I started studying the religion of Islam some 8 years back. Like many others, I was also disturbed that such a large population of India and other parts of the free world was seen to be a perennial problem. I was disturbed by history of Islam in India. When you study the history of partition, of Hindus who were left in Pakistan and then were cleansed out, of the brutal genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, you cannot be blamed for thinking that Muslims seem to believe it is their right to murder non - Muslims, and degrade us all in every conceivable way. During partition riots, not only was there widespread bloodshed, initiated and carried out by popular Muslim leadership, but Hindu women were paraded naked on streets multiple times! The relish Muslims seemed to experience in degrading Hindus!!One argument I oft encountered when raising difficult questions about Islam was - but all Muslims are not bad. You find good and bad people in all communities. And every community has carried out atrocities against other communities. So what is exceptional about Muslims? Sounds fair, and yet Muslims always seem a little different from other communities. In those days, it was hard to pinpoint, but to me it always appeared that there was something wrong with the Muslim community itself, rather than it being a case of a few bad apples in an otherwise normal group of people.
And so, I set out to first answer this question - is it something wrong with the community, or all atrocious behavior of Muslims were exceptional? After a little thought, I found a way to answer this question. You can always understand the mainstream ethos of a community, any community in the world, simply by studying its heroes. After all, a community which has a fundamentally good sense of ethics won’t glorify someone who did terrible wrongs. Or even if such a figure came to acquire respect for some reason, there would be qualifications attached to such respect. Such a person would never be considered an ideal.
And as it happens, Muslims do have an ideal. Such is the status of that ideal, that Muslims recorded every word and action of that man so they could emulate him precisely. Slightest criticism of that ideal results in calls for beheading by Muslims. So, I could simply study this person and then I would know the mainstream values of Muslims.
I did that. I studied two biographies of Mohammed and a number of Hadis. I also read most of Koran for good measure. I was right in saying that a community’s heroes’ tell you what that community is like. After knowing Mohammed, everything fell in place. Muslims are different! They have dehumanized all non - Muslims of the world. In their minds if they don’t have power, and physically when they do, such as during partition of India or in geographies where they have a majority. What is done by evil minds in other communities, is heroic behavior for Muslims.
Subsequently, I engaged in many debates with believing Muslims as well as sympathizers who have little knowledge of Islam. What I heard cemented my belief. I now challenge any apologist of Islam to show me difference between conduct of Mohammed and that of, say, ISIS. Invariably, the apologists lose the argument and resort to name calling instead of answering questions. The ones who were a little more open minded studied the subject themselves and have largely come round to accepting that Islam is fundamentally flawed. I am also happy to note that in public discourse, people display more knowledge of what happened in Arabia between late 6th and early 7th century, and there is growing acceptance of the idea that Islam itself is a problem, an intractable one at that. And non - Muslims have no responsibility for the “distress” Muslims seem to be perennially afflicted with.
As debates progressed, I encountered another line from those desperate to throw a lifeline for Muslims. I cannot, by the way, understand why some non - Muslims have such desperation to defend Muslims. But it’s there in many otherwise normal persons. So those like me who want to change the world have to answer it.
This line is - but what about your Muslim neighbor, office colleague, batchmate etc. He or she is a “normal” person “just like you”. He does not show fanaticism. Nor found involved in terrorist activities. Why should that person suffer discrimination? Why shouldn’t the society ensure that person is not in discomfort on account of his identity?
I agree that we should not stop a “normal” Muslim on the road and unload our anger against him. I am not advocating gratuitous violence against anyone. Not even proactively telling him about our views on Islam. However, we really need to have a hard look at this question - should we really be obliged to bend over backwards for his “comfort”. For instance, should we hold back our thoughts on political issues because a handful of Muslims might feel hurt? At macro level, should our policies be adjusted to ensure this so called “normal” Muslim does not feel bad about anything?
I do not think so. I believe that once we have determined that Islam is fundamentally wrong, any believing Muslims should be assumed to be a follower of that wrong, unless proved otherwise. The Muslim neighbor may indeed seem as no different from any of us. But if he is a believing Muslim, it is impossible that he does not plan to destroy you, or reduce you to second class status as soon as he has adequate political power. Mainstream Muslims have always done that. Unless they change in fundamental ways, they will always do that.
Here is an illustration to understand this point.
I once engaged with just such a Muslim on a whatsapp group. The group has some 100 odd members. Barring a handful, all are Hindus, some notionally, some in belief. There are a few Christians. And there is just one Muslim. Being among those rather vocal on Islam and Muslims, I was advised by one of us to engage with him while others watched. Only request to me and the Muslim - let us call him Faisal, was that we should maintain civility.
And so the engagement happened. I learned enormously about the Muslim mind from that exchange. I am sharing what happened and what emerged out of it.
I started by challenging Faisal that most Muslims are not loyal to India and our Constitution. They want to re-institutionalize Shariah laws (I.e. Hindus have second class status). They cheer Pakistan not only in cricket matches but in wars too (1965 and 1971). Survey after survey has shown it. Along the way, I also told him that I had studied Islam and wanted to ask him how he could accept as his ideal a monstrous evil like Mohammed. Faisal said a few things and then abruptly left. I cannot produce all exchanges, but here is a gist of what Faisal, one of those “normal” mainstream Muslims, said:
I do not agree to surveys that most Muslims are not loyal to the Indian constitution (e.g. seeking Shariah laws). It is not healthy for our society to spread such (mis)information. I know more Muslims than others, and we are not like this.
Muslims / Islam have become a punching bag nowadays. It is easy to blame things on religion. Its all about interpretation. Taliban and ISIS also claim to follow Islam. Look at Muslims around you. Study their behavior.
No more from me. I got to go!
That was it. He refused to answer any questions about what Islam says, what Mohammed did in his lifetime and what Muslims have done all around us every time they had power!
I later thought - Faisal must know about all the violence Muslims have inflicted. He can’t be unaware of the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, to name one horror committed by his co - religionists. Why doesn’t he acknowledge it? He may express his opinion of it later, but why doesn’t he first acknowledge that such incidents might have made us Hindus view Islam and him in a certain way? Why does he claim unalloyed victimhood? Moreover, he claims to have a version of Islam that is perfectly peaceful and totally different from that of Taliban and ISIS. Why doesn’t he explain how he came to acquire such a version? In all my studies of Islam lasting years, I never came across such a version. And before I could start asking questions about his version, he left!!
Faisal must have seen horrifying attitudes of his community members first hand. He comes from Bihar. In 1946 elections, nearly 90% Muslims voted for Muslim League that openly called for murder and rape of Hindus. The probability that at least one of his grandfathers supported that Muslim League is
nearly 100%. I find it very hard to believe that he had not heard from (or heard about) them. Then why did he feign ignorance of those attitudes in his community. A decent, civil behavior would be to acknowledge it, acknowledge that the Hindu view of Muslims is not without basis, and after that defend himself and his community if needed. He does not do that. He brushes aside our views as misplaced, harmful for the society, and moves on. As if we are supposed to just grin and bear it when we learn about Muslims committing atrocities on Hindus.
That is your “normal” Muslim neighbor / colleague / batchmate who you thought is no different from you. Make of it what you want. As far as I am concerned, Faisal’s behavior of expecting others to never feel angry about genocides shows the real face of Islam. That it is a genocidal ideology of world domination no different from Nazism. It kills basic decency and civility in its adherents. I have never seen an upper caste Hindu fail to acknowledge the horrors of untouchability. Nor a Briton refusing to admit the atrocities of the British Raj. Nor an American White not admitting that they killed Red Indians and committed slavery on blacks. How different a Muslim who studied with us in college! If such a person can dissimulate in front of us, what of the more fanatical types? No wonder you never hear any voices in Muslim community against fundamentalism.
I am more convinced than ever that we all need to rise up to the political challenge of Islam and Muslims if we want to preserve the freedoms of free societies earned with so much blood. And that means not relenting on the political pressure we have just started creating on Muslims. On overt fundamentalists, as also on “regular” folks around us like Faisal. They are no different once one looks beneath the surface.
