Adieu Tarek Fatah: You Took On The Mullahs, But Succumbed To The Hindu Right
By
Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
25 April
2023
Most Of
His Posts Made Fun Of Muslims, Particularly Mullahs
Main
Points:
1. Tarek loved
to call himself an Indian born in Pakistan.
2. His problem
was with the Pakistani establishment and the clergy which promoted Islam as the
only identity the country should be concerned with, to the exclusion of all
others.
3. Muhammad bin
Qasim, Babur and Aurangzeb were to him foreign invaders who pillaged the
country and treated Hindus with utter disdain.
4. He supported
Trump as well as the Narendra Modi led BJP government in India.
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Tarek
Fatah
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Tarek Fatah
is no more. At seventy-three years of age, he lost the battle to cancer but not
after giving a tough and spirited fight. Tarek wouldn’t mind going down this
way; he was fighting the good fight for most part of his eventful life. First
as a young idealist on the left, when he fought the Pakistani establishment,
was charged with sedition and had to emigrate to Saudi Arabia from where he
would eventually find his way to Canada and make it his home. Late in his life,
he kept up the good fight; against the Pakistani state, against extremism and
the allure of sharia within the subcontinental Muslims, against Hindus who had
become alienated from their Indic consciousness.
Tarek loved
to call himself an Indian born in Pakistan; the reason being his profound sense
of attachment with the land and its history. This does not mean that he hated
the people of Pakistan; just that he wanted them to embrace their Indic roots.
His problem was with the Pakistani establishment and the clergy which promoted
Islam as the only identity the country should be concerned with, to the
exclusion of all others. Time and again, Tarek reminded them that Lahore and
Karachi were cities primarily built by trading Hindu castes before they were
driven out during the madness of partition. What Tarek was telling them was to
appreciate their multicultural and plural past and the need to anchor their
history in this past. But of course, in a country which is obsessed with
replicating Riyasat e Madina, he was treated as an enemy.
Although a
student of science, he eventually made his mark in the field of journalism. His
columns in the Toronto Sun, not just warned of the dangers of political Islam,
but he also was a keen observer of how this ideology was getting support from
left quarters. This led him away from the liberal left and into the arms of the
right-wing. He supported Trump as well as the Narendra Modi led BJP government
in India. But it would be fair to say that his canvas was more civilizational
and cultural than political. He dreamt of a time when India would regain its
rightful place in world history. He kept reminding the average Hindu of the
need to be proud of Indian heritage as it has contributed a lot to the world.
Certainly, he was no historian and at times his ideas about the glory of
ancient India were outlandish and could not be taken seriously.
But his
most severe criticism was reserved for Muslims, both Indian and Pakistanis. He
wanted Muslims to come closer to their Hindu roots. That they should revere the
religious figures of Hindus as they revered their own. He argued that most
Muslims were originally Hindus and hence it is only natural that they should
respect that past. Muhammad bin Qasim, Babur and Aurangzeb were to him foreign
invaders who pillaged the country and treated Hindus with utter disdain. He
could not fathom why Muslims should take the name of these ruthless emperors as
one of their own. It was ideas such as these which made him launch a campaign
for renaming Aurangzeb Road to APJ Abdul Kalam Road in Delhi.
During his
last decade, he became immensely popular in India, partly because of the
explosion of social media. But also, because he was handy in any television
discussion in which he loved to thrash Pakistanis and Indian Muslim clerics. He
was even given his own show in one of the largest TV networks in India where he
used to call Muslim clerics and put them to some hard questioning. Many a
times, these clerics simply did not have the answers to his questions and so
they would get up and walk out of the show. Some even called him an apostate on
live show and told him that he was liable to be killed. But Tarek remained
unfazed, till the time the TV network itself developed cold feet and cancelled
the show. One can certainly find many faults with Tarek, but everyone will
concede that he was very brave in taking some of these clerics head on.
It is not
surprising therefore that the news of his death was greeted with joy by many
Muslims in the social media. Dr. Yasir Nadeem al-Wajidi even appealed to
Canadian Muslims not to allow Tarek’s body to be buried in a Muslim graveyard.
This al-Wajidi claims himself to be a Mufti but doesn’t know that Tarek never
declared himself to be an ex-Muslim. He always called himself a Muslim but
lamented that the Mullah’s had distorted his religion to suit their myopic
needs. The likes of Wajidi only proves the point Tarek was making: that Islam’s
interpreters are responsible for the morass in which the Muslim society finds
itself today, where there is no fresh thinking on important issues like human
rights, human dignity, pluralism and respect for other belief systems.
Tarek was
very active on the social media. It won’t be wrong to say that at times he was
so consumed by it that he would even repost items which were proven to be
false. However, even when the falsity of the post was pointed out to him, it
was rare for him to take it down. Most of his posts made fun of Muslims,
particularly Mullahs.
What was
also worrying at times in the many speeches of Tarek was that he would blur the
difference between Muslims and Islam. Islam as an ideological system could be
interpreted in many ways, critiqued and suggestions can be put to reform it.
But when you start saying that Muslims produce numerous kids without paying any
attention to the context of poverty and illiteracy amongst them, it become a
problem. It gets worse when you say that they are doing so with the express
intention of increasing their population and that this was something like a
jihad. Tarek did say all this and more and he should be called out for
popularizing an image of Muslim which the extreme Hindu right loves to
propagate.
At times,
it appeared as if he was making course correction. For example, on the issue of
‘love jihad’, he was unequivocal that two people were free to marry each other
irrespective of their religions and that parents should give their children all
the freedoms to do so. But on most issues, he would take a line which can only
be called as pandering to the fantasies of Hindu right. In a fundamental way,
Tarek owed his popularity to the social media. But his most ardent followers
were those who did not take kindly to any empathetic engagement with the Muslim
question. Tarek was unable to break this dependence on his highly motivated
audience and that is one area where his bravery was found wanting.
Rest in
peace Tarek, you will be missed.
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A
regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher
on Islam and Muslims in South Asia.
URL: Https://Newageislam.Com/Current-Affairs/Adieu-Tarek-Fatah-Mullahs-Hindu-Right/D/129643
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