Chalta huun thodi duur har ek tez-rau ke saath/ Pahchanta nahin huun abhi rahbar ko main
–Mirza Ghalib(I walk short distances with everyone who moves apace/I don’t know who is the leader nor recognise him)
The problem that iconic poet Mirza Ghalib pointed out in the 19th century afflicts Indian Muslims even today. Muslims are a leaderless community.
The current tumult that the country’s largest minority finds itself in has been exacerbated by absence of selfless, credible leadership. This lack of leadership, abdication of duties on the part of the self-appointed leaders have added to their woes. And the itch to walk into the traps laid down by those who don’t want them to focus on self-improvement and progress was amply evident this past Friday. They didn’t learn lessons from past mistakes. Didn’t see the lurking dangers when they took out morchas on an emotive issue. How many more riots, arrests, bulldozing of their houses will tell them that confrontations have proved counter-productive to them?
This doesn’t mean that one is advocating silence at injustice. But thoda sa chronology samajhiye.
Two spokespersons of the BJP, now suspended, make derogatory comments about the Prophet. Many community members flag it to authorities and also file complaints against them at many places in the country. Nothing happens.
The news and the videos of the controversial debate and the tweet reach Muslim-majority Arab countries as they were bound to since we live in a borderless world. As some of the countries lodge protests through diplomatic channels, India acts swiftly. The BJP very prudently and justifiably suspends their two senior members who could have avoided making such comments.
Human society lives with certain norms. Religion and their founders, being a touchy subject, cannot be discussed in television studios, which have turned into akhadas for exchange of uncouth, intemperate, abusive comments.
Once the BJP cracked down on its own two senior members and the Government of India distanced itself from their comments with the MEA calling them “fringe elements”, it seemed the issue would not escalate further.
Except Kanpur, no other city in the initial days since the Prophet row broke out saw any disturbance. There were demands to arrest Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, but no untoward incident was reported from anywhere else till Friday came.
And Friday came. No major Muslim organisations or individuals, including Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind, Shahi Imam Ahmed Bukhari, the Madnis, the Owaisis, gave any call for bandh or protests. The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in Delhi is reported to have said on record that he had not permitted any group to protest post-Friday namaz on the steps of the historic mosque. The same stone steps from where freedom fighter (he spent over 10 years in British prisons) and scholar Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had addressed Muslims soon after partition. In that historic speech, unparalleled till date because of the pathos and urgency it carries, the Maulana had reminded Muslims of their strong bonds with India, our beautiful motherland, and their duties too towards nation making. How many of the youngsters who participated in the Friday protest at Jama Masjid remember that a great patriot and scholar had given a clarion call to his community once from the same place?
Several cities in North India saw protests after Friday namaz. At many places, the protests turned violent. Why is it that there was almost no senior community leader to counsel youth against taking law in their hands? Why were the young boys not told that pelting stones at the police or damaging government properties could land them in trouble?
I have seen some social media posts where the possibility of a conspiracy hatched to instigate Muslim youth cannot be ruled out. Many in the community believe that some anti-social elements had infiltrated in the crowd in the guise of worshippers and began raising slogans and pelting stones after the namaz got over. Young boys got instigated and joined the protest. The anti-social elements, according to one commentator, might have slipped away after the agitated youth began following the script these anti-social, communal elements had designed. And we know what followed.
The fact of the matter is that Muslim society is facing a serious crisis. A series of events and government policies in the last few years–Ayodhya judgement which gave the disputed site to the Hindu side, CAA, anti-triple talaq law which could have been a boon for Muslim women had it not criminalised pronouncement of triple talaq, mob lynching of Muslim individuals in the name of cow vigilantism and anti-love jihad campaign–have hit the Muslim mind badly. Court cases against Gyanwapi mosque, Idgah mosque in Mathura and the attempts to find shivlings under many other mosques—even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently disapproved this itch by saying har masjid ke neeche shivling kyun dhoondhna–and the threat to the 1991 Places of Worship have exacerbated the Muslims’ fear.
There is growing feeling among Muslims that large parts of the media, especially news channels, are sold out to Hindutva ideology. Somehow Muslims believe, whatever they do, they are bound to be painted in bad light by a section in the media because it is on the “payroll” of the people who are aggressively pushing the majoritarian agenda. Part of the agenda to make the present generation of Muslims feel humiliated is by changing the names of Mughal-era cities and towns. Rewriting history, painting all Muslim rulers, including someone like Akbar, as invaders, is part of the same agenda to make Muslims feel guilty. This feeling of injured conscience is captured in a beautiful Urdu expression:
Na karda gunahoon ki saza (punishment for the crime that they never committed).
All this has not helped a section of Muslims to see itself equal stakeholders in the country.
The State’s and community-managed educational infrastructure has helped a section of Muslims, like it has others, scale the educational and economic ladders. However, many instruments of the state, including police force, have failed to create faith among members of the community.
See how the police reacted to some of the recent protests. Two people, including a 15-year-old boy in Ranchi, died in firing. A video, first shared by a BJP MLA, shows a group of participants of a protest in Saharanpur being brutally beaten in the police lockup. It is so brutal and merciless that even SP chief Akhilesh Yadav who had been maintaining a deafening silence till the other day on the row protested it through a tweet. Shouldn’t our judiciary take suo motto notice to this brutality?
To return to the responsibility of the Muslim leadership, it is high time the leaders close their ranks. They must counsel youth and tell them not to take law in their hands while they protest. Protesting peacefully is a democratic right of citizens. But harming others and damaging properties is a crime. The religious leaders and community elders must engage youth in spreading the message of love and peace that Islam gives.
The Prophet’s marriage to Aisha is talked about endlessly. But, why is it that not many talk about the Prophet’s marriage to Khadija, a businesswoman, 15 years older to him? Why nobody talks about the very fact that the prophet remained monogamous till the time Khadija was alive. He married widows too to set an example, to give honour and dignity to widows who faced vulnerabilities, including sexual exploitation, in a tribal society. Muslims have failed in convincing the world that Islam gives so much honour to women that it considers paradise underneath a mother’s feet and daughters are neither “paraya dhan” nor burden but mediums to pave the way to paradise. Since Semitic religions believe that life on this planet is temporary, there is a lot of emphasis on how believers will spend life hereafter.
And we have not been able to communicate to a huge chunk of our own youth and others that the Prophet preferred forgiveness to revenge. If we had told this to them, they would know that the Prophet forgave a woman named Hinda who had mutilated the corpse of his uncle Hamza during the battle of Uhud. He didn’t avenge, after the bloodless conquest of Makkah, the many insults, mockery and harassment the pagans of Makkah had put him to before his migration to Madinah. The Prophet also forgave another woman who had poisoned his food. There are so many other instances of the Prophet’s kind, benevolent treatment to his tormentors that one can quote. In a nutshell, instead of confrontation, the community needs to engage with their own. And also with those who have been misled to believe Muslims pose threats. That Muslims will outnumber Hindus. This has been proved a lie with solid research and surveys. We need to popularise them.
A Muslim is one in whose company others must feel safe. A Muslim is not a Muslim if he eats well while his neighbours go to bed hungry. And a Muslim is not a Muslim who breaks laws of the land because his prophet has been insulted. Loving the motherland is part of every Muslim’s imaan.
If we had drilled all these into the minds of the youthful protestors last Friday, perhaps the ordeals that they face now could have been avoided. Imagine the loss to the social fabric the episode has caused.
There is never too late to start a good job. So let us begin to build bridges, stay alert, responsible and not fall into the traps.
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