News today
News today
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?
–
Mohd.ilyas Nadvi
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.
Large numbers of British citizens converting to IslamFriday, 7 January 2011 |
| Despite the “often negative” portrayal of Islam, thousands of Britons are adopting the religion every year, The Independent reported. Estimating the number of converts living in Britain has always been difficult because census data does not differentiate between whether a religious person has adopted a new faith or was born into it. Previous estimates placed the number of Muslim converts at between 14,000 and 25,000. But the new study by Faith Matters suggests the real figure could be as high as 100,000, with as many as 5,000 new conversions nationwide each year. The researchers used data from the Scottish 2001 census – which is the only survey to ask respondents what their religion was at birth as well as at the time of the survey. The experts broke down what proportion of Muslim converts there were in Scotland and then extrapolated the figures for Britain as a whole. In all, they estimated there were 60,699 converts living in Britain in 2001. The researchers polled mosques in London to try to calculate how many conversions take place a year. The results gave a figure of 1,400 conversions in the capital in the past 12 months which, when extrapolated nationwide, would mean approximately 5,200 people adopting Islam every year. The figures are comparable with studies in Germany and France which found that there were around 4,000 conversions a year. Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, said that coming up with a reliable estimate of the number of converts to Islam was “notoriously difficult”. “This report is the best intellectual ‘guestimate’ using census numbers, local authority data and polling from mosques. Either way few people doubt that the number adopting Islam in the UK has risen dramatically in the past 10 years,” he said. Batool al-Toma, an Irish-born convert who works at the Islamic Foundation and runs the New Muslims Project, a group to help converts, said she believed the new figures were “a little on the high side”. Inayat Bunglawala, founder of Muslims4UK, which promotes active Muslim engagement in British society, said the figures were “not implausible”. “It would mean that around one in 600 Britons is a convert to the faith,” he said. –Agencies– |
Mohd.ilyas Nadvi
