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Razor's Edge

By Avinash Dutt - posted Tuesday, 26 September 2006


“During the NDA rule, I would tell them that things would improve when some other government would come to power at the centre, but the UPA government proved no better. In fact, it looks like as if it is also taking instructions from RSS,” says a rueful Mukarram Ahmed.

Zeeshan Chowdhary, a 22-year-old software engineer, lives in Mumbai’s up-market Fort area. A typical techie, he works for Pagulguy.com, India’s most popular forum for MBA aspirants. Chowdhary believes in looking ahead and not dwelling on the past. However, he admits that the present does not look good.

“Things are really getting difficult and nobody knows what to do,” he says. “Muslims have lost faith in police everywhere. Remember Mohammed Afroz, the Muslim boy who was touted as an al-Qaida man? His life was ruined.”

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Chowdhary was referring to Mohammed Afroz, who was taken into custody in Mumbai shortly after 9-11 for conspiring to crash an aircraft into Westminster Abbey, London. Charges against him were dropped later.

Chowdhary also has his own take on who was behind the train blasts in Mumbai. “Many may find this far-fetched, but all moderate Muslims here think that [the] Mumbai blasts were triggered by Israel to embarrass Muslims. How come there are no arrests and no knowledge of the whole conspiracy,” he asks. It may come as a surprise to most to hear this coming from an educated, middle-class man. Clearly, there is a need for the government to engage with Muslims and understand their concerns.

Seventy-eight-year-old Mohammed Yameen, who lives in a dingy alley in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, echoes Zeeshan’s sentiments. Post-Independence, it has usually made the headlines for ghastly communal riots.

Yameen has been doggedly pursuing the infamous Hashimpura case. Thirty-five Muslim men from the locality were shot dead by UP’s Provincial Armed Constabulary in May 1987. At the time the Congress ruled the state. Since then, UP has seen three BJP and two self-proclaimed secular chief ministers. It has taken the judiciary 19 years to just begin the trial over the massacre.

“No Muslim leader ever tried to ensure justice; UP has many Azam Khans, Kokab Hammeds and Yaqub Qureshis,” says an infuriated Yameen. Azam Khan, who is the state’s urban development minister, was in the news recently for his demand for a separate “Muslim Pradesh”. And UP’s Minister for Haj, Yaqub Qureshi, came into the limelight when he announced a reward of Rs 51 for the head of the Danish cartoonist accused of blasphemy. While Zeeshan cannot think of a way out, Yameen’s solution - a typically UP-solution some would say - is a Muslim political party. Community leaders are divided on the issue.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind also feels that a Muslim political party is the answer. “Maulana Arshad Madni fears that a Muslim political party would communalise the national polity and stack it further against Muslims. We don’t think so,” says SQR Ilyas of the Jamaat.

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He points out that OBCs and Harijans were heard only after they backed parties representing their caste interests. Ilyas, who is also a central executive committee member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), feels that a party that doesn’t just harp on Muslim personal law and other community specific issues could flourish and find political acceptance.

Muslim community leaders are also deeply divided on how to tackle the growing perception that Muslims support terrorists and those who advocate a pan-Islamic brotherhood. Such differences were the reason why some leading Muslim clerics did not attend the two-day Conference on Terrorism called by the Ulema which was addressed by the prime minister.

Maulana Rabey Hasan Nadwi, chairman of AIMPLB, and Maulana Nizamuddin, its general secretary, did not show up. Maulana Nizamuddin heads the Imarat-e-Sharia in Phulwari Shareef, Patna. A seat of Islamic jurisprudence, its word is final among community members in Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and parts of West Bengal.

“The theme of the seminar says exactly what it shouldn’t,” says Maulana Nizamuddin. “First of all, Muslims are persecuted all over the country and then they have to go clarifying, instead of seeking reprieve. Can those who say that Indian Muslims’ belief in a pan-Islamic brotherhood is contrary to India’s ethos tell me of a single Muslim from Uttar Pradesh or Tamil Nadu who went to fight against the nation in Kashmir or Gujarat?”

Clearly, cutting across region and class, Muslims often feel that they are slowly but surely being relegated to the status of second class citizens and held accountable for things beyond their control.

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Article edited by Jack Scrine.
If you'd like to be a volunteer editor too, click here.

First published in Tehelka on September 16, 2006.



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About the Author

Avinash Dutt is Principle Correspondent at Tehelka in India.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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