By
Mohammed Hussain
7th August
2020
On the eve
of stone laying ceremony of Ram Temple in Ayodhya yesterday, the Babri
Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi issue has once again come into the limelight in the
international media. Dr. Sabrina Lei, an Italian Christian convert to Islam, a
cultural critic and author based in Rome has issued interesting advice to
Indian Muslims.
Dr. Sabrina
in her write up widely being circulated on social media addressed to Indian
Muslims advises them to move on in life leaving behind the painful memories of
losing a historical mosque. In the time of growing radical nationalism, she
advises Muslims not to be afraid or lose their self-confidence.
Dr Sabrina Lei, Muslim Scholar
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Indian
Muslims, In My Opinion
“Indian
Muslims, in my opinion,” says Dr. Sabrina the wife of an Indian origin Islamic
jurist Abdel Latif Chalikandi, “must really worry about their failure to create
a wise, well informed, sincere and tactful Muslim leadership in India, even
more than 70 years after the partition.”
Dr.
Sabrina, who had founded ‘Tawasul Europe Centre for Dialogue and Research’
along with her Muslim and Non-Muslim scholar colleagues to bridge the gap
between Islam and the West and to speed up the process of dialogue between
religions and cultures, points out to the Indian Muslims their failure to have
a “few respectful, widely read, objective and professional newspapers in
English or Hindi” to effectively communicate with other religious groups
especially the Hindu majority in India.
Acknowledging
the big role an electronic media can plan in effective communication, Dr.
Sabrina who got her PhD. in ancient philosophy from ‘The Sapienza University of
Rome’ by writing a widely acclaimed thesis on Aristotle, urges Indian Muslim to
launch their own national TV news channels.
“They
(Indian Muslims) must worry about their failure to empower themselves
politically, educationally, economically and culturally even though they are
the largest religious minority group living in a non-Muslim majority country
anywhere in the world,” says the author.
Pace
with Changes
About the
Muslim’s failure to keep pace with the changes that are taking place around the
world, Dr. Sabrina who translated 20 ground-breaking Muslim classics into
Italian during the past 6 years including Allama Iqbal’s philosophical classic
‘The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’ and the portions of Imam Al
Ghazali’s magnum opus ‘Ihya Uloomuddin’, points out that the Indian Muslims
have miserably failed to carry out social, cultural and educational reforms
within their community during the past several decades.
Referring
to the deep divisions amongst the Muslim community in India, the Italian
translator of contemporary English Quran translation with Biblical references
which was highly appreciated by Pope Francis, exhorts Indian Muslims to get rid
of the quarrelsome, divisive, unwise and mediocre sections of their religious,
political and social leadership which is weakening their position in the Indian
society.
Tawasul
Europe
The founder
of ‘Tawasul Europe’ – a think tank – which is initiating dialogue with the West
to remove many misconceptions about Islam by publishing books and articles on
Islam and Muslim civilization, says, “The Indian Muslims must strive to build
an effective, knowledge-based communication with the Hindu majority.”
“And they
must finally remind themselves of the fact that Allah shall not change a
community until and unless they bring forth the change from within,” concludes
Dr. Sabrina by referring to an injunction to Muslims in this regard in Quran.
Mohammed
Hussain is a free-lance journalist
Original
Headline:
Source: Siyasat
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/indian-muslims-be-afraid-lose/d/122578