After Paris, Muslims must speak up

Hashim Qureshi

On November 13, in Paris ISIS barbarians shed blood in the name of Islam, a peaceful religion. People know Paris as the city of spring, freedom and equality. The innocent who died never knew their fault or crime. The innocent people of Iraq, Libya and Syria, too, had no fault whatsoever. The first principle of seeking justice is that the oppressed should not stain his hands with blood. Gunning down one innocent as revenge for the death of another innocent is unjust and impermissible. It is revenge. 

Pakistani columnist Wusatullah Khan wrote: ``two and a half months ago the body of Syrian boy Aylan Alkurdi was found face down on the seashore of Turkey. Except a few rich Muslim countries, the rest of them were shocked. Europeans opened their doors for Syrian refugees.’’ 

He writes, ``95 per cent of Muslims do not accept the jihad concept of Al-Qaida and Daesh. Was ever, until today, a decree (fatwa) issued during the last 20 years from Islamic centres like Al Zahra University, office of the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Darul Uloom Deoband or Madrassa i-Rahimiyah excluding al-Qaida or Daesh or their advocates from the Islamic circle for perpetrating disturbance on earth? Whenever such a question is raised, its answer is evaded’’. 

More than 20 million Muslims live in European countries. Muslim youth excels in many fields. They support their parents and family members left behind in mother countries. They use clandestine methods to obtain citizenship for their relatives in European countries.  In Holland the case of a brother and sister marrying was reported to an Asian Embassy. A person would show his brother married to his wife. As the late Maulavi Noorani had often said, this is a prohibited and illegal practice. However, the axiom is that necessity is the mother of invention. 

The point is that Muslims and the people of the East have played a hundred and one tricks to wriggle out of poverty and destitution. In the process, they were also enlightened with education. Thousands of scholars from Asian and African countries went to European universities. Great intellectuals like Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, Gandhiji, Pandit Nehru, Dr. Ambedkar, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Chou Enlai and others studied in European universities and worked to contribute to the welfare and uplift of fellow human beings. Europe opened its doors to over two million Muslims from Syria and Iraq. Arab States, which constantly trumpet the Islamic lesson of goodwill, remained mute spectators to the dance of death in their neighbourhood. How brazenly they give long sermons that if the Muslims in the West are in trouble, their brethren in the East should become partners in their pain!

A few self-styled leaders and scholars try to justify such barbaric acts by claiming that these Muslims are not terrorists. Were Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin Muslims? That time is gone. We should remember that even during that period, Muslims had perpetrated massacres. During the Ottoman period, thousands of European and Asian women were taken prisoners and made servants and concubines. Did not our ancestors resort to inhuman treatment of innocent people?  

The consequences of the attacks in Europe and in the US (after 9/11) on the Muslims have been awful. Travelling in Europe and the US is fraught with trouble. Their admission into professional and non-professional colleges has become very difficult. At immigration counters, they are insulted, hatred is expressed towards them in shops and offices and getting a job has become difficult. It is true that not every Muslim is a terrorist. But it is also true that almost every terrorist who is caught is a Muslim. 

Ultra nationalists in Europe are becoming stronger. Fringe political parties are now joining coalition governments. The day is not far off when they will converge into a majority and Muslims will have to flee Europe to save their lives and honour.  Paris-type attacks will alter the psychology of European secularists. Liberals will be swayed by the avalanche of hatred and all factories of so-called human rights will pull down shutters. The French right- wing ideologue Robert Chardon has already demanded a complete ban on Islam and supports a Martial Plan to expel all Muslims from the country. We should not forget that over 60 lakh Muslims from Arab countries, Africa and Asia live in France. 

Let us introspect and ask in how many Muslim-majority countries did people come out on streets on the call of their rulers to protest against the Paris attacks? In which Muslim country did the national flag fly half mast in the memory of the innocent people murdered in cold blood? 

In Peshawar, Taliban barbarians killed 130 schoolchildren. The entire world condemned the barbaric act. When the Pakistani army carpet bombed the tribal areas, not a leaf survived not to speak of the fate of houses, schools and hospitals. But not a human being protested this inhuman act. The reason was that the images of the dead Peshawar schoolchildren were fresh in the minds of the people. Why is it that when gruesome murders like these take place in India, the US or Europe, we become mute spectators? Are we not prejudiced and hypocritical? 

Terrorism is an antidote to progress and development. Humankind has gone through a long struggle to achieve the current level of education, knowledge and scientific advancement. Terrorism negates these achievements. It is a poisonous snake and its head must be smashed before it is able to spread its venom. 

I do not expect the tragic event in France will make us give up the practice of hoisting Pakistani and ISIS flags in our mosques and public gatherings. We know these flags flutter in the expectation of ``remuneration’’ from concerned quarters. However, I am confident that people with conscience and humane instincts will hate terrorist acts like these. Experience has shown that terrorism turns civilisations into ruins. It breaks God’s finest creations, that is, humankind into pieces. 

(The writer had hijacked an Indian Airlines plane in 1971. He has come a long way since and heads the JK Democratic Liberation Party, ‘committed to peaceful political activity’)