Don’t brand us as a terrorists

Every time there is a blast in some part of the country, there is a tendency to suspect the entire Muslim community. Soon, almost inevitably, some suspects are picked up with routine fanfare. The ‘official version' is also inevitably bought lock, stock and barrel by a happy and lazy media which does not really conduct objective investigations into police allegations. However, eyebrows are also raised at the swiftness of such self-claimed ‘breakthroughs' by intelligence and security agencies, which makes one wonder what they were doing before the blasts took place.

During the entire episode and ‘process', the overriding theme is that the Muslim community in general and Islam in particular is responsible for international violence and terrorism, including in India. George Bernard Shaw had once said, "Islam is the best religion with worst followers." In contrast, the dominant ‘anti-Muslim' stereotype seems determined to alter Bernard Shaw's statement and prove that Islam is the worst religion with the worst followers.
Clearly, the larger Indian Muslim community has been terribly uncomfortable with this ‘brand image' of absolute condemnation. This is also because the community is strikingly and originally Indian, as is the language Urdu which was born in India. Besides, Muslims as Indian citizens are not the same in terms of homogenous identities, language, social fabric or culture: Muslims are different in different regions of India and share classically original characteristics. And certainly, ‘sufism' is a synthesis of several religions - so deeply linked with the Bhakti movement. That is why, its followers transcend all caste, class and religions.

More so, they chose to remain with the secular republic of India - post Partition. So much so, many ‘came away' from the new born ‘theocratic' Pakistan to live in ‘secular, democratic' India. That is, over the next six decades since Independence, in every constitutional, social and political manner, including the highest standards of patriotism, pluralism, secular and national identity, the Indian Muslim community stands equal and in unity with every other caste, ethnic, linguistic, regional or religious community in India.

This is the deep discomfort with the current ‘branding' and stereotyping of the Muslims, especially in terms of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. And the persecution, if not always, but largely considered as randomly predictable and totally unjust, outside all norms of natural or constitutional justice. So why should Indian Muslims be again and again asked to prove their patriotism?

Therefore and logically, recent months have witnessed a spate of seminars, public meetings, rallies, collective discussions and press conferences organised by various Muslim groups publicly denouncing terrorism and insisting that it has no relation with Islam. These gatherings have sometimes been shared by tens of thousands of people from across India, especially the Hindi heartland, as seen recently in Delhi.