07-24-2006, 09:39 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Will Islam reform? </b>
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<i>All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims; it is for the community leaders to identify jihadi elements amidst them, says François Gautier </i>
The Mumbai bombings have once again thrown up the same questions: Is it possible to have a dialogue with today's Islam? Does it listen to reason? Does plain logic work? Will it ever stop killing innocent people in the name of god?
<b>There is a Central Government that is blatantly pro-Muslim, making sure that more and more Muslims are appointed to top Government posts. It is endeavouring to carve a sizeable chunk of reservation for Muslims, as seen in Andhra Pradesh, and constantly pandering to India's Muslim minority</b>. The bombings also take place in Maharashtra, a State governed by the Congress, where many Muslims live and work, the financial capital whose prosperity benefits all, including Muslims.
The same illogical strain seems to have got hold of the Government, whether it is the BJP or the Congress in power. We keep hearing that blasts in Delhi, Varanasi or Mumbai, are the work of ISI or Bangladeshi extremists. But what they don't ask is whether it would be possible for these people to function unless they receive help and sympathy from local Muslims? And the question has to be asked again: Why should Indian Muslims go against their own Government, which has done so much for them since Independence? Why should Indian Muslims target India, a country where they have more freedom, than in Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia?
Every time, the Government comes out with the same litany, "these acts are meant to create communal violence, be peaceful, don't react." Which basically means, "You, Hindus (who are targeted), keep quiet and get killed. Who cares anyway?" And a few months later, another blast claims the lives of a more innocent Hindus. But how long will the Hindus keep quiet? This is the question that the Government must ask itself. Gujarat revealed - regardless of how reprehensible the acts of mass vengeance were - that Hindus keep quiet for a long time, but when they get riled, are made fun of, are despised, their women raped, men killed, and children burnt in trains, then they blow up and blow up badly. Riots don't erupt in a few days; they are the fruits of decades, of generations even, of suppressed anger, of frustration, of a silent majority which sees it more and more marginalised and taken for granted.
Yes, we do occasionally come across wonderful Muslims, open, friendly, who have somehow preserved the knowledge that all religions are same, that Islam in India owes a lot to tolerance of Indians, that Hinduism, yoga, meditation and pranayam are India's gifts to the world and can be practiced by Muslims, Christians and Hindus alike. I have personally met quite a few of them, within the Art of Living family. But they are exceptions and even those educated Muslims, whom you can talk to, will never say the Quran is in need of revision.
So will Islam change? Because the problem is not with Muslims, it is with their text, the Quran. Will Islam, instead of feeling totally paranoiac, thinking that it is under attack everywhere, whether in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, or France, realise that it is Islam that is the aggressor all over the world? That Muslims who have settled in France or India, or the UK, have been sincerely accepted by these countries, giving them citizenship and the same rights as any French, Indian or German citizen, and yet there are people amongst them disaffected and alienated enough to blow up innocent people? Are Muslims actually biting the hand that feeds them? Will the mullahs of Islam accept to sit down and update the Quran, a perfectly acceptable scripture for the Middle Age, when mentalities were very different, but hardly appropriate in today's context?
This is what we all are hoping for and most Western leaders secretly crave for, when they go out of their way to praise and favour moderate Muslims of their country. This is what spiritual leaders like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are attempting, with a certain amount of success, by speaking to Muslim leaders, fostering ties in Muslim countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan, or reforming Kashmiri terrorists through meditation.
Unfortunately, time is running out. Muslims in India and elsewhere in the world do not understand that we are slowly losing our innocence. At the moment, ordinary Muslims still benefit from public and media sympathy, which constantly negate Islamist fundamentalism. The Western media, for instance, had made a hero out of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who was killed recently. He had organised the gruesome massacre of hundreds of children in Beslan, a villain for Vladimir Putin. The same media has made a monster out of George Bush. But these people are slowly losing that sympathy. Sooner or later, nearly the entire world outside the pale of Islam might end up waging war against jihadist Islam.
There may also come a time when people will become wary of anything Islamic. Anyone looking Muslim in appearance, in an aeroplane, on a train, in a shopping mall, will be looked at with suspicion. Anybody with a Muslim name will have problems entering any country. Those who have Muslim friends will quietly stop seeing them or find some excuses not to meet them. It is already happening. Then, governments will clamp down hard on their Muslim populations; there might be restrictions put on them.
Entire families may have to move out of Muslim enclaves all over the world, to resettle elsewhere. Muslims will slowly lose faith in the righteousness and the power of their own religion. It may take a few decades, a hundred years even, but Islam will surely disappear into the alleys of history if it doesn't change, if it is too fearful of reform.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
link
<i>All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims; it is for the community leaders to identify jihadi elements amidst them, says François Gautier </i>
The Mumbai bombings have once again thrown up the same questions: Is it possible to have a dialogue with today's Islam? Does it listen to reason? Does plain logic work? Will it ever stop killing innocent people in the name of god?
<b>There is a Central Government that is blatantly pro-Muslim, making sure that more and more Muslims are appointed to top Government posts. It is endeavouring to carve a sizeable chunk of reservation for Muslims, as seen in Andhra Pradesh, and constantly pandering to India's Muslim minority</b>. The bombings also take place in Maharashtra, a State governed by the Congress, where many Muslims live and work, the financial capital whose prosperity benefits all, including Muslims.
The same illogical strain seems to have got hold of the Government, whether it is the BJP or the Congress in power. We keep hearing that blasts in Delhi, Varanasi or Mumbai, are the work of ISI or Bangladeshi extremists. But what they don't ask is whether it would be possible for these people to function unless they receive help and sympathy from local Muslims? And the question has to be asked again: Why should Indian Muslims go against their own Government, which has done so much for them since Independence? Why should Indian Muslims target India, a country where they have more freedom, than in Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia?
Every time, the Government comes out with the same litany, "these acts are meant to create communal violence, be peaceful, don't react." Which basically means, "You, Hindus (who are targeted), keep quiet and get killed. Who cares anyway?" And a few months later, another blast claims the lives of a more innocent Hindus. But how long will the Hindus keep quiet? This is the question that the Government must ask itself. Gujarat revealed - regardless of how reprehensible the acts of mass vengeance were - that Hindus keep quiet for a long time, but when they get riled, are made fun of, are despised, their women raped, men killed, and children burnt in trains, then they blow up and blow up badly. Riots don't erupt in a few days; they are the fruits of decades, of generations even, of suppressed anger, of frustration, of a silent majority which sees it more and more marginalised and taken for granted.
Yes, we do occasionally come across wonderful Muslims, open, friendly, who have somehow preserved the knowledge that all religions are same, that Islam in India owes a lot to tolerance of Indians, that Hinduism, yoga, meditation and pranayam are India's gifts to the world and can be practiced by Muslims, Christians and Hindus alike. I have personally met quite a few of them, within the Art of Living family. But they are exceptions and even those educated Muslims, whom you can talk to, will never say the Quran is in need of revision.
So will Islam change? Because the problem is not with Muslims, it is with their text, the Quran. Will Islam, instead of feeling totally paranoiac, thinking that it is under attack everywhere, whether in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, or France, realise that it is Islam that is the aggressor all over the world? That Muslims who have settled in France or India, or the UK, have been sincerely accepted by these countries, giving them citizenship and the same rights as any French, Indian or German citizen, and yet there are people amongst them disaffected and alienated enough to blow up innocent people? Are Muslims actually biting the hand that feeds them? Will the mullahs of Islam accept to sit down and update the Quran, a perfectly acceptable scripture for the Middle Age, when mentalities were very different, but hardly appropriate in today's context?
This is what we all are hoping for and most Western leaders secretly crave for, when they go out of their way to praise and favour moderate Muslims of their country. This is what spiritual leaders like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are attempting, with a certain amount of success, by speaking to Muslim leaders, fostering ties in Muslim countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan, or reforming Kashmiri terrorists through meditation.
Unfortunately, time is running out. Muslims in India and elsewhere in the world do not understand that we are slowly losing our innocence. At the moment, ordinary Muslims still benefit from public and media sympathy, which constantly negate Islamist fundamentalism. The Western media, for instance, had made a hero out of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who was killed recently. He had organised the gruesome massacre of hundreds of children in Beslan, a villain for Vladimir Putin. The same media has made a monster out of George Bush. But these people are slowly losing that sympathy. Sooner or later, nearly the entire world outside the pale of Islam might end up waging war against jihadist Islam.
There may also come a time when people will become wary of anything Islamic. Anyone looking Muslim in appearance, in an aeroplane, on a train, in a shopping mall, will be looked at with suspicion. Anybody with a Muslim name will have problems entering any country. Those who have Muslim friends will quietly stop seeing them or find some excuses not to meet them. It is already happening. Then, governments will clamp down hard on their Muslim populations; there might be restrictions put on them.
Entire families may have to move out of Muslim enclaves all over the world, to resettle elsewhere. Muslims will slowly lose faith in the righteousness and the power of their own religion. It may take a few decades, a hundred years even, but Islam will surely disappear into the alleys of history if it doesn't change, if it is too fearful of reform.
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