For Muslims, the enemy lies within

Who are Islam’s worst enemies? Not the west, not the United States of America, not Jews, not extremist Hindus…. Islam’s worst enemies are Muslims.

I am not a religious scholar, but people whose opinions I respect and who have studied the Koran and Islam, talk of it being an enlightened religion, and also speak highly of its reiteration of  universal human values.

Yet Islam is constantly being misinterpreted in the most grotesque way. First, there are the extremists who themselves are safely ensconced in hiding places in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq but brainwash poor young men into ‘martyring’ themselves in the cause of Islam  and while doing so take a huge toll of innocent lives (many of them Muslim).

Read the chilling conversations between Kasab and his fellow terrorists with their Pakistani handlers: “Allah ke pyare ho jao” the handlers cynically tell the young terrorists sending them to their doom.

Their terrorism has reached such a scale worldwide that the ordinary non-political Muslim has felt compelled to come out in the open to voice their protests. This was particularly evident after 26/11, when every march denouncing the atrocities always contained a sizeable number of Muslims, and every television discussion featured prominent Muslims expressing their denunciations as angrily and vehemently as everyone else.

A very important voice that was added to these was the voice of the cleric culminating in the Darul  Uloom at Deoband, issuing a fatwa against terrorism on February 25, 2008. (“Islam rejects all kinds of unwarranted violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, killing and plunder and does not allow it in any form”).

Then comes the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind’s 30th General Assembly at Deoband last week held to usher in social and educational reforms. But for some reason, the  conference reiterated a resolution it had passed in 2006, saying that Muslims should not recite Vande Mataram as “parts of the song are against the tenets of Islam”.

Why did they do it? Three years ago the resolution had caused a furore and given the Hindutva brigade something to shout about.  Was there a compelling reason to bring up the question again? Or are the Deobandis deliberately making life difficult for the ordinary Muslim by bringing up provocative resolutions?  As it happens, the 10,000 clerics gathered there, gave even more evidence to the rest of the nation that they are determined to keep India’s Muslim population as backward as possible. They opposed the women’s reservation bill, advocated a special syllabus for girl students, made it compulsory for even young girls to wear the purdah, opposed the government’s effort to reform the madrasa system of education, etcetera, etcetera.

In short, they made it clear that they want to ghettoise Muslims and make it impossible for them to join the mainstream life of  a modern vibrant India.

What are the credentials of these clerics?  What gives them the authority to speak for all Muslims? They have been described as ‘scholars’ but have they studied  any of the subjects that a 21st century citizen of the world must know? How many women are there in that 10,000 strong gathering? If none, what empowers these men to speak about what women should do?

The Muslim community which came out in such strength against terrorism must now publicly distance itself from the reactionary fatwas of the Deoband conclave. They have already made it amply clear that they belong to India,  something they did not have to do. Now they must make it equally clear that they want to belong to a modern India.