Gujarat Muslims: Divided, they suffer

AHMEDABAD: Muslims may have crowded into the ghettos due to polarisation of society in recent years, but even inside these ghettos, the social fabric is highly fragmented.

The perception that all Muslims are united since Islam is a monotheistic faith looks misplaced at least in these ghettos.

There are over five firqas or masraks (divisions) in Islam and every one of these is active in Gujarat. These firqas are divided into 28 biradris (communities). Each has the same God, but a different road to reach him. The alterations in ideology may be minuscule, but the resultant violent altercations are major. 

Result: absence of a strong leader to steer the community or lobby for its interests. An elderly cleric from Juhapura, Ibrahimbhai Sheikh is disillusioned about this state of affairs.“Muslim politicians have been the biggest disappointment so far. Ahmed Patel is perhaps one of the most powerful men in the country today, but he has done absolutely nothing for Muslims. There is international rage at what happened here — the US is officially boycotting Narendra Modi — but our Muslim strongman Ahmed is indifferent. Effectively for us, there is no political representation for Muslims from Gujarat,” Sheikh said.

The early divisions were only two:. Earlier, each of the five firqas would necessarily support either the Deobandis or Barelvis. But now, some operate independently as well.
The firqas and their current affiliations are: Sunni Jamaat (Barelvi sect), Tabligh (Deobandi), Jamiat-e-ulma (Deobandi), Jamaat-e-Islami (independent) and Ahle-Hadees (independent). Simi’s interpretation of Islam is influenced to a great extent by the writings of Syed Abul A’ala Maududi, founder of the Jamaat-e Islami.

The vulnerability of such a divided populace should come as no surprise. Firqas like Tabligh, Jamaat-e-Islami and Sunni Jamaat have been languishing in these ghettos for long but not very active. Others like Ahle-Hadees arrived here in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid communal violence of 1992 and got active after 2002.

Earlier limited to preaching and ensuring the practice of the tenets of Islam, these religious groups in recent years have combined ideology with everyday practical needs. A typical case in point: Ahle-Hadees provides drinking water free of cost to the entire Dani Limda and Bombay Hotel area. Earlier the Tabligh Jamaat supplied water for Rs 150 a month.

Similar facilities are also provided by all other firqas. Significantly, earlier a maulvi from Tabligh Jamaat preaching namaaz and Roza would not get much attention in an average Muslim household, but lately, they have garnered sufficient mind space.

Sponsoring primary education for children, soft loans for entrepreneurs, construction of a bore wells are some of the rewards that the inmates of the ghettos get in return for their support.  With passions running high the ghetto is their identity, their defence.

The police are unable to check the violent outbursts amongt these firkas that are commonplace. That only leads to anarchy“ “It is impossible for any leader to emerge. The moment one person of a firqa gets popular, other firqas feel threatened and he will be stopped in his tracks at any cost. If he does not belong to any firqa, he will have a tough time getting acceptance; and then he will anyways be fighting all firqas single-handedly,” Ibrahimbhai says.

When head of the Gujarat circle of Ahle-Hadees, Maulana Abdul Halim, was arrested four hours after last month’s serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad,  the primary contention of the police was that he wielded influence in the ghettos.

And true enough. According to rough estimates Hadees has a following of over one lakh, particularly from Dani limda, Bombay Hotel and Juhapura area, in that order.
 s_jumana@dnaindia.net