From Love Jihad to Forced Conversions,and from the Sai Baba controversy to the row over Aamir Khan-starrer ‘PK’, the ‘blame it on Muslims’ game goes on
DR JAVED JAMIL
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]uslims, as policy, do not support any denigration of any religion hurting the religious sentiments of any community. In a world controlled by the forces of economics, which are bent upon commercializing human weaknesses to the hilt and monopolizing the resources of the world, the antipathy to religion is obvious. Religion in the eyes of the economic fundamentalists is the biggest obstacle in their march. They therefore miss no opportunity in painting religion in worst possible colors and as the major source of the “evils” of society.
While they are busy promoting, glorifying and commercializing time-tested evils that kill millions every year, they label religious taboos as “violation of freedom”. They make all possible efforts to foment hatred between religious communities, and use the media to highlight only those problems that can be made to appear linked to religion.
This is true for both the capitalists and socialists and other ideologies based on the supremacy of economics. Muslims therefore always stand against anything, which is considered sacrilegious by any religious community. Unfortunately though, the other religious communities, particularly some of their leaders of hatred, often enjoy whenever Islam or its symbols are challenged.
While Islamic scholars concentrate on presenting Islam to the world, the scholars of other religions are less interested in promoting their own religion than in spreading myths and misconceptions about Islam and Muslims. Further, almost always, they try to find out Muslims as scapegoats for their own problems.
This has been specifically true of the forces of Hindutva especially after the rise of BJP as the governing party of India. One after another, they are trying to put blame on Muslims for their own problems. When the Sai Baba controversy broke, it was also used to arouse hatred among Sai worshipers for Muslims. The worship of Sai was unacceptable because “he was a Muslim”, argued the Shankaracharyas and the leaders of Sanatan Dharma. Petrodollars coming from Middle East were blamed for the huge popularity of Sai Baba!
Muslims did not show any interest because their religious convictions do not allow them to worship any entity other than the Supreme God, the Only Lord of the Universe. Even when the police action against Rampal was underway, the panelists on TV channels were somehow trying to compare him to Shahi Imam!
“Why only against Hindus” is the major slogan of the forces of Hindutva aimed at presenting Hindus as the offended and oppressed community bin India. While I do not endorse some of the reckless remarks made by people like Shahi Imam and Azam Khan, they never speak against the Hindu religion or Hindu community. Their remarks may at best be directed against certain Hindu leaders or elements known for their venomous campaigns against Muslims.
The campaign against ‘PK’ has again been given an anti-Muslim color. Muslims are clear that if the majority of Hindu leaders consider the film as sacrilegious, Muslims will have no argument against banning it. But what pains the community is that despite the Producer, Director and Script writer as well as the overwhelming majority of the cast being Hindus, the film is being targeted just because Amir Khan happens to be in the lead role.
If instead of Amir Khan, it was Akshay Kumar or Hrithik Roshan, the response would have been entirely different. Muslims had not even sided with M F Hussain whose paintings were considered objectionable by certain Hindu leaders. In contrast, the same Hindutva lobby enjoys and supports anything that paints Islam or Muslims in bad light.
From Love Jihad to Forced Conversions, from Sai Baba controversy to ‘PK’, the “blame it on Muslims” game goes on. One can only wish the Hindutva organisations realized the threat posed to religion and religious morality as a whole by the modern forces of economics and politics. The day they recognize this threat, they will start viewing Muslims as their friends, not their foes.
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