By: Tashbih Sayyed
In the third world, particularly in Muslim countries, religion has always played a vital role in shaping the public world view. The psycho-personality of the Muslim street has traditionally been formulated by what one learned in places of worship and religious schools. In my view, if true Islam would have been allowed to guide and control the development of human personality in Muslim communities, a broad minded, tolerant, pluralistic and progressive Muslim would have been playing a very constructive role in the globalized village today. But this was not to be. Militants hijacked Islam in its very infancy and prevented the faith of Muhammad from taking root in the hearts and minds of the Muslim nation. Since one of the basic traits of Islamism is to prevent any debate on issues in the community, no movement for reformation could survive. As a result a narrow minded, exclusivist and sectarian "Muslim" was created.
On the other hand, in Judeo-Christian communities, a healthy thing happened. The whole society went through a renaissance, reformation, counter reformation and enlightenment. This whole process allowed the evolution of a democratic and open society. Dogmatism and retrogressive religion lost its hold. In this enlightened world, the social behavior was not guided by religious prejudices and faith based preferences. But, Islamist terrorism, on September 11, changed it to a very great extent.
The change found its way in recent survey conducted by a very reputable research group. It said, religion in the post September 11 America, has become a critical factor in popular thinking about contentious policy issues and political matters. According to this survey, an increasing number of Americans have come to view Islam as a religion that encourages violence while a declining number say Islam has a lot in common with their own religion. The public opinion suggested that a significant number of Americans would be reluctant to vote for a well-qualified candidate if he or she were a member of a particular religious group, especially a Muslim. The survey says, "Muslim-Americans and Muslims are seen less favorably than Jews (72% favorable), Protestants (70%), and Catholics (69%), and slightly below evangelical Christians (58% favorable, 18% unfavorable)."
I am sure, that in most of the Islamist controlled Muslim communities, the radicals will present these findings as another attempt on the part of "anti-Islam" forces to malign Islam. But a majority of Muslims, would like to investigate as to the reasons for this change in the perceptions about Islam. I personally believe that the reason Islam has come to be considered a violent religion is the inability of Muslims to take responsibility for their short comings. The inability to take responsibility for one's actions gives birth to a violent mentality and Muslim societies under the control of radical Islamists have for centuries been refusing to take responsibility for their actions. Such an attitude in Muslims has deprived them from advancing with the times. They have been left behind and now blame others for their backwardness.
Every day Muslim life in Islamist controlled communities presents a blinding example of this failure. Muslims appear to be living in pagan times when one used to live to fight and felt pride in dying in the process of killing others. The other day I came across just such an event:
There was nothing unusual in the Friday sermon until a woman whose face was hidden behind a veil approached the prayer leader delivering the sermon. She was carrying her 18-month old son, Zabeeh-ullah in her lap. She gave the speaker, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, a written note that read, "I am highly impressed by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed's lecture on the holy war against anti-Muslim forces. In this scenario, it is my obligation as a staunch Muslim to offer everything I have for the cause of Islam and to fight the infidels. Therefore, I offer my son for this sacred mission."
The custom of offering infants at famous shrines of saints is not new in South Asian societies. Traditionally, childless couples visit shrines for divine assistance to conceive. At some shrines, the first child thus born, is required to be gifted to the shrine as a token of respect and gratitude. The child thus given to the shrine ends up as an invalid consigned to a life of beggary. But the presentation of a son to the former chief of the outlawed radical Islamist organization of Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, surely created a record of sorts and reminded one of the barbaric times long gone.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who was released by the Lahore High Court on November 18, 2002, after a year-long legal battle, declared in a Friday sermon, "Jihad is vital against the United States and if it attacks Iraq, no one can stop mujahids (holy worriers) from launching a jihad (holy war) against American imperialism. The United States cannot achieve its objective of destroying Muslim states." Saeed was speaking in his capacity as chief of the newly christened Jamat-al-Dawa, formed after the Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned.
Since terrorists like Hafiz Muhammad Saeed have come to be accepted in militant Islamist communities as the "rightly guided ones", no one questioned him about the validity of the institution of human sacrifice or Jihad in today's enlightened times. Nobody reminded him that the Quraa'n has very clearly said that Allah does not like blood and meat. Nor anyone asked the prayer leader as to the statement that implied that Saddam Hussein's tyrannical state was a Muslim state. By defining present day despotic, tyrannical and undemocratic Islamist countries as Muslim countries, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed clearly committed blasphemy but there was no one who could challenge him.
In one sentence he equated a terrorist, debauch and murderous autocrat - Saddam Hussein - with the prophet of Islam, who had established the first true Muslim state. But this is not the first time that fascists, debauches and murderers have been presented as "Amir ul Momeneen" (The Commanders of the faithful). Muslim history is full of rapists and tyrants who have ruled as Amir ul Momeneen. Such statements are being made in the Muslim history for centuries and nobody has ever challenged them. This silence - reluctance or incapacity to speak against the blatant lies being spread in the name of Islam - has defined Islamist states for centuries.
But the times have changed. Islamist states are not existing in isolation. Their ignorance and primitiveness is affecting the world. And their misconduct is bringing a bad name to Islam. There is a growing concern among the enlightened Muslims that their silence is basically rendering them an accomplice in the Islamist crimes against humanity. Militant Islam does not represent Islam. Enlightened Muslims will have to educate the world that Saddams, Saudi Kings and military dictators of the Muslim world are Islamists, not Muslims. They are evil, not Islam. Somebody will have to stand up and make these false prophets realize that the world has moved on while they were busy planning the next "jihad". Their "Jihad' is an act of terrorism, not Allah's command. And people offering themselves as sacrifices in the way of "Allah" will neither go to paradise nor get the houris.
(The writer is editor-in-chief of Pakistan Today, a California-based weekly newspaper, and president of Council for Democracy and
Tolerance.)
