Muslim Penchant for spinning state-sponsored conspiracies: Will it turn into a self-fulfilling proph

A Story by New Age Islam

Do those Muslims fighting for their cause, no matter how legitimate even remember and remind the common Muslims of the larger perspective.

But do we ever come across a word of gratitude, even gratitude expressed to God, for what “in practice already had become a Brahmin-dominated state” to have not gone the Pakistan way or the Islamic way? Do those Muslims fighting for their cause, no matter how legitimate even remember and remind the common Muslims of the larger perspective? Do we even hear our intellectuals, barring a few, of course, even restrain themselves in the language they use for their perpetual grievance-mongering? …

Do we ever wonder what would be our situation if we were living as a religious minority in an Islamic state? Do we ever move our lips or lift our little finger in support of the religious minorities living in Islamic states next door? Well, what to support them, we have hounded out the one Muslim lady who dared to speak for them in Bangladesh? There are so many Hindus and even Hindu ladies who fight for our causes in this country: would we like the Indian system to hound them out of the country and of course, not get any refuge anywhere else, certainly not in a Muslim country? …

We have tens of thousands of mosques and madrasas running throughout the length and breadth of this country, but one of our mosques, a dilapidated and disused one, was demolished by people who were characterised by the Supreme Court as miscreants, and we blew that into an issue of our religious freedom in the country. We have still not solved that problem and allowed it to fester, to our nation’s detriment. Do our intellectuals take time off fighting the system and tell us it is not in our interest to allow a cancer to grow. The mosque is gone. We apparently don’t worship bricks and soil. Bricks too are gone in any case. Why can’t we initiate an amicable solution, as it would be in our own interest too? We need a plot of land to pray, we can pray anywhere in the area. Why do we need to blow it out of all proportion, make it such a big issue, when the country �" the system - is allowing us to have as many mosques and madrasas as we wish?

Though always popular in literature as a plot-device, self-fulfilling prophecies have gained enormous popularity recently, particularly in the Science fiction genre. A Wikipedia note reveals that t they are typically used ironically, with the prophesied events coming to pass due to the actions of one trying to prevent the prophecy.

I am reminded of this as I find almost all commentators in the Muslim Urdu Press talking of a “grave conspiracy” hatched by the Indian state and being carried out since Independence in 1947 to deny even a modicum of prosperity to Muslims. The danger of this prophecy turning self-fulfilling lies in the fact that so-called Muslim leaders are now trying to “prevent the prophecy from coming true” and as many of us know science fiction has a way of turning into science fact sooner than many of us may have bargained for.

The recent Batla House encounter has now been turned into an issue of Muslim survival in the same way as the demolition of a dilapidated, disused mosque in 1992 had been converted into the question of religious freedom for Muslims in India.

I quote a few sentences from one of the least provocative of syndicated columns by a senior journalist who always asks Muslims to “behave sensibly and not emotionally”:

“As soon as Some Muslim students turned lucky and started qualifying in medical and engineering courses, evil eyes fell upon them and the albatross of terrorism was hung around their neck….

“The passion for learning and moving forward in life brought about the good result in the shape of a great doctor like Mohammad Haneef and a software engineer like Mohammad Mansoor Peerbhai who was earning 19 lakhs per annum. The Indian system (or state, the Urdu word used is Nizam) could not digest this….

“We consider it (the encounter and arrests) a grave conspiracy against the Muslim community with the sole aim of pushing the community into the abyss of frustration and hopelessness so that our youth are not able to qualify for good jobs. This conspiracy is not new, it has been going on since 1947 when Muslims were denied jobs in India; indeed, when they went looking for jobs they were asked why they were searching for jobs here in India and why didn’t they go to Pakistan.

“The Bhiwandi riots were to destroy the Muslims industry there. When the Muslims started sari businesses in Banaras, their businesses were burnt down. Their brass industry was destroyed in Moradabad through police terrorism. The prosperous Ansarees of Bhagalpur are still not able to make ends meet following the riots there; the riots of Malyana were aimed at destroying the growing prosperity of Muslims in Meerut. In short, all this is part of a pre-planned conspiracy against the Muslims’ economic progress and prosperity. ”

[The full article is reproduced below in English translation]

If this is sensible talk, one wonders what the less sensible among us would be saying or doing. Encounters have been fake in the past and will probably happen in the future too. Even apologists of the police in the media do not quite vouch for their credibility. As for Batla House encounter no outsider can say anything for sure. Since a police officer was also martyred in the process, the balance is in favour of the police. There are many questions, however, that need to be satisfactorily resolved. As we have not seen even a charge-sheet yet, there is not much point in speculating. However, in our system, an alleged criminal or terrorist remains innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. Our system, therefore, provides them with legal support in defending themselves if they cannot afford to do that themselves.

However, to infer from a case of possibly false encounter, or even a proven false encounter by overzealous or communal-minded police personnel, that the system (state) has hatched a conspiracy to eliminate all the employed youth of a community that constitutes nearly 15 percent of the total population is truly outrageous. Apparently the protagonists of the state conspiracy and a conspiracy that has been going on since Independence in 1947 do not know what states are capable of doing. They should read the history of Bangladesh; they would learn what the Muslim, indeed Islamic state of Pakistan did to fellow Muslim citizens when they demanded that the verdict of a free and fair elections held by the same Islamic state be implemented. One to three million East Pakistani Muslims killed, almost the entire brain power of the future Bangladesh was eliminated. Pakistan Army hunted educated Bangladeshis, in particular, from professors’ colonies and journalists’ colonies, etc. with a ferocity that remains unparalleled so far. Almost the entire Hindu minority population of Pakistan and Bangladesh has of course been eliminated. Where are the Muslims who ruled Spain for seven centuries? What happened to the Jews of Nazi Germany? Six million killed. History books are strewn with examples, gruesome, indescribably gruesome, instances of what state conspiracies can do.

What crime has the Indian state committed to be reviled so? Or, the Indian system (Nizam), which would presumably include the constitution? Well, it did not declare itself a Hindu state as Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, the founder-ideologue of Jamaat-e-Islami and the mentor of SIMI, advised it to do and treat Muslims and other religious minorities as second class citizens. Had it done so, it would not be accused today of hatching conspiracies against the rights of the minorities.

Are you sure? Did Maulana Maudoodi really say that? Well, though a Maulana and capable of the vilest of lies in support of his arguments, even capable of quoting the weakest of Ahadees (sayings of the Prophet known to be concocted) when required by his arguments in favour of purdah, for instance - something that genuine ulema are not supposed to do - Maulana Maudoodi did have moments when he would take his arguments to their logical conclusion. So, for instance, he opposed the so-called Jihad for Kashmir in 1948 and was reviled for that in Pakistan and even sentenced to death eventually. Anyway, this is what one of those most active in the present imbroglio, Ghulam Muhammed of Mumbai posted in his blog not long ago: