Mind you, you will hear this (leave common Muslims alone) not only from woke “secularists”, but also from those who otherwise sympathize with the nationalist view and have come to agree that something might possibly be wrong in the inherent nature of Islam. These people, because of the mounting incontrovertible evidence, no more argue that Jihadi terrorists are “aberrations”, “a tiny minority of extremists”, and “not real followers of religion”. Sheer weight of evidence against these opinions has finally made them admit that there may be some basic flaw in the “religion” itself. However, they still find it disturbing that we should view our Muslim neighbor or colleague with the same lens.
Let us say, you are, like me, more of an Islamo - realist (as I like to call ourselves). How to answer these well-meaning folks who fear that all decency and civility will die if we bring our view of Islam to seemingly decent Muslim folks around us who look and talk no different from us?
I have been in many such discussions, and I am always struck by the degree to which highly educated, otherwise intelligent folks change the standards of judgement the moment one is talking about Muslims. Really, the malaise seems so deep and widespread that I feel the need for mass scale training programs just so everyone holds all communities to the same standards. If we all did that, this whole challenge will disappear. We will be more clear - eyed about the nature of Muslims, even those Muslims who are well-educated and appear same as ourselves in all other respects.
Time for some specific examples.
Here is an experience I had multiple times: Being a student of Sanskrit and Ramayana, I have ended up mentioning the character of Shri Ram in front of friends sometimes. Occasionally, when my interlocutors were “secular” inclined, the very name of Ram aroused strong emotions! How could Ram treat Sita so shabbily, they asked. Doesn’t it show that our religion has some basic problem?!
To me, the questions they asked were of secondary importance. More important was the emotion they displayed. They were literally seething as soon as the name of Ram came up. It was as if I had hit a hornet’s nest simply by mentioning the name. And that got me asking - why are they so angry, so ready to heap odium on a man who lived perhaps 3 or 4 millennia ago? Even if you think he did some wrong, all you need to do is to decide you won’t do such things yourself. In any case, the modern
day Indian laws, promulgated presumably by his followers and descendants, negate the value system under which he is said to have done some wrong.
Today, most Hindu men in India will not exile their wives because any of them had to spend nights in some other man’s place against her will. I cannot imagine even a half educated Hindu doing such a thing. Then why all the anger against Lord Ram?
Anyway, coming back to the point - we can see the standards to which many of us hold Bhagavān Ram. Unless he and other revered figures of Hindus followed, even 10 millennia ago, the most modern of Human Rights, they are worthy of the severest condemnation. It doesn’t matter that their behavior was not exceptional for the times. They were supposed to still know what was coming millennia later and act accordingly.
Contrast this with Muslim attitude towards their revered figure. Mohammed carried out multiple genocides, committed / sanctioned rapes, and married and had sex with a 9-year-old child when he himself was 54 years old. I suggest all to google and read about Bani Qurayza (a brutal genocide approved and supervised by Mohammed), about Saafiya and Kinana, about the fate of Bani Khyber, and so on and on.
And what is the attitude of Muslims towards this man? If you so much as write a Facebook post mocking him, there is arson, violence and beheadings. Literally.
You say that all this is done by extremist elements?! Fine, why don’t you sometime check the attitude of your educated Muslim neighbor towards Mohammed? You again say - but he is not like those woke Hindus who hate Bhagavān Ram. Maybe he is like devout Hindus who revere Bhagavān Ram. Well, how many devout Hindus do you find in the same social set as this Muslim person who is supposed to be “just like us”?
Even so, for the moment I accept that too - that our Muslim neighbor / colleague is like millions of devout Hindus in this respect. But let us dwell on it for a little more.
Imagine that you are part of a community in whose name a proper genocide is carried out. People of your identity, who are clearly driven by core aspects of that identity, brutally murder men, rape and murder women, force degrading behaviors on those of “other” identity. What would be your attitude towards those who do it? And towards those “others” who suffered it? Chances are, you will go ballistic at the perpetrators. And you will also take some action to support those “others” who suffered these barbaric crimes. Right?
And now, when was the last time you saw this kind of attitude in educated Muslim neighbors / colleagues who are supposedly “just like us”? I have never seen it. Indeed, whichever Muslims I have seen, are more likely to be outraged by a mention that such things happened, rather than by their coreligionists actually perpetrating these acts.
You know that I am talking about the genocide in Kashmir, which is now well known thanks to the work of Vivek Agnihotri. But the same thing happened, even at a larger scale, in many other places. In times which are still in living memory. Genocide by Moplas in 1921, Direct Action Day, Calcutta, Noakhali, cleansing of Hindus from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Any of these, even a fraction of these, would arouse revulsion towards perpetrators in a decent person. And I am asking this - why do we never see that sentiment in any Muslim.
The only Muslims who do show humanity enough to feel genuine outrage at all these acts are actually ex - Muslims. Maybe they did not announce their apostasy formally. But that is what they are at their core - apostates. I am not going to go into another big subject here, but I can demonstrate that it is haraam for Muslims to feel outrage at genocide of non - Muslims. Your neighbor may not actually participate in atrocities himself, but if it happens, he will shrug his shoulders and walk away. He will not be outraged. Indeed, he has been like that all the while! You are the one who missed the significance of his attitude!
Which brings me to what I started with - we all have learned to hold Muslims to very different, and I daresay very low standards. We have thus made ourselves party to genocide of non - Muslims wherever Muslims are in majority. We think of ourselves as decent, civilized folks. It is time we applied principles of decency correctly. We have already agreed that those who perpetrate heinous crimes don’t deserve our sympathy. Now, let us also agree on our view of those who observe such atrocities, and have no visible problem with them.
If your Abdul was any different, he would not only have been outraged long back, millions like him would have gotten together, and you would see a political movement that genuinely fights extremism in his community. There is no such political movement, and there is no movement towards one. Indeed, your Abdul will be outraged by this article, but not by an actual genocide of non-Muslims.
Ergo, aapka wala Abdul bhi waisa hi hai. Face this brutal reality in the eye.
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