In the Name of Allah the Merciful, the Most Merciful ,Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds,the Merciful, the Most Merciful, Owner of the Day of Recompense. You (alone) we worship; and You (alone) we rely for help.Guide us to the Straight Path, the Path of those upon whom You have favored, not those upon whom is the anger, nor the astray..............
Listen to me my muslim brothers - listen without pre-judice.
As a muslim, I am well aware of the contempt Islam is increasingly being held with.The entire world looks at us with distrust. Compared to others in the modern world, we are the poorest, the most backward religious entity. While others progress in education, economy and practicality, we remain mired in age old concepts of rigourous observance of faith, jehad and such like. With the exception of a few regions, the Islamic world has been left behind by time. Indeed, had the rich oil fields not been discovered in the middle-east, we would not have figured anywhere!! It is time to look back in history.....
In 900 AD, the Islamic Samana Dynasty took Afghanistan and with it began the introduction of Islam in regions east of it - present day Pakistan, India, China, Bangladesh,Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia.....Only in the middle-east (the Arab world) was Islam adopted by the power of word and gospel. In sharp contrast, Islam spread into Afghanistan and east of it by the power of the sword. There were forced conversions, massacres, rapes. While our ancestors must have initially resented these,some even re-converted back, slowly over generations, the fact was forgotten and we, the descendents assumed Islam on birth.This is the most important fact. It makes a muslim stand out in a land where Hinduism and Buddhism has survived, as a descendent of people who could not fight back the invasions.It gives us a complex at birth.
Look around the Arab world - the hub centre of Islam...all regions on the fringes of Islam are in a state of turmoil. There are struggles and so-called jehads being fought in increasingly barabaric fashion. Young men perish on a daily basis as they fight fanatically. Here is a list of 'Jehad Lands' as described by Lashkar-e-Islam:- Afghanistan Algeria Bosnia Burma Chechnya Eritrea Indonesia India Kashmir Kosova Lebanon Ougadeen Palestine Phillipines Sudan Tajikistan Turkestan
Why only Islam? Why not other religions? There are two main reasons, as I see it :-
(a) Islam is designed to expand .Having been born in the barren Arabian Desert - a land of finite means - it had to continuously look outwards for resources.Its followers had the zeal of the newly converted and being inhabitants of tough lands,were hardy. This added to the spread of Islam. The holy Koran clearly demarcates the world in two categories - believers and non - believers (kafir). Unlike other religions, there is not tacit acceptance of the validity of other faiths. " But those who disbelieve and belie Our verses shall be the companions of the Fire, and there they shall live for ever - Chapter 2 Al Baqarah". In its text , it describes at length how Moses was given his book and how Christainity given its Lord Jesus (see select portions of the Koran). To survive, Islam could not have been all encompassing - instead it had to refute other religions and prove its supremacy.This led to a constant trend of expansion by force. After a victory, men were to be killed and women taken - as one more wife or sexually. Analyse any neo-islam battle and you will see the trend.The concept of `Al Kharb Khada' - War is a kind of deception - superseeded all ethics of fair war other clans had. In these modern times, should not we leave out such concepts and place modern views above them. How many times do christians, hindus, jews, sikhs etc go to their places of worship ? How much time do they devote in religious activity as compared to professional/ personal activities? Indeed, how many of them have been taught or read their holy books? The truest religion today is being a generous, honest man who values life and takes care of all his loved ones..one who works sincerely in his work place and does not harm anybody.Today's revolutions are those of the mind not blood !!
(b) Our rigid religious culture has remined constant. The Holy Bible is also a fairly rigid document and does talk about punishment for non-believers. As a result, the Crusades succeeded in expanding the religion by force. However, given its elasticity, over years, the religion took a healthy form of missionary expansion. This was an adaption of modern practicalities - a lot of excellent work has been done by christain missionaries. They have improved the lots of backward tribes/people in the entire world from South America to India to Austaralia. As a result, conversions have continued to take place, even now. Islam never adapted and just because it could not take a peaceful form of expansion, we have the `Islamic Frontier'. The point is this - do we really need to pray five times a day, to keep pieces of chalk to absorb urine inside toilets, to listen to maullavis on loud speakers with the already existant noise pollution, to violate basic human rights of women like unfair talaq (divorce) procedures, ban on contraception, burkha (no freedom of dressing),inter religion-marriage (not applicable to muslim men marrying women of other religions), to never mix with other religions with trust, to value an unknown muslim over a known christian/hindu friend,to keep quiet when muslim terrorists kill many `kafirs', to kill meat by halal (slitting the throat slowly and letting the animal bleed to death ? Look at Sikhism. The peaceful religion took up arms under Guru Govind Singh as a response to Islamic fanatism. For centuries, the sikhs fought back and in the process drove islam back to the fringes of Punjab. Today, Hinduism is slowly taking the course the sikhs took - it is turning polar and a extreme wing is already evolving. Pakistani terrorists anywhere in India, inevitably get shelter in muslim homes. So when they carry out acts of terror and kill countless Indians, who do you think the general public in India is going to blame? Should not we expose these terrorists to the Police the instant they approach / tale shelter amongst us?
It is not too late for us to wake up and understand life - a muslim terrorist from Pakistan is not my brother....a good, honest sikh / hindu who works sincerely and wants peace is.......Let that be clear.
