| Stop This Alienation |
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| OPINION Stop This Alienation Muslims are becoming victims of hate and counter-hate phenomenon, which is harming the larger interests of the country. RAFIQ ZAKARIA The Hindu communalist may gloat over the massacre of more than a thousand Muslims in Gujarat. But he has betrayed the very faith of which he claims to be a devotee. He has disowned Gandhi and rejected his legacy of non violence. Moreover, he has justified the bestial killings and looting as a measure of revenge for the gruesome torching of the kar sewaks in the ill-fated Sabarmati Express. The Ghanchis who did it were illiterate, uncivilised brutes, who were Muslims in name but absolutely ignorant of what Islam stands for. They must pay for their crimes against the helpless, innocent women and children and, according to the Quran, in their life hereafter they will burn in hell forever. But for the madness of those few, why were the innocent Muslims in different parts of Gujarat taken out of their homes and slaughtered mercilessly; their businesses, homes and properties looted by Hindu miscreants? In what way were they responsible for what happened in Godhra? The only answer is that they were so brutalised because they were Muslims. It is happening all the time these days. Some Muslims misbehave with some Hindus and the rest of the Muslims have to bear the brunt of the angry Hindus elsewhere. It is thus time for Indian Muslims as a whole to think seriously as to what they should do with those Muslims whose crimes bring about a carnage of such horrendous magnitude on the rest of them. Those who know nothing of Islam are bringing disaster after disaster on the real followers of the religion. The sins of some lunatics in the community are being visited upon the whole people who are completely innocent of such terrible brutalities. This is the worst kind of travesty of justice that Muslims are being made to suffer in India. Instead of confronting the criminal Muslims and saving the rest of the community from the consequences of their lunacy, there are some Muslim fanatics who are working up the spirit of retaliation and generating further ill-will against Hindus. This will cause more alienation between the two communities. The Hindus too are, no less, guilty of fostering and furthering it. Some of them have outdone the worst of Muslim criminals. But while they can get away with it, Muslims in India become the ultimate sufferers. They must, therefore, find a way out to safeguard themselves against the possibility of a calamity such as the one Muslims in Gujarat have suffered. I have written enough about the part Jinnah played in bringing about the division of the country which has ruined Indian Muslims in every respect. His propagation of the pernicious two-nation theory erected such barriers of hate between Hindus and Muslims that it gave a fatal blow to Mahatma Gandhi�s mission of Hindu-Muslim unity. Abul Kalam Azad cried himself hoarse about how this would strike the death-knell for Indian Muslims. But nobody heeded him. After Partition, most of those who took over the leadership of Indian Muslims continued the policy of confrontation against Hindus. They created one crisis after another on issues which had little relevance to the day-to-day existence of Indian Muslims. The result of their aggressive utterances and senseless activities hardly brought any relief to Indian Muslims. On the contrary, their repeated agitations brought in their wake Hindu backlash, causing more misery to Muslims everywhere. More than a decade ago, some of them mounted a countrywide protest against the Supreme Court judgment in the Shah Bano case. They forced the then government of Rajiv Gandhi to amend the Constitution and enact a law to give better maintenance to divorced Muslim women. Instead, it encouraged more divorces and threw thousands of young Muslim women on the streets. Worse still, it provoked communal Hindus to organise the Ramjanmabhoomi movement to reassert their supremacy in their motherland. Of late, the so-called jehadis have emerged, who in the name of Islam are murdering innocent Hindus day after day, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. Backed by Pakistan, their murderous adventures are adding constantly to Hindu hatred against Muslims. In last week�s Outlook, Dilip D�Souza mentions his conversation with a young Hindu student in Sabarmati Ashram. He writes, the young man told him: "�Eighty per cent of Muslims are terrorists," his lower lip quivering in rage. "They have attacked us here for 55 years."� He went on and on, avers D�Souza. That is the mindset of many Hindus who are becoming increasingly hostile to Muslims. Some openly talk of enacting a Bosnia here. There are others who quietly propagate that unless Hindus get rid of Muslims, India will never prosper. As a result, a number of Hindus are beginning to look upon Muslims as undesirable Indians. Among the elite and those from the middle-class as well, many Hindus talk of keeping away from Muslims. They have become resentful and even averse to them. Partnerships or collaborations with Muslims in business enterprises are being withdrawn. There is a threat of boycott all around. Too much distrust is growing against the Muslims. Isn�t this in complete contrast to what Swami Vivekananda has said: "Our watchword, then, should be acceptance and not exclusion. Not only toleration, for so-called toleration is often blasphemy, and I do not believe in it. I believe in acceptance. Why should I tolerate? Toleration means that I think that you are wrong and I am just allowing you to live. Is it not blasphemy to think that you and I are allowing others to live? I accept all religions that were in the past and worship with them all." A number of Muslims also persist in their attitude of segregation from Hindus. They discourage social contact with them. They wrongly believe that their religion prohibits them to trust or collaborate with them. They distort Quranic injunctions and misrepresent the prophetic traditions. There is no desire on their part to develop a meaningful relationship with Hindus. Hence the gulf between the two communities is widening. For almost a decade, Muslims have been fighting for Babri masjid. But strangely, they seem unconcerned that hundreds of mosques meanwhile have been destroyed in Gujarat and some parts of Maharashtra like Malegaon. Why is this onslaught taking place on their sacred places? Muslims have to go into the causes and strive to bring about a more congenial atmosphere. Those, who are playing with fire in the name of protecting Islam, must give serious thought to the fact that confrontationist bravado is now proving utterly counterproductive. Muslims are becoming victims of this hate and counter-hate phenomenon, which is also harming the larger interests of the country. Both sides must sit together with leaders who believe in collaboration and harmony. They must make an earnest effort to break once and for all, the walls of hostility so that more bloodshed can be avoided and every Indian is assured of a stable and secure environment which will bring prosperity to all. They must shed their in-built prejudices which breed antagonism and resolve to stop this terrible alienation between the two religious groups, which, even the RSS admits, consists of �blood brothers�. Allah�s message to his creatures is clear, unequivocal. It has been put in a beautiful couplet by Maulana Rumi, the greatest Sufi that Islam produced: Too baraaye wasl kardan aamadi Na baraaya fasl kardan aamadi (You�ve been sent to unite people You�ve not been sent to divide people) |