islam we add a blot to the long history of tolerance, kindness and generosity of the great faith. And where’s all this going to end, if we start settling our political or ideological differences? As Mahatma Gandhi would warn, an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind. We aren’t living in the middle ages for God’s sake!
More important, we do ultimate injustice to the Last Messenger, the noblest and kindest of men, who granted amnesty to the worst of his enemies including those who persecuted and tried to assassinate him when the whole of Arabia was at his feet.
I am no religious scholar. But with the limited understanding I have of my faith, I have to ask these so-called defenders of faith: Would the Prophet approve of this murder and mayhem in his name and in the name of a religion that is totally based on reason, truth and justice? But whoever said this had anything to do with religion or faith? This is more like the politics of religion, something we in South Asia have evolved into a science.
From Gandhi’s assassination at the hands of a Hindu fanatic to the gunning down of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her own Sikh guards, religion has gone hand in hand with politics. As the BJP realized to its glee, after it was transformed from a 2-member party in Parliament into a “natural party of governance” after the Ayodhya campaign, it pays to mix politics with religion, or the other way round.
Across the border in Pakistan, our cousins seem to have turned this to another level with deadly effect and consequences. Even as I am a great believer in Allama Iqbal’s philosophy that “juda ho deen siasat se toe rah jaati hai changezi”(divorced from religion, politics is nothing but barbarity), I dare say what’s going on in Pakistan right now has got nothing to do with religion, nor with politics.
Pakistan was supposed to have been the citadel of Islam, a model state based on the celebrated Islamic principles of equality and accountability before God and justice and security for everyone including its minorities, a utopia that would be a source of inspiration and pride for the believers around the world.
Where does Jinnah’s Pakistan find itself today then? As a country that is so much like my own and is home to some of my closest friends, there’s always been a special place for the “land of the pure” in my heart (no matter what our Sanghi and Sena friends think!)
But would the founding fathers of Pakistan be proud of the state their baby is in today? Is this what Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah had in mind when he envisioned a model Muslim state?
Millions gave up everything they had for the “promised land.” There were hundreds of thousands of others who could never make it past what Qurratulain Haider called Aag ka Darya (The River of Fire). Were all those immense sacrifices meant for the dangerous, lawless land that some are bent on making of Pakistan?
It’s not just the lunatic fringe represented by the Tahreek-e-Taleban and numerous other outfits that are distorting the teachings of Islam and chipping away at the so-called ideal of Pakistan, almost every politician and party, including those in the “secular and liberal” Pakistan People’s Party, is guilty of using or abusing religion for petty political ends.
Same goes for the so-called blasphemy law, a relic of the late President Gen. Zia-ul Haq’s martial law era. Of course, no Muslim will ever tolerate any slur against the Prophet. And one has no reason to question Gen. Zia’s sincerity and intention in bringing in the law.
However, the very fact that it has generated so much heat and dust in and outside Pakistan with genuine concerns and complaints about its abuse to settle personal and political scores, calls for revisiting and reviewing the law. While any assault on the Prophet’s person or the Holy Book will always be intolerable for all believers, more reprehensible is potential victimization of innocents.
This is not just about a controversial law or some fanatics taking law into their hands in Pakistan. I hate to say this but the larger issue at the heart of this whole debate is increasing intolerance in Muslim societies around the world. Whatever the real and imagined causes of this growing extremism – Western conspiracies and interventionist policies, historical injustices or corruption and spinelessness of Muslim leaders – in our midst, it has acquired truly frightening proportions.
From mindless, suicidal violence targeting innocent Muslims to shameless attacks on religious minorities, the cancer of extremism is eating away into the vitals of Muslim societies everywhere and pristine image of Islam. And it’s no longer possible to ignore these extremists as a tiny, lunatic fringe because they have practically hijacked our voices and causes, painting a community of 1.7 billion believers as a dangerous, intolerant lot.
Governments, opinion leaders, intellectuals and religious scholars and leaders in particular have to wake up to this scourge of extremism before it’s too late. The Muslims have their issues and problems, just like any other people or community, and they are capable of taking care of them without help and intervention from the nuts celebrating death, thank you very much! Extremist violence in the name of religion is no longer an issue of idle, drawing room debate.
This is a clear and present danger to all of us. Too many innocents have died and too much innocent blood has been shed in our name. This is not us. Blowing up innocent, unsuspecting folks busy in prayers is the ultimate savagery and crime against the faith, against all faiths. We must act and act now to stop this dance of death. For God will not forgive us if we remain silent in the face of this outrage. Extremism has emerged as the biggest threat to Islam and Muslims everywhere. And the alternative to collective inaction is collective doom.
- Aijaz Zaka Syed is a Dubai-based commentator who has written extensively on
Movement of ideas and excellence that once shaped the Islamic world has been lost in pointless delusions of grandeur and fruitless debates
- By Aijaz Zaka Syed, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 January 7, 2011
An idea can change the world. Who would know this better than the people of the UAE? This young nation is a living, thriving tribute to the compelling power of simple, yet magical ideas. The restless energy and enterprising spirit of the Emirates to constantly break new ground and build something new and refreshing in this long dormant, sleepy part of the world often reminds me of the pioneering spirit of early Arabs and Muslims.
A great deal has been written about the stark simplicity and honesty of the early believers and how the rustic, desert tribes started conquering the world within two decades of the dawn of Islam. What fascinates me no end though is their seminal contribution to modern science and all streams of pursuit of knowledge. From astronomy to anatomy to medical science and from mathematics to chemistry to physics to navigation and from philosophy to poetry, Muslims have not just left an imprint on modern science, they have shaped our world.
Did you, for instance, know that it was an Arab woman, Fatima Al Fihri, from Morocco who founded the world’s first university? Or the fact that the blueprint of the modern camera was created by an Iraqi scientist, Ibn Al Haitham, more than a thousand years ago? He wrote the Book of Optics that led to the invention of the camera.
How many of us, accustomed to the comfort and speed of air travel, realise that the idea had been first tried by a curious pioneer called Abbas Ibn Firnas? With his body covered in feathers and ‘wings’ strapped to his arms, the Berber polymath took to the sky in 9th-century Cordoba, managing to ‘fly’ several metres before crash landing. It was clearly a work in progress! But remember it happened a thousand years before the Wright brothers attempted their flight.
New York these days is hosting an unusual exhibition profiling hundreds of such pioneers, from Ibn Firnas to Ibn Sina, in a long due tribute to the contributions of Islamic civilisation. ‘1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World’ that opened in the Big Apple last month after immensely successful shows in London and Istanbul attracting 800,000 visitors is an attempt to recreate the glory of the magical millennium, from AD 700 to 1700, that changed the world.
It was during this period between the fall of Rome and the rise of the European Renaissance, that Muslim civilisation led the world in science and technology and virtually everything else.
Endless list of inventions
From the humble coffee beans to the crafty game of chess to windmills to clocks to fountain pens to soap to surgical instruments and from quilting or sewing to gunpowder, the list of Muslim inventions is endless. Five hundred years before Galileo discovered earth was round and was duly punished for it by the Church, the Muslim scientists had established the spherical nature of the planet.
In the empire of the faith that stretched from Spain through the Middle East to China, new ideas were constantly generated, encouraged and embraced. It’s this ferocious hunger for knowledge that took the Arabs and Muslims to great heights of power, prosperity and intellectual supremacy. They fought the battle of ideas from a position of strength, challenging reigning ideas and ideologies of the time.
They embraced the best from around the world. This was how the science of arithmetic from India and Greek philosophy were passed on to Europe and the rest of the world. Indeed, the Arab contribution played a critical role in the progress the West has made over the past five centuries.
A culture of excellence coupled with their willingness to learn enabled the Muslims to conquer new lands. Muslim countries were home to scores of universities and libraries long before Oxford and Cambridge were founded in Europe.
When the Mongol armies overran the Middle East, sacking eminent centres of power and learning like Baghdad, Damascus and Alexandria and killing hundreds of thousands of people, there was more ink than blood in rivers. The invaders burnt and dumped in the river hundreds of thousands of invaluable books and rare manuscripts authored and collected over the centuries.
How would you then explain the current intellectual stagnation? Why aren’t Muslims part of the knowledge revolution anymore, let alone leading it? Have they run out of steam as a people and as a civilisation?
It’s no coincidence that power began to slip from Muslim hands just when they stopped exploring and expanding new horizons of knowledge. Muslims haven’t produced one intellectual or scientist of the stature of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in the past many centuries.
Why? Because the movement of knowledge and ideas that once drove Muslims and fired their imagination has lost itself somewhere. A small European nation or a backward Indian state boasts more universities today than all the Arab world put together.
All we do these days is spend all our time and energy on pointless delusions of grandeur and fruitless debates. Instead of doing something concrete to lift ourselves out of the intellectual morass we are stuck in, we are busy issuing fatwas condemning each other.
There’s no dearth of talent or resources, human or material, in the Muslim world today. What it needs is original ideas and men who could translate them into reality. More important, what is needed is an opening of minds.
Aijaz Zaka Syed is a Dubai-based writer who has extensively written on Muslim world affairs.
A great deal has been written about the stark simplicity and honesty of the early believers and how the rustic, desert tribes started conquering the world within two decades of the dawn of Islam. What fascinates me no end though is their seminal contribution to modern science and all streams of pursuit of knowledge. From astronomy to anatomy to medical science and from mathematics to chemistry to physics to navigation and from philosophy to poetry, Muslims have not just left an imprint on modern science, they have shaped our world.
Did you, for instance, know that it was an Arab woman, Fatima Al Fihri, from Morocco who founded the world’s first university? Or the fact that the blueprint of the modern camera was created by an Iraqi scientist, Ibn Al Haitham, more than a thousand years ago? He wrote the Book of Optics that led to the invention of the camera.
How many of us, accustomed to the comfort and speed of air travel, realise that the idea had been first tried by a curious pioneer called Abbas Ibn Firnas? With his body covered in feathers and ‘wings’ strapped to his arms, the Berber polymath took to the sky in 9th-century Cordoba, managing to ‘fly’ several metres before crash landing. It was clearly a work in progress! But remember it happened a thousand years before the Wright brothers attempted their flight.
New York these days is hosting an unusual exhibition profiling hundreds of such pioneers, from Ibn Firnas to Ibn Sina, in a long due tribute to the contributions of Islamic civilisation. ‘1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World’ that opened in the Big Apple last month after immensely successful shows in London and Istanbul attracting 800,000 visitors is an attempt to recreate the glory of the magical millennium, from AD 700 to 1700, that changed the world.
It was during this period between the fall of Rome and the rise of the European Renaissance, that Muslim civilisation led the world in science and technology and virtually everything else.
Endless list of inventions
From the humble coffee beans to the crafty game of chess to windmills to clocks to fountain pens to soap to surgical instruments and from quilting or sewing to gunpowder, the list of Muslim inventions is endless. Five hundred years before Galileo discovered earth was round and was duly punished for it by the Church, the Muslim scientists had established the spherical nature of the planet.
In the empire of the faith that stretched from Spain through the Middle East to China, new ideas were constantly generated, encouraged and embraced. It’s this ferocious hunger for knowledge that took the Arabs and Muslims to great heights of power, prosperity and intellectual supremacy. They fought the battle of ideas from a position of strength, challenging reigning ideas and ideologies of the time.
They embraced the best from around the world. This was how the science of arithmetic from India and Greek philosophy were passed on to Europe and the rest of the world. Indeed, the Arab contribution played a critical role in the progress the West has made over the past five centuries.
A culture of excellence coupled with their willingness to learn enabled the Muslims to conquer new lands. Muslim countries were home to scores of universities and libraries long before Oxford and Cambridge were founded in Europe.
When the Mongol armies overran the Middle East, sacking eminent centres of power and learning like Baghdad, Damascus and Alexandria and killing hundreds of thousands of people, there was more ink than blood in rivers. The invaders burnt and dumped in the river hundreds of thousands of invaluable books and rare manuscripts authored and collected over the centuries.
How would you then explain the current intellectual stagnation? Why aren’t Muslims part of the knowledge revolution anymore, let alone leading it? Have they run out of steam as a people and as a civilisation?
It’s no coincidence that power began to slip from Muslim hands just when they stopped exploring and expanding new horizons of knowledge. Muslims haven’t produced one intellectual or scientist of the stature of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in the past many centuries.
Why? Because the movement of knowledge and ideas that once drove Muslims and fired their imagination has lost itself somewhere. A small European nation or a backward Indian state boasts more universities today than all the Arab world put together.
All we do these days is spend all our time and energy on pointless delusions of grandeur and fruitless debates. Instead of doing something concrete to lift ourselves out of the intellectual morass we are stuck in, we are busy issuing fatwas condemning each other.
There’s no dearth of talent or resources, human or material, in the Muslim world today. What it needs is original ideas and men who could translate them into reality. More important, what is needed is an opening of minds.
Aijaz Zaka Syed is a Dubai-based writer who has extensively written on Muslim world affairs.
AIJAZ ZAKA SYED | ARAB NEWS
What’s wrong with Muslims?
W hat is a writer without his or her readers?
I take my share of readers’ feedback seriously. It’s invariably interesting and instructive.
Check out this mail from a regular reader, Shiv Dhanush, for instance, in response to my recent column on the predicament of Indian Muslims: “There are less than one million Hindus and Sikhs in the US, that is, 0.3 percent of the population. But governors of two out of the 50 US states are from this community. There are nearly six million Muslims in the US but they do not have anyone in governor mansions. You can extend the example to other top learning institutions like MIT, Cal Tech, Berkeley, Harvard and Yale etc. The representation of Hindu and Sikh children is greater than their percentage in the population.
“The share of Muslims in these elite institutions is lower than their population ratio. You can make a comparison of Punjabi (or Sindhi or Bengali) Hindus and Sikhs versus Punjabi Muslims in the US or UK and their relative achievements. Make a similar comparison of Hindus and Sikhs versus Muslims in US and UK prisons and you’ll see alarming results.
“The playing field for all immigrants in the West is the same. So how did this happen? It happened because Hindus, Sikhs, and others give highest priority to education and personal excellence (whereas Muslims do not). This is why Muslims today find themselves even behind the Dalits in India in all walks of life.”
My apologies for this long quote but it’s intrinsic to my argument. Besides, this is fascinating stuff, don’t you think? In fact, Shiv goes on to argue that the South Asian Muslims wanted Pakistan because they knew they couldn’t compete with Hindus and Sikhs in an undivided India!
I have no issues with Shiv’s argument and most of his facts. In fact, we are on the same page about the Muslim under representation in all walks of life and their excessive presence on the wrong side of the law.
The shining examples of Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal, being lionized as the Republicans’ answer to Obama and a future president, and South Carolina Gov. Nimrata Kaur are a source of inspiration and pride not just for Hindus and Sikhs but the whole of India and Asia. There are countless such examples in the land of opportunity that is America — of Indians scaling the pinnacle of excellence in universities, research and scientific centers and Silicon Valley companies thanks to their hard work and dedication.
However, if Indian Hindus and Sikhs are increasingly becoming the shining face of the great American dream while their Muslim counterparts rough it out in the cold, there’s another more prosaic explanation.
I hate to disrupt Shiv’s reverie but if the Jindals and Kaurs of this world find themselves in US governor mansions today, and possibly on their way to the White House, they’ve had to pay a price for it. Piyush Jindal was born a Hindu to Hindu immigrant parents from Punjab. He converted to Christianity when he grew up christening himself as Bobby Jindal. Today, he and his wife Supriya are proper church-going folk, like the rest of the predominantly white, genteel Christian America.
Ditto Nimrata Kaur who today calls herself Nikki Haley. She was born a Sikh to second— generation Sikh immigrants. Like Jindal, she converted to Christianity before joining politics. She’s married to Michael Haley and has two children, all of them nice, practicing Christians.
Of course, this has nothing to do with faith. Each to his or her own and I am a firm believer in everyone doing his/her own thing. What I am trying to emphasize is the fact that both Jindal and Kaur had to give up their original identity and faith to find acceptance in the white, middle class America.
I am an ardent admirer of the great American dream and its enduring allure that continues to beckon generations of dreamers from around the world. But I have to point out that today if Jindal and Kaur are where they are, it’s also because of their willingness to give up their beliefs to merge their identity with the host society, becoming tolerable for the Republican and Tea Party rabble-rousers. Compromises are made at every step of the staircase to heaven.
Unfortunately or fortunately, this is something the Muslims cannot do. They would rather languish on the edges of the American dream, rather than give up their identity and faith to live in governor mansions.
I know this is a huge weakness or failing, according to the worldview of friends like Shiv. But that’s how they are: Rigid and uncompromising when it comes to their convictions and totally out of sync with the way of the world and liberal ways of the West. If they are left out in the cold while the rest of the world is partying, they do not seem to mind. And this is a global phenomenon, wherever Muslims are, from Americas to Australia.
In fact, this apparent lack of “flexibility” and preoccupation with religion is seen as being at the heart of the West-Islam conflict today. Call it what you will but this is in the very nature of Islam that it demands its followers to accept it as a way of life, rather than as something private between God and the believer.
But if the Muslims find themselves stuck in a rut almost everywhere while the rest of the world is flying past them on the high road to glory, it’s not because there’s too much of religion in their lives. It’s because they have failed to apply it the way it should be to their lives. Instead of imbibing the liberating teachings and revolutionary spirit of a faith that guides us every step of the way, we have turned it into a set of meaningless rituals and a heavy yoke around our neck.
It was the same faith that transformed the bands of unruly, bloodletting Arabian tribes into a world power in less than a decade bringing down the mighty Persian and Roman empires like a house of cards.
It wasn’t just on the battlefield that they beat others. They pioneered a knowledge and scientific revolution, which in turn fed and inspired the European Renaissance. From philosophy and poetry to physics and chemistry and from mathematics and medicine to planetary science, the West built its discoveries and advances based on blueprints created by Muslim pioneers.
Unlike us, early Muslims had been driven by a compelling craving and hunger for knowledge and new ideas, wherever they could find them. While we have become the prisoners of our past and our often narrow, literal interpretation of Islamic teachings, they looked to the future showing the way forward to others.
They did not preach their faith. They lived it, promoting it with their actions and with their honesty, simplicity, piety and courage. At the same time, they promoted a culture of hard work, perseverance and excellence wherever they went and whatever they turned their attention to. No wonder they conquered the world in no time and have left behind a civilization to last forever.
They were extraordinary men, giants among men. A really hard act to follow, indeed! But if we could recreate even a fraction of their magic, we would do ourselves an immense favor, transforming our wretched existence forever and creating a better world.
Check out this mail from a regular reader, Shiv Dhanush, for instance, in response to my recent column on the predicament of Indian Muslims: “There are less than one million Hindus and Sikhs in the US, that is, 0.3 percent of the population. But governors of two out of the 50 US states are from this community. There are nearly six million Muslims in the US but they do not have anyone in governor mansions. You can extend the example to other top learning institutions like MIT, Cal Tech, Berkeley, Harvard and Yale etc. The representation of Hindu and Sikh children is greater than their percentage in the population.
“The share of Muslims in these elite institutions is lower than their population ratio. You can make a comparison of Punjabi (or Sindhi or Bengali) Hindus and Sikhs versus Punjabi Muslims in the US or UK and their relative achievements. Make a similar comparison of Hindus and Sikhs versus Muslims in US and UK prisons and you’ll see alarming results.
“The playing field for all immigrants in the West is the same. So how did this happen? It happened because Hindus, Sikhs, and others give highest priority to education and personal excellence (whereas Muslims do not). This is why Muslims today find themselves even behind the Dalits in India in all walks of life.”
My apologies for this long quote but it’s intrinsic to my argument. Besides, this is fascinating stuff, don’t you think? In fact, Shiv goes on to argue that the South Asian Muslims wanted Pakistan because they knew they couldn’t compete with Hindus and Sikhs in an undivided India!
I have no issues with Shiv’s argument and most of his facts. In fact, we are on the same page about the Muslim under representation in all walks of life and their excessive presence on the wrong side of the law.
The shining examples of Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal, being lionized as the Republicans’ answer to Obama and a future president, and South Carolina Gov. Nimrata Kaur are a source of inspiration and pride not just for Hindus and Sikhs but the whole of India and Asia. There are countless such examples in the land of opportunity that is America — of Indians scaling the pinnacle of excellence in universities, research and scientific centers and Silicon Valley companies thanks to their hard work and dedication.
However, if Indian Hindus and Sikhs are increasingly becoming the shining face of the great American dream while their Muslim counterparts rough it out in the cold, there’s another more prosaic explanation.
I hate to disrupt Shiv’s reverie but if the Jindals and Kaurs of this world find themselves in US governor mansions today, and possibly on their way to the White House, they’ve had to pay a price for it. Piyush Jindal was born a Hindu to Hindu immigrant parents from Punjab. He converted to Christianity when he grew up christening himself as Bobby Jindal. Today, he and his wife Supriya are proper church-going folk, like the rest of the predominantly white, genteel Christian America.
Ditto Nimrata Kaur who today calls herself Nikki Haley. She was born a Sikh to second— generation Sikh immigrants. Like Jindal, she converted to Christianity before joining politics. She’s married to Michael Haley and has two children, all of them nice, practicing Christians.
Of course, this has nothing to do with faith. Each to his or her own and I am a firm believer in everyone doing his/her own thing. What I am trying to emphasize is the fact that both Jindal and Kaur had to give up their original identity and faith to find acceptance in the white, middle class America.
I am an ardent admirer of the great American dream and its enduring allure that continues to beckon generations of dreamers from around the world. But I have to point out that today if Jindal and Kaur are where they are, it’s also because of their willingness to give up their beliefs to merge their identity with the host society, becoming tolerable for the Republican and Tea Party rabble-rousers. Compromises are made at every step of the staircase to heaven.
Unfortunately or fortunately, this is something the Muslims cannot do. They would rather languish on the edges of the American dream, rather than give up their identity and faith to live in governor mansions.
I know this is a huge weakness or failing, according to the worldview of friends like Shiv. But that’s how they are: Rigid and uncompromising when it comes to their convictions and totally out of sync with the way of the world and liberal ways of the West. If they are left out in the cold while the rest of the world is partying, they do not seem to mind. And this is a global phenomenon, wherever Muslims are, from Americas to Australia.
In fact, this apparent lack of “flexibility” and preoccupation with religion is seen as being at the heart of the West-Islam conflict today. Call it what you will but this is in the very nature of Islam that it demands its followers to accept it as a way of life, rather than as something private between God and the believer.
But if the Muslims find themselves stuck in a rut almost everywhere while the rest of the world is flying past them on the high road to glory, it’s not because there’s too much of religion in their lives. It’s because they have failed to apply it the way it should be to their lives. Instead of imbibing the liberating teachings and revolutionary spirit of a faith that guides us every step of the way, we have turned it into a set of meaningless rituals and a heavy yoke around our neck.
It was the same faith that transformed the bands of unruly, bloodletting Arabian tribes into a world power in less than a decade bringing down the mighty Persian and Roman empires like a house of cards.
It wasn’t just on the battlefield that they beat others. They pioneered a knowledge and scientific revolution, which in turn fed and inspired the European Renaissance. From philosophy and poetry to physics and chemistry and from mathematics and medicine to planetary science, the West built its discoveries and advances based on blueprints created by Muslim pioneers.
Unlike us, early Muslims had been driven by a compelling craving and hunger for knowledge and new ideas, wherever they could find them. While we have become the prisoners of our past and our often narrow, literal interpretation of Islamic teachings, they looked to the future showing the way forward to others.
They did not preach their faith. They lived it, promoting it with their actions and with their honesty, simplicity, piety and courage. At the same time, they promoted a culture of hard work, perseverance and excellence wherever they went and whatever they turned their attention to. No wonder they conquered the world in no time and have left behind a civilization to last forever.
They were extraordinary men, giants among men. A really hard act to follow, indeed! But if we could recreate even a fraction of their magic, we would do ourselves an immense favor, transforming our wretched existence forever and creating a better world.
The real battle for the idea of India
What’s India’s ruling Congress party up to now?
Is it really undergoing a radical metamorphosis or is this yet another clever, little trick out of its ancient bag? When was the last time you had senior Congress leaders hold forth on Hindu extremism being a grave threat to India’s security and integrity? That too in the presence of the high and mighty of government and party, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi!
Digvijay Singh is one of those few Congress leaders who wear their liberal credentials on their sleeve. Yet watching him take on the saffron brotherhood at the party’s plenary was breathtaking, even if simplistic. “In the 1930s, Hitler’s Nazi party attacked the Jews. Similarly, the RSS ideology wants to capture power by targeting Muslims under the garb of nationalism,” thundered the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister. Accusing the RSS-VHP-BJP combine of sowing the seeds of terror in the country with the destruction of Babri Masjid, Singh warned the nation of the Hindutva forces infiltrating all organs of the state, including the bureaucracy, police, and the army.
What makes Digvijay Singh’s assertions interesting is the fact that they were not projected as his own views but as a clear ideological line of the party. Earlier, in her opening address, Sonia Gandhi, the party’s president, warned the country against both majoritarian and minority extremism. “They are all dangerous and must be defeated. We cannot ignore such elements who provoke people to violent means by using religion” said the Italian-born politician.
This theme of Hindutva specter was emphasized further in the final political resolutions, without the usual spin and hedging. Secularism, said the Congress’ resolution, the lifeline of Indian democracy “is threatened by the ideology of the BJP and its affiliate organizations like the RSS. The RSS and the VHP are insidious in their efforts to break India.”
Launching a full frontal attack on you know who, the resolution said: “The role of fundamentalist organizations in challenging the security of the nation can no longer be ignored. The Indian National Congress calls upon the government to tackle this menace in the strongest possible manner and investigate the links between terrorists and the RSS and its sister organizations that have been uncovered in some recent cases. Terrorism, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be dealt with firmly and effectively.”
Of course, nothing of this sanctimonious stuff comes as news to anyone familiar with the rough and tumble of Indian politics. Hindutva’s history and shenanigans are not exactly state secrets. Everyone knows how the BJP grew from a two-member party in Parliament to the “natural party of governance” that calls itself today in no time. From the hundreds of riots and pogroms targeting the Muslims to the Ayodhya outrage to the constant demonization and witch-hunt of the minority community, Muslims have got a great deal to thank the saffron friends for.
And as Congress so wisely warns us, these forces aren’t just a threat to religious minorities but a clear and present danger to India and everything it stands for — tolerance, pluralism and religious and cultural diversity.
The question is why the Congress has woken up to the dangerous designs of Hindutva forces now? And what’s with its sudden love for the Muslims? Is it a real concern for the well being of the nation or is this inspired by something more mundane like power? Is the party, with its back to the wall over all these corruption scams, resorting to what it does best, vote bank politics, using Muslims as the cannon fodder all over again?
The Muslims have enough reasons to be wary of Congress. While they have over the past couple of elections begun voting for the party once again, it’s not out of love for the Gandhis. It was not a mandate for the Congress but more of a protest against the RSS-BJP worldview. Even if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) experiment with some secular, regional parties falling for the amiable mask of the BJP, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had persuaded some Muslims briefly to vote for the alliance, Gujarat served as a stark warning of the shape of things to come.
It was this fear that has made Muslims vote for the Congress, and other secular parties. However, their deep sense of distrust and betrayal of the grand old party remains.
While they have come to respect Sonia Gandhi, they cannot get over the Babri Masjid demolition and the carnage that followed on Narasimha Rao’s watch. It’s not just that particular phase under India’s answer to Nero though. Talk to any member of the community and there’s a long history of treachery, exploitation and repeated betrayals that is revisited.
And it’s not just the loss of lives, businesses and property that the Muslims suffered in hundreds of riots for decades after India won independence in 1947. If today they find themselves educationally and economically in conditions worse than the Dalits, lowest of the low in the social hierarchy, the party that has ruled India for nearly half a century must share the responsibility.
Despite their large numbers — at least 150 million, twice the population of Egypt — the community remains dangerously dispossessed and on the margins of the amazing economic revolution that India has lately witnessed. They have no voice in the decision making process either at the centre or in the states. Their representation in the government, bureaucracy, police and the army is next to nothing.
Little has been done even under the present dispensation, except form commissions and committees. Justice Sachar Committee’s recommendations are waiting for their implementation five years after their submission. Even government schemes and funds to help the minority community remain underutilized or not utilized at all.
Even when some governments did try to do their bit, their efforts have been defeated by a systemic indifference and, let’s say it, deep-seated prejudice at all levels. A disturbing state of affairs, indeed! And this won’t change overnight or in a year or decade. But someone has to start somewhere.
If the Congress is sincere and really means what it says about the need to fight the dark forces of fascism and communalism, the Muslims and other minorities must support its efforts. In fact, what’s urgently needed is a national movement against the scourge of communalism and extremism, a threat far bigger than corruption.
This is perhaps the first time since Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, that the Congress has given the call to fight the ideology of hatred and fascism in such unequivocal terms. Rahul Gandhi may still be a babe in the woods but he got it right when he argued, according to WikiLeaks, that the threat to India from the Hindu extremists is greater than that posed by groups like Lashkar. A sentiment echoed long before him by his great-grandfather Nehru who had argued that majoritarian extremism was more dangerous than a minority’s militant mindset because it always dresses itself in nationalism. Just as it did in Germany. And Nehru hadn’t even seen the latter-day avatars of the RSS and company!
But fighting the scourge of communalism isn’t the responsibility of one party or community. It’s not just in the interest of the Muslims and other minorities that India’s secular and plural character is protected. India’s unique selling proposition (USP) is its breathtaking diversity and fabled tolerance. All of us — Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs — have a stake in a secular, progressive and pluralistic India. If India fails, none of us will survive.
For their part, Muslims cannot fight their battles alone. If India is what it is, it’s because of its silent majority that is reasonable, peace-loving and believes in justice and fair play. We must enlist their support and involvement. Inclusion, not isolation, is the way forward.
Digvijay Singh is one of those few Congress leaders who wear their liberal credentials on their sleeve. Yet watching him take on the saffron brotherhood at the party’s plenary was breathtaking, even if simplistic. “In the 1930s, Hitler’s Nazi party attacked the Jews. Similarly, the RSS ideology wants to capture power by targeting Muslims under the garb of nationalism,” thundered the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister. Accusing the RSS-VHP-BJP combine of sowing the seeds of terror in the country with the destruction of Babri Masjid, Singh warned the nation of the Hindutva forces infiltrating all organs of the state, including the bureaucracy, police, and the army.
What makes Digvijay Singh’s assertions interesting is the fact that they were not projected as his own views but as a clear ideological line of the party. Earlier, in her opening address, Sonia Gandhi, the party’s president, warned the country against both majoritarian and minority extremism. “They are all dangerous and must be defeated. We cannot ignore such elements who provoke people to violent means by using religion” said the Italian-born politician.
This theme of Hindutva specter was emphasized further in the final political resolutions, without the usual spin and hedging. Secularism, said the Congress’ resolution, the lifeline of Indian democracy “is threatened by the ideology of the BJP and its affiliate organizations like the RSS. The RSS and the VHP are insidious in their efforts to break India.”
Launching a full frontal attack on you know who, the resolution said: “The role of fundamentalist organizations in challenging the security of the nation can no longer be ignored. The Indian National Congress calls upon the government to tackle this menace in the strongest possible manner and investigate the links between terrorists and the RSS and its sister organizations that have been uncovered in some recent cases. Terrorism, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be dealt with firmly and effectively.”
Of course, nothing of this sanctimonious stuff comes as news to anyone familiar with the rough and tumble of Indian politics. Hindutva’s history and shenanigans are not exactly state secrets. Everyone knows how the BJP grew from a two-member party in Parliament to the “natural party of governance” that calls itself today in no time. From the hundreds of riots and pogroms targeting the Muslims to the Ayodhya outrage to the constant demonization and witch-hunt of the minority community, Muslims have got a great deal to thank the saffron friends for.
And as Congress so wisely warns us, these forces aren’t just a threat to religious minorities but a clear and present danger to India and everything it stands for — tolerance, pluralism and religious and cultural diversity.
The question is why the Congress has woken up to the dangerous designs of Hindutva forces now? And what’s with its sudden love for the Muslims? Is it a real concern for the well being of the nation or is this inspired by something more mundane like power? Is the party, with its back to the wall over all these corruption scams, resorting to what it does best, vote bank politics, using Muslims as the cannon fodder all over again?
The Muslims have enough reasons to be wary of Congress. While they have over the past couple of elections begun voting for the party once again, it’s not out of love for the Gandhis. It was not a mandate for the Congress but more of a protest against the RSS-BJP worldview. Even if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) experiment with some secular, regional parties falling for the amiable mask of the BJP, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had persuaded some Muslims briefly to vote for the alliance, Gujarat served as a stark warning of the shape of things to come.
It was this fear that has made Muslims vote for the Congress, and other secular parties. However, their deep sense of distrust and betrayal of the grand old party remains.
While they have come to respect Sonia Gandhi, they cannot get over the Babri Masjid demolition and the carnage that followed on Narasimha Rao’s watch. It’s not just that particular phase under India’s answer to Nero though. Talk to any member of the community and there’s a long history of treachery, exploitation and repeated betrayals that is revisited.
And it’s not just the loss of lives, businesses and property that the Muslims suffered in hundreds of riots for decades after India won independence in 1947. If today they find themselves educationally and economically in conditions worse than the Dalits, lowest of the low in the social hierarchy, the party that has ruled India for nearly half a century must share the responsibility.
Despite their large numbers — at least 150 million, twice the population of Egypt — the community remains dangerously dispossessed and on the margins of the amazing economic revolution that India has lately witnessed. They have no voice in the decision making process either at the centre or in the states. Their representation in the government, bureaucracy, police and the army is next to nothing.
Little has been done even under the present dispensation, except form commissions and committees. Justice Sachar Committee’s recommendations are waiting for their implementation five years after their submission. Even government schemes and funds to help the minority community remain underutilized or not utilized at all.
Even when some governments did try to do their bit, their efforts have been defeated by a systemic indifference and, let’s say it, deep-seated prejudice at all levels. A disturbing state of affairs, indeed! And this won’t change overnight or in a year or decade. But someone has to start somewhere.
If the Congress is sincere and really means what it says about the need to fight the dark forces of fascism and communalism, the Muslims and other minorities must support its efforts. In fact, what’s urgently needed is a national movement against the scourge of communalism and extremism, a threat far bigger than corruption.
This is perhaps the first time since Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, that the Congress has given the call to fight the ideology of hatred and fascism in such unequivocal terms. Rahul Gandhi may still be a babe in the woods but he got it right when he argued, according to WikiLeaks, that the threat to India from the Hindu extremists is greater than that posed by groups like Lashkar. A sentiment echoed long before him by his great-grandfather Nehru who had argued that majoritarian extremism was more dangerous than a minority’s militant mindset because it always dresses itself in nationalism. Just as it did in Germany. And Nehru hadn’t even seen the latter-day avatars of the RSS and company!
But fighting the scourge of communalism isn’t the responsibility of one party or community. It’s not just in the interest of the Muslims and other minorities that India’s secular and plural character is protected. India’s unique selling proposition (USP) is its breathtaking diversity and fabled tolerance. All of us — Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs — have a stake in a secular, progressive and pluralistic India. If India fails, none of us will survive.
For their part, Muslims cannot fight their battles alone. If India is what it is, it’s because of its silent majority that is reasonable, peace-loving and believes in justice and fair play. We must enlist their support and involvement. Inclusion, not isolation, is the way forward.