What surprises me is the eerie silence of the Muslim ulema in the subcontinent (particularly in India) in their condemnation of this cowardly act of appalling brutality. Where are those who leave no opportunity to condemn what is inconvenient to them, no matter how comfortable it might be to Islam in general and Muslims in particular? What happens to all those voices which grow louder at times of trivial issues which they think place Islam in danger? What more danger can await a religion than accusation of the kind which we see after such heinous atrocities? When can the Islamic ulemas realize that acts such as these are the ones which actually put Islam in danger.

The rest at Dr. Khan’s blog.

Related Posts:

• Non-rational motivations
• Lies of the Lashkar By Yoginder Sikand
• Maulana Wahiduddin Khan on the Mumbai Terror Attacks (from Yoginder Sikand)
• No place to hide Will we allow mainstream Islam to turn into a moderate fringe, while extremists take centre-stage? By Aijaz Zaka Syed
• Ranoji's Pir

Non-rational motivations

By Anwar Syed

INDIVIDUALS can be wise and foolish, good and bad, in different respects and in varying measure. They can likewise be rational, non-rational, and even irrational in certain situations.

The same holds, I think, for nations. We in Pakistan have an inclination that may not be quite as common in most other countries. That is prejudice rooted in extremist versions of religious persuasions. Translating into militancy and violence, it is wrecking law and order, peace and stability in this country and beyond.

I do not deny that certain types of prejudice may work as energising and constructive forces in individual and societal development. Let us take the case of a wealthy man who thinks his late mother was the greatest woman that ever lived, and he builds a hospital to honour her memory, where the poor are provided free medical care. He was evidently prejudiced in favour of his mother. But this was a prejudice that did his community a lot of good and it did nobody any harm. The same may be said of certain non-rational motivations. Passion, as distinguished from reason, has often wrought radical change that improved the human condition and made lives more fulfilling.

But then there are prejudices and non-rational motivations that lead persons to hate others and seek to destroy them. It is this frame of mind that produces militancy and violence and uproots the social order.

The distinction between �we� and �they� has worked in different ways. Christians and Jews, Protestants and Catholics did not intermarry and many of them still don�t. They and some other ethnic groups � the Irish and the Italians, Latinos, persons of Chinese and Japanese origins � lived in their separate and almost exclusive neighbourhoods in American cities. Hindus and Muslims in the Indian subcontinent did the same and most of them did not even eat food coming out of each others� kitchens. They discriminated against one another in areas of employment, housing and distribution of various social amenities.

It was not their normal practice to kill persons of groups other than their own. There were, however, state-sponsored killings of Jews in Czarist Russia and Nazi Germany; in our own time, Israel does the same with the Palestinians, and some of the state governments in India (Gujarat and Maharashtra) have encouraged the killings of their Muslim citizens.

Fanaticism, extremism, and intolerance of the dissident have existed, more or less, in all societies in all ages. The problem in the case of Pakistan is that all of these states of mind exist here in such a large measure and with such great intensity as to rip its society apart. They arise from ethnic, linguistic and religious differences.

Conflict between distinct groups may in many cases be traced to the desire of one group�s managers to drive members of another group out of the job market and exclude them from access to the social infrastructure. Some kind of a justification has to be found for these exclusions and denials. The argument is made that �they� are not the same as �we�, and that their presence in our midst is unwholesome because it generates frictions. Being different, they are not entitled to any part of the resources available in the territory that is rightfully ours.

During the last 40 years or so, thousands of men, women, and children � all of them Pakistanis � have been killed in riots between Sindhis and Mohajirs over the language issue and between Mohajirs and Pashtuns in Karachi over issues of space and access to jobs and social amenities. Sunni and Shia Muslims have periodically bombed each others� places of worship, funeral processions, and other congregations.

Rivalry for economic benefits does not explain sectarian conflict such as the one between the Sunni and the Shia. Here the prejudice derives from differing readings and interpretations of early Islamic history. Involving abstract distinctions of right and wrong, the issues between these two groups are not amenable to negotiation, compromise and resolution. The prejudice is intense enough in some cases to border upon hatred. Those possessed regard members of the other group as heretics and quite often as infidels. These attitudes persist in spite of the fact that the major points at issues between them (such as, for instance, the identity of the person who should have been the caliph following the Prophet�s (PBUH) death) have no bearing on the course of events in the Muslim world today.

A group has emerged within Sunni Islam whose members are extremists in their orthodoxy. They are the ones who want to deny education to women and confine them to their homes. They want to banish from our lives all those interests and pursuits which are fun and give us joy. They are convinced that their version of Islam is the only right one and all others are heresies or perversions that deserve to be eradicated along with their followers. They are waging war against the state and society of Pakistan in the course of which they are not only destroying public property and killing government functionaries, they are bombing and murdering non-combatant innocent citizens.

I used to think that they are a small minority, the proverbial lunatic fringe, in our society. I am having second thoughts. I see that our Islamic parties, such as the Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam, do not condemn the Taliban and their murderous campaigns. Nor do I see the prayer leaders and khatibs in our mosques speaking against them. Many of the opinion-makers in this country � editorial writers and columnists in the Urdu press, hosts on TV talk shows � tend to focus on the Taliban�s anti-American campaigns and ignore their anti-Pakistan activities. Considering those who are sympathetic to them and those who are tolerant of them, it may be said that the Taliban exercise power and influence out of all proportion to their own actual number.

All of this leads me to think that a substantial proportion of our population may have become, for all practical purposes, well-disposed towards extremism and militancy. If that indeed is the case, we as a state and society are in a great deal of trouble. Nor should it then be surprising that the international community is beginning to view Pakistan with considerable apprehension and shun it, and that the country is getting to be isolated. Pakistan is being seen as the epicentre of terrorism, a source of threat to international peace and good order.

The writer, a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, is currently a visiting professor at the Lahore School of Economics.

anwars@lahoreschool.edu.pk

Related Posts:

• Jawed Naqvi on the Pune attacks
• Lies of the Lashkar By Yoginder Sikand
• Maulana Wahiduddin Khan on the Mumbai Terror Attacks (from Yoginder Sikand)
• No place to hide Will we allow mainstream Islam to turn into a moderate fringe, while extremists take centre-stage? By Aijaz Zaka Syed
• Terror in the name of God by Yoginder Sikand

Lies of the Lashkar

By Yoginder Sikand

Not possessing a television set myself, it was only just now that was I able to listen to the recording, hosted on the Internet, of a conversation which took place some days ago between a terrorist holed up at Nariman House in Mumbai and calling himself ‘Imran Babar’ and reporters of the India TV channel. (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QhO6rynb1C8).

It is plainly evident from the conversation that the terrorist was a Pakistani, most likely a Punjabi. This obvious from his accent and the sort of Urdu he speaks. One can easily make out that he had been carefully tutored by his mentors who masterminded the deadly terror assault on Mumbai to intersperse his hate-driven harangue with some Hindi words (shanti, parivar etc.) and to use Urdu words in the typical Hindi way (jabardasti, instead of zabardasti, etc.) so as to give the misleading impression that he and the other terrorists with him were Indian Muslims, not Pakistanis. The terrorists claimed to belong to the ‘Deccan’, in India, but it is obvious that this was not at all the case. There can be no doubt that these Pakistani terrorists were trained to lie that they were Indian Muslims who were allegedly resorting to terror in revenge for the atrocities committed on Muslims in India.

Why the Pakistan-based terror outfit behind the attacks would do this needs no explanation. The aim of the attacks was probably to destabilise India, fuel Hindu-Muslim violence, instigate Muslims to take to terror in response to attacks by Hindus and then drown India in flames. This, indeed, is precisely what several Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist groups have been consistently plotting to do for decades, although, mercifully, by and large, the Indian Muslims have refused to fall into their trap. It is to the credit of the Indian Muslims that, barring some stray exceptions, they have consistently opposed all forms of terror, including that committed in the name of Islam, despite the growing menace of Hindutva-driven fascist terror across India, sometimes abetted by the state, of which they are the principal and worst-hit victims.

The Lashkar-e Tayyeba has never made any bones about its dastardly plans of destabilisng and destroying India. It has gone to the ridiculous extent of claiming that it will not rest till the ‘Islamic’ flag is hoisted atop the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi and till India is absorbed into what it calls in its lunacy ‘Greater Pakistan’. In order to gain theological legitimacy for its deadly project it even claims that the Prophet Muhammad is said to have declared that Muslims who participate in a war with India would be saved from the fires of hell. There can be no doubt that this sort of horrendous misuse and deliberate distortion of Islam by the Lashkar has played a major role in attracting vast numbers of would-be terrorists in Pakistan to its fold who are fed with the poisonous propaganda that by participating in what it calls a holy war against India they would win a ticket to heaven.

The Pakistani state, it must be noted, has taken no action whatsoever against this heinous propaganda, and elements of the ISI are said to be in cahoots with the Lashkar and other such hate-driven self-styled Islamist groups in the country. In the wake of the Mumbai attacks, and when asked what action Pakistan had taken against the Lashkar, the Pakistani President hurriedly shrugged off the question by claiming that the Lashkar had been ‘banned’. If that is indeed the case—which it is obviously not—then how does Mr. Zardari explain the fact that, as the Lashkar’s official Urdu website itself announces, on the 29th of November the Lashkar’s supremo Hafiz Muhammad Saeed addressed what it termed a ‘mammoth’ convention at ‘New Saeedabad’ (a locality named after him?), organized by the Sindh unit of the Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad (the ‘religious’ and political wing of the Lashkar). It was held, of all places, in the premises of the local Government Degree College. The Lashkar’s website is replete with news about the whirlwind tours of Saeed and his cronies across the country, delivering rabble-rousing speeches, thundering against India and non-Muslims in general. And the outfit, Mr. Zardari wants us to believe, is ‘banned’.

Having been writing on Indian Muslim issues for years now, I can say with some confidence that the general Indian Muslim is completely fed up and fiercely opposed to the gross misuse of Islam by the Pakistani state and Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist outfits. Deep down inside, most of them lament the very creation of Pakistan, based on the discredited ‘two nation’ theory, for it has left them permanently helpless in the face of Hindutva aggression. They know full well that, despite its bombastic claims, Pakistan is far being from the ‘Islamic state’ it claims to be—with its problems of poverty, illiteracy, mounting inequalities, endemic violence, and lawlessness, its corrupt American puppet politicians who have reduced Islam to a plaything to be employed for their own purposes, and so on. They face the brunt of mounting Islamophobia stirred up by Hindutva fascist forces that play upon Pakistan’s dubious Kashmir policy and the heinous crimes of Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist radicals to whip up violently anti-Muslim sentiments in India. The general Indian Muslim’s undisguised disgust of the terror in the name of Islam that groups like the Lashkar are seeking to spearhead is amply evident in the news that is pouring in of Muslims across the country roundly denouncing the Mumbai attacks and even insisting that the dreaded terrorists not be allowed to be buried on Indian soil.

India’s Muslims need to be seen as a potential asset, rather than a liability, in the struggle against terrorism. Scores of Indian ulema or Islamic clerics are now openly castigating all forms of terror, organizing mass rallies and even issuing fatwas to get the message across. The Indian state and civil society urgently needs to realize that hounding the Indian Muslims, instead of seeking to listen to their voices and concerns and genuinely dialoguing with them, can only play into the hands of outfits of groups like the Lashkar. The fact that Hindutva terror and Islamist terror only feed on each other must also be urgently acknowledged. Our very future as a country crucially depends on all communities, particularly Hindus and Muslims, presenting a joint front to work together for peace and security. That would be a fitting reply to both Hindutva and radical Islamist forces, whose very existence is based on the frighteningly Manichaean notion of perpetual antagonism between Hindus and Muslims.

Related Posts:

• Maulana Wahiduddin Khan on the Mumbai Terror Attacks (from Yoginder Sikand)
• No place to hide Will we allow mainstream Islam to turn into a moderate fringe, while extremists take centre-stage? By Aijaz Zaka Syed
• Terror in the name of God by Yoginder Sikand
• Joint Signature Campaign by Citizens of India and Pakistan
• Notions of Honour

Will we allow mainstream Islam to turn into a moderate fringe, while extremists take centre-stage?

By Aijaz Zaka Syed

December 01, 2008

Watching the terror nightmare unfold in Mumbai over the past three days on TV, my children have repeatedly asked me: “Who are these terrorists and why are they doing this?” And every time I wished I could offer them a convincing answer. I was clueless why these people had taken over Mumbai and were targeting people who had nothing to do with them. I was also ashamed to tell them that the terrorists were Muslims and came from a country that was created in the name of Islam.

At work, while my colleagues went about covering the madness in Mumbai and laying out pages with the images of the Taj Hotel with its Islamic arches and domes go up in smoke, I find it hard to look at them in the eye.

This happens all the time. Every time innocents are targeted in the name of Islam around the world, one can’t face one’s non-Muslim friends and colleagues. A distraught friend who has devoted her life to speaking and fighting on behalf of Arabs and Muslims wrote: “I’ve had it with the Arabs and Muslims and Islamic militancy. Forgive me but I am throwing in the towel.” I couldn’t write back to her. She grew up in Mumbai and is upset. She went on to say: “The Muslims and Islam have a problem and only they can solve it. If they do not, the whole world will turn against them.”

If this is how our most loyal friends feel, imagine the sentiments and reactions of the rest of the world. Can you blame the world if it’s turning against Muslims? What do you expect when not a day passes without the name of our faith being dragged through the mud by fellow believers around the world?

I know that Muslim leaders, including those in the highest echelons of power, have lately started speaking out against the extremists. The Darul Uloom Deoband in India, one of the oldest and most respected centres of learning in the Muslim world, issued a fatwa against terrorism at a large gathering of Islamic scholars in June. Last month, nearly 5,000 scholars backed the edict at a huge congregation in Hyderabad. The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), and Saudi Arabia have, of late, been vehement in condemning these repulsive acts of violence targeting innocents. But clearly, we need to do more to be heard.

The great irony of the Mumbai attacks is the killing of ATS chief Hemant Karkare, a brave officer trying to establish the link between Hindu extremists and the Malegaon blasts. He was killed outside the Cama hospital on Wednesday night. Obviously, some Muslims do not know their friends from their enemies.

It’s all very well for us to say Islam has nothing to do with extremism and terrorism. We can go on deluding ourselves that these psychopaths do not represent us. However, the world finds it hard to accept this line of argument as it sees the extremists increasingly assert themselves and take the centre-stage while mainstream Islam turns into a moderate fringe.

Aijaz Syed is Opinion Editor, Khaleej Times

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=ca0ddccc-f725-4957-91c7-5ba0f568b371

Related Posts:

• Maulana Wahiduddin Khan on the Mumbai Terror Attacks (from Yoginder Sikand)
• Lies of the Lashkar By Yoginder Sikand
• Terror in the name of God by Yoginder Sikand
• Defeat or victory determined by response, by Amitav Ghosh in the Hindustan Times
• Jawed Naqvi on the Pune attacks