Where is India’s Ex-Muslims Movement Headed?
By
Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
8 July 2022
Dallying
With Hindu Hate Mongers Defeats Their Original Mission of Starting a Debate
with the Muslim Community
Main
Points:
1. The
ex-Muslim movement differentiates between Islam and Muslims; their whole
argument being that Islam should be fundamentally altered otherwise Muslims
will never be reformed.
2. They have
debated with clerics who still haven’t been able to answer many questions
raised by the ex-Muslim fraternity.
3. Slowly, even
ordinary Muslims have started listening to them with due attention.
4. Of late, the
ex-Muslim movement seems to be dallying with rabid Hindu groups who have
previously called for mass killing of Muslims.
5. Whatever be
the reason for this awkward alliance, it will only repel Muslims from this
movement, thus defeating the very purpose of its activism.
-----
In my
personal experience, I have met a lot of Muslims who have searing questions on
the nature of Islam and some aspects of its teachings. They know that the Quran
is not a scientific text and hence some of its statements run contrary to the
basic tenets of science. More importantly though, they have got disillusioned
with some parts of the Quran which command the followers to wage war against
unbelievers. They know that instead of confronting these questions, the post
Quranic theology further strengthened the notion of Islamic supremacy by
proclaiming one universal truth which supposedly resides only in Islam. The
lack of dissent, the status of women, the lack of a source-critical tradition
to engage with scriptures in Muslim societies have made them unsure whether the
Muslim society can ever be reformed or not. These Muslims go through the motion
of observing Islamic practices like praying and fasting but they tell me that
they have ceased to be believers long ago. What binds them to the faith is
primarily their family and friends, not the credo of Islam.
But of
late, India has seen another set of Muslims, who are no longer silent about the
contradictions within Islam or the understanding that certain readings of Islam
promote violence. This group comprises of all sorts of people: from madrasa
trained scholars, professionals, social scientists and students. Their vantage
point of critiquing Islam may be different but all of them believe in the
necessity of speaking about it which distinguishes them from the first set of
Muslims who consciously chose to remain silent despite their misgivings. They
call themselves as ex-Muslims and are quite vocal about the perceived
deformities within Islam. Ex-Muslims is an umbrella term but what unites them
is their belief that Islam is the source of all problems within the Muslim
society and the larger world and that without its wholesale repudiation, it
cannot be reformed. Making a distinction between Muslims and Islam, they argue
that the former has to be freed from the ‘deadly embrace’ of the latter. Their
whole activism therefore is based upon challenging the received theological
wisdom that Islam is a religion of peace and humanity; in its place they argue
by engaging with the scriptures how Islam or Islamic theology is just the
opposite.
Over the
years, this tribe has only grown. Today there are a number of such groups
spread throughout the country who are engaged in telling Muslims what is wrong
in their religion. This activism is mostly confined to the cyber space as we
can imagine that such debates still cannot be enacted within the physical
public sphere. Slowly but surely, these ex-Muslims channels are drawing the
attention of the Ulama and common Muslims who have some knowledge of Islam.
Debates have been conducted between ex Muslims and prominent Islamic scholars
and lay Muslims come to these channels to clarify their confusion but mostly to
rebut what they consider as erroneous perspectives. This is a form of an online
munazara (religious debate) wherein it really gets difficult to pinpoint which
side won or lost. The respective followers, with their inherent biases, claim
victory for their scholars.
But what is
clear is that almost all Muslim scholars do not have satisfactory answers to
some of the questions raised by the ex-Muslim fraternity. These questions might
be related to the personality of Prophet Muhammad or the methodology adopted by
traditional Islamic theology, or even the status of women in Islam, the Ulama
have nearly always failed to give a convincing reply to objections. Under these
circumstances, some of the Ulama, like Mufti Fazal Hamdard, who ‘rescues Islam’
from the safe confines of Pakistan, have resorted to personal attacks on some
of the prominent ex- Muslims. Needless to say, this is reprehensible and shows
the traditional Muslim clergy in an exceedingly bad light. This has only
increased the following of ex-Muslims and one can see that now more and more
Muslims are coming to listen to their views on their channels.
This
further riles the Ulama as they fear their authority and respectability
dwindling within the Muslim society. In desperation, one Mufti, again from
Pakistan, managed to get hold of the real identification of a popular ex-Muslim
who went by the name of Sahil. But what eventually came of it was that this
ex-Muslim came out of the closet and starting debating these Mullahs on live
TV. In solidarity, some others also decided to show their face despite a real
threat perception. The Ulama need to think of some other strategy as clearly,
all their technics to put a break on this movement have come to naught. In the
meanwhile, ordinary Muslims are slowly warming up to these channels. However,
this process is too slow.
The
ex-Muslims channels are till today swarmed by Hindus who are anxious to know
about Islam or those who simply want to have fun when Islam is being rubbished.
This poses a fundamental problem to the ex-Muslim movement, something which
they need to think about. If the audience of these shows are primarily
non-Muslims, only certain kind of questions will be raised. If the ex-Muslim
really believes that they have to rescue Muslims from Islam, then they have to
ask themselves what they are doing to bring ordinary Muslims to their shows?
Rather than
this, a strange alignment with the most obnoxious elements within the Hindu
right wing is taking place. Some of the channels, who are quite popular do not
see a problem in inviting rabid right wingers who openly proclaim that they are
interested in reconverting Muslims to Hinduism. These people come from the same
ecosystem who want to economically boycott Muslims, celebrate their lynching,
call for mass killings, and thinks that everything that is wrong in India today
is because of Islam and Muslims. Either by inviting such people to their shows
or by going to their shows, the ex-Muslim movement is making a fundamental
mistake by not remaining equidistant from both Hindu and Muslim right wing.
This is not to say that any alliance with the Hindu right wing is problematic.
In this case, it might have been occasioned by the fact that ex Muslims were
wanting some form of protection from the very real threat from orthodox
Muslims. But to go to the extent of inviting those who want to kill Muslims is
going too far.
By aligning
with such forces, the ex-Muslim movement is losing its own distinction between
good Muslims and bad Islam. These Hindu right wing groups, who have Godse as
their ideal, are not interested in protecting dissent within the Muslim
society. For them, the ex-Muslim movement is another way in which they can
highlight the brutality of Islam and Muslims. In short, they are using this
movement for their own nefarious ends to polarize society along religious lines
by pointing out the inherent evilness of Muslims. Whatever goodwill the
movement has earned within the community will vanish if they keep inviting such
Muslim haters to their channels.
The
ex-Muslim movement started with the intention of hoisting certain critical
debates within the Muslim community. It would be better if it remains true to
its original mandate rather than dallying with those whose sole obsession with
Muslims has done enough dagame to religious harmony and pluralism.
----
A
regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher
on Islam and Muslims in South Asia.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/india-ex-muslims-movement/d/127435
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism