The Swiss ban on minarets is having an echo in India. Abdul Sami Bubere of the Mumbai- based Sahyog Cultural Society is reported to have said: “The extremely provocative decision undermines the freedom of religion and principle of co- existence. The referendum is akin to tyranny of the majority. It will only encourage fundamentalism. The ban should be immediately lifted as it would serve the purpose of jihadis who misinterpret Islam.”

Though I won’t use such strong words, I fully agree with the sentiments and thoughts expressed in the above sentiment. The analysis that “it will only encourage fundamentalism” is also correct. It is actually happening. The fundamentalists are taking advantage of the situation created by the Swiss ban on minarets and the French ban on burqas (veils).  But then the question arises in my mind, how come we get agitated only when our own religious freedom is at stake in non-Muslim societies. We do not worry when Muslims themselves, not to speak of non-Muslims, are not allowed religious freedom in Islamic societies.

We were permitted to defend ourselves with arms (a form of Jihad, albeit a lesser form) because if we had not done so, people may not have been able to worship in temples, monasteries, churches, synagogues, etc., all those places of worship were God is remembered and God’s praises are sung.

Renowned Pakistani scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi writes: “The Qur’ān asserts that if the use of force would not have been allowed in such cases, the disruption and disorder caused by insurgent nations could have reached the extent that the places of worship – where the Almighty is kept in constant remembrance – would have become deserted and forsaken, not to mention the disruption of the society itself:

وَلَوْلَا دَفْعُ اللَّهِ النَّاسَ بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ لَهُدِّمَتْ صَوَامِعُ وَبِيَعٌ وَصَلَوَاتٌ وَمَسَاجِدُ يُذْكَرُ فِيهَا اسْمُ اللَّهِ كَثِيرًا (٤٠:٢٢)

And had it not been that Allah checks one set of people with another, the monasteries and churches, the synagogues and the mosques, in which His praise is abundantly celebrated would have been utterly destroyed. (22:40)

Apparently we were allowed a lower form of Jihad, the Qital, that involves fighting, so that we could safeguard the human right of every individual to freely sing the praises of God in any kind of worship place he likes, be it a monastery, a temple, a church, a synagogue, or a mosque.  But how come, we feel concerned only when it is a matter concerning a mosque and do not bother if states, particularly Muslim and avowedly Islamic states do not allow temples, monasteries, churches and synagogues to function or create hurdles in the way of non-Muslims singing the praises of God in their own way.  

Not only that. We have scholars who claim that while non-Muslims have perfect freedom to practice their religion in an Islamic state, (though in practice they are not mostly allowed that freedom), Muslims do not have that freedom. Once born to a Muslim parent, you are doomed for ever to be a Muslim or else. Well, your throat will be slit, no less. Indeed, there are “revered” ulema (scholars of Islam) in various schools of thought who say that if someone is seen so much as not attending Friday prayers, his throat should be slit.

Sample the following:

Those who do not attend Friday prayers “should simply be killed. Slit their throats!”: Deoband  

“A person greatly admires Hazrat Maulana Rashid Gangohi, the outstanding scholar who was one of the founders of the Deoband madrasa. The gentleman to whom I refer is a kindly soul, who can be depended upon for help by others. However, when in the course of conversation I chanced to remark that the most basic virtue lay in kindness towards others, he contradicted me. Kindness, he contended, was reserved for “pious, practicing Muslims”. As for others, they should be given a chance to mend their ways, after which “they would be Wajibul Qatal (liable to be killed)”. Another person I chanced to meet — a finance man, no less — feels that people who do not attend Friday prayers “should simply be killed. Slit their throats!”

“Now, this kind of sanguinary verbal ferocity is very different from the traditions of quiet piety and gentle acceptance in which most Muslims were brought up. I claim no expertise to suggest whether this or the other is the ‘correct’ version of Islamic thinking. However, there are certainly many scholars who hold that this aggressive literalism, popularly but incorrectly referred to as ‘fundamentalism’, is a doctrinal innovation of relatively recent origin. It is very much a product of the linear, pseudo-logical thinking that has characterised our violent and intolerant age — an age that began with the full flowering of modern imperialism in the nineteenth century and whose baleful cultural and psychic responses have long outlived their origins. With this kind of intellectual legacy as a backdrop, what kind of political discourse is possible in Pakistan?” -- Salman Tarik Kureshi

http://newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1795

Also, sample the following from a supposedly enlightened scholar of Islam:

“Freedom is a neutral word. Accordingly, affixing it with religion would mean a liberty of a  person either to have or not to have a religion, either to practice or not to practise, either to propagate or not to propagate, either to embrace or not to embrace, either to change or not change one’s own religion. If he decides to do so he has the freedom to do it without any interference of others. This is the meaning of freedom as it appeared in the above examples.

“Is a Muslim allowed to enjoy such freedom? As a matter of fact, under Shariah law, a Muslim is not free to do so, no matter whether he is under Muslim rule or non-Muslim rule except with dire necessity. In fact the meaning of Islam itself, that is submission and surrender to the will of Almighty Allah (swt), is inimical to the vague meaning of freedom (cf.hurriah) in its absolute sense. Thus, a Muslim cannot enjoy freedom in respect of articles of belief (Iman) and practicing of pillars of Islam, (arkan al Islam) and observance of codes of life, because, these are essential of keep him a believer and a Muslim. He may enjoy a guided freedom with regards to those matters that do not fall under the basic and obligatory tenets and pillars of region.” – Freedom Of Religion in Shariah by Dr. ABM Mahboobul Islam of the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

The poor orphans of war known as Taliban who ruled Afghanistan for a while have been considered bizarre in thinking that if someone does not have a beard of a certain length and doesn’t wear certain length of cloth or if a woman shows even an inch of skin, they are liable for various punishments. But I find that this is actually the mainstream of conservative thinking in Islam which is not being opposed by mainstream Islam. It is to the credit of Talban that by trying to implement these outlandish ideas of our ulema they have brought this out into the open. But for them people like me who were happy with the thought of a mainstream Islam, peaceful and pluralistic, would not have thought of studying the clerical literature at some length and trying to find out the truth. 

 It is this obscurantist mindset that pervades the minds of a large number of Muslims. No wonder then that while some of us balk at the very thought of a Talibani Islam and just take it for granted that such an interpretation of Islam simply would not be acceptable to the mainstream, on a closer look we discover that actually the mainstream, at least in backward societies, does not have much of a problem.

This also explains the popularity of Taliban in some parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. After all the Islam that is propagated by Saudi Arabia at the expense of tens of billions of dollars is not very different from the Talibani Islam. It is this Islam that is gaining popularity in growing sections of Muslims in mainstream, multicultural, Sufism-inspired Muslim societies like India and Indonesia too.

The Indian debate about Islam has remained frozen in a time warp. The mainstream intellectuals who dominate the country’s editorial pages and television channels tend to trace the Muslim world’s problems almost exclusively to the alleged misdeeds of Israel and the US. The Hindu right doesn’t make this mistake, but its tendency to group all Muslims together, its inability to distinguish between Islam as a religion and Islamism as an ideology, and its championing of causes important to the most orthodox Hindu believers shades into bigotry and religious chauvinism.

In Jaipur, Hirsi Ali challenged the assumptions of both groups. She was flatly unapologetic about her views on Islamic theology, but at the same time she urged the audience to think of Muslims as “individuals who are capable of changing their mind”. … Speaking to a packed hall, with her burly bodyguard unobtrusively off-stage, Hirsi Ali spoke about Islam—and its problems with individualism, women’s rights and sexuality—with a frankness unfamiliar to most Indians. She described the faith she was born into as “a dangerous, totalitarian ideology masquerading as a religion”. She argued against the moral relativism that has prevented Western intellectuals from scrutinizing Islam as they do Christianity and Judaism. She asked why it seemed impossible to have a sober discussion about the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad without riling Muslim sentiment, and made the case for bringing the Enlightenment to the blighted lands of West Asia and Muslim South Asia. -- Sadanand Dhume

Muslim girl sings Hindu devotional songs in Kerala temples

South African Draft bill recognises Muslim marriages

Karachi: Pakistan double bombing kills Shia Muslims

Pushto Press Peace in Karachi

Taliban to execute US soldier if Aafia not released

Kashmir jihad back in open

Experts pitch for interest-free Islamic banking

Who’s who of terror meet in PoK, vow jihad

TH ATM, CDM At Bank Islam, Bank Rakyat To Close Until Tomorrow

Cyber war threat

Minister defends blasphemy law

Singapore's Muslim Congregation Prays For Kelantan Sultan's Early Recovery

Bombings hit Iraq Shia pilgrims in Karbala

Indonesia clerics horrified over film on menstruating ghost

Ex-MLA gave me shelter: Delhi bomber

Chechnya militants kill five Russian soldiers

AMU’s Bihar campus to buzz from July-Aug

Al-Qaida tag used to strike terror

India asks, Pak agrees to secy-level talks

Blast puts focus on US troops in Pak

We want ‘all-encompassing’ talks: Pakistan

Hizbul chief ready for talks

Ahmadinejad signals wish for atom deal: Envoy

US supports reintegration efforts of Karzai

India, Bangladesh to fight terror together

India-Pakistan conflict a dilemma for US

Hearing in two cases against Zardari put off

Iran tells Gulf US missiles could be made useless

Man arrested after attacks on Muslim graves.

In spite of numbers, Dutch Muslim are political non-entity

Germany's Very Own Minaret Debate Turns Nasty

Sonia approved Azamgarh trip: Digvijay

Terrorism between the covers

Mixed Views of Hamas and Hezbollah in Largely Muslim Nations

Nuclear fuel deal: Another turnaround in Teheran

Thousands rally for Kashmir in Pakistan

Blame game on in Kashmir

Kashmir settlement urged for durable peace

Compiled by Aman Quadri

Photo: A statue of a young President Barack Obama that drew a public backlash after it was given a prominent position in a Jakarta park

Sultan Shahin sees New Age Islam as part of a global effort by believers to reclaim Islam from the religious right, and address the questions and conflicts which confront believers in the twenty-first century. “Islam,” he argues, “is a spiritual experience; a system of beliefs through which believers seek to live a meaningful life. For the Islamists, though, religion is primarily a tool through which they seek power. In practice, they worship power, not Allah.”

In a recent essay, Shahin argued that the Islam of the neo-fundamentalists was in fact a “a completely new religion” theologically founded “on a wilful misinterpretation of the Islamic concept of jihad.”

Electronic journals like New Age Islam reach out to a small, but influential, section of India’s Muslims: an emerging class of Muslim professionals and entrepreneurs who are finding that the traditionalist practices of the parents offer few solutions to the struggles of life. Islamists have been adroit at capitalising on their anxieties. Many of India’s jihadists — among them, the leadership of the Indian Mujahideen — came from urban middle class backgrounds and had received a privileged elite education.

West and East

Shahin says he hopes New Age Islam will give this new class a progressive voice. “When the media or the government wants to understand what Muslims think about something,” he says “they’ll always turn to some cleric or the other, not Wipro’s Aziz Premji or Himalaya Heath Care’s Meraj Manal or the eminent physicist Israr Ahmed. We need a wider Muslim engagement with public life.”

Shahin’s own understanding of Islam was forged in both India and the West—much like the young audience New Age Islam addresses. -- Praveen Swami, The Hindu, New Delhi

The intolerance of the Shiv Sena (and now the MNS) may be the most virulent and violent but it is symptomatic of a sickness that has spread to every corner of the country. Shah Rukh Khan is a cultural icon, a face that the whole world identifies as Indian. If the Shiv Sena is able to silence him or make him take back his words by threatening violence, we might as well pack up and throw away the idea of India as a land where democracy and culture flourish. So how is this contest going to end? When confronted by mobs, each and every one of his predecessors in the Home Ministry chose the path of least resistance. Mr. Chidambaram cannot afford to fail the Thackeray test. -- Siddharth Varadarajan

Pilgrims killed in explosion in Iraqi city of Karbala

Terrorists may strike Vaishnodevi, says CRPF

Saudi girl, 12, drops plea to divorce 80-year-old

France refuses a citizenship over full Islamic veil

Bangladesh SC declares law on religion-based politics illegal

To take on US, Taliban mix old tactics with new

A BJP record in MP: 119 Muslim candidates, 82 winners

Azamgarh: Fact-finding visit, says Digvijay

Apologise or go to Pak, says Sena; SRK unfazed

Two soldiers, 20 Taliban killed in Bajaur clashes

13 more killed as violence continues:

Sindh govt hands over control of 26 police stations to Rangers

Kazmi calls to follow thoughts of Iqbal, Rumi and Gulen of ideal Humanity 

Banned JuD steps up activities in Pak

Indian Home Minister to go to Pakistan on Feb 26 for SAARC meet

Pakistan blast kills US soldiers

Iraq lifts election ban on suspected Baathists

Dhaka to honour Indian soldiers killed in 1971 Liberation War

US wary as Iran president agrees nuclear deal terms

Razak personally responsible for false sodomy case: Anwar

 ‘Hakimullah’s likely successor also killed’

Maulana Toofan, Taliban new acting chief?

Arrested IM terrorist to be charged with M C Sharma's murder

Train blasts mastermind nabbed

Emulate Kasab’s zeal, says top police officer

Sohrabuddin Encounter probe: CBI registers case

Militant group vows attack on oil facilities in Nigeria

Big jump in Pakistan aid

Iran to hang nine more over election unrest  

Karzai in Riyadh for talks with king on Taliban issue 

More efforts needed to defeat Taliban: US

Tahir Hussain passes away

Kashmir Chief Minister seeks resolution of all issues amicably

Israel closes beaches after explosives wash ashore

Suspected US drone strikes kill at least 29 in Pakistan

ED cracks down on terror funds

Krishna now hints at future Indo- Pak talks

J&K distances itself from Mir’s Padma

US must welcome ‘back-door’ negotiations on Kashmir: Mullen

‘Indian influence in Afghanistan matter of concern’

Yemen rebels pledge not to attack S. Arabia  

Israel feels under siege

US deployment of anti-missile defences off Iran’s coast raises tensions in region

US plans 75pc increase in drone operations

Indo-Pak students join hands to design space settlement project at NASA

Compiled By Aman quadri

Photo: A suicide bombing in the Iraqi city of Karbala has killed at least 20 pilgrims travelling to a Shia festival.

Veil ban would harm Christians in Muslim countries, French church warns

Muslim women can be snapped without burqa: Cleric

Feminism means women are seen and heard

Two out of three Brits want ban on burkhas

Baghdad Bombing Kills Shiites at Women’s Checkpoint (Update2)

We must respect Muslim rights if we want Islamic countries to respect our rights, warns French Catholic Church as it speaks against burka ban

Women who dared

Niqab wearers lift veil on Egyptian dispute

Now, Germany mulls burqa ban

Burqa ban wrong

What do Leicester's Muslim women think of the face veil, or niqab?

Muslim Women In 2010

Hijab... American Experience

Photo: Demonstrators against the French ban on religious dress in state schools, enacted in 2004

Almost all Muslim societies have, to one degree or another, deviated from the ideals of Islam with respect to the status of women. These deviations have, for the most part, been in one of two opposite directions. The first direction is more conservative, restrictive, and traditions-oriented, while the second is more liberal and Western-oriented.

The societies that have digressed in the first direction treat women according to the customs and traditions inherited from their forebears. These traditions usually deprive women of many rights granted to them by Islam. Besides, women are treated according to standards far different from those applied to men. This discrimination pervades the life of any female: she is received with less joy at birth than a boy; she is less likely to go to school; she might be deprived any share of her family's inheritance; she is under continuous surveillance in order not to behave immodestly while her brother's immodest acts are tolerated; she might even be killed for committing what her male family members usually boast of doing; she has very little say in family affairs or community interests; she might not have full control over her property and her marriage gifts; and finally as a mother she herself would prefer to produce boys so that she can attain a higher status in her community.

On the other hand, there are Muslim societies (or certain classes within some societies) that have been swept over by the Western culture and way of life. These societies often imitate unthinkingly whatever they receive from the West and usually end up adopting the worst fruits of Western civilization. In these societies, a typical "modern" woman's top priority in life is to enhance her physical beauty. Therefore, she is often obsessed with her body's shape, size, and weight. She tends to care more about her body than her mind and more about her charms than her intellect. Her ability to charm, attract, and excite is more valued in the society than her educational achievements, intellectual pursuits, and social work. -- Dr. Sherif Abdel Azeem

Ansari’s story helps to understand the Pakistan-based networks which remain the key security threat to India — and also to comprehend the role of Hindu chauvinism in watering the political soil which gave birth to its jihadist movement...

“Islam is our nation, not India,” thundered Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad at the SIMI’s 1999 convention in Aurangabad — a convention that saw the Maharashtra jihadists make their first known contacts with the Lashkar leadership...

Following the 2002 communal pogrom in Gujarat, these training operations intensified. Mumbai-based SIMI operative Rahil Sheikh, the investigators say, was tasked with securing passports and tickets for SIMI volunteers who travelled to Lashkar-run camps through the porous Iran-Pakistan border. Among the first to go, police say, was Ansari.

Most of Sheikh’s operatives were raised in the wake of the 2002 communal pogrom. Feroze Ghaswala, a Mumbai-based automobile mechanic, volunteered for the jihad after witnessing the burial of dozens of people killed in the violence.

Ghaswala travelled to Srinagar, hoping to meet jihadists at a religious gathering addressed by neoconservative preacher Zakir Naik in 2003. Instead, he ran into Sheikh — starting a journey which ended with his arrest in New Delhi. -- Praveen Swami

Muslim Washing Rite Goes Hi-Tech With 'Wudu' Machine

Indian composer Rahman wins two Grammy Awards

Aligarh Muslim University Court members elected

Political violence in Karachi claims 12 lives

Taliban bomb girls’  school

Darul Uloom, Deoband nod to photo IDs without burqa

Egypt arrests 26 suspected of plotting terrorism

Muslim outfits join agitation for Telangana

Muslim meet demands Telengana with Hyderabad

Protest over death of Muslim leader in a shoot-out with FBI

Troops snatch key Taliban area; 20 killed

Taliban-Pak army links deepening?

26/11 trial: Pak govt presents proof against Lakhvi, 6 others

Bangladesh hunts for fugitive Mujib killers in Libya

'ISI, LeT getting Indian jihadis together in Karachi for attack'

Terrorists giving youth lure of arms in Jammu

Ceasefire offer in Yemen

Nigerian group ends ceasefire

Lashkar seeks brand-new charity avatar

Mumbai Police unable to trace Karkare's jacket

Headley planned to set up Delhi base in Nov

Pak Taliban denies death of Hakimullah

Incriminating' evidence against Lakhvi: Pak counsel

Forces take control of militants’ stronghold after seven years

Afghan, Iraq wars shape Pentagon budget, US strategy

Death rate signals tough year ahead in Afghanistan

US drones killed 123 civilians, three al-Qaeda men in January

Indian goods being taken to NATO troops via Pakistan

Protester killed in Kashmir

Israeli forces declare West Bank area ‘closed’

War crimes in Gaza: Israel rejects Goldstone Report; Gaza accepts its findings

Row over 9/11 terror trial site

Afghanistan: Much is at stake for India

This way lies disaster: Bribing Taliban will just not work

Photo: Science Museum unveils new Muslim Heritage exhibition

Compiled by Aman Quadri

According to Rabbi Dr. Menachem M. Brayer (Professor of Biblical Literature at Yeshiva University) in his book, The Jewish woman in Rabbinic literature, it was the custom of Jewish women to go out in public with a head covering which, sometimes, even covered the whole face leaving one eye free. 76 He quotes some famous ancient Rabbis saying," It is not like the daughters of Israel to walk out with heads uncovered" and "Cursed be the man who lets the hair of his wife be seen....a woman who exposes her hair for self-adornment brings poverty."

The veil signified a woman's self-respect and social status. Women of lower classes would often wear the veil to give the impression of a higher standing. The fact that the veil was the sign of nobility was the reason why prostitutes were not permitted to cover their hair in the old Jewish society. However, prostitutes often wore a special headscarf in order to look respectable. 79

… St. Paul in the New Testament made some very interesting statements about the veil:

"Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head - it is just as though her head were shaved. If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or shaved off, she should cover her head. A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head" (I Corinthians 11:3-10).

From all the above evidence, it is obvious that Islam did not invent the head cover. However, Islam did endorse it. The Quran urges the believing men and women to lower their gaze and guard their modesty and then urges the believing women to extend their head covers to cover the neck and the bosom:

"Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty......And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms...." (24:30, 31). --Dr. Sherif Abdel Azeem

Koranic traditions must be taken seriously, but it is also necessary to ask questions about their contemporaneity too. Following the Friday prayers led by Dr Amina Wadud in New York on 18th March and the emotional public debate to which that event led, I have repeatedly been asked for my view on the matter. I believe the issue may seem simple, but is more complicated than it appears. So I'd like to contribute a few ideas to the discussion, rather than put forward a clear opinion. --Halima Krausen

There is simmering resentment among the local populace against the treatment meted out to the region in distribution of royalty in mega projects like Diamer-Bhasha Dam. To give credence to its claim of empowerment, the local government of the PPP needs to take a stance on the important issues that influence the fate of the whole region of Gilgit-Baltistan. If the elected members of GBLA fail to protect the economic interests and basic rights of the people, the assembly is doomed, because it will expose the hollowness of the so-called empowerment.

The absence of participation of Gilgit-Baltistan in decision-making bodies at the national level will make the whole exercise of administrative and political changes in the empowerment package meaningless. Real participation comes with a role in decision-making. Otherwise, holding elections, appointing office bearers, and following the procedures of a parliamentary system become just rituals to be performed time and again to keep a semblance of legitimacy. But the semblance of representative institutions cannot be kept for a long period when discontent brews in society. This holds true for Gilgit-Baltistan as well. -- Aziz Ali Dad

Many Muslims throughout the world, both Sunni and Shia, are working towards dialogue and reconciliation between the two sects. They argue that it is just not possible to fully comprehend and much less to judge the historical figures of Islam and their motivations today, 13 or 14 centuries after the event, which led to the schism in Islam. Indeed, it is not possible to judge people even when events take place now in full view of the world media… India’s Shia and Sunni communities can serve as a beacon of hope in this process. Let us follow up on recent initiatives by Mohtarma Syeda Hamid and Maulana Kalb-e-Sadiq and keep moving in the direction of genuine, frank dialogue leading to real unity. -- Sultan Shahin, editor, New Age Islam

 IS RELIGION FROM GOD OR MAN-MADE?

Fateh{puri believed in God, and there are various instances in his writings to prove that. However, he was not sure if God had anything to do with religion. As seen in the earlier instance, he tried to rationalize even the divine revelation, and showed that it was possible to see the Qur’an as the personal contribution of the Prophet. This was because, for Fateh{puri@, religion had a more utilitarian purpose, than spiritual. Religion, for him, was to serve as a guide for humanity, to remind them of doing good deeds, being kind to one another, and remembering God, while taking part in worldly pursuits and aiming for progress and success.

In reality, all religions of the world were made by humans and were not related to God, revelation or providence. The books that are said to be revealed, are the work of human brain only, and therefore, they have different thoughts and teachings according to different time and place. Neither does God need worship and submission, nor does He need anyone’s prayers.[i][i]

Fateh{puri@’s thesis was that the reasons why some matters have either been forbidden or recommended by religion can be understood by human intellect. Therefore, it is quite possible to say that religious instructions might have been created by human intellect to serve a functional purpose.

IS THE QUR’AN REALLY GOD’S SPEECH?

As mentioned above, Fateh{puri@ believed that the only thing that could be proven was that the Qur’an came from Muh{ammad’s mouth; whether it was really God’s speech is debatable. The only justification of its divine origin generally given, according to him, was that the grammar, literary quality and style of the h{adi@th and the Qur’an differ markedly and therefore, they are speeches of different entities, the Prophet and God. Fateh{puri@ never found this rationale satisfactory enough to prove such a broad assumption. He agreed that, undoubtedly the Qur’an was truly an extraordinary book in all its aspects and that during that age, nothing like it in either length or quality was produced. However, he argued, it would be going too far to assume that nothing like it could have been produced. Arabic literature and poetry at the time was quite developed, and oral tradition was flourishing. And since Prophet Muh{ammad was related to the Quraish tribe, which was famous for its oral literature and fluency of expression, it should not be surprising that his language was extraordinarily refined.

Fateh{puri@ answered the question of the differences in style and quality of the two works by saying that one’s language and actions are determined by the emotion one is feeling, and its intensity. He gave the example of poetry. There can be quite a lot of variety in the different verses written by the same poet, some of them perhaps being of a higher literary quality than others. The reason, he thought, was that the poet reached a certain state of mind when he wrote those particular high-quality verses. Those verses that suddenly come into a poet’s mind, without any effort on his part, are even in literary circles called ilha@mi@ or revelatory.[ii][vi]

The so-called Indian Mujahedeen have used in their notorious e-mails certain Quranic verses to justify killing of innocent civilians. These are the same verses that enemies of Islam’s pacific and humane philosophy have been traditionally using for centuries to demonise Islam. Muslims who go berserk and want to simply smite all and sundry in their crazy stupor also routinely use these verses to justify their fanaticism and probably also to brainwash the still-not-so-crazy to their cause.

New Age Islam  urges Indian Ulema to come out with explicit, unequivocal statements that the Quranic verses like the following - “Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks"- are now obsolete: they were meant for a specific situation during the Prophet’s life and do no apply today.

Also, they must clarify that the Muslim perception and belief that they alone are worthy of going to Heaven is total bunkum, according to Muslim precepts. Muslims are no better or worse than any other community. Islam has as much failed to create a New Man or for that matter a New Woman as any other reformist religion or philosophy.

Recent terror attack at Mumbai has reminded us once again that Pakistan Army, or one of its agencies Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) at any rate, is determined to change the very character of Islam, turning it into the pre-Islamic religion of the Jahiliya (Arabia in the Dark Ages). It had indeed given us ample evidence of its anti-Islamic character during the Kargil war by reminding us of the Battle of Uhud where a woman of Jahiliya, Hinda, had mutilated the dead body of Prophet Mohammad’s uncle, Hazrat Hamza. The Prophet [peace be upon him] had not only forgiven her but had made it a point to forbid the practice in every Muslim gathering thereafter for fear that the Muslims, too, might do something similar in retaliation. Blood feud and vengeance was rampant in the Arab world of the Jahiliya. One couldn’t help being reminded of that when reports came that one of the terrorists mentioned vendetta for Gujarat and demolition of Babri masjid by Hindutva forces as the justification for the killing of innocents at Mumbai.

 Pakistani “Islam” would indeed appear to be completely unrecognisable as Islam to a Muslim in any part of the world. Slowly but surely what appears to be a completely new religion seems to have caught the imagination of many people in Pakistan.  Its followers don’t, of course, consider it a new religion. Indeed this religion insists that it is Islam; in fact it calls itself true Islam or real Islam. But it can best be described as Jihadism, as its central belief system is based on a wilful misinterpretation of the Islamic concept of Jihad. It can also be called Talibanism, as the Taliban of Afghanistan, who studied in Pakistani madrasas run by the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan are its most avid practitioners.

 By and large, the western-educated liberal Pakistani intelligentsia, as I found out during several visits, hates this religion and is frightened of it. But as one by one all institutions of governance are succumbing to its growing power and its capacity for evil, they are getting scared to death. Some of them are simply planning to migrate to some non-Muslim majority country. No one is really fighting this malignant force, though some journalists and human rights activists still have the courage at least to express their horror and outrage at grave personal risk.  -- SULTAN SHAHIN, Editor, NewAgeIslam.com

Bengalis no longer enjoy the freedom of the age of Kabeer or Raheem or our Vedic ancestors

It is outrageous that in this day and age a respected newspaper like the Statesman cannot even publish as innocuous an article as Johann Hari’s “Why should I respect these oppressive religions?” It is being reproduced below courtesy Independent of London where it originally appeared. It seems some obscurantist Muslims had objection to it and so the Stalinist police arrested Mr. Ravindra Kumar and Anand Sinha, the editor and publisher of The Statesman, and curiously without provoking any debate or as far as I know even any coverage in secular democratic India’s independent media.

As you will see in the article below Johann Hari is very balanced and maintains equidistance from all major religions that he mentions. He makes a plea for freedom of expression. His main point is stated in the very first paragraph: “The right to criticize religion is being slowly doused in acid. Across the world, the small, incremental gains made by secularism – giving us the space to doubt and question and make up our own minds – are being beaten back by belligerent demands that we "respect" religion. A historic marker has just been passed, showing how far we have been shoved. The UN rapporteur who is supposed to be the global guardian.”

I am a religious person myself. But I don’t see how anyone can be religious in the true sense of the term without having ever been skeptical about religion, without having been agnostic or even atheist for a time. No truly religious person can ever question the right of others to question religion.  He would have the confidence to know that this questioning person will come to realize the value of religion in general, and maybe his religion too in course of time. He or she will see that as this fellow is questioning religion, he/she has the capacity to someday become religious. But of course those who follow their inherited religion are not going to see it this way. They are the inhabitants of the land of Jahiliya.

Now tell me my Muslim brothers and sisters! Would there have been a religion called Islam in the world today if Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) had taken your view of his ancestral religion? Would we have had Islam in the world today if the Prophet had not questioned and rebelled against the religion of his family and clan and tribe? Indeed would we have had any religion, any science, any literature, any philosophy? All progress emanates from questioning established truths.

However, this is no occasion for a discourse on progress. You cannot address followers of ancestral religions, followers of Abu Jahal, and discuss with them concepts of progress. You can just beat them in a war and then they will join you, as the Meccan followers of Abu Jahal joined Islam after their defeat.

I don’t know what the obscurantist Muslims of an enlightened city like Kolakata find objectionable in Johann Hari’s article. Perhaps it is the following passage that has provoked their ire: