Against Islam EDITORIAL in The NAVHIND TIMES
Terrorism is anti-Islamic, says Dar-ul-Uloom, the highly regarded Islamic
seminary of the Deoband school of Indian Islam in UP. This declaration is bound
to intensify the debate Indian Muslims at large have been having in public
and in their minds whether what some of the organisations, groups and
individuals in India and abroad have been doing in the name of Islam is indeed
in accordance with the tenets of Islam. The Quran, of course, nowhere talks of
bloodshed of the kind terrorism has come to be associated with. Prophet
Mohammeds teachings had humanitarianism and compassion at the centre of human
living and could not be imagined to ever prescribe killing of innocents as a
way of protecting or promoting faith.
But of course, Islam does have exhortations that expect followers of the
faith to fight with all their might any forces or elements that seek to destroy
their faith. As the rector of Dar-ul-Uloom, Maulana Marghoobur Rehman says,
terrorist masterminds have been using these exhortations as the justification
for their violence against say, the US forces and whatever the US is associated
with. The violence, in fact, is not only confined to forces and things
American, but has spread against almost every faith and every country and every
section of society that are others or ours but not supporting and promoting
Islam. The misuse of the exhortations against enemies of the faith by terrorist
organisations has been so widespread that many of them have often killed people
of Islamic faith, because they did not submit to their dictates.
This is what happens with organisations believing in violence. Violence
becomes a cult with such organisations. They do not know whether they are
fighting the real or perceived enemies of Islam. In any case, it is too
far-fetched to think that anyone, including America, is out to destroy Islam.
Destroying Islam is not a part of the US Constitution or law or foreign or
defence policy. Nor is it a part of the Indian Constitution or law or interior
or defence policy. Yet, terrorist organisations inside and outside Kashmir
would describe the Indian government, the Indian troops, the Kashmiris of
non-Islamic faiths, everyone as enemies of Islam. There cannot be anything more
erroneous and misconceived than this. If at all, the Indian government has
political and strategic interests to keep Jammu and Kashmir as a part of India;
the Indian governments interest is not to destroy Islam in the state.
This is what misguided Muslims have to understand: India is a multireligious,
multicultural and mutually tolerant country where followers of no faith are
permitted or encouraged by the State to destroy other faiths. There may be
political organisations, groups and individuals that are hostile to Islam and
would use the first opportunity to inflict damage on the life and liberty of
Muslims but the Indian State and the Indian people as a whole stand
steadfastly and committedly by the principle of co-existence.
The Dar-ul-Uloom declaration that terrorism is not Islamic should hopefully
strengthen the forces among Indian Muslims that believe that Islam is not in
danger of decimation of India. As a matter of fact, India is one of the safest
places for Islam and followers of Islam. This does not, of course, intend to
create a rosy picture of total absence of discrimination and hatred and
violence against followers of Islamic faith in this country. But these are
issues that have no association with the existence and promotion of faiths.
These are not religious issues, but political and economic issues that
minorities have faced everywhere and have tried to a small or great extent,
depending on the country, to surmount and solve them by forcing the system to
follow an egalitarian and non-exclusive policies.
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=022834
- Forwarded by www.goa-world.com
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