Author: Balbir K. Punj
Publication: Outlook
Date: February 25, 2008
URL: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080225&fname=Column+Balbir+%28F%29&sid=1
Introduction: Islamic orthodoxy is a blight
on our enlightened times. Why no protests?
Tennis prodigy and India's hope for the world
tennis crown, Sania Mirza, says she won't be taking to the Indian tennis courts
in the near future. Reason: she is "tired" of the constant criticism
of her sports uniform and other off- and on-court behaviour by orthodox Muslims.
In the follow-up, several newspapers have lambasted this orthodoxy and asked
the liberals why they were so silent. Had it been some hothead from the Hindu
extremists, the entire liberal "secular establishment" would have
jumped on the critic bandwagon and, for good measure, dragged in the BJP into
their web of opprobrium.
India is a secular country because of its
ancient, pluralistic and catholic Vedic traditions, now reflected through
its Constitution. Yet Islamic orthodoxy is able to threaten its members into
falling in line with its own warped version of conduct, including the dress
code writ in its religious laws.
In such situations, the 'secularists' generally
either remain silent or line up with the fundamentalist sections, a la the
Shah Bano case, the Vande Materam debate...the list is endless.
Religious scriptures (of all faiths) generally
reflect the wisdom and noble sentiments of the period and socio-geographical
milieu in which they were "revealed" or composed. No doubt most
of the wisdom in the scriptures is ageless and eternal and helps the faithful
evolve as better human beings. However, it's true that some parts of the "holy
books" have become outdated and are inconsistent with contemporary times
and values.
In a healthy society, through dialogue and
debate, problematic paradigms are either reinterpreted or even dropped, generally
without hurting the feelings of the majority of the faithful. For example,
over the last two hundred years, Europeans have coopted most liberal traits
(found in abundance in the much abused Brahminical literature) into their
culture, bypassed many of the Biblical injunctions and still managed to retain
their Christian identity.
Within Indian society, there have been many
debates on the various facets of Hinduism (it's an ongoing process). Laws
against child marriage, untouchability, dowry and abolition of Sati fall in
this category. But in the case of Islam, no such efforts have been made. All
such exercises are nipped in the bud, termed "anti-Muslim" and a
threat to the "secular fabric" of the country. Even chance interventions,
such as the Supreme Court ruling in the Shah Bano case, are promptly negated
by the 'secularists'.
To further strengthen the backward mindset
in the Muslim community, the state funds the expansion of the madrassa network.
Special funds are allotted to help these religious schools "modernise".
There's little doubt that such efforts will in no way help the madrassas.
Instead, these modern tools (such as computers) are most likely to be used
to perpetuate the medieval mindset. A case in point: all the 19 pilots involved
in 9/11 knew how to fly ultra-modern planes. Likewise, Osama Bin Laden had
lived in the West for a long time and is said to be somewhat of a whiz with
modern gadgets.
Sania's decision recalls the number of horror
stories emanating from Muslim countries on the state of their societies in
general, and women's place in them in particular. A recent write-up on Afghanistan
in Time details the state of girls' education there. Though the Hamid Karzai-led
government has opened up education for girls, the Muslim orthodoxy and the
lack of resources for constructing schools are together taking a toll. School
enrolment of girls is still at marginal levels. Meanwhile, a new wave of Taliban
militancy has struck fear among those parents who do want to send their girls
to schools. Several schoolgoing girls have been killed and the Taliban has
warned off parents with female wards.
During the Taliban regime, women were confined
to their homes, denied education and barred from all professions on pain of
death. The "liberation" of the country has meant freedom for Afghan
women to go to schools, get jobs, even go abroad. But the Time report says
the Muslim tradition of prohibiting women mixing with unrelated men "still
defines large swathes of Afghan society...even in urban areas like Kabul".
The report also quotes Muslim parents as insisting that they'd rather their
girls went without education than be taught by a male teacher.
How non-Muslims are treated in a Muslim majority
country came to light in the recent happenings in Malaysia. The Tamil Hindu
population there had to take to the streets because their rights were being
trampled on. A stray incident during this time also showed up how Islamic
laws are used to harass non-Muslim minorities. The Associated Press reported
in the last week of January that a Hindu mother has been denied the insurance
money of her dead son because he had converted to Islam. Rukumony Muthiah's
son had named her as the beneficiary in his insurance policy.
The report says "Islamic authorities
have argued in court that under the country's religious laws...a non-Muslim
cannot claim inheritance from a Muslim." The mother's lawyer says that
though Malaysia's constitution prescribes equality before law for all citizens,
while "a non-Muslim cannot inherit from a Muslim, a Muslim can inherit
from a non-Muslim". The report also says: "Malaysia's non-Muslim
minorities say a spate of court cases in recent years, involving disputes
between Muslims and non-Muslims, have usually ended with the Muslim side winning."
Another report from the same nation highlights
the plight of non-Muslims because of these arbitrary actions. When a 74-year-old
of a family in Nigeri Sembilian died, the authorities "snatched"
his body for burial claiming the man had converted to Islam. The Islamic Sharia
court ruled that the man had converted in 2006 but the family points out that
he was already a stroke victim then and could not even speak. "His conversion
papers were also flawed because they were not signed," the family said.
The report said further that "Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang urged the
government to put a stop to the body-snatching cases to help preserve racial
harmony". Malaysia has both ethnic Indian and Chinese minority communities
while native Malays are largely Muslims.
The plight of women in Muslim majority countries
was again internationally highlighted in an incident in Saudi Arabia where
a Muslim woman was sentenced to 250 lashes for being seen with unrelated males
in a car. The woman had complained of rape but the incident was turned against
her under provisions of the Islamic law. The rape was overlooked and the fact
that she was seen with other men pinned on her. After her husband raised an
international ruckus and several governments in the West condemned the lady's
indictment, the Saudi King, a Western ally, "pardoned" her.
But, as the international press has written,
the basic injustice underscoring Islamic laws against women remains untouched.
Similar incidents in Pakistan found a rape victim sentenced while her tormentors
were let off. In Afghanistan, a Muslim, 41-year-old Abdul Rehman, was ordered
to be executed because he had the gumption to become a Christian. The event
once again raised a storm of protest in the West. The Afghan president saved
the situation by allowing the condemned to go to Italy where the government
gave him asylum but the harsh death sentence for conversion remains.
Of course, harsh and unjust laws, especially
against women, are not the monopoly of Islamic countries alone.
Several other countries too have legal positions
that hurt women in one way or the other. There are in addition social customs
and traditions like honour killings. But in most countries where laws are
based on rights, there are strong movements for reform and periodic changes
are made in the laws to protect women, especially in issues like inheritance,
dowry, domestic violence and property rights. It is only in Islamic countries
that laws are claimed to be derived from Islamic tradition-as crystallised
in the Sharia-and therefore rendered immutable and unchangeable. The world
outside the closed circle of Islamic countries is aghast at the retention
of these barbaric and tribal customs in laws like the amputation sentence
for theft, stoning to death for the crime of being immoral etc.
How difficult it is for anyone to call for
reform was demonstrated once again in Afghanistan where a Muslim journalist,
Syed Parvez Kaambaksh, is facing a death sentence for having downloaded some
articles from the Internet criticising Sharia laws and its slant against women
and distributed them among friends. The entire modern world has expressed
its horror at this sentence but the Afghan parliament still endorsed the sentence.
Not one of our so-called secular political parties has condemned this hugely
unjust action against the journalist. In the wake of the jehadi wave sweeping
over Muslim majority countries, laws there are becoming even more attuned
to a retributory, barbaric and anti-women past, meant to strike holy fear
and thereby gain compliance. Nearer home, we have Taslima Nasreen. The celebrated
Bangladeshi author has been forced out of West Bengal by the Left Front government,
under pressure from Muslim fundamentalists who constitute a sizable votebank
and also have the potential to set Calcutta ablaze. However, none of these
events seem to stir our jholawalas and self-styled secularists to any anger.
It's a matter of both concern and shame.
(The author can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com)
