It is of common practice that Muslims worldwide have a deep and pious reverence to their monotheistic religion. Their attitude towards the non Muslims and some sects of Muslims whose core principle digresses from Islam is of deep seated dislike and distrust. Be it non Muslims in Pakistan, Yazidis in Syria or Shias in Sunni dominated countries, all have the same story to tell. The sword of blasphemy is always swinging above the necks of those who disobey the theocratic laws and even those who intimate their reluctance to participate in the Islamic radicalism. Women’s representation in these countries is minimal and least they can do is to risk their lives speaking against the state sponsored discrimination. Islamic principle of governance has always been subject to question.
From childhood, religious intolerance to Muslims is taught in a more clandestine way so as not to alienate the other party. Madrassa education, prevalent in Muslim dominated backward areas focuses on the submission of its pupils to that one God. It declares every single activity according to Hadiths and the Ulema decrees fatwas that further control and limit the personal freedom of a Muslim individual. These unjust rulings create a systematic block in the minds of people who dare not unfollow. In such places, there is seldom control over the rogue elements and anarchy is ever present. The other problem is that any atrocities on Muslims in any part of the world is seen by the community as being done to them. What follows is the burning desire to take revenge which engulfs the community and further pushes them towards blind radicalism.
The faith which precludes the Muslims to participate in interfaith religious practices, limits their involvement in collective participation with the ‘kafirs’ (a derogatory term used to classify non-believers) curtails their view of the world as a whole where people of numerous faiths, ethnicities and cultures exist. The orthodox Muslim leadership is also to be blamed. They are hell-bent towards pushing the community into a mudhole of backwardness by their vehement promotion of Islamic doctrines. The punishments are severe. For example, the punishment for apostasy in Islam is death as per the Sunni Hanafi school. The death punishment is the core strategy to prevent Muslims worldwide from escaping the tight clutches of outdated Islamic laws.
The control and involvement of Islamic jurisprudence over the lives of 2 billion people can only sustain itself in future if it is able to align them with the inclusive teachings in Islam or else it would become much more difficult to contain the young generation that wants more liberties and better opportunities. In India, Muslims started invading from the twelfth century onwards. Majority of the subcontinent was conquered by the second half of the sixteenth century. Partition took place on religious lines against the will of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.
“I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock.” Mahatma Gandhi
The partition of India was a disaster for the Muslim fanatics who were keen to make an Islamic state. The secular structure of India benefited it from falling into the religious concept of the authoritative state. This helped win favor of all religious minorities and so didn’t create insecurities in their minds. Though the Khalistan movement did emerge in the 80s (a proxy war started by Pakistan) to create unrest, it was crushed by the Indira Gandhi government successfully. The attention however was never on the Muslim side due to strong votebank and appeasement politics of the Congress. This led to rise in illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims in India which was left better unnoticed. The Muslims were always keen on proselytizing Non Muslims and getting converts. The other parties hardly cared. They also exploded in India in terms of percentage population.
The dismal ignorance on the part of Indian government to regulate the population has emptied resources and destroyed stability in many places. The rebuttal of the Shah Bano case on the interference of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is the golden example of the hypocrisy of the Muslim community who say that women in Islam are the most privileged. Any attempt to play with the Shariat is condemnable and the Indian constitution has no right to meddle in these affairs. This hypocrisy exists in the secular state which is no less than a blackmail from the Muslim community even after their Pakistani brothers had left and made an Islamic nation. The Uniform Civil Code needs to be implemented so as to deal with the problems of appeasement that still persists in India on religious basis. This will help not only in the inclusion of all Indian citizens despite their religious background into the mainstream but also almost remove the scope of communal disharmony to a large extent. The Madrassas are the hotbed of radicalization of Muslim youth and their strict surveillance is the need of the hour.
Even today, Maulanas have the impunity to spew hate from their pedestals under the nose of the government. Law is seldom welcome in Muslim dominated places. And when force is used to control such lawlessness, the victimhood card is frequently played by the majority of Muslims and their voices are further strengthened by leftist media handles running on Islamic bucks from Gulf countries. This dangerous apologist stand from the government further isolates the harmonious and peace loving parties and in the end anarchy wins. So, the Muslim community doesn’t believe in the law of the land and hardly cares. They come like bees whenever someone from their community is heckled and interrogated to defend him. Actually, the real danger that Muslims have is from their own leadership that is buoyed up by its paranoid journalism. The only strategy for the leadership is to generate fear psychosis among Muslims and then to exploit this fear for their own benefits.
The sycophantic media painstakingly picks up negative and isolated insurance from the Indian society like lynchings and blows them up out of proportions to convey the sorry state of affairs of the Indian Muslims. This attracts various foreign media and work as fodder for such handles which are keen on maligning India’s image worldwide. Indian muslims are shown as oppressed and victims of injustice and prejudice. Communal riots that happen time to time in India are not due to the system of governance created post independence but due to Muslim’s rabble rousing leadership and ugly yellow journalism. Muslim reactions even on small issues are accompanied with a frenzy of emotionalism. There is a strong reaction from their side which usually ends with violence.
The culminating point of their endeavour will be the inevitable backlash of police brutality and blunt force to maintain them. The Muslim leadership and media also are to be blamed for their continuous ranting after each and every riot. Muslim sentiments are kept boiling by the propagandists and hate for the police never simmers down. The intense mutual hatred between the Muslims and police is because of the continuous exaggeration of isolated brutalities by the police which is further flamed by the Muslim leadership’s aggressive stance.
The fear of hell fire
Muslims, from a very young age, are fed with the notion that they are superior to every Mushrik and polytheists. That they are the people who will go to Jannat (heaven) just because they are the believers in the true faith. The activities and practices of the Non Muslims are kufr and unlawful and any Muslim complying with the kafirs and participating in kufr has made his status as a Muslim null and void. For instance, in Fatwa-e-Razviya- which is the main fatwa book of Barelvi Muslims- it is clearly stated that all the boons of the Day Of Judgement are only for the believers and kafirs are completely excluded. The attitude towards kafirs is of disgrace and unremitting hostility.
‘O, ye who believe:
Take not into your intimacy
Those outside your ranks:
They will not fail
To corrupt you. They
Only desire your ruin:
Rank hatred has already
Appeared from their mouths:
What their hearts conceal
Is far worse.
We have made plain
To you the Signs,
If ye have wisdom.
Ah! ye are those
Who love them,
But they love you not,
Though ye believe
In the whole of the Book,
When they meet you,
They say, ‘We believe’:
But when they are alone,
They bite off the very tips
Of their fingers at you
In their rage. Say:
‘Perish in your rage;
Allah knoweth well
All the secrets of the heart.’
If aught that is good
Befalls you, it grieves them;
But if some misfortune
Overtakes you, they rejoice
At it. But if ye are constant
And do right,
Not the least harm
Will their cunning
Do to you; for God
Compasseth round about
All that they do
(Quran, 3.118-20)
Such verses are considered holy and followed blindly by large numbers of pious Muslims. It only ends up creating a sense of psychological rift between the different parties and finally ends up in inevitable violence. It is reiterated how much good a non Muslim may be, he can never be better than a slave Muslim. Also colluding with non Muslims is highly criticised and plotting schemes against them is appreciated. These religious injunctions are extremely vicious and are the main reasons for worldwide terrorism.
The last resort is Islamophobia card played by Muslims to justify their innocence. Their disagreement to any reforms in Islam is the testament to the hypocrisy that is prevalent in the Muslim community. They would take every single benefit from the government but when it comes to their religious freedom, they would lift their hands in denial. The picture drawn of Hindus and other non-believers is that of filth and they are compared to vermins and rodents while any text doing the same in the case of Muslims would bring forth howls of denunciation from the secularists and Muslims alike.
Also to be noted that no non Muslim is allowed to stay in the Arab island but if a Bangladeshi or Pakistani immigrant in India is asked to leave it is considered very much an assault on Islam. In Islamic countries, it is discovered that imposition of religious education is common but if a non Islamic country puts restriction on Quranic education, it is rejected with frantic vehemence. Some Quranic verses that determine the fate of non believers are frequently used by terrorist organisations to justify their overseas and inland terrorism.
Surely, those who disbelieve and did wrong; God will not forgive them, nor will He guide them to any way except the way of Hell, to dwell therein forever.
(Quran 4:168-169)
But those who reject Our signs are the companions of the left hand – on them will be fire vaulted over.
(Quran 90:19-20)
Surely, the gates of the Heaven will not be opened for those who deny Our revelations and treat them with arrogance; their admission into paradise will be as impossible as the passing of a camel through the eye of a needle. That is how We shall reward the criminals. Hell shall be their bed and flames shall be their covering. That is how We shall reward the wrongdoers.
(Qurʾān 7:40-41)
Until and unless Muslims don’t support their nation above their religion, they will face trouble and feel secluded in the current system. The Islamic money pouring into religious institutes run all across India is the hotbed of political gambling and crony capitalism. The backbone needs to crippled so as to ensure further uniformity in the system. These loopholes in democracy have been misused time to time. Without filling them, we cannot ensure development at all hierarchies.
