November 2005 
Year 12    No.112

Opinion


Searing the Muslim soul

Every act of terrorism in the name of Islam evokes fresh outrage among Muslims

BY JAVED ANAND

Any student of history or dispassionate observer of the current global scene would tell us that terrorist acts are not the monopoly of a particular religion, ideology, nationality or ethnic group. But let’s face it, not only in the terminology of partisan politics but also in the mass perception, terrorism now is increasingly being seen as an Islamic speciality. With their seemingly insatiable and unstoppable ability to mercilessly plot and execute the massacre of school children, office goers, shoppers or merrymakers across the globe, the social impact of the self-proclaimed jihadis and mujahideen appears as widespread as their reach.

In our era of instant communication, what anyone, anywhere in the global community with an iota of human compassion must feel as images of mangled bodies, headless children, men and women writhing in unbearable pain, frequently pour out of TV sets is easily imagined. What is not so easily recognised is how, increasingly, every fresh blast of the "Islamic bomb" singes the Muslim soul.

"Every time the media reports a terrorist attack, the world’s one billion Muslims hold their breath and pray, "Oh God, please, let it not be a Muslim"," read the opening sentence of an article by Tarek Fatah, a Canadian Muslim, written a day after the 7/7 bomb blasts in London. Earlier, in the aftermath of 9/11, many Muslims were in a state of denial: it’s a conspiracy, Muslims didn’t do it. But with the post-the-deed prayer going unanswered time after time, there had to come a moment of reckoning.

Globally, the "Islam is against these kinds of attacks that target innocent people" type of statements that often ended with "but we must place them in the context of Iraq and Afghanistan" are far fewer now. Following 7/7, Muslims in large numbers took to the streets in London and elsewhere in the UK condemning the mass murderers in unambiguous words. For more than a month now, a pamphlet has been in wide circulation across mosques and other religious places throughout the US. It is a fatwa against extremism and terrorism signed by representatives of more than 250 mosques and other Islamic centres that has been endorsed by over 170 North American Muslim groups, leaders and institutions. Earlier, in March this year, on the eve of the first anniversary of the bomb blasts in Barcelona, the Islamic Commission of Spain, representing the overwhelming majority of the country’s Muslims, had issued a fatwa declaring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda as apostates and urged Muslims elsewhere to do the same.

Though they have much else to account for, most Muslim religious leaders and institutions in India which could easily fit the "fundamentalist" label have been consistent and unambiguous in their denunciation of extremist and terrorist acts for years now. This was as evident when the Taliban demolished the Bamiyan Buddhas several years ago as it is now in response to the unpardonable massacre of women and children out shopping in Delhi for the coming Diwali and Id festivals.

An illustrative example is the October 31 edition of Inquilab, the largest selling Urdu daily published from Mumbai, which carried a 5-column boxed story on top of page three under the heading, "Muslim bodies strongly condemn the Delhi bomb blasts". The sub-heading read: "Demand for severest possible punishment for those attempting to disturb peace and communal harmony in the country". The report published statements from top religious heads of the Darul Uloom, Deoband, Jamaat-e-Islami, Hind, Jamiat-e-Ulema, Hind, Imam of the Shahi Fatehpuri Mosque, the All India Milli Council and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, United Muslims of India and several others, each of which were a ringing denunciation of the "inhuman" and "un-Islamic" terrorist act.

Four days after the carnage, the lead front-page story in the November 2 issue of Inquilab reported that for the fourth consecutive day after the dastardly act, the condemnation by Muslim bodies was unabated.

The most telling, perhaps, is the example of the Raza Academy, which in March 2000 had threatened to burn Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasreen, alive if she dared step into Mumbai. (This writer was among those who hosted her visit and ensured her safe departure after addressing a public meeting.) Following the March 2003 bomb blasts at the Gateway of India and in Jhaveri Bazaar, the same Raza Academy was in the forefront in bringing Muslims out on the streets to condemn the "un-Islamic" killing of innocents and to demand speedy and adequate compensation to the families of the victims. The November 2 edition of Inquilab and the Mumbai edition of The Times of India have published an evocative picture of a Muslim boy carrying a placard that says: "Attacking innocents is an act of cowardice". He was among the participants, young and old, at a public rally organised by the Raza Academy.

The community’s overwhelming rejection of terrorism is understandable on secular (material) as much as on religious grounds. Among Indian Muslim circles it is commonly acknowledged today that they, 150 million of them, are the biggest victims of India’s partition. It is also obvious to them how already and increasingly so in the future, ordinary Muslims, globally and in India, would end up having to pay the price for inhuman acts committed in the name of their faith and with the aid of Pakistan, the outcome of India’s partition.

Indian Muslims who only read Urdu newspapers are clear that as always and in keeping with the teachings of Islam, the community and its religious leaders have unanimously condemned terrorism and its perpetrators. Meanwhile, the far, far larger number of Indians who do not read Urdu might still be wondering why even "moderate Muslims" don’t condemn barbaric attacks in the name of Islam. A serious engagement between Muslims and the mass media is crying for attention.

(This article was first published in The Times of India.)


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