POSITIVE EFFORT, THIS DEOBAND ONE
Once Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, told Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister, “Let's not burden our minds with history.” Mr Vajpayee's answer is not available, but knowing him, as I do, I am sure he kept smiling and kept his diplomatic silence.
What history has to do with a dime a dozen writers like me ? But it kept raising its ugly head whenever I decided to write about Darul Uloom, Deoband, after its unqualified declaration that Islam is anti-terrorism at the end of February, 2008.
The history visualized ugly scenes for me : a mother lying dead, half-naked with her stomach slashed open and her baby miscarried – still in embryo – on the road. A journalist being beheaded in front of TV cameras.
What if somebody from the Muslim community – or non-Muslim community – took umbrage at my writing and decided to retaliate ? Who'll save me ?
Frankly, I am a very, very coward journalist. Once an angry Russian PRO asked me :”Why do you have to take permission from beautiful Russian dancers before photographing them ?” I told her I am just like that : a coward.
As is well-known Darul Uloom, Deoband, called a meeting, which was prominently attended by Nadwatul Ulema and Sufi Chishtis of Ajmer Sharif shrine. Equally prominent resolutions passed were : “Islam sternly condemns all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism” and “Mischief, rioting and murder were among the severest sins and crimes”.
Other resolutions said : “Muslims were being discriminated against to please 'Colonial Master' of the West” - whatever that may mean. “Madrassas were unfairly targeted and Muslims working there feared being made scapegoats for terrorist violence.” “Muslims should not be named as terrorists and the Government should curb maligning madrassas and Muslims.”
But what can the Government do if the arrested give Muslim names ?
The resolutions were passed by the gathering with the show of hands. But the speech of the rector, Maulana Marghoobur Rehman, was read by his assistant, Maulana Abdul Khaliq. Some journalists raised their eyebrows at that. But it was clarified on a TV channel that the rector was not well. Other journalists raised the issue that Talibans were present in Afghanistan and Pakistan and their followers in India, in the guise of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Huji and SIMI were creating havoc in the name of Deoband for decades now.
Maulana Masood Asghar and Sayed Hafeez Saeed are famous leaders of Taliban.
A spokesman for Deoband said on TV that they were busy with their meditation and had no time for worldly affairs. This is wholly plausible, and acceptable, statement. But now that Darul Uloom, Deoband, has correctly defined Islam, they should also come out in the public and not be satisfied with just passing resolutions.
Now that Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, has announced a package worth crores of rupees to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits back in the Valley, Deoband has an opportunity and a challenge to make the effort a success. The challenge is to cleanse average Muslim's mind about Islam and the opportunity is to assure non-Muslims where the true Muslims stand. Anyway, Kashmir's Sufi-ism, or Kashmiriyat, must be restored at all costs, as, according to some, Deoband scholars started "cleansing" Kashmir Valley of Pandits after their return home.
Things are really bad on the ground, for Deoband's information. Muslim hawkers use pseudonyms when visiting non-Muslim prosperous colonies to sell their goods and services in Delhi. Nobody can deny the Muslim sacrifices for non-Muslims. For instance, one Muslim youth spent years – the prime of his youth – behind bars to save a VIP from negligent driving charge, which had resulted in a casualty. The VIP was generous enough to give him Rs 5,000 (?).
Prof Khan of Zakir Husain College in Delhi, who is father of Urfi and Sidra – children's names are being used to describe the right Prof Khan, as two Prof Khans with the same name were working in the college at that time – had told imported assassins, with sharpened knives taped to their hands, during a communal riot in Delhi, that they should leave the “kafirs” and the Muslims of the locality alone. They lived as brothers and had no complaint against each other.
Dalai Lama recalled in a telecast that after 9/11 in an international meeting the question was raised if all Muslims were terrorists. He said : “All Muslims are not terrorists. Just as all followers of all religions cannot be named as terrorists. Bad guys can be found in any religion and society.”
Meanwhile, in a recent BBC telecast one witnessed a Muslim exponent shrilling : “Islam and terrorism are two faces of the same coin.” The BBC sound man shrilled the statement a couple of times more.
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