Islam and its followers are passing through a trying time today. Politically, militarily, even culturally and religiously they are at the receiving end. Specially after 9/11 a lot many has been said and done to disfigure the image of Islam. Some untoward incidents have indeed put the subject of Islam to the front burner.
A trying time is difficult to handle; it either dampens one’s spirit or brings out the best in him. The adverse circumstances that obtain in the world of Islam, as also in India, ought to be welcome both as a challenge as well as an opportunity. This difficult moment needs to be converted into a “phase of creative tension”, and let us hope that at the end of the day we shall have some good things to cheer.
Islam is a hot subject today. Many of its concepts are under attack and a great deal of misunderstanding exists about its mission to the world. There are elements who are anti-Islam through and through; then there are people who are unable to understand its true message for a variety of reasons. The most dangerous, however, are the academics and media persons who deliberately present a distorted picture of Islam in order to promote some vested interests. Maligning Islam and some of its key concepts is their mission in which they seem to have achieved a good deal of success after 9/11.
Besides the anti-Islamic forces there are many Muslims, too, who have distorted the image of Islam either deliberately or unconsciously. Thus, Islam is facing problems both from its foes and friends.
The time is needed difficult for the true followers of Islam; it, however, also offers an opportunity to present its true picture that many seem eager to see. The world would ultimately realize that Islam is not a mindless and terrorizing violence, nor does it divides humanity into irreconcilable domains of believers and non-believers. Instead, people would know that Islam believes in religious pluralism and peaceful coexistence. The misunderstanding about such key terms as Kafir, Dar-al-Islam, Dar-al-Herb and Jihad meaning perpetual violence against unbelievers have to be removed. Likewise, such myths as the Muslim appeasement or “we five, and we beget twenty five” must be exposed, so that the world would know that far from being a pampered lot the Muslims are among the most marginalized and disempowered people.
But for removing the misunderstandings or exposing the false myths and lies Muslims have to make a lot of efforts. Indeed as true Muslim our responsibilities have doubled. Many Muslims specially those in the media and public life must realize that the world has changed a great deal. Whether you are secular, liberal, practicing or non-practicing Muslim, the non-Muslim brethren expect that you must be knowing about your religion, culture, civilization and history. They have many inconvenient questions, and in order to answer them one must be fully aware of what he/she believes in and practices in his/her private and public lives.
Islam is not a church and, therefore, a unanimous or near unanimous response is not possible. There certainly would be voices, not just one voice, and many may be even disturbing. In fact, a monolithic response is not as necessary as our present need to learn our religion deeply, for our religious ignorance has created most of the problems we are facing today.
One way to respond to questions about or outright allegations against, Islam is to produce defensive literature. In fact, such apologetics are already in the market. The best way, however, is to present the true picture of Islam and Muslims in India. Such as attempt is destined to succeed, atleast in convincing the saner minds. The rabble rousers have a design to disturb the social fabric in order to serve their vested interests. We can frustrate them by taking positive steps, political as well as intellectual, and by reaching out to the vast majority of unprejudiced majority with Islam’s clear message of religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
[November, 2002]
No comments:
Post a Comment