In Search of the Moderate Muslim

hamzad afaqui #159 That was a good article you posted. One day we Pakistanis too will also start asking questions like ``Why do so many Indians on chowk hate us?``

BTW I am sorry to have ridiculed you a bit in my previous post and regret any unhappiness (that is the only word that comes to my head) you may have felt as a result.

Re: Sameer, #124

I understood well that your ``bad Muslim`` was in jest and not serious. To me, however, you made and raised a very valid point; hence, my post.

The problem--I`d say the tragedy--of Islam is that it never developed, or, more accurately, was not allowed, to a higher level of civilization and culture. For many reasons going way back into Islamic history, Islam got stuck in the quagmire of narrow interpretation of the Book and saying of the Prophet (one always wonders about the authenticity of all those sayings,) interpreted, to this day, to serve personal and political goals. And today`s masses, starved of food and knowledge and devoid of thinking outside the little box and of any hope for the future, respond with thunder.

Any Muslim who dares to stray from the Straight Path is brutally silenced by those who think they know the Book real well. The smart ones learn the lesson quickly. To cite just one example, The Friday Times must include PBUH everytime it mentions the Prophet; it just knows it too well that if it did not do that, its entire facility would be set to fire and the TFT would cease to exist. Now, what rational being would want to risk that?

Unlike European Christianity and Judaism, Islam never freed itself from the shackles of rituals and closed-mindedness more fitting to a world where the sun circles the flat earth. This continuous 1500-year-old rigidity is now part of the Muslim psyche. This blind irrationality is now so deeply entrenched into most Muslims that murderers like Osama and the Talibans find support among the educated Muslims.

Having said all that, I do not consider myself anything but a Muslim. I carry a Muslim name and live in a Pakistani-Muslim (sorry for the hyphenation, but a Pakistani Muslim is not the same as an Arab Muslim) culture. However, I follow a set of values that I have defined for myself, a value-set that is independent of any religion. Neither my Muslim identity nor my value-set is threatened by the other. I`m perfectly content being a hypocrite. I would be the same person as I am now regardless of the religion I would have been born to.

What the Islamic civilization needs is a renaissance not unlike that of the Christian Europe. That is a tall order. Maybe there are enough enlightened people like you and hamidm around who are the seeds of such revolution. I honestly think that Chowk maybe the first, although a small, step in that direction. Let`s hope for Islam`s--and more importantly, peace and hence a better world--sake that I`m right.

Godot # 173

``For many reasons going way back into Islamic history, Islam got stuck in the quagmire of narrow interpretation of the Book and saying of the Prophet (one always wonders about the authenticity of all those sayings,) interpreted, to this day, to serve personal and political goals.``

The Sahih Bukhari was compiled nearly 200 years

after the prophet`s death and the main source is

one Abu Huraira,who was dismissed by Omar al Khattab from governorship of Bahrain for stealing

state funds.Intrestingly,Bukhari the compiler of

the ahadeeth was a persian whose knowledge of

arabic was not upto the mark as is evident from

quite a few of his tafaseer on various verses of

the Quran.Ironically,such people and their compositions have attained almost divine power over the muslims.

Regards

Re: Godot

Islam was the world`s leader in science in the Middle Ages. This article explains what could have gone wrong:

``How Islam Won, and Lost, the Lead in Science``

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/30/science/social/30ISLA.html?searchpv=nytToday

Hobbyty, if you are reading this, remember the above article (that is full of praise for Islam`s scientific achievements) is from NYT, which you recently ridculed as `NYT is expressing Hindu nationalist and zionist agreement` on `A Decision to Regret` board (#280)

re: Faruk

``We have one of the most ambitious though largely unrealized plans to help the weaker sections of our society.``

Not merely that, we as a society, Hindus and Muslims together, have undertaken probably the most ambitious human project ever - creating a large, modern, tolerant society from the debris of historical enmities and hatreds, employing the human raw material that continues to be as imperfect as ever, in a resource-deficient environment.

I have no doubt Farzana shares that ideal and that vision. Given that confidence, I appreciate the fact that she shows to us how very far we remain from that ideal. Of course, people like you, Faruk, give us the hope that our cause is worthy.

My friends, Hindus and Muslims, people of every religion, every caste, or every other such distinctions, we know our challenge is not an easy one. We know that our resources are meagre. We know that forces from every direction tug at us, and that fears of every kind haunt us. But since our vision is worthy, since it points us to a virtuous future rather than to a virtuous past, let us not lose sight of it. True, the pace of our progress some times frustrates us. But we, all of us together, must keep inching along in the right direction.

Farzana,

The current issue of the Outlook carries an excellent article describing what Saba Bhaumik calls the ``curious conundrum`` faced by many Indian Muslims today. Would it right to say that she has articulated some of the frustration you have expressed?

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&fodname=20011105&sid=1

A Halloween Joke Pakistani Shtyle

scout auntie # 70 from another board.

[``by the way, what is a Muslim girl to do when she encounters a cute guy? desire inducing hormones are God`s gift to men and women. no one`s invincible from feelings.....like women wearing plunging necklines, some men wear tight shirts clearly showing their perfect pecs and abs....what do we do then?``]

Top 5 things a muslim girl can do when confronted with fierce desires induced by her raging harmones:

- accept the first ``rishta`` that comes thereafter, if she is not already married.

- check yellow pages for milkmen who provide home delivery services.

- write to the local postmaster to assign a cute postman to her route.

- visit www.heavenlytoys.com/muslima-specials

- wait for her 72 ghilamas in jannah

- drop me an email at ali1@footlongclub.com

Re: semipreciousme

{{“But if you insist that I submit something, would you be kind enough to take over my pretzel stand for two days? That will give me the time to write an article for Chowk.”

…..tsk…tsk….no lame-o excuses, please ….}}

It`s in your best interest not to encourage me to write an article. Trust me. I think my posts are enough for most Chowkies.

Re Faruk # 167

``I think we have come a long way from the times of the untouchables, the Hindu chai wala and Muslim chai wala of pre independence India. We have a long way to go but at the same time we have achieved a lot. We have one of the most ambitious though largely unrealized plans to help the weaker sections of our society.``

Well said my friend, and as long as there are Indians who think like you, the future is bound to be promising.

-

Subroto

Editorial & Analysis by Mushirul Hasan

Indian Express, Wednesday, October 31, 2001

Shahi Imam, you’ve got mail

The prayer call behoves you, not politics and jihad



Dear Imam Sahib,

As-salam-o-Alaikum:

YOU occupy an exalted position as the custodian of Dilli’s Jama masjid. You are the prayer leader, the moral guide of the thousands who pray at the great masjid. The faithful expect you to interpret the Holy Koran and the traditions of our great Prophet and not to make political pronouncements. The sweet sound of the Azano (prayer call) from the minaret, rather than the call for jihad from the pulpit, is what they want to hear.

Scores of mosques, shrines and traditional schools dot our landscape. Yet, we do not hear fatwa emanating from, say the Fatehpuri mosque, situated so close to where you hold court. Similarly, we observe piety on its knees at the sacred shrines in Nizamuddin and Mehrauli, and not politicians lining up to pay homage to their sajjada-nashin (object of salutation). These long-standing institutions command allegiance, and yet they are not susceptible to political influences. Please follow their example, eschew politics, and avoid turning our great masjid into a political akhara. You will then find many more faithful being drawn to you and the mosque. Piety, devotion and humanity are the essence of the Islamic faith.

There is no Pope, priest or bishop in Islam. Islam also does not recognise any form of social and religious hierarchy. Ek hi saf me khare ho gaye Mahmud-o-Ayaz (the King and the slave pray together), said the poet Iqbal. Doubtless, you have inherited a position, and, for this reason, you occupy a vantage point in the lanes and by-lanes of old Dilli. But, surely, this does not give you the right to be the sole spokesman of 120 million Indian Muslims. Do the Shias accept your verdict? Do the Barelwis follow your diktat? Do the Muslim farmers in Assam or the fishermen on the Kerala coast know you? No, they don’t. Can you deliver votes for any political party from the Mallapuram district? No Imam Sahib, you can’t.

If so, how does anybody conclude that you represent the authentic voice of Islam in India? Somebody must answer. My explanation is this: our political classes repeat the mistakes made in the past. By negotiating with priests and politicians whose organisational base and political stature are by no means assured, they perpetuate their legitimacy as spokespersons of the whole community. Rather than forcing them into a situation where they are required to demonstrate their implied support, they refuse to draw out the conditions for such a confrontation. In the process, the weight of orthodoxy stifles the liberal voices among Muslims. This was exemplified by the Shah Bano affair, and by my own personal experience at the Jamia Millia Islamia. In the event, the conservative Muslim establishment, backed by the non-left formations, tasted the fruits of ‘victory’.

Let me turn to the relentless US bombing of Afghanistan. First, silence should not be construed as acquiescence in violence against the civilian population. Second, you should draw comfort from the strong body of opinion in this country spearheaded not by the Muslims but by vocal liberal-left groups that has lambasted American policies in Palestine and Iraq, and protested against the loss of civilian lives in Afghanistan. Instead, you raise the battle cry from the safety of the great mosque. Why? Some years ago, you committed a colossal blunder by asking Muslims to boycott the Republic Day celebrations. Now, your monumental folly is to call for jihad against the Anglo-Saxon world.

It is distasteful to talk of ‘holy’ wars in this day and age. What, if the sangh parivar declares dharmayug for ‘liberating’ their sacred sites? You and I will run for cover. The usage of expressions like kafir is equally unacceptable. Surely, the future of a great religion does not depend on taking recourse to such offensive categories. Surely, the Islamic personality of an individual can be developed and refined without conjuring up the false image of ‘unbelievers’ ready to strike at the faithful.

Imam Sahib, soothe rather than inflame passions. Develop a different vocabulary to convey the community’s fears and aspirations, and reject, once and for all, the binary opposition inherent in the idea of dar al-Islam (land of Islam) and dar al-harb (land of war). Have you heard of the call for hijrat (migration) to Afghanistan, the dar al-Islam, during the Khilafat movement in the early 1920s? It was an adventurist campaign with disastrous results. While the divines stayed put in their homes digging into the qorma and biryani, scores of their Muslim brethren died of hunger and cold during their trek through the rugged mountains. Their Afghan hosts put them in jail before sending them back to India.

An ideal world envisioned by the scriptures is out of our reach. And yet let’s create a better world for ourselves by popularising the idea of a dar al-aman (land of peace). Let Islam flourish along with other religious creeds. For us, the Muslim intelligentsia, the real challenge is to move beyond the somewhat simplistic approach of deploring and denouncing the West. In the present-day worldwide context, let us be vigilantly self-critical and aware of our historical and political situatedness. Let us challenge many obsolete ideas and concepts that impede progress and espouse the cause of democracy, human rights, empowerment of women, and equal rights to the minorities. If we shirk our responsibility, you and I will become unwitting collaborators in Islamist ideologies whose costs to Muslim societies have been no less brutal than those of colonial domination.

Please do not stand in the way of those Muslims who wish to pursue without impediment the full development of their capacities and to contribute to their societies in all domains. I respectfully reiterate that we need to develop a variety of subtle analytical perspectives and positions in order to address problems afflicting Muslim societies: poverty, illiteracy, obscurantism, and the exploitation and social confinement of Muslim women. If public opinion is mobilised, it must be directed against feudal/monarchical regimes that seek legitimacy from Islam.

Admittedly, many of us, Hindus and Muslims alike, feel agitated over certain issues. So do you. When that happens, walk up to Maulana Azad’s mausoleum or the shrine of Sarmad, the Sufi martyr of Aurangzeb’s reign. Learn from them the values of liberal humanism and tolerance and pay heed to the following verse Azad quoted in his essay on Sarmad:

Zuhiri’s breast is full to the brim with the love of the beloved.

No place is left in my heart for hating my rivals.

Meanwhile let the cameras stop clicking, and let the tape-recorders be switched off at the Jama masjid. Khuda Hafiz

Dear Godot:

You write:

``The Friday Times must include PBUH everytime it mentions the Prophet; it just knows it too well that if it did not do that, its entire facility would be set to fire and the TFT would cease to exist. Now, what rational being would want to risk that?``(Godot)

Are you serious, Godot? – I didn’t know that tiresome abbreviation is a ``fire extinguisher`` for Muslim press?

It is hard to believe that our very secure prophet (who never claimed to be anything more than a human being and just a messenger) ever wanted to hear so much personal flattery or praise from his Ummah -- least of all -- in the ``insolently abbreviated`` form of it.

At times one is compelled to feel that we ARE not only CUBE worshippers -- we are also Mohammedans -- Mohammed Worshippers – despite YLH’s assertion (if I correctly remember it) to the contrary --- that we are Muslims -- NOT Mohammedans.

Re: Eklayva

``My friends, Hindus and Muslims, people of every religion, every caste, or every other such distinctions, we know our challenge is not an easy one. We know that our resources are meagre. We know that forces from every direction tug at us, and that fears of every kind haunt us. But since our vision is worthy, since it points us to a virtuous future rather than to a virtuous past, let us not lose sight of it. True, the pace of our progress some times frustrates us. But we, all of us together, must keep inching along in the right direction.``

Then we must all drink warm milk, eat Glucose biscuits, and hold hands around a tree to sing Kumbayah.

Dear Farzana,

I dont know wether you indeed are an Indian. Without commenting on your article, I have only one observation.

How the hell are you saying that in India we dont celebrate `republic day ie 26th Jan` or `Independence day ie 15th Aug`. We do celebrate these two events by congregating in the morning in the local park , hoisting the flag , singing the national anthem and eating sweets. There are eloborate programmes in schools, colleges a day before these two days. Where do you live???

Unless, of course your idea of celebrating is to go to the local disco or doing Bhangra.

The problem with majority of Muslims is that they wear Islam on their sleeves, for them an idiotic Osama is more important than loyalty to nation, for them justifying the evil deeds of terrorist is more important than doing some introspection. We had British born muslim Jehadis openly admitting on BBC that he will kill British Army troops!!! and yet Muslims ask for compassion , restraint and end to racism!!!!! the fact that Muslims are percieved as untrustworthy, treacherous etc etc is not without reason.

There is a tradition in ( British Indian Army which is still strong in Indian and Pakistan Army) where Artillery offices dont remove one of the belts while dining. The origin of this tradition is from an event when Afghans called the soldiers of British Indian army for dinner and while the soldiers were busy eating where attacked by their hosts. So now the belts with sidearms are not removed while dining. ofcourse there are no sidearms now but the tradition of wearing belt ( ie being always prepared) still carries on.

tahmed321 #126:

[pakiessei #98 ``We, the christians of Pakistan, fully condemn the terrorist attack carried out against our brethren, and we hold India responsible for this heinous attack.``]

``Unless you have proof, you are jumping to conclusions....

``Just holding India responsible isnt going to do it.``

I find it amusing that people on the one hand are quick to blame India (without evidence) for what happens in Pakistan, but on the other hand demand cast-iron evidence regarding Osama Bin Laden`s involvement with the WTC attacks.

Not exactly related to this piece (of which I have to admit I also miss the point - {yes, yes, the liberals can be hypocirtical idiots - but compared to most `conservatives, they`r still angels}... and Mahesh`s questions are totally relevant, IMO, though not satisfactorily answered)

But where was I ?? Ah yess.. this piece from tehelka...

Among the believers

Some say that the antidote to religious terrorism lies in addressing the ``real`` causes - poverty, backwardness and weak political structures. In the final sum, the argument holds that a healthy economy and a secular polity will signal a corresponding decline in the emphasis placed on religion. However, as the case of the US shows, although democracy and economic advancement lead to a fall in religious believers initially, they also lead to a return of religion, sometimes in a more aggressive, virulent and conservative form, argues Palash Krishna Mehrotra

read at: http://www.tehelka.com/channels/commentary/2001/oct/25/com102501palash1.htm