By Kaleem Kawaja
Indian Muslims live in India where Muslims are 15%, Hindus are 80% of the population. Almost all power (economic, police, military, intellectual prowess, education) is with Hindus; Muslims have no more than about 4% of it. Thus in the event of a conflict between the two communities, Muslims have to depend first on God's help and then on the balanced/secular/unbiased sense of a majority of Hindus. Otherwise might is right is going to play out, as it has over last 5,000 years on earth.
Despite a few Hindu politicians (Narendra Modi, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, Praveen Togadia etc) speaking belligerently in public, if Muslims ignore that and put their case in a rational medium rather than belligerent rhetoric, there is a good possibility that majority Hindus will remain unbiased and practice secular/democratic methods, Thus Muslims can achieve human rights and development somewhat, though not entirely comparable to Hindus. Sachar Committee, Misra Commission, Srikrishna Commission, Gujarat SIT court that sentenced Maya Kodani etal to long jail term, were headed by Hindus yet gave fair judgements and recommendations on the situation of Muslims.
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If the minority Muslims adopt a belligerent method of communication to insist on their demands, insist on speaking like Togadia etc, it is very likely that the Hindu dominated power structure will stop listening to Muslims' fair demands and turn a deaf ear to them. In that event Muslims can expect NO improvement in their condition or maybe a worsening of it. When that happens to whom will Indian Muslims take their case? The Arab, Persian, other Muslim countries! For 65 years these Muslim countries have totally ignored the oppression of Muslims in India. To: UN/western powers? Anti-Muslim feelings are strong in these countries after 9/11/01.
All these belligerent Muslim speakers (Shahi Imam Ahmad Bukhari, Akbaruddin Owaisi etc) speak only to Muslim audiences and in Muslim mohallas; they never venture into an audience/mohalla where Hindus are in a majority. All these fire breathing, venom spitting Urdu journalists write only in Urdu newspapers that are read only by Muslims. They never write in English or Hindi newspapers where majority of readers are Hindu. When Muslims face the Hindu reaction, all these lions & tigers of the community hide in their lanes and mohallas. So what use is all this empty/counterproductive rhetoric?
Even when you are telling the truth you have to do it n a manner that it may be received well and you may benefit from it.
The Quran tells us that when Moses went to admmonish Pharoh he asked for God's help in his being able to communicate his message well so that chances of his success are high. Everytime our prophet talked to the belligerent Kuffar of Mecca, he spoke in rational words with a persuasive tone; not in angry/harsh tone.
[Kaleem Kawajais a community activist based at Washington DC. He can be contacted at: kaleemkawaja@gmail.com]
Indian Muslims live in India where Muslims are 15%, Hindus are 80% of the population. Almost all power (economic, police, military, intellectual prowess, education) is with Hindus; Muslims have no more than about 4% of it. Thus in the event of a conflict between the two communities, Muslims have to depend first on God's help and then on the balanced/secular/unbiased sense of a majority of Hindus. Otherwise might is right is going to play out, as it has over last 5,000 years on earth.
Despite a few Hindu politicians (Narendra Modi, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, Praveen Togadia etc) speaking belligerently in public, if Muslims ignore that and put their case in a rational medium rather than belligerent rhetoric, there is a good possibility that majority Hindus will remain unbiased and practice secular/democratic methods, Thus Muslims can achieve human rights and development somewhat, though not entirely comparable to Hindus. Sachar Committee, Misra Commission, Srikrishna Commission, Gujarat SIT court that sentenced Maya Kodani etal to long jail term, were headed by Hindus yet gave fair judgements and recommendations on the situation of Muslims.
All these belligerent Muslim speakers (Shahi Imam Ahmad Bukhari, Akbaruddin Owaisi etc) speak only to Muslim audiences and in Muslim mohallas; they never venture into an audience/mohalla where Hindus are in a majority. All these fire breathing, venom spitting Urdu journalists write only in Urdu newspapers that are read only by Muslims. They never write in English or Hindi newspapers where majority of readers are Hindu. When Muslims face the Hindu reaction, all these lions & tigers of the community hide in their lanes and mohallas. So what use is all this empty/counterproductive rhetoric?
Even when you are telling the truth you have to do it n a manner that it may be received well and you may benefit from it.
The Quran tells us that when Moses went to admmonish Pharoh he asked for God's help in his being able to communicate his message well so that chances of his success are high. Everytime our prophet talked to the belligerent Kuffar of Mecca, he spoke in rational words with a persuasive tone; not in angry/harsh tone.
[Kaleem Kawajais a community activist based at Washington DC. He can be contacted at: kaleemkawaja@gmail.com]