09-10-2006, 03:54 AM
<b>Islamic Orthodoxy and Indian Democracy</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Islamic Orthodoxy and Indian Democracy
TAVLEEN SINGH | Friday, September 08, 2006 11:29:1 IST
<i>...despite the fact that we have had Islamist terrorism before 9/11,
we have responded mostly by defending the Muslim community against any
kind of targeting. All we have achieved is more radicalisation and a
heightened sense of grievance</i>
The Chief Justice of India made an important comment last week that
went unnoticed except by the Indian Express. While announcing his
decision to move the Srinagar sex scandal case to Chandigarh because
no lawyer in the state of Jammu & Kashmir was prepared to defend the
suspects, Justice Y.K. Sabharwal reprimanded the J & K Bar Association
for its decision to deny legal aid to the defendants and for saying
that the sex scandal showed the `entire world the real face of India
in Kashmir.' Justice Sabharwal said, <b>`It is only in India that despite
these comments you are being heard. In no other democracy will it be
heard'.</b>
<b>Taking advantage?</b>
With this comment the Chief Justice becomes the first high official in
India to acknowledge that our home-grown Islamists are <b>taking
advantage of Indian democracy to propagate unacceptably retrograde
views on a wide range of subjects. Views that maybe acceptable in
Saudi Arabia or in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan but should have no
place in a secular country like ours.</b>
Yet, we have Muslim priests routinely telling Muslims which songs they
can sing, what clothes they should wear and even whether a woman
should stay with her husband or not. The atmosphere of Islamist
orthodoxy thus created results in ordinary Indian Muslims identifying
with pan-Islamism to such an extent that thousands took to the streets
of Mumbai to protest against George Bush's visit to India but it was
hard to get even a hundred into the streets to condemn the bombings
that killed nearly 200 people on Mumbai's commuter trains in July.
Since 9/11 the pan-Islamic identity manifests itself mostly as a sense
of persecution and this is beginning to dangerously influence the way
Indian Muslims see themselves and most high officials in our `secular'
government in Delhi have responded by encouraging the sense of
grievance. <b>The Prime Minister did just this last week when he told
Chief Ministers that the terrorist threat was so serious that our
nuclear installations could be targeted but quickly added that Muslims
must not be targeted as a community.</b> Think of the message that goes to
the police? Does it not indicate that the Prime Minister wants them to
continue fighting only a defensive war? This is all they have done so
far and yet there is a deep sense of grievance in the community that
is being fed constantly by sympathy from high officials in Delhi. So
when twelve Muslim businessmen were detained recently by Dutch
authorities for dangerous behaviour on board a Northwest flight the
first reaction of our Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was to charge
the Dutch government with racial profiling. <b>It was only when it was
revealed that the twelve men were carrying sixty mobile phones </b>and using them to call each other in flight that the MEA exercised discretion.
Meanwhile, the <b>media portrayed the twelve businessmen as victims </b>and
interviewed family members who aggressively demanded that the Dutch
government apologise for detaining their relatives. They were only
doing some `masti' said family members on nationwide TV and they would
not have been detained if they were not Muslims. Anybody who has taken
a flight in recent times knows this to be complete nonsense. As a
frequent flier let me say that I have a fit every time a fellow
passenger tries using a mobile phone after the doors are shut.
Coming up as we are to the fifth anniversary of 9/11 next week and in
view of the recently foiled plot to blow up transatlantic airliners
mid-flight, by using mobile phones to detonate liquid explosives, <b>what
basis do the twelve businessmen have for behaving like victims? </b>It is
because of Indian democracy that they have been able to project their
side of the story and it is because of the `secular, liberal' nature
of our media that not one TV reporter asked the detainees why they had
used mobile phones on a flight in defiance of orders from flight
attendants.
<b>Carrying things too far?</b>
We need to ask ourselves if we are not carrying things too far. We
know that the bombers on Mumbai's trains were all Muslim. We know that
they would have taken shelter in one of this city's Muslim areas,
possibly even in mosques, but when the Mumbai police started detaining
Muslims for questioning, we in the media spoke in one voice against
the `targeting of a particular community'. The cry was taken up by
Muslim MPs in Parliament and last week <b>Mumbai's Police Commissioner,
A.N. Roy, wrote a letter virtually apologising for his law enforcement
measures to such patently Islamist organisations as the Raza Academy
and the Dar ul Uloom Mohammadiya.</b> Even if bodies like this are not
directly involved in terrorist acts they are responsible for
propagating the religious orthodoxy that spawns them. Instead of
apologising for his actions the Police Commissioner would have done
better to stand up, as the Chief Justice did, for Indian democracy and
<b>remind Muslims that the reason why they have more rights than they do
anywhere else in the world is because of Indian democracy.</b>
Indian Muslims need to recognise that the world faces a terrorist
problem that is at the moment entirely Islamic in nature. The `jehad'
is being fought against us infidels in the name of Allah, it is funded
by Islamist countries like Iran and Syria, and the soldiers and
suicide bombers of this supposedly `holy war' are all Muslims who
believe they are doing God's work.
This is the reason why it is becoming increasingly hard to travel in
Western countries if you have a Muslim name <b>but in India, despite the
fact that we have had Islamist terrorism before 9/11, we have
responded mostly by defending the Muslim community against any kind of
targeting. All we have achieved is more radicalisation and a
heightened sense of grievance. This is why this column salutes the
Chief Justice for speaking out.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Islamic Orthodoxy and Indian Democracy
TAVLEEN SINGH | Friday, September 08, 2006 11:29:1 IST
<i>...despite the fact that we have had Islamist terrorism before 9/11,
we have responded mostly by defending the Muslim community against any
kind of targeting. All we have achieved is more radicalisation and a
heightened sense of grievance</i>
The Chief Justice of India made an important comment last week that
went unnoticed except by the Indian Express. While announcing his
decision to move the Srinagar sex scandal case to Chandigarh because
no lawyer in the state of Jammu & Kashmir was prepared to defend the
suspects, Justice Y.K. Sabharwal reprimanded the J & K Bar Association
for its decision to deny legal aid to the defendants and for saying
that the sex scandal showed the `entire world the real face of India
in Kashmir.' Justice Sabharwal said, <b>`It is only in India that despite
these comments you are being heard. In no other democracy will it be
heard'.</b>
<b>Taking advantage?</b>
With this comment the Chief Justice becomes the first high official in
India to acknowledge that our home-grown Islamists are <b>taking
advantage of Indian democracy to propagate unacceptably retrograde
views on a wide range of subjects. Views that maybe acceptable in
Saudi Arabia or in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan but should have no
place in a secular country like ours.</b>
Yet, we have Muslim priests routinely telling Muslims which songs they
can sing, what clothes they should wear and even whether a woman
should stay with her husband or not. The atmosphere of Islamist
orthodoxy thus created results in ordinary Indian Muslims identifying
with pan-Islamism to such an extent that thousands took to the streets
of Mumbai to protest against George Bush's visit to India but it was
hard to get even a hundred into the streets to condemn the bombings
that killed nearly 200 people on Mumbai's commuter trains in July.
Since 9/11 the pan-Islamic identity manifests itself mostly as a sense
of persecution and this is beginning to dangerously influence the way
Indian Muslims see themselves and most high officials in our `secular'
government in Delhi have responded by encouraging the sense of
grievance. <b>The Prime Minister did just this last week when he told
Chief Ministers that the terrorist threat was so serious that our
nuclear installations could be targeted but quickly added that Muslims
must not be targeted as a community.</b> Think of the message that goes to
the police? Does it not indicate that the Prime Minister wants them to
continue fighting only a defensive war? This is all they have done so
far and yet there is a deep sense of grievance in the community that
is being fed constantly by sympathy from high officials in Delhi. So
when twelve Muslim businessmen were detained recently by Dutch
authorities for dangerous behaviour on board a Northwest flight the
first reaction of our Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was to charge
the Dutch government with racial profiling. <b>It was only when it was
revealed that the twelve men were carrying sixty mobile phones </b>and using them to call each other in flight that the MEA exercised discretion.
Meanwhile, the <b>media portrayed the twelve businessmen as victims </b>and
interviewed family members who aggressively demanded that the Dutch
government apologise for detaining their relatives. They were only
doing some `masti' said family members on nationwide TV and they would
not have been detained if they were not Muslims. Anybody who has taken
a flight in recent times knows this to be complete nonsense. As a
frequent flier let me say that I have a fit every time a fellow
passenger tries using a mobile phone after the doors are shut.
Coming up as we are to the fifth anniversary of 9/11 next week and in
view of the recently foiled plot to blow up transatlantic airliners
mid-flight, by using mobile phones to detonate liquid explosives, <b>what
basis do the twelve businessmen have for behaving like victims? </b>It is
because of Indian democracy that they have been able to project their
side of the story and it is because of the `secular, liberal' nature
of our media that not one TV reporter asked the detainees why they had
used mobile phones on a flight in defiance of orders from flight
attendants.
<b>Carrying things too far?</b>
We need to ask ourselves if we are not carrying things too far. We
know that the bombers on Mumbai's trains were all Muslim. We know that
they would have taken shelter in one of this city's Muslim areas,
possibly even in mosques, but when the Mumbai police started detaining
Muslims for questioning, we in the media spoke in one voice against
the `targeting of a particular community'. The cry was taken up by
Muslim MPs in Parliament and last week <b>Mumbai's Police Commissioner,
A.N. Roy, wrote a letter virtually apologising for his law enforcement
measures to such patently Islamist organisations as the Raza Academy
and the Dar ul Uloom Mohammadiya.</b> Even if bodies like this are not
directly involved in terrorist acts they are responsible for
propagating the religious orthodoxy that spawns them. Instead of
apologising for his actions the Police Commissioner would have done
better to stand up, as the Chief Justice did, for Indian democracy and
<b>remind Muslims that the reason why they have more rights than they do
anywhere else in the world is because of Indian democracy.</b>
Indian Muslims need to recognise that the world faces a terrorist
problem that is at the moment entirely Islamic in nature. The `jehad'
is being fought against us infidels in the name of Allah, it is funded
by Islamist countries like Iran and Syria, and the soldiers and
suicide bombers of this supposedly `holy war' are all Muslims who
believe they are doing God's work.
This is the reason why it is becoming increasingly hard to travel in
Western countries if you have a Muslim name <b>but in India, despite the
fact that we have had Islamist terrorism before 9/11, we have
responded mostly by defending the Muslim community against any kind of
targeting. All we have achieved is more radicalisation and a
heightened sense of grievance. This is why this column salutes the
Chief Justice for speaking out.</b>
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