As-salamu alaykum.
Surprised to see this headline on Opindia? Don’t fret, or celebrate: we’re not ‘evolving’ like, say, an alleged comedian did, whose last name may or may not have anything to do with the Hindi word for ‘Room’ (screenshots betraying someone’s plausibly genuine sentiments toward Samuday Vishesh are freely available). There’s a rather diverse group of other beneficiaries of this ‘Evolution’ that I speak of, but that’s a different story and I hope to write it as such. Someday.
Meanwhile: ‘As-salamu alaykum’.
We need to talk about this problematic salutation. You’ll see why.
A friend of mine was greeted like this at work, not very long ago. By her Manager. You see, the manager had just taken over and it was their first meeting. During introductions, he assumed her religion because of her ambiguous, multi-faith name and greeted her by saying, “As-salamu alaykum”. She promptly informed him that she was a Hindu, to which her manager said it was fine and ‘As-salamu alaykum’ was a beautiful phrase anyway and asked her if she knew what it meant. She didn’t. He then proceeded to tell her, “I’m giving you a homework, then. When we meet post lunch, I need you to google the meaning of the greeting and tell me.” My friend had no choice but to acquiesce.
At this point, you’re probably wondering whether the manager was a Muslim. I have two things to say about that.
One, does it matter? What if he was? Why is it OK for a Muslim to greet a fellow Muslim at work by saying ‘As-salamu alaykum’? If religiously tinted greetings are OK at work, then would he greet a Hindu colleague by saying ‘Jai Ram Ji Ki’? Have you heard of a Muslim doing that? Would he accept ‘Jai Ram Ji Ki’ in response to his ‘As-salamu alaykum’? My wild guess is: No.
Islam, like all Abrahamic religions, makes very clear distinction between Believers and Non-believers. This greeting is just another ostensibly small, but ubiquitous way in which Muslims actively practice discrimination between Muslims and Non-Muslims. Only the Believer is worthy of a believed greeting. For the lesser beings like us, they switch to Hi’s and Hello’s. You might not see a problem with that, heck, I don’t even want to be greeted by any religiously colored greeting at work, but nation wants to know: If Muslims really mean well when they’re greeting you by Hi and Hello, why don’t they greet each other that way? Why do they have two sets of greetings, one for Muslims, and another for the Others? Who even does that? But it does give you some idea as to how deep the rot is set in.
And greetings are not the only sphere of life where you see this bigotry. This bold, in-your-face discrimination. Islam, as they correctly say, is a way of life, and which is why you see this bigotry across the entire Islamic way of life – but one article is too short a space to document all that. To comprehensively document Islamic bigotry toward the Kuffar, you will need a book roughly the size of the Wholee Q.
So you see, I am not taking all this trouble to rant just about how one greets someone. I am taking this trouble to point out the blatant discrimination that is deeply entrenched in the Islamic ideology. Greetings are merely an apt example.
And as for the greeting itself, make no mistake: ‘As-salamu alaykum’ is indeed a religiously tinted greeting. It’s not just a ‘beautiful phrase’, is it? Muslims know that. You can too. An NTDV level research is all it takes, except you wouldn’t have to lie like they do. Just google the phrase, and go to the Wikipedia page. Here are some relevant bits that I picked up from Wikipedia:
- The second sentence of the Wikipedia article: “The salam is a religious salutation among Muslims when greeting.” Religious. Not just a beautiful phrase.
- The complete phrase is as-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-raḥmatu -llāhi wa-barakātuh, Meaning: “Peace be upon you, as well as the mercy of God and his blessings.” And we know it’s not just any God, is it? The bedrock of Islam, it’s very beginning, the first and ONE thing they make you say when they want to convert you to Islam is: There is no God but Allah.
- The phrase appears a total of 7 times in the Quran.
All of this from Wikipedia alone. There’s more there, and there’s more on the internet. Mostly Islamic sources. Good luck refuting them.
Now the detractors can disagree with Wikipedia for the sake of Holy Tequiyya. To them, I say: go ahead, make my day. Given OpIndia’s history with Wikipedia, a part of me wants you to.
So you see, I don’t believe that this greeting is just a beautiful phrase. I don’t believe that it’s OK for Muslims to immediately classify people into Muslims and Non-Muslims the moment they see them (and greet them accordingly). But are they alone to be blamed? I don’t think so. I think the Indian Secularism is, after all, a one-sided love affair of stellar cosmic astronomical proportions.
Anyway, that’s the first thing I wanted to say about whether the manager was a Muslim. The second thing is: He wasn’t.
