Islam

Islam.

Before you assume that this blog is a Muslim bashing post - take a deep breadth. Go get yourself a cup of coffee and start reading this post again. I, out of all people have deep respect for all religions or no religion. It doesn't matter to me what faith a person conforms to. Like many secular Indians, I have very good friends who are Muslims, I enjoy the sevaiyan on Eid. I love the amazingly delicious food that marks the entire month of ramzzan. I see myself no different from my muslims friends. We wear the same clothes, we sweat after the same superstars. No one can look at my Muslim friends and me and say for sure what are respective beliefs are.

But then this Sunday happened. I was going on and on about how I wish the partition had never happened. So that all these incidents would never happened. There would not have been the threat of an angry neighbor. But one of my friend, Aditya a.k.a Chintu, pointed out that in one way the separation was a good thing. Being a country with equal number of people of two very different religion would have torn the country apart. Politics would have been based on nothing but religion. And who knows, if democracy would be the same as it is today. ( India, though very young, is lauded for its democracy). He also pointed out that India and Pakistan. Both the countries have the same history. The same people. The only thing that differs is the religion. But look where India is and where Pakistan is today. This itself speaks for itself.

At first, when I heard my friend say these things, it didn't seem right to me. Its not prudent to say one's religion is superior that the other. But the more I thought about it, the more it felt right. There are so many religions in the world. No one has done so much damage to innocent people than the people of Islamic faith. Most of the Islamic countries have inherent domestic terrorism.

This is strange because in all the pre Independence books and movies, Muslims are shown as learned men. What happened then? I believe how religion affects a person's action boils down to how stringent the religion is. Hinduism has always been forgiving and has been changing or rather evolving over time. For e.g., the belief of untouchable(practiced by every high caste Hindu, a few decades ago) has almost nonexistent. However, Islamic Universities still continue to teach that Jews are pigs and monkeys. And that women and men must be stoned to death for committing adultery. Source.

In the article linked above, the author says "There is a certain schizophrenia among many Muslims who seem to believe that it is acceptable to teach hatred and violence in the name of their religion, while at the same time expecting the world to respect Islam as "a religion of peace, love and harmony." " Its very important for Islamic community to show that their religion does not harbor hatred and that their beliefs too can evolve with the times. Issues such as modernization of madrasas, abortion, birth control need to be studied and agreed upon by the entire community. ( I have heard from many that birth control is unholy in Islam but also have read that its legal).

Lastly, after the 26/11 Mumbai incident, there was one flicker of hope. The decision of the Indian muslim community not to allow the burial of the terrorist in India reinforced the message of democracy and secularism of India. It was a brave decision and it sent out the right message in those dire days. A article by Thomas Friedman

Kudos to the leadership of India's Muslim community. Its time to speak up. Not as muslims, not as Hindus but as very proud Indians.