Emerging Perspective of a Hindustani Muslim on Islam
By Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad, New Age Islam
10 January 2022e
Average
Muslims Of India Have No Hesitation In Proclaiming Themselves As Hindustani
Muslims, Just As Indonesian, Malaysian And Others Do
Main
Points:
1. Hindustani
Muslims are not Arab, Turkish or Persian Muslims.
2. Muslims of
India aren’t and can’t be the agents of the Saudi (the Sunni) or Irani (the
Shia)-financed factions.
3. Hindustani
Muslims would love to call themselves Hindustani ‘nationalist’ Muslims.
4. Socrates,
after all, had said unverified faith was not worth following.
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Why are they silent?/ Quartz India
----
The average
Muslims of India have no hesitation in proclaiming themselves as Hindustani
Muslims, just as Indonesian, Malaysian and others do. The Hindustani Muslims
are not Arab, Turkish or Persian Muslims. They aren’t and can’t be the agents
of the Saudi (the Sunni) or Irani (the Shia)-financed factions trying to create
division against their own motherland, Hindustan, and against their own Muslim
brethren.
And yes,
they would love to call themselves Hindustani ‘nationalist’ Muslims too -- they
have no sense of shame in doing so. The history of the Indian Independence
Movement since 1857 (the Sepoy Mutiny or the first war of Independence) is full
of Hindustani Nationalist Muslims: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar
Khan, Humayun Kabir, Zakir Hussain and many more were all glorious
representatives of the Hindustani nationalist Muslims.
It's only
after the Saudi petro-dollar infiltrated into many countries like India that
anti-national forces within the Muslim community started springing up.
The
Hindustani Muslims, in general, gave up the pretense long time ago that they
were the descendants of the Arab, Pathan, Mughal or Turk Muslims. Whatever tiny
percentage in the beginning, they know they were assimilated with the
Hindustani population by marriage, adoption and residency -- Hindustan did
become their Madar-e-Watan. Period.
Madar-e-Watan is the Urdu translation of Bharat
Mata. Then, why will the Hindustani Muslims have any objection in calling Jai
to Bharat Mata? Unfortunately, we have a politician Member of Parliament in
India who declared that he wouldn't call “Bharat Mata ki Jai” even if his neck
was brought under a sword. On the other hand, we have distinguished Muslim
public figures across the party lines in India who would never hesitate to say,
Bharat Mata ki Jai.
If we ask
the average Hindustani Muslims who would they like to model after, their
emphatic answer will be the latter.
A miniscule
number of self-styled leaders of the Muslims poison the ears of a vast number
of our Muslim brothers and sisters and bring them into unnecessary conflict
with the Hindus. There are also a number of strong well-financed and well-oiled
fundamentalist Islamic organizations that are active in radicalizing the
average Hindustani Muslims.
The
Hindustani Muslims are also aware of the
fact that as long as there was a hostile Islamic State, Pakistan, in their neighbourhood
that would always blame India for all its failures and try to win over the
Hindustani Muslims on their side, there would be a constant threat of
Hindu-Muslim division in India.
Then, along
with their Hindu brothers and sisters, the average enlightened Muslims also
think about reforms in their faith and community. First of all, they have every
reason to brag about the fact that the 300 million Hindustani Muslims continue
to be the best of all Muslims around the world -- particularly in comparison to
the Muslims of the 57 member-countries of the OIC (Organization of Islamic
Countries). The Hindustani Muslims command a lot of respect in every part of
the world because of their serenity and higher level of education and
professionalism.
The young,
educated, enlightened and scientifically analyzing Hindustani Muslims, owing to
their shared culture of openness, would agree that there are roughly three
categories of Muslims around the world.
Mohandas Gandhi, the father of the
nation, said, in 1931: "A Nation's Greatness is measured by how it treats
its weakest members and shows compassion to those who can't protect and fend
for themselves." Photo: Ummat.com
-----
In the
first category, there are Muslims (agnostics, atheists etc.) who don't believe
in their holy book, the Quran. They argue it’s eclectic, unorganized, obsolete,
full of contradictions, racist-supremacist and, therefore, irrelevant. Despite
a few couplets preaching righteousness, they claim, the book dangerously
contains seeds of violent conflicts among and between communities. They don't
concur with any fundamentalist preaching of Islam. They certainly don't find
Muhammad with attributes worth emulating in the 21st Century.
This horde
of Muslims are the young University educated, smart, articulate rationalists of
the post-9/11 generation. They argue if the Islamist regimes were to take off
their coercive methods (killing apostates, for example), not only the
Sharia-based Islamist regimes but Islam as a faith itself would collapse. They
have, thus, turned either atheist, Marxist or Ex-Muslims.
The second
category of Muslims calls for "contextualizing" the holy book and the
faith. They aren't antagonistic to the faith they were born into. They wish and
try honestly to persuade their non-Muslim friends to not take Islam as a
frightful, dogmatic or intolerant faith. In order to make Islam more acceptable,
they aren't averse to introducing caveats, corrections or footnotes extensively
in the Quran. By and large, they want Islam to be respected as co-equal with
other faiths of the world, it must not be associated with separatism or
terrorism.
The third
category of Muslims emphatically holds that the Quran is the revelation of God,
each and every word of it is unalterable, irrefutable and sacrosanct.
Therefore, it must not be tampered with at all. They exhort every one to follow
Muslims whose sacred duty it is to begin their education or literacy with
"Taleem-E-Deen" through the Quran. Their faith (perhaps
prompted by the Quran) tells them every one in the world who had been led
astray by a different faith would eventually come back to Islam. Every one was
born as a Muslim. They call everyone an ‘Islamophobe’ who raises honest doubts
or questions.
There’s a
huge number of Hindustani Muslim authors and Islamic scholars who belong to the
second category. They must be commended for at least summoning up the courage
to say that the Muslims must take a second look at their scriptures and
re-interpret them in the light of the globalized and a wholly changed world
since the 7th Century. Socrates, after all, had said unverified faith was not
worth following.
These
liberal, progressive Hindustani Muslims, in the company of their international
colleagues, are becoming more assertive and with the apparent theological
support and blessings of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Bin Salman
(MBS), they are poised to take Islam in a different direction.
When that
happens, the sustained efforts of movements like ‘New Age Islam’ would come to
a fruition.
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Originally from Darbhanga, Bihar
(India), Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad lives in Canada. He is a former UGC teacher
fellow at JNU in India and a Fulbright Scholar in the USA. Author of a book,
“Violence Against Minorities,” and a collection of poems, “Kabhi Ursh Par,
Kabhi Farsh Par,” Dr Prasad has taught at Ryerson University, Centennial
College and McMaster University.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-society/hindustani-muslim-islam/d/126119
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