Author: Asghar Ali Engineer
Publication: Secular Perspective
Date: July 16-31, 2006
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: The author
uses the Koran and the supposed sayings of Mohammed to justify his views.
The Islamic terrorists use the same Koran and the supposed sayings of Mohammer
to justify their views. Now, only one of them is correct. If the author, projecting
himself as a moderate, is correct, then he should go and talk directly to
the terrorists and tell them that they are wrong. And if they are convinced
the surely the world will be rid of Islamic terrorism.
But then, is the label moderate correct for
the author? One of the arguments he uses to justify his position is to refer
to the treaty of Hudaibiyah, which Mohammed signed, even though it was most
unfavourable to him. And then the same Mohammed used the time porvided to
him to regroup and make himself strong, and then he broke the treaty. The
rest, as they say, in history. So the author, a supposedly moderate Muslim,
wants to follow the footsteps of Moahmmed. Incidentally, when Musharraf pretended
to fall in line with America after the destruction of the World Trade Centre
towers in New York, he also referred to the event surrounding this same treaty
to justify his stand.]
It was indeed terrible Tuesday (11/7/06) when
innocent commuters going back home after hard day's work were targeted with
bomb blast from Matunga to Bhayandar on western suburban trains in Mumbai.
So far the death toll is more than 200 and about 700 people injured, many
of them quite severely. No words are enough to condemn such horrible crime
against humanity. No one who has even elementary sense of being human will
commit such dastardly act.
Same day in the morning eight persons lost
their lives in Srinagar, five of them tourists from West Bengal. Grenades
were thrown at the tourist bus proceeding towards Pahalgam. Why these killings?
Who is behind it? Earlier violence was mostly confined to Kashmir Valley.
Now this has spread to various cities of North India, Delhi, Varanasi, Ayodhya
and Mumbai. Mumbai witnessed such horrifying bomb blasts second time, first
time in March 1993 in which more than 250 innocent people lost their lives.
Some people think, as many Kashmiris thought
in 1989, that violence is the only way out and if they take to guns, azadi
will be near at hand. Now after loosing 80 thousand people they have realised
what repercussions use of violence has. 'Azadi' is as far away as it ever
was for Kashmiris and all they have gained is violence and more violence.
Peace now is as elusive as azadi itself.
We can very well realise the wisdom of Gandhiji's
insistence on non-violence for attaining freedom for India from clutches of
British imperialism. No one believed Gandhiji when he talked of achieving
India's freedom through non-violence. Even Churchill, the then Prime Minister
of Britain, talked of Gandhiji with scorn and said what this 'naked faqir'
can do to mighty British empire on whom sun does not set.
The world saw that the naked faqir and his
non-violence shook the British Empire and got freedom for India. Generally
people think that oppressed are justified in using violence and secondly that
without using violence one cannot achieve liberation from the oppressors.
However, one forgets that while violence is physical, non-violence is moral
and spiritual. While the oppressed may not be able to match violence of the
oppressor, non-violence gives the oppressed moral superiority and puts the
oppressor to shame.
However, it is not easy to practice non-violence
for an ordinary person. It requires tremendous inner discipline. Thus in Gandhiji's
theory of non-violence there is equally important concept of what he called
satyagraha (insistence on truth) and this requires tremendous patience. Thus
non-violence, insistence on truth and patience, all go together and this has
appeal of its own and if practiced honestly, it can achieve tremendous results
as Gandhiji showed.
Interestingly, Gandhiji's concept comes very
close to the Qur'anic teaching of truth and patience (haq and sabr) as enshrined
in chapter 103. It is great shame that the so called 'jihadis are committing
such dastardly acts of violence in the name of Islam. Nothing can be more
un-Islamic than these horrifying inhuman acts. This game is being played for
power and pelf by the section of Pakistani army. These terrorists cannot carry
on such powerful blasts without the support of ISI of Pakistan. Lashkar-I-Tayyiba,
which is suspected to be behind such acts cannot sustain itself without active
help from ISI. Though Lashkar-I-Taiyyibah has not claimed responsibility for
bombing on trains on Tuesday neither police has reached any decisive conclusion
but all available indications point in that direction.
Nawaz Sharif, the Ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan
has said in his recently published biography that ISI is not under government
control and has been trying to de-stabilise India and Bangla Desh. He is certainly
in know of things in Pakistan and what he says cannot be lightly dismissed.
It is such a matter of shame that Pakistan,
which claims to be an Islamic state is bringing shame and disgrace to Islam.
No other Islamic country is home to so many terrorists as Pakistan is. Pakistan
also has become a front state for all American designs, which further fuels
violence and creates more terrorists. In fact if Pakistan is true to Islam
than it should have been heaven of peace. The prophet of Islam made peace
central to Islamic teachings.
He accepted peace treaty of Hudaibiyah, which
was thought to be humiliating by most of his close companions and yet the
Prophet (PBUH) insisted on accepting the treaty as it led to establishing
peace. What better noble example than this? But these terrorists feel no pang
of conscience in killing innocent citizens. Even according to the rules of
Shari'ah, non-combatants cannot be killed. These rules are precursors to the
Geneva Agreement, which was drawn up hundreds of years after these Shari'ah
rule.
However, it is these Muslims who are openly
defying these Shari'ah rules in the name of Islam. What could be more condemnable?
Also how can one say that one needs jihad for taking Kashmir? Jihad is not
meant for conquering territory it is for defending oneself, if attacked and
for controlling ones evil desires. The Qur'an specifically prohibits any war
of aggression. It clearly says, "Fight in the way of Allah those who
fight you. Do not commit aggression; Allah does not love aggressors."
(2:190)
And in throwing bombs and killing innocent
people they are doubly guilty: they are aggressing against those who are not
aggressors and over and above that they are killing non-combatants. Thus they
are violating every injunction of Islam and ironically in the name of Islam.
They have named their armed groups as "Lashkar-I-Tayyiba" (Holy
Army) and "Jaish-I-Mohammad" (the Army of Mohammad, peace be upon
him). How can an army which kills innocent people be a holy army or army of
Holy Prophet. Those who commit such inhuman deeds can never deserve to be
called holy army or army of Mohammad (PBUH).
And as for jihad, it has never been used in
the sense of war in the Qur'an. There are other words like qital and harb
for war. The Prophet (PBUH) when asked what is jihad he is reported to have
said that best form of jihad is speaking truth in the face of tyrannical ruler.
Here so called jihadis them selves are tyrannical and it is needed to speak
plain truth in the face. They need to be told that what they are doing is
tyranny against innocent people.
It is such dastardly acts, which has brought
bad name to Islam in popular imagination. We claim that Islam is a religion
of peace but such acts convince people that Islam has nothing to do with peace
but with violence and terrorism. It is in fact duty of Muslims to project
them selves as model for peaceful behaviour. We cannot expect common people
to discern and discriminate between handful of aggressors and large mass of
Muslims living in peace with others and sticking to the Islamic teaching of
peace.
It is believed that one of the intentions
of throwing bomb on innocent people is to start communal violence in India.
They threw bombs in Ayodhya, in a temple in Varanasi and earlier in a market
place in Delhi last October. But people of India are mature enough not to
fall prey to such dirty game. When bomb was thrown at a temple in Varanasi
it was feared that it would trigger off communal riots. But not only Muslim
leaders and intellectuals but also the chief mufti of Varanasi issued a fatwa
decrying that attack on temple quoting the Qur'anic verse that to kill one
innocent human being amounts to killing the whole humanity (5:32).
The chief mufti and chief priest of the temple
in Varanasi came together and expressed solidarity thus completely frustrating
the designs of those who wanted to ignite Hindu-Muslim riots. When a bomb
as thrown at Ayodhya it was feared in the same way that it might trigger off
violence between Hindus and Muslims and nothing happened. We must salute maturity
of Indian people.
This time around also all important Muslim
leaders have condemned this cowardly attack on innocent people. Jamiat-I-Ulama-i-Hind,
Muslim League, Jamat-e-Islami-Hind, all of them spare no words in condemning
this heinous crime against humanity. No saner person will ever condone such
ghastly killings. The Hindus and Muslims in Mumbai rose to the occasion and
helped all those who were injured and removed dead bodies to hospitals.
It seems India will have to live with such
attacks for sometime to come. It is therefore, necessary to be ever alert.
What happened on terrible Tuesday is also partly an intelligence failure.
Though it is very difficult to predict when and where terrorists will choose
to attack, it becomes all the more necessary to be very very alert. It is
the duty of the Government of India to protect the lives of people against
such attacks.
Also, it appears there was lack of alertness
and disaster management. The police and other authorities took long time to
reach spots of disaster. Time and again it has been stressed by the NGOs and
other activists that India woefully lacks in disaster management. It has been
proved once again that India needs to work hard to provide for emergency situations.
People themselves were, it appears, more prepared
than the authorities. Such major disaster man-made or natural, are bound to
take place time and again and so government should work in all seriousness
to evolve sooner than later the disaster management plan.
_______________________________
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai
www.csss-isla.com