Author: Swapan Das Gupta
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: September 13, 2006
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/130906-features.html
A determined band of fanatics committed to unrelenting jihad against all "nonbelievers" have landed Muslims in a soup.
A YouGov survey published in Friday's Daily Telegraph revealed that 53 per cent of Britons believe "Islam posed a threat to Western liberal democracy".
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, less than a third of the United Kingdom held such views. What began in the West as a "war on terror" has, in just four years, escalated into the muchfeared "clash of civilisations."
Coming on the heels of another survey which suggested that nearly one-third of British Muslims are in sympathy with those President George Bush called "Islamic fascists" and Prime Minister Tony Blair described as the "arc of extremism", it is not surprising that the West is gripped by a dread of Islam - a fear which explains the disproportionate reaction to 12 exuberant Mumbai Muslims on the flight from Amsterdam.
"We simply do not know", admitted writer William Shawcross in the Wall Street Journal, "how to deal with the fact that we are threatened by a vast fifth column..."
The problem, he felt, extended to the swathe of Muslim immigrants - Black Muslims in the US are not included - in all the countries of the European Union and the US. The conflict, it would deem, is not really about specific Muslim grievances such as Palestine or even Kashmir, but fundamental differences over values and ordinary decencies.
It would be sheer escapism to insist these fears are missing from India. The Hindu-CNN-IBN State of the Nation Survey conducted after the Mumbai blasts showed a that whopping 35 per cent of Indians believe that terrorism is supported by Indian Muslims.
If the Muslim respondents are excluded, it would seem that Islamophobia has gripped at least 40 per cent of India's non-Muslims. A few more terrorist incidents and the perception may end up becoming common sense, a frightening proposition when you consider that India is home to one of the largest Muslim clusters in the world.
Amid this growing polarisation, it was heartening that a Ulema-convened conference on terrorism in New Delhi adopted a resolution condemning "all forms of terror" and describing terrorism as "completely un- Islamic".
Unfortunately, the resolution stuck to generalities and shied away from naming specific Islamist terror groups which have wreaked havoc on India. It was also suggested that the ulema included pre-emptive policing as an aspect of terror.
Yet, regardless of these shortcomings and the fact of the conference being too much of a sarkari show, the declaration was a modest step forward.
Yet one step forward was accompanied by two steps backward. On the sidelines of the conference, SQR Ilyas, spokesman of the All India Muslim Personal Board announced that Muslims will not sing the country's national song, Vande Mataram.
"We love the country but don't worship (it)", announced Ilyas, "The song talks about worshipping, as in idol worship, which is against the fundamental ethos of Islam.
It is a very sensitive issue for Muslims, so they can't be asked to do this for even a single day." He was echoing the objections to Vande Mataram made by clerics like the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid. Subsequently, other Muslim notables like Kamal Farooqi, a stalwart of the AIMPLB, repeated these points on the TV.
Curiously, hardly any of the Muslim "moderate" notables contested these assertions. Sectarian objections to Vande Mataram were a key component of the Muslim League's separatist agenda prior to 1947. Opposition to Vande Mataram became synonymous with the promotion of Muslim separatism.
Yet, since the first two stanzas of the song was adopted as the national song in 1950, and put on par with the national anthem, the controversy was deemed to have been settled.
By putting its authority behind an organised boycott of the most potent symbol of the freedom struggle, the AIMPLB has wilfully sought to pit Muslim versus India. It was made out that a worship of the motherland was incompatible with the tenets of Islam.
Therefore, Muslims could not be expected to sing Vande Mataram on September 7 or any other day. The move was not only deeply offensive but an assault on the Constitution. It was tantamount to burning the national flag.
A weak UPA Government has declared that singing Vande Mataram is not compulsory. The issue is not the exercise of individual vocal cords; it is respecting and acknowledging Vande Mataram, hardly a very demanding proposition.
By declaring a symbol of nationhood to be optional, the Government has opened the floodgates of emotional separatism. In its deposition before the Unlawful Activities tribunal, SIMI has stated that it is not obliged to sing the national anthem.
Will the Government acquiesce to this outrageous assertion on the grounds of pluralism? Where will this assault on Indian nationhood stop? Many Muslims have reacted sharply to the AIMPLB diktat.
They recognise the enormous problems this decision will create for ordinary Muslims who are neither terrorists nor anti-India. They understand the grave implications of narrow-minded dogmatism on communal harmony.
They must be encouraged to speak up, defy the bigots and speak up for India. Unless important sections of the Muslim community speak up forcefully against separatism and terrorism, they will be engulfed and made redundant by the march of radical Islamism. This, in a sense, is already happening in many countries.
The appeal of Vande Mataram is inspirational, as A R Rehman demonstrated some years ago. September 7 will mark the 101st anniversary of Vande Mataram being anointed the national song.
Whether the song was anointed by the Congress first in September 1905 or, as some historians have suggested, in December 1905, is irrelevant. The exact date is not important. What matters is the feeling for the song.
September 7 should be observed this year and all years to come as Vande Mataram Day, a day when the soul of a nation long suppressed found expression. Every attempt must be made to prevent this symbol of Indian nationalism becoming a sectarian stick to beat India with.
Let Vande Mataram symbolise both our commitment to India and our defiance of those who want to destroy it.