The markaz of the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin is singularly responsible for the death of several persons and for passing on the coronavirus infection. Whoever runs the markaz is culpable and must be punished under the relevant sections of the IPC. It is incomprehensible that when the country is under lockdown and the Union and state governments are fighting a relentless war against a monstrous pandemic, a microscopic section of religious fundamentalists exposes large sections of the population to disease and fatality. However, it was also incumbent on the local administration to have been more aware and enforce an early evacuation.The Print reports- ' in February about 16,000 Tablighis gathered at a mosque in Malaysia from across the region.
The New York Times reported that the participants in the 16,000-strong gathering of the world’s biggest Islamic missionary movement had spread the coronavirus to half a dozen nations, creating the “largest known viral vector in Southeast Asia”.
“More than 620 people connected to the four-day conclave have tested positive in Malaysia, prompting the country to seal its borders until the end of the month. Most of the 73 coronavirus cases in Brunei are tied to the gathering, as are 10 cases in Thailand,” the daily reported.
On 18 March, Al Jazeera, quoting Malaysian Health Minister Dr Adham Baba, reported that only half of the Malaysian participants who attended have come forward for tests, raising fears that the outbreak from the mosque could be more far-reaching.
Even in Pakistan, 27 members of Tablighi Jamaat, out of the 35 screened at their headquarters in Raiwind, tested positive for coronavirus Sunday.
Clearly the Tablighi Jamaat- which has a big presence in the U.K- is an international organization and the problem it is causing is not confined to India. Yet Najeeb Jang concentrates only on the Muslim community in India. Why? It was Malaysia where this problem emerged. Muslims in Malaysia are the dominant community. Why dwell on 'the malaise' of Indian Muslims when this problem was created outside India in a wealthier, Muslim dominated, country?
This brings me to the larger malaise facing the Muslim community in India. No one can deny the sad situation they face.Najeeb Jang is a Muslim. Why does he 'other' his fellow Muslims in India. Why does he not say 'no one can deny the sad situation we face?' Is it because no one could deny that he has not been discriminated against? He has done well for himself as numberless other Muslims in India have done well for themselves?
Most live on the margins of society: Poor, ill- educated and fast losing faith in a government they believe is not, and indeed, will not be fair to them.Najeeb Jang was accused by Kejriwal of serving that Government. Is he writing in this vein so as to create, in the minds of his readers, the impression that he was a poor and ill-educated fellow who wrongly put his faith in the Government and thus did their wicked bidding in all innocence?
Incidentally, the man is now Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia University. He doesn't want to remind his readers of this- perhaps because it is considered a breeding ground for extremists- and so his article ends with the comment 'The writer is a former civil servant'.
Not that their situation has been better under earlier governments but the understanding is that the “hand” of the government was not that heavy.Najeeb Jang's hand was described as not just heavy but unconstitutional by Arvind Kejriwal. Why does Jang speak coyly of some occult 'understanding' that the Government is wicked? Either it is wicked or it isn't. Either he was the mercenary minion of that wickedness or, poor and ill-educated and terminally stupid as he may claim to be, the wicked government took advantage of his mental, not moral, infirmity and used him as a bumboo up Kejriwal's anus.
But blaming the governments of the day has become a habit. It is time the Muslim community understood the faultlines that lie within.One 'fault-line' is that between a Muslim like the writer and those who he writes about as being stupid, ignorant, and crazier than bed bugs.
It is abundantly clear that the pedagogical system of education in madrasas is outdated.While the pedagogical system of Jamia Millia is not just outdated, it is utterly shite.
Efforts are being made in some madrasas to teach English, the sciences and mathematics, but there are not many such schools. Students are taught to memorise the Quran, and it’s a matter of immense pride for a family if a child of eight or 10 years of age becomes a “hafiz”.That's a useful skill. I'd rather employ a driver who is a 'hafiz' than a stoned graduate of Jamia Millia. A kid who is a Hafiz at the age of 8 is a kid who can crack the NEET at 18. India needs more Doctors with good Morals and a willingness to work in rural areas. Let's target those young 'Hafizes' and get them into Medicine. Not just the Indian Muslim Community, but Hindus and Christians would happily support such an initiative because the benefit extends to all- as the current pandemic reminds us.
No doubt a large number of Muslim boys and girls are studying under the regular education system of schools and colleges, but a larger number is confined to the madrasa system.'Confined?' Are Madrasas jails? Is Islam some sort of cult? Non Muslims have no problem admitting that Islam is a highly Moral and Spiritual Religion. Its traditional Madrasas may be under-resourced- but so are many Public Schools- and their curriculum may be out of date- but this is equally true of many of our 'Liberal Arts' Universities. Nobody- except militant atheists and Communists- deny the moral efficacy and character building qualities of the Islamic Madrasa, or the Hindu Patshala, or the Jewish Geshlekht-shul (what? I'm Liberal Reform), or the Catholic sodomitical seminary or the type of Lesbian Anglican Academy which has its own category on Pornhub.
Therefore, the larger problem is that the community is being dominated by maulvis and maulanas, who sit in seminaries and mosques, and make a fashion of issuing fatwas.How scandalous! A Religious community is dominated by Divines! By contrast, the Pope gains a living by delivering Pizzas to Catholics.
I have a vast number of non-Muslim friends who have enormous sympathy for the Indian Muslim community.Similarly, I have a number of non-Hindu friends who often say 'your poor family- how they must suffer! Indeed, we feel sorry for the entire Hindu community. It must be tough for them to know you were born into their Faith.'.
They are extremely concerned about their economic conditions, lack of education, and poor and inadequate political leadership.Yes, yes. They are so very 'extremely concerned' that they give away a goodly portion of their wealth to help Muslims- I don't think.
They talk of India’s inherent secularism, the strength of its Constitution and they challenge the cow urine-drinking parties as a means to fight the virus.How do they challenge the cow urine drinking parties? Is it by drinking a lot of whiskey and then waving their dicks in the air? If not, why bring up the subject? There is no other way to challenge cow urine drinkers.
However, they are also fighting an increasingly losing battle against the Hindu right, and the fence sitters, when challenged on Muslim conservatism and archaic beliefs.The problem was that that they were also fighting an increasingly losing battle against the realization that they were a bunch of losers.
Well, we all know one Indian Muslim who suffers from intellectual, but sadly not writerly, paralysis.
The fact is, as I have said before, today’s Indian Muslims suffer from an intellectual paralysis.
An earlier generation of scholars used to study such thinkers like Ibn Arabi, Fakhruddin Razi, Einstein, Bergson, Russel and Freud.Studying all of them was a recipe for intellectual confusion. Just sticking with Einstein and Dirac and so forth got Abdus Salam a Nobel prize in Physics.
The task, once again, is to rethink Islam without completely breaking from the past.Nonsense! It is to do useful stuff and then say 'Aha! This is how Scripture helps us do this useful stuff even more usefully!'
The only course open is, as Allama Iqbal articulated, “to approach modern knowledge with a respectful but independent attitude and to appreciate the teachings of Islam in the light of that knowledge.”But Iqbal was a shithead. Good poet, but shithead all the same. The point about 'modern knowledge' is that it is our contemporary and we are all already part of it to a greater or lesser extent. By doing useful stuff and working out ways to do it better we expand modern knowledge. For some chosen spirits, the great truths of Revealed Religion concerning the unseen realm are as lanterns by which they see their way forward. This is inspiring and conducive to Faith for the rest of us mere mortals. Thus, Abul Sattar Edhi may, for all I know, have been guided purely by his understanding of Islam to set up his Charitable Foundation. But it applies and expands 'modern knowledge' in an exemplary manner.
It is never possible for any society, more so a religion, to entirely forget or reject its past.Yet, Islam claims to reject and forget the 'Jahiliya' past of its place of origin. Indeed, all Religions make a radical break with what went before. This is a good thing. We don't want to keep sacrificing our first born to Moloch.
And there is no doubt that in the years succeeding the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) death, Islam and Islamic history can indeed boast of a glorious era. What is equally true is that Islam, particularly India’s Muslims, have to free themselves from the medieval fantasies of maulanas, and embrace more contemporary attitudes.No. Plenty of 'contemporary attitudes' are utter shite. Embracing useful stuff is useful. Religion is certainly useful, if it keeps you on the straight and narrow.
The Quran has to be understood for its inductive reasoning and a revolt against traditions and speculative philosophies.Nonsense! The Quran is wholly imperative ('insha') and reveals the truths of the unseen realm. It has nothing to do with 'inductive reasoning' because it is unconcerned with empirical knowledge ('khabar'). How could it be a 'revolt' against 'traditions' and 'speculative philosophies' when no such things obtained at its point of origin?
The dynamism of debate (ijtihad) must be reignited.Rubbish! Nothing good came of it in the past nor will anything come of it in the future. A Debate between shitheads is still just a great big lump of shit.
Traditionally, from the days of the Prophet (PBUH), debate and pursuit of scientific knowledge was encouraged.But debate and the pursuit of scientific knowledge had burgeoned more before either Christianity or Islam had become hegemonic. Subsequent Renaissances depended on rediscovering Aristotle and Euclid and so forth till Europe in the Seventeenth Century turned a decisive corner and abandoned Scholasticism and Theology.
The Prophet (PBUH) exhorted his people to travel as far as China for acquiring knowledge, and in the same vein Iqbal said: “Manzil se aage badhkar manzil talaash kar/ Mil jaaye tujh ko dariya, samandar talaash kar (search ever onwards for a destination that lies beyond where you reach/ If you discover a river, then search onwards for the sea)”.By contrast, Newton never exhorted his people to go to China, instead of using their own brains and doing experiments. Einstein did sometimes talk Iqbal level vacuous bollocks to the Press, but he was careful not to do so to smart people.
Through the anti-CAA, NRC and NPR protests, the Indian Muslim found a new voice.No. Some Indian Muslim women- not the smartest by any means- found themselves used as the ventriloquist's dummy by a very silly voice indeed. Declaring the Constitution to be their 'holy book', these women were affirming that Cow-Protection (which is a Directive Principle) was a sacred cause for them.
The greatest upside to this movement was the women who, for the first time in India (I do not refer to women in Islamic history who participated in wars along with men), found a voice.And then lost it after making a nuisance of themselves and gaining nothing.
The men were left to help with logistics. Hopefully, this new lease of life is a harbinger of better times for the women.Hopefully? Delusively. But a delusion is not hope.
But what hopes do we have from the men?What hopes do we have from this man? None at all.
Institutions like the Tablighi Jamaat, however well-intentioned they may be, and whatever good religious activities they may perform, are not helping the community move forward.& this guy is?
The religion isn’t to blame — it is the closed minds of these self-proclaimed leaders. By one thoughtless action, the markaz in Nizamuddin has harmed the Muslim cause many fold.Not really. Most of us aren't science nerds. We sympathize with people who make the sort of mistake we make. What annoys the fuck out of us is things like Shaheen bagh- i.e. public nuisances of a type we are too stupid to commit.
On the other hand, the government is not helping. The constant and repeated “othering” of the Muslims is pushing them further into a darker corner.But it is this guy who refers to Muslims as 'them' rather than 'we'. The BJP makes a point of speaking of 'Muslim brothers', this Muslim refuses to do so. The Tablighis are his alterity, but so are the 'poor, ill-educated' rest. The only friends he mentions himself as having are 'non-Muslims'.
The repeated lynchings and beatings,are illegal. Why does this ex-Lieutenant General not get a bunch of senior people together to prosecute the culprits and campaign for something equivalent to the Dalit Atrocities Act. Hindus don't want crazy mobs running amok. The same guys who lynch Muslims might beat the fuck out of me if I happen to be travelling in a car which hits a cow.
ministerial gloating over the abolition of Article 370,is not illegal. It was a long standing manifesto commitment of the BJP and it has been welcomed by the vast majority of Indians, including the Hindus of Jammu and the Buddhists of Ladakh.
the challenges posed because of the CAA,what challenges? There are none. A few thousand people who were going to get citizenship anyway may get citizenship a little more quickly. The BJP got a boost from the foolish Muslim agitation against non-Muslim refugees gaining citizenship the way they always had.
the threat of the NRC/NPR,threat to whom? Illegal immigrants. Nobody else. However, if Muslim minorities attack their neighbors from the majority community, and if they kill police-men, they will be killed and chased away regardless of their Citizenship
statements by minsters-members of the ruling party to punish “ghaddars”,sadly, Muslims who try to kill non Muslims, where non Muslims are the majority, will get punished no matter in which country they reside. The statements of politicians in this regard are alethic and should be heeded.
the scorning of liberals and harassment of NGOs that work among Muslims,is perfectly legal and, truth be told, often wholly salutary.
and the pogrom in Delhi,what pogrom? Muslims killed policemen and non-Muslims. Then the majority turned on the minority and put it to flight. Had the police simply shot 20 or 30 of these lunatics on the first day- as happened in 1992- there would have been no need for non-Muslims to take matters into their own hands. Muslims too would benefit if their lunatic fringe is simply mowed down with police bullets from time to time.
have worsened fears among the Muslim community.From which, once again, this gentleman, despite his Muslim name and heritage, stands aloof.
And herein lies the challenge.What challenge? That of getting this cunt to see himself as an Indian Muslim rather than a Heaven Born Bureaucrat?
The challenge is not just for the Indian Muslim, it is for the country as a whole.The challenge for the country as a whole is to ignore stupid shitheads with their litany of imaginary grievances.
The Muslims have the example of the Sikhs before them.But the Sikhs don't have the example of the Muslim League before them. They failed to get a Khalistan similar to Jinnah's Pakistan. This was probably a good thing for them.
Sikhs, too, follow a strict religious regimen. But they continually set examples of courage, generosity and prosperity.When Sikhs drove out the Muslims so as to became a bare majority in present Punjab State, they went on to give Hindus short shrift. What this silly man is proposing is that Muslims should relocate to areas where they can become a majority and give non Muslims short shrift. This may actually succeed in West Bengal. It is unlikely to succeed in the Doab because the Hindus have martial qualities. In Delhi, 20,000 Muslims were slaughtered when Pundit Nehru became Prime Minister. Under his grandson, some 5,000 Sikhs were massacred. It is the presence of a Hindu Army and Police, which ensures no repetition of such extensive blood letting by removing the necessity for them.
The community has put behind the tragedies of Partition, followed by those of 1984.Some British historians consider the Sikh jathas as having been the main instigators for the enormous blood-letting in the Punjab. 1984 was a tragedy from one point of view. From another it was a richly deserved punishment. That is why Rajiv Gandhi won a landslide victory in the Elections which immediately followed. Over the next decade some 50,000 extra-judicial killings were required to restore peace to that Province. It is very foolish to recommend to Indian Muslims that they follow the Sikh example of senseless killing swiftly followed by massive retaliation. At least the Sikhs had a territorial base and support from Pakistan. It is unlikely that Pakistan will open its doors to vast streams of Indian Muslim because, unlike the Sikhs, they may prefer to stay on in the Islamic Republic rather than return to sow havoc, or- what is more likely- be slaughtered before they can accomplish anything.
Now, it’s time for the new Muslim to step forward and engage with contemporary times as well.Thankfully, Indian Muslims did this long ago. They are not an abject community- never have been, never will be. No doubt, some stupid politicians claimed they were 'backward' and needed special protection. But they weren't backward at all. They were virtuous. This may mean being poor- because one shares ones income with those who can not earn- or foregoing 'higher' education so as work and acquire wealth through honestly and diligence. It may mean 'storing up treasure in Heaven' rather than running hither and tither in a mad rush to get rich. But, these are the qualities of all good and spiritually inclined people. It rather endears the Muslim to his non-Muslim neighbor than results in 'othering'. By contrast, to deny one's brotherhood with Muslims- even if one is, as I am, a wine bibber and reprobate- so as to create some sort of sociologically subaltern and surd 'alterity' is to cut oneself off from Humanity. It is a self-maiming worse for the commonweal than the most vicious orgy of homicidal hatred. When one sins, even when one's whole community sins and sins terribly- there is the possibility of remorse and a redemptive type of suffering. But once we label good and God-fearing people as a 'Social Problem'- just because they may have a slightly lower per capita Income or level of educational attainment- then, as Mahatma Grundy observed- our dicks will surely fall off and, what's more, that 15 year old Single Malt you've been saving will turn out to have been drunk up by our nephew who, very thoughtfully, replaced it with his pee. I'm not saying that last has actually happened to me. Anyway, my dick hasn't actually fallen off. It just don't seem to get a lot of action these days what with the covid pandemic and all.
Perhaps that is what Vice Chancellor Jang is getting at when he concludes-
And, it is for the government to understand that the operative word in the context of the community is “affirmative action”, not “appeasement”.So don't appease Vices. Affirmatively secure them some red hot action. Not that I got much of that when I was at Uni. Still, the young people at Jamia Millia deserve better. Do them all a favour my dear Vice and Tod the Pinjras which cage them from each other's hot bods. Otherwise they will all turn into dadis squatting on the road at Shaheen Bagh hoping for some affirmative action.
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