22.8.11

Team Imam and the Muslim

Just when I was getting sick of Anna Hazare feeding dates to little girl when she broke her fast and other communal harmony stuff at Ramlila Ground, the head honcho of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has said that Muslims should stay away. I think everyone should stay away, but his reasons are different. The war cry of “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” are causing him problems:

“Islam does not condone the worship of the nation or land. It does not even condone worship of the mother who nurtures a child in her womb for nine months. How can Muslims then join his stir? I have advised them to stay away from it.”

The general impression is that he is saying this at the behest of or at least helping the Congress. I am against the Anna movement and very anti the Shahi Imam.

The genesis of Islam was a fight across lands. The holy site is on land and that land is worshipped. Muslim nations call themselves pure or Islamic, based on faith. So, are all these countries haraam? Should the patriots of these countries be thrown out of the religion?

When Muslims offer namaaz they touch their forehead to the ground. This is land. They are not worshipping it, but god is not there, so it becomes the medium.

And Islam does not say you cannot revere the mother. How does he define reverence anyway? Had it been “Bharat Pita ki Jai”, alluding to Father Nation, would he have kept quiet? Had it been “Vande Pitashri” would it be okay? This is just sexist rubbish, and not true at all.

I don’t care how these terms were formulated, but they are part of the nation. You do not have to believe in idol worship or paganism, and the Shahi Imam should not offer advice and benediction because Islam does not believe in middle-men.

If he was genuine, he would not have added:

“If Anna had included communalism in his agenda, I would have felt more convinced about his intentions.”

Why? Does he know that communalism would also make maulvis, sadhus and priests answerable? Does he know that a lot of money is stashed away by these holy people?

Having said this, I find it curious that those who had initially realised, after Anna had spoken glowingly about Narendra Modi, that he may not be non-partisan, did not waste time over it and supported the movement anyway.

That was not my prime concern, but it is a revealing aspect of the movement.

Now that Imam Bukhari has opened his mouth, the 'other' communalism will be seen as a preemptive reaction!

And those Muslims who do not agree with this crusade against corruption circus will be seen as typically following his diktats by default. Or, just maybe, all Muslims believe in kruption?

All these potty mouths should learn to look beyond such limited ideas.

PS: Just for the record, I had written about The Pitfalls of Populism in April when Hazare first began his drama. My views have not changed.

4 comments:

  1. FV,

    Are you saying that Islam and Islamic beliefs are a subjective thing - varying from Imam to Imam and Bukhari to Bukhari?

    I am asking this because I feel it is a very important point.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FV

    All interpretations are subjective.

    http://tinyurl.com/3weylmx

    Or the sects within Hinduism and Christianity. Catholics in Goa even have a caste system.

    TE

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like your view on imam but I observed that you criticize everyone and everything. Do you like yourself, love to read your views on yourself.

    you may not like the way of protest of baba ramdev and anna but you can't question their intentions.

    Again love to read N. modi ji's name on your post. :) ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. F&F:

    Really? Is this such an important point? Did you climb any pyamids like a good Arab yesterday and make doodh ka dahi :)

    Okay, to answer your Q, yup, there are differences (pointed out in TE's link), so one bukhar could be malarial and the other choleric.

    TE:

    Indeed, all interpretations are subjective, and many Muslims too do not realise that we have a caste system in place. It may not be endemic to the religion, but it has come into being. I wonder who to blame!

    VM:

    It's enough that you like me, so I don't have to bother with that.

    Re. ways of protest, it's like this: If someone's intention is to smoke then don't blow those fumes in my face.

    Again love to read N. modi ji's name on your post. :) ;)

    Anything to make you kids happy!

    ReplyDelete

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