Do Muslims Really Need Religious or Ideological Organisations?
Religious
Organisations Have Always Let Muslims Down
Main
Points:
1. SIMI became
a bane for Muslims in the 80s.
2. Government
crackdown on the PFI again raises some questions.
3. Do religious
organisations serve any purpose for Muslims?
4. Truly
reformist organisations among Muslims do not exist.
----
By New
Age Islam Staff Writer
24
September 2022
The
government crackdown on the People's Front of India (PFI) in 13 states
simultaneously with the arrest of 106 of its members raises big questions.
Whether the PFI is involved in subversive and anti- national activities or not
will be established by the investigating agencies but the Muslims of the
country will again be made to suffer as they were made to suffer after SIMI was
proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the 80s.
These
organisations promise to the Muslims the moon and sell to them beautiful dreams
but ultimately land in troubled waters along with their members, followers and
sympathisers. After the SIMI was banned by the government in the 80s, the
Muslims were collectively seen as supporters of extremism and were looked upon
with suspicion. Gradually the stigma disappeared but a new organisation called
PFI emerged on the scene. It came into prominence with the hand amputation of a
professor for blasphemy about ten years ago. But the government did not crack
down on it then for reasons known to them. It was known for aggressive
religious nationalism that espoused the cause of Muslims like NRC or hijab
though Muslims across the country protested against the two decisions
peacefully. It was getting involved in the movements of Muslims to widen its
support base. But its ideology was unknown. It was not known what unique vision
or future plan for Muslims it had envisaged that set it apart from other
religious or reformist organisations already active in the country and why the
Muslims should have associated with it. There are hints that the PFI will also
be banned like SIMI and the ISIS and after that another round of harassment,
stereotyping and incarceration of Muslims for having links with a proscribed organisation
will begin.
Some pseudo
-intellectuals and religious organisations and religious scholars had openly
supported the ISIS but now that it has been banned in India as a terrorist
organisation, Muslim youth are being arrested for having links with it. Only a
day ago, three Muslim engineering students were arrested for allegedly having
links with the ISIS from Karnataka. The responsibility for this should be taken
by those pseudo-intellectuals and religious organisations that do not have
political insight or true knowledge of religion and glorify extremist
organisations among the general Muslims particularly the youth.
It has been
observed that the general Muslims do not have faith and trust in ideological
organisations run by Muslims. They know that these organisations promote and
propagate a certain ideology and claim that only their ideology is the true
representative of Islam and the others are heretics or deviated groups. This is
the reason, Muslims staged protests against the NRC-CAA without the support or
involvement of any Muslim organisation. The movement was successful only
because it kept Muslim organisations at bay though the PFI in some places
succeeded to infiltrate the movement. The movement otherwise was neutral and
got the support of all the sections of the society. Had it allowed religious
organisations to join the movement, the movement would have become a communal
movement and would have failed.
Then what
purpose do they serve if they are not considered worth anything during an
important movement like this? There are already old and big organisations of
Muslims in the country with countrywide presence and millions of members.
Still, these organisations have not been able to put any pressure on the
government on important issues concerning Muslims. They could not save Babri
Mosque; they could not save the hijab; they could not undermine the
government's move on triple Talaq; they could not help the victims of Delhi
riots; they could not do any thing to stop mob lynching of innocent Muslims by
the so-called cow vigilantes whom even the Prime Minister chided in 2017.
We can
observe that religious or ideological organisations galore in the Muslim
societies of the Indian sub-continent. These organisations have caused more
damage to the Muslims than benefitted them. The National Tawheed Jamat in Sri
Lanka collaborated with ISIS in Easter Sunday attacks which the recent
investigations have disclosed had the backing of the former President Sirisena.
The anti-Muslim governments use these extremist organisations for their
political gains.
In
Pakistan, dozens of extremist religious organisations are active which cause
violence and anarchy in the Muslim society. Lashkar-e-Taiba, Sipah-e-Sahaba,
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Laskar-e-Jhangvi, Hizbul Mujahideen etc are some of
the religious organisations active in Pakistan. These organisations do not
promote learning, scientific research or communal harmony among Muslims but
have been established with the sole purpose of promoting violence and sectarian
hatred among the Muslims.
In India,
religious Islamic scholars have not been able to come together on any cause or
issue concerning Muslims. They are the prisoners of their own ideologies. Each
one of them thinks that his organisation or ideology is the true path to
success or salvation. The anxiety caused among the Muslims due to the disunity
among their leaders causes the formation of new organisations like the PFI
which again embark on the same path of ideological isolation. They do not have
any long term scientific goal or vision. They get stuck in hijab or talaq or
mosque. The Muslims have not been able to build any university like the Aligarh
Muslim University or Jamia Millia or Usmania University after independence.
They have opened small madrasas to impart religious education to produce hafiz,
qari and mufti with sectarian beliefs though after the independence, the
Muslims had greater scope of educational and economic progress. The education
minister belonged to their community. Today they complain that their
educational institutions are being surveyed but what was the problem with them
in the 60s, 70s and 80s?
The
religious leadership only promoted among Muslims religious extremism,
emotionalism and unscientific way of thinking. One organisation of Muslims of
India openly supported the ISIS while the other organisation hailed the Taliban
as freedom fighters ignoring the shooting of Malala or killing of children in
schools or school vans by them. Recently, 'Sar tan se juda' (Slitting the
throat) slogan was popularised by these organisations among the Muslims.
It is time
Muslims of India realised that religious or semi- religious organisations have
not served any purpose for them. They have only promoted sectarian ideologies
among them and caused them more harm than good. The Muslims of India should
rather concentrate on their scientific, educational and economic development.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/muslims-religious-ideological-organisations/d/128025