Amidst the Islamic Fascism

Conspiracy of Others or Paranoia of Islamic minds

A Bollywood movie ‘Delhi-6’ was shown today on TV . I had seen it before but suddenly carried on watching it regardless and then realised how relevant this movie is after 3 years. I guess the movie will stay relevant even after a century. The movie tries to bring Hindus and Muslims together through a satirical character called black monkey. At one stage a Muslim utters that this monkey is a conspiracy of Hindus to punish Muslims. But away from the movie, I see big paranoia floating in Islamic minds. Muslims see everything with a different lense. Let that be attack on NewYork 9/11 or on Mumbai , 26/11. Many Muslims thought it was done by the US or Indians themselves respectively for a long time. In Iran, the familiar holocaust denial of Ahmadinejad looms large. I have listened to many a debates on ‘You Tube’ of a mixed crowd but have come out wondering why only Muslim minds are paranoid in these debates and see the events very differently. I also thought perhaps Muslims in Pakistan are even more paranoid compared to the Muslims living in India and then thought that this may be due to them living under overwhelming influence of Muslim hardliners within that country. But then it is not the question of  the Muslims in the subcontinent but those who are living in the liberal west too. Do these Muslims elsewhere see the world any differently?

This week Salman Rushdie was back in India after being denied a platform to speak in January when due to a few vocal Islamists in India, he was denied the opportunity to participate in a literary meet. At that time the election was around in a few Indian states and as the Muslims are a very big vote bank, all the parties wanted to pander to those vocal Islamists who were opposed to his visit. Today, I was reading column devoted to Rushdie visit in India in a Pakistani newspaper . All Muslim readers from around the world were reacting after this news in a familiar way. They did not want any Rushdie visit or at least no report of his visit in the paper. Some wanted him still dead for hurting Muslim feelings.  I wondered why satire and allegory in literature as an art form escapes Muslim mind as Satanic Verses was based on that. A few politicians from both India and Pakistan like upcoming Imran Khan did not want to share the same platform as given to Rushdie in order to keep the Muslim vote bank safe. After reading all this, I was thinking that it is strange that the Salman Rushdie after all these years of hiding and running around never gave up his religion. Is he scared to move out of Islam as usually all Muslims are because Islam forbids a person leaving it or condemns them to get killed. But since he was under Fatwa already, so what could be the reason for him staying loyal to Islam. I guessed that it is because he is the moderate and tolerant face of Islam who wants to change the Islam from within. Now, who are these people opposed to this moderate view. I feel it is not just hardliners but all those who are average Muslims around the world . These average people are always influenced by hardliners but never by moderate Muslims. I wondered if there are enough moderate Muslims in the world. Then I thought that moderates are so few that you can even count them on fingers. So, there is no wonder that this hijacking of average Muslim mind continues . But who are really responsible for this state of affair to continue. I think it is not just hardliners but those people who pander to the hardliners or Islamic fascists. So, in other words it is the political leaders who are not prepared to take on hardliners. But should I blame the political leaders alone and exempt us – you and me. The debate not to appease came to head in Gemany recently when a valiant German woman confronts radical Islamists decided to wake up others in a square and decided to take on directly the Islamic fascists. When will the others like you and me wake to change Muslims into moderate Muslims? We all face a dilemma  if  the Muslims should be told that they are intolerant of other faiths and even of other Muslims. Not to talk of Islamic Fascism is appeasement.