Author:
Publication: Jihad Watch
Date: June 13, 2005
URL: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006623.php
A U.S. citizen currently residing in India,
N.S. Rajaram, has kindly allowed us to reprint a most revealing exchange he
had with the editor of "Span" magazine, a publication of the U.S.
Consulate in Mumbai, India. Even though the exchange took place in 2002, it
is still relevant today, and not just for Mumbai: the attitudes that Lea Terhune
expresses here are today part of the unquestioned orthodoxy that prevails
at State and in the media (both Left and Right). Until this dogma is shattered,
as it deserves to be, the US will continue to be more vulnerable to terrorist
attacks than it needs to be.
The exchange began with the publication in
Span of an article entitled, "Koran: An Open Book: Thoughts on the secularism
of Islam," by S.A. Abbasi. This article is an open apologetic for Islam.
It begins:
One June evening years back, in a Thiruvananthapuram restaurant, a stranger
walked up to my table, voiced the Muslim greeting "as-salaam-o-alaikum"
(peace be on you) and sat down in an empty chair opposite me.
I was surprised and asked the stranger, "Do
you happen to know who I am?" "No," he said, "I haven't
known you." "Then how did you make out I am a Muslim?"
The stranger-clean-shaven above the upper
lip and sporting a thick beard below the lower one-smiled. "It is not
difficult to tell a Muslim among the strangers," he said, "a Muslim
has certain dignity and grace about him that sets him apart."
Just then his coffee came which he sipped
in silence as I sipped my tea. I recalled the words of Bernard Lewis, the
acclaimed scholar of Islam: "There is something in the religious culture
of Islam which inspired, in even the humblest peasant or peddler, a dignity
and a courtesy toward others never exceeded and rarely equaled in other civilizations."
I decided against disappointing my interlocutor
by telling him that I wasn't a practicing Muslim. The "dignity and grace"
he had seen at that moment on my face was perhaps an illusion created by the
fading light of a Kerala summer.
But, I believe he wasn't entirely wrong in
his generalization. Anyone who goes through a regulated life, with a strong
sense of humility and concern for others-tenets which all major religions
of the world emphasize-does acquire certain natural dignity and grace. It
may be more noticeable with Muslims because Islamic practices demand day-to-day
regulation of life and frequent reiteration that only God is almighty and
divine, that all humans are created equal and that no one has hierarchical
superiority over any other human being in the eyes of God.
Rajaram wrote to U.S. Ambassador to India
Robert Blackwill, who is now evidently one of the Administration's leading
architects of Iraq policy.
Subject: Misuse of US Government publication SPAN for justifying Jihad
Your Excellency:
I am a United States citizen currently residing
in India in connection with research relating to ancient civilizations. I
am deeply concerned by the appearance of the article "KORAN: An Open
Book" by S. A. Abbasi in the July/August issue of the US Embassy publication
SPAN. The article is misleading and at the same time violates the First Amendment
of the US Constitution separating Church and State. I have enclosed copy of
the article for your reference.
The article in question tries to justify Jihad
as a defensive war, which is highly misleading to say the least. According
to the authoritative Dictionary of Islam, Jihad is: "The duty of religious
war (which all commentators agree is a duty extending to all time) is laid
down in the following verses, and it is remarkable that all the verses occur
in the al-Madinah Surahs, being those given after Muhammad had established
himself as a paramount ruler, and was in a position to dictate terms to his
enemies."
It is therefore a travesty of truth to represent
Jihad as a defensive campaign, while its real goal is to extend the rule of
Islam. Jihad can never be accepted as a legitimate instrument of policy. More
fundamentally, I believe that such an article has no place in a US Government
publication. It violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution separating
religion and the State.
Yours sincerely,
N.S. Rajaram
The response:
August 26, 2002
Dear Mr. Rajaram:
The Ambassador's Office has forwarded your
letter of August 16 to me. We thank you for expressing your concern about
Professor Abbasi's article "Koran: An Open Book," which appeared
in the July/August 2002 issue of SPAN. The point of the article was not to
justify or defend jihad, but to clarify some misconceptions about Islam, as
you may see if you go over it more carefully. "The Koranic message about
violence, unambiguously prohibits aggression, even coercion, is loud, clear
and very consistent. The Koran unambiguously prohibits aggression and violence,"
Professor Abbasi writes. As the professor also notes, religious war is not
something that originated with Islam. It appears in Hinduism and other religions,
including Christianity and it has doubtless gone on from time immemorial.
Professor Abbasi's aim is to show the flaws in the thinking of the proponents
of Jihad. We believe and still believe, that his comments are a balanced endeavor
to put certain Islamic beliefs in perspective. We have had very positive responses
to this article, some of which have come from members of conservative Hindu
groups.
SPAN is a magazine that reflects all aspects
of American society and culture, including its religious diversity. That diversity
includes Muslims along with Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Jews. The events
of September 11 have brought into sharper focus the importance of recognizing
and respecting religious diversity in America and around the world.
Sincerely,
Lea Terhune, Editor
Did you catch the distortions about the Qur'an?
And this: "The events of September 11 have brought into sharper focus
the importance of recognizing and respecting religious diversity in America
and around the world"?
Did you realize that the lesson of 9/11 was
that we must respect religious diversity? That the planes crashing into the
Towers was just a cry for help, a frustrated expression of the need for respect
for diversity? The implication is, then, that if we just respect diversity,
the trouble will go away. But will Muslims respect it?
Anyway, Rajaram was having none of this PC
nonsense from Terhune:
Dear Ms. Terhune:
Thank you for your letter of August 26, 2002
responding to my comments on the article "Koran: An Open Book,"
(SPAN July/August 2002). You are right in pointing out: "The events of
September 11 have brought into sharper focus the importance of recognizing
and respecting religious diversity in America and around the world."
But the "events of September 11" would not have taken place but
for the fact such spirit is largely lacking in major segments of the Islamic
world. The message of well-intentioned individuals like Professor Abbasi should
be addressed mainly to these segments and not to you and me or the readers
of SPAN.
Such articles should also be more truthful
and not try to dilute the evil of Jihad by suggesting that other religions,
including Hinduism have indulged in religious warfare. This is supported neither
by scripture nor history- other than the misrepresentation of the Gita that
Professor Abbasi invokes. He should then explain why the Zoroastrians of Iran
had to flee soon after the Islamic conquests and seek refuge in Hindu India.
Can we also ignore Koranic injunctions like: "… kill those who join
other gods with God wherever ye shall find them, and lay in wait for them
with every kind of ambush: but if they shall convert,… let them go their
way." (Koran, IX 5,6) No coercion, no violence?
Such sophistry, that other religions have
also pursued religious wars in the past begs the issue by diverting attention
from the present to the past. The fact is that religious war (Jihad) is the
stated policy of Islamic groups as well as of countries like Pakistan today.
This cannot be deflected as Hitler did to the Bishop of Osnabruch: "I
am only doing what the Church has done for 1500 years, only more effectively."
The need of the hour is reform in Islam, not
apologetics calling for better understanding on the part of the victims of
Islamic violence. And this is what we should be encouraging and which the
SPAN article by Professor Abbasi fails to do. I may use our correspondence
in my writings for the purpose.
Sincerely,
N.S. Rajaram
Indeed. The irony of the PC straitjacket about
Islam that media outlets Left and Right wear today is that they wear it because
they think that by doing so they're helping moderate Muslims. In fact, they're
quashing whatever slim hopes those moderates ever may have had of being heard,
by denying the fundamental premise of reform: that there is anything in Islam
that actually needs to be fixed.
To his second message, Rajaram received no
reply.
