Are Indian Muslims leading the way in condemning terror?
For those Western critics that say Islam does not enough to to condemn terrorism, perhaps they should look at India, home to one of the world’s biggest Muslim populations — around 13 percent of mainly Hindu India’s 1.1 billion people.
On Wednesday, it was the turn of Khalid Rasheed, head of the oldest madrasa in the northern city of Lucknow — a traditional centre for Muslims and religious scholarship. He rejected terrorism as anti-Islamic after he and his colleagues had been accused of apostasy over their pacifist stance by at group that calls itself the Indian Mujahideen.
Indian Mujahideen made threats against the madrasa in which they also claimed responsibility for last week’s bomb blasts in Jaipur, western India, which killed 63 people.
“The reaction of terrorists to our stand against terror has shown that we were moving in the right direction,” Rasheed said.
Apparently a “Movement Against Terrorism” has been created by clerics to exhort imams to use Friday prayers at mosques across India to speak out against terrorism.
This was no flash in the pan. Earlier this year, tens of thousands of clerics and students from around India attended a meeting near Delhi at the 150-year-old Darool-Uloom Deoband — whose strict interpretation of Islamic law is said to have inspired the Taliban in Afghanistan — and denounced terrorism as against Islam.
It is not surprising that Rasheed said they had received support from Darool-Uloom Deoband, Indian clerics appear to be increasingly outspoken, perhaps not surprising in a country where there is a centuries-old tradition of preaching religious tolerance.
Delhi judge backs MF Husain, says “ignorant people vandalise art”
The Delhi High Court issued a strong judgement on Thursday in support of one of India’s leading painters MF Husain, who has been forced into exile after a painting of Mother India as a naked woman was accused of hurting religious sentiments.
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul made no bones about how he felt about the issue.
“It is most unfortunate that India’s new ‘puritanism’ is being carried out in the name of cultural purity and ignorant people vandalise art,” the Times of India quoted him as saying.
The high court found nothing wrong in Husain’s work and said art, both ancient and modern, had always used nudity.
“We have been called the land of Karma Sutra then why is it that in this land we shy away from its very name,” he said.
“Ancient art has never been devoid of eroticism where sex worship and representation of the union between man and woman has been a recurring feature.”
It remains to be seen if the 90-year-old Husain will ever return home, but Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen decided enough was enough earlier this year and decided to leave India.
I am a fan of M F Hussain but not a blind one like Justice Kaul. M F Hussain is to be blamed for his actions as he went overboard. Few paintings were never noticed but his madness in painting many many more made people to notice – and a feeling of deliberate ‘mischeif’ by the painter spread like bush fire. India is changing fast, communication is instant and people have begun to think more. This may be a good thing or bad – time will tell. But it would be a great mistake to brand everyone who protests to be part of ‘puritanist ignorant crowd’. I am shocked and bemused. Here we go again another elitist judgement blaming ‘cultural puritanists’. I only warn people in high position to think and think seriously – every one is not a fundamentalist but such judgement can tilt the balance. How come baning ‘Satanic Verses ‘ and Da Vinci Code’ were justified? Please visit my Blog. http://justarrival.blogspot.com/2008/05/ judgement-with-health-warning.htmlName – Navin Joshi
Deoband is often wrongly accused inspiring the Taleban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The early madrassas established in the NWFP were, in fact, modeled after Deoband as their founders themselves received education in Deoband prior to 1947. However, all of this changed with the US/Pakistani (CIA/ISI) efforts to recruit, train and equip the students of these madrassas to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The divergence between the Indian and Pakistani Deobandis became very clear when the religious leaders from NWFP and Deoband met for a summit in mid-2001 (just prior to 911) and disagreed strongly on the strategies/tactics used by the Taleban in Afghanistan. In fact, Maulana Marghoob, the leader of Deoband, condemned the destruction of Buddha carvings in Bamian by the Taleban. The Indian Deoband leaders clearly understood that they could not condone the destruction of Buddha statues in Afghanistan while at the same time protest against the destruction of Babri mosque in India.