Paris, Peshawar and Boko Haram - Religion, Politics and Violence

Ram Puniyani

Massacre of hundreds of children in Peshawar by Pakistani Taliban, the atrocities, murders, kidnappings by Boko Haram, an Islamist group and the attack on Paris cartoon magazine Charlie Hadbo killing 16, have occurred in a short span of few months. The popular perception of relationship between violence and Islam got a further boost. The phrase ‘Islamic Terrorism’, which was created by US media in the aftermath of 9/11, got a further shot in the arms. It got a booster dose of unprecedented level. The debates regarding freedom of expression, sharia laws, education for girls continued to be in the fore and columns after column either dissociating Islam from these mindless acts or boosting the perception of Muslims being in the business of merciless killing of their own kith and other with gay abandon; dominated the visual and print media (January 2015).

Logo of Boko Haram (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

These acts of terror kill the innocent people and Koran- chapter V verse 32- goes on to say that even if you kill a single innocent person, that’s like killing the whole humanity with an addition that if you save a single innocent person that’s like saving the whole humanity. Still the impression continues that currently most of the dreaded acts of terror are either done by Muslims belonging to this or that group or faction. Not too long ago we did witness acts of terror from the like of Andres Behring Brevik(Norway); the people like Ashin Wirathu (Buddhist Myanmar) were in the news for related actions. Swami Aseemanand is in jail and had confessed to the acts of terrorist violence not too long ago. Does one want to underplay the association of Islam-Muslims and acts of terror? Is one wanting to be in denial mode as for as violence by some Muslims is concerned? The teachings of Koran notwithstanding; there are some Muslims who take to the senseless killings in the most insane and cruel manner; is definitely true. The question is; are such acts due to Islam or Muslims as such? How does one understand the association of label of religion with acts of violence and terror?

At the cost of broad generalizations one can say that most of the prophets of religions focused on some issue of injustice in the society and called for peace, non-violence in their own historical context. The society was either based on pastoral or agricultural mode of production and tribal society-kingdoms were the main pattern of organization of society. The religions, which began as the moral edicts had added social and communitarian functions as well. Clergy became a major component of religions. The spread of the message of prophets also led to the institutionalization of religions, which added one more dimension to the broad umbrella provided by religion as a social phenomenon. These institutions built around religions became a very significant part of religions. Those controlling levers of power gradually allied with the religions’ institutions; and these institutions came to be patronized by the rulers. In turn the institutionalized religions legitimized the power of the king, landlord. King was presented as the son of God in different ways.

The alliance of King-Clergy was best seen in the alliance King-Pope. In other religions’ contexts it became Nawab-Shahi Imam, Raja-Rajguru for example. Currently in Pakistan and Myanmar; mostly; the institutions of religions and dominating army are hands in gloves times and over again. In our Maharashtra a popular Marathi phrase sums it very well Shetji-Bhatji (Landlord-Priest). With religions being institutionalized the collaboration between kings and clergy became the foundation of social system where the agricultural producers-craftsmen and other laboring masses submitted to the system created by the power of the king and ideology of the clergy. The words of Prophets went in to the background. The organization of clergy was varying, from the most organized in Christianity to the decentralized one in Hinduism, to Islam where there is no theological justification of clergy; nevertheless it is very much there.

Here comes the entry of power in the realm of religion. Kingdoms, many a times took the cover of religion for their goals of power. The kings expanded or wanted to expand their kingdoms and put this expansion project to annex other territories in the garb of Crusade, Jihad or Dharmyudh depending on the religion of the king.

The real use of religion’s identity, label, can be seen during colonial period. In most South Asian countries, particularly in India, we see that with the social, economic changes accompanying the introduction of transport, communication, industries and modern education during colonial period, there was a rise of new classes in the form of businessmen industrialists, workers and educated classes in particular. They formed secular organizations, with secular democratic Indian nationalism as the goal, like Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (Bhagat Singh), Independent Labor Party, Scheduled Castes Federation (B.R.Ambedkar) and the overarching Indian Nationalist Congress (Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Mahatma Gandhi). In contrast to these rising classes the declining classes of Landlords and Kings pledged their loyalty to British and went on to form Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha and later RSS with the agenda of Hindu nation. In the Religious nationalist organizations initially only kings-landlords were there later some educated and upper caste elite and still later sections of middle class also joined in. Here the communitarian identity of religion was exploited by declining classes to protect their social-political interests. When they said ‘my religion in danger’ they meant my political interests are in danger. They also indulged in ‘Hate other’ propaganda, leading to communal violence and later to the partition of the country.  Here we see religion being used as a cover, the religious nationalism to hide their feudal values of caste and gender hierarchy. Similarly the cover of Buddhism has been used by political tendencies in Srilanka and Myanmar.      

With the coming in of Imperialism, the rise of the US as the global super power dominated the global scene. Two superpowers USSR and USA were in the game of ‘Cold War’. US later planned and used Islam to counter Socialist block. It meticulously used a version of Islam for indoctrination the minds of youth. These youth were used to fight against the Soviet Russia and later the same indoctrinated youth came up and are tormenting the parts of the World. This phase of ‘religion as a cover of political goals’ begins with the formation of Israel in the aftermath of Second World War, the eviction of 14 lakh Palestinians away from their home and hearth. In due course to protect its oil interests the US-Britain nexus overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh Government in Iran. This ‘chain of events’ did lead to coming to power of Ayatollah Khomeini. At this point US media coined the word ‘Islam the new threat’. They meant that Socialism as the threat is in decline and Islam is coming up as the new threat to the free World. In its design to use all methods to crush the socialist block, US encouraged the Madarassas in Pakistan, where the Wahabbi version of Islam was introduced as a part of the training module designed in Washington. This version of Islam had already been the ally of the Saud family, in whose name Saudi Arabia stands. The Saud family came to use this version of Islam, Wahabbism to control the oil wealth of the region. US allied with Saud dynasty and also promoted Wahabbi version in the Madrassas in Pakistan. This version of Islam saw in every person disagreeing with their interpretation of Islam, as Kafir and killing the kafirs as Jihad. Jihad being the path to Jannat after death, jannat waiting with the rich reward of 72 virgins!

This heady mix of ‘brain washing’ did lead to Mujahedeen being transformed to Taliban-Al Qaeda and later giving rise to ISIS, the major menace in today’s world. Tendencies like Boko Haram draw their inspiration and support from the similar understanding of Islam. Time and again a large section of leaders of Muslims, many of the maulanas have issued the fatwa’s that terrorism is against the tenets of Islam, but what sticks in social awareness is the picture of Taliban or ISIS or Al Qaeda or Boko haram as the face of Muslims and Islam. No wonder one of the greatest philosophers of all the times Karl Marx, remarked very aptly that’ Ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class’, that’s the power of media at the service of the US, at the service of Corporate houses. Today the Islamophobia rules the streets and in some form or the other the religion which came to give the message of peace is perceived as the ultimate in prompting and indulging in violence.

Do we need to factor in the political forces, Kings of the past, the colonial masters of yesteryears and the ‘oil hungry’ global superpowers, behind promoting, abusing religions’ identity to understand the dastardly acts tormenting the humanity? The phrases joining any religion and terrorism are the biggest insult to the morality of religions to be sure!

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ISIS, Oil Politics and Peaking of Islamophobia

Ram Puniyani

  

Just a month ago (August 2014) a group of Muslim activists-scholars organized press meets in various cities. They issued a statement condemning the brutal violence being committed by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). There statement carried a visual saying Islam Means Peace. The statement said “Indian Muslims Condemn the Brutal Atrocities by ISIS against Minorities in Iraq and Syria; denounce religious intolerance, persecution and violence in the name of Islam” I circulated the statement to many lists. One of the members on the list wrote back that “‘Islam means Peace’ is the biggest joke of the century”. Simultaneously in India, the propaganda about love Jihad is being spread like wild fire by communal elements. Irrespective of the fact that in such a propaganda few cases of marriage-conversion, the girls changing their version the boundary line between love and imposition being regularly breached, have been picked up as an example of Muslim men on a path to Jihad for conversion to Islam, by marrying Hindu girls by deceit. A friend demanded whether I can cite even 100 cases where Muslim girls have married Hindu men. To my good fortune I could locate a list longer than that of 100 and also a Google search of Hindu Men Muslim wife gave good many beautiful stories (https://www.facebook.com/R3alityofPorkistan/posts/613266692020533 ) of such ‘love jihad’ in reverse! To add to the already existing atmosphere Al Jawahiri of Al Qaeda issued a Video declaring its plan to expand the activities in India.

The ‘social common sense’ is so heavily weighted against Islam and Muslims that to talk of reason in understanding religion and its abuse for political goals seems to be a very difficult exercise. The current ghastly acts are being described to be due to Islam and in turn Muslim community is blamed for the violence. The understanding that religions are for ‘morality and peace’ is accepted for other religions but not for Islam in popular perception. Many a processes of ‘Manufacturing Consent’ are today fusing to create a picture of Muslims which is neither true nor of any good to the peace in the World. All Muslims are being presented in homogenous-uniform image and the selective examples of the criminal Muslims and intolerant version of Islam is being projected as ‘the Islam’ feeding into the massive prejudices which have intensified during last several decades.

Flag of ISIS

While the ISIS is an offshoot of AL Qaeda, which was trained by USA-ISI through Madrasa’s set up in Pakistan. There are enough good resources to tell us about the scheme of US in the West Asia to control the oil wealth. The US dictum for this area has been ‘Oil is too precious a commodity to be left to control of natives’. While one has burnt midnight oil to unravel the trajectory of US policy through books with solid scholarship, the job of understanding this has become easy with a small video clip of Hillary Clinton. Very smartly and briskly she tells us that it was US which created Al Qaeda by indoctrinating the Muslim youth. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLhRKj6633w). A peep into the history of the region tells us that this indoctrination was done by using the distorted version of Islam, Wahabbism to be more precise.

This force, Al Qaeda was created, richly funded and armed to the teeth by US, to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. With the brutality of Al Qaeda being manifest, US media presented its demonic image by coining the word ‘Islamic terrorism’ after 9/11 2001. Before this 9/11 episode, the acts of terror were not linked to religion, though people coming from different religions have resorted to such acts. From killer of Mahatama Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, to Buddhist monks resorting to terror acts in Thailand, Mynmar, Sri Lanka to Anders Berling Brevik of Norway, people coming from different religious stocks have indulged in acts of terror for diverse political reasons. After 9/11 the acts of terror was associated exclusively with Islam. 

  

Interestingly the version of Islam picked up by US to create Al Qaeda, to indoctrinate Mujahideen in to terror trails, was formulated by Abd al-Wahhab, who had started rigidifying Islam; imposing his exclusive version in the projection of Islam. He pontificates that "any doubt or hesitation" on the part of a believer in respect to his or her acknowledging this (Wahab’s) particular interpretation of Islam should "deprive a man of immunity of his property and his life." This was the version of Islam which was one amongst many. Why did it become more dominant?  Mostly because this version got the sanction form the political masters as this version got patronage of the rulers of Saudi Arabia. “One of the main tenets of Abd al-Wahhab's doctrine is takfir. As per this doctrine fellow Muslims are called infidels if they engage in activities that in any way could be said to encroach on the sovereignty of the absolute Authority (that is, the King)." Those who would not conform to this view should be killed, their wives and daughters violated, and their possessions confiscated, he wrote.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/isis-wahhabism-saudi-arabia_b_5717157.html )

This version suited the Saudi rulers in keeping their control over oil resources and the same version suited the US designs, where the meaning of Kafir (One who hides the truth) is changed to the non Muslim, the ‘other’. This is the version where the word Jihad is made synonymous with killing the non believer. As such scholars of repute tell us that Jihad stands for striving to your utmost for good deeds. The same Islam, which says ‘to me my din (faith) to you yours’ is changed over to killing those who disagree with you. The same Islam which tells us that ‘killing of even a single innocent human being tantamount to killing the whole humanity’ (Koran, chapter 5 verse 32) was manipulated to kill innocent human beings. This interpretation of Islam was the perfect recipe for those who wanted to fight Russian army through proxy! The indoctrination of this variety cannot be undone once the goals are achieved. The Al Qaeda elements after collaborating in defeating Russian army; retain the distorted version of Islam and the dangerous weapons supplied by US. What do they do now with Wahabi Islam in head and armaments received courtesy the United States, in hands? So ISIS comes up in due course, and the illusion that they can now rule the World, they will install Khalifa, and all the insanity follows!

As such US has been out to play ‘divide and rule’ like the earlier colonial powers. In India colonial powers sowed the seeds of communal politics. In West Asia, during last few decades after the demise of Soviet Union; US imperialism is aiming to create smaller states along ethnic-sectarian divides and feeding into the divides and clashes along Shia-Sunni-Kurd lines. ‘Divide-et-empera’ (divide and rule) is at its peak but is also at the same time demonizing the Muslims Worldwide through the Islam phobia which is constructed around the evil deeds of the likes of Al Qaeda or ISIS.

How can we bring in reason in ‘social thinking’ in the face of powerful vested interests who want to use and abuse religion for their political goals, demonize a religious community is a question not easy to resolve. Challenging the prevalence of ideas of the dominant sections, dominant social powers; is a tall order, which has to be taken up in all seriousness if we want peace and progress in our society.

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Formal versus Substantive Justice: Shinde’s Letter on Harassment of innocent Muslims

Ram Puniyani

In his letter to all the Chief Ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde’s Centre’s Home Minster (30, 09, 2013), wrote that Government has been receiving complaints of harassment of innocent Muslim youth by Law enforcement agencies. He asked the state authorities to ensure that no innocent Muslim youth should be arrested or wrongfully detained in the name of terror. The letter also suggests that if such wrongful act has been done it should be duly compensated.

Terrorism has been one of the major phenomenons of recent global scene. Globally the politics of controlling oil wells used the radical versions of Islam for creating the Al Qaeda series of terrorist groups, where the words Kafir and Jehad were totally manipulated, and that’s what resulted in the word “Islamic Terrorism’. With the coining of this term the catchy phrases were built by the vested elements. The currently popular one is, ‘All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims’. This has become not only the part of ‘social common sense’ but also the policy base for investigating police officers.

Sushil Kumar Shinde

There might have been many other factors due to which police behaved like the way it did, a quick and reckless arrest of Muslim youth. For first few years of these arrests, only a handful of activists raised their voice against the biased attitude of the authorities. There were couple of people’s tribunals which heard the voices of the victims of biased behavior of the state machinery. There were painful narrations by the youth and their relatives about these youth having to abandon their studies half way through, many medical students, technology students amongst others, suffered due to the biased non professional attitude guided by the prevalent communal stereotypes in the society.

With the Malegaon blast (2008) investigation done by Maharashtra ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, his professionalism took the better of the prevalent biases of the system and he was able to nab the real culprits, starting from Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey to Swami Assemanad, many of who are currently in jails. The confession of Swami Aseemanand turned the tide of investigation and now those involved in acts of terror got nabbed by police.

Notwithstanding this, the acts of terror at one level came down but after a bit of a pause they came up again and many an offshoot of Al Qaeda raised their nasty head once again. While a professional attitude can lead the authorities to the culprits, the biased attitude kept leading the police to many a Muslim youth over and over again. It is no body’s case that many a Muslim was not involved in the acts of terror, they were. The Al Qaeda and its stinking ideology it brought up kept circulating like a cancer and not only in India, but more so in Pakistan the acts of terror kept occurring.

So where do we stand. One, Terrorism has nothing to do with religion. On one hand it is the cancerous spread of the Al Qaeda, a dangerous outcome of the policies pursued by US in setting up Madrassas in Pakistan. These insane acts of terror have been tormenting South Asia in particular. Second, as Swami Aseemanand confessed in front of a magistrate and the ideology enunciated in Sanatan Sanstha web site, these acts of terror are for creation of Hindu Nation. As per the ideology of Sanatan Sanstha, in this kaliyug (dark age) the Muslims and Christians are demons who need to be dealt with. So in the series of blasts starting from Malegaon to Ajmer to Samjhauta blast to Mecca Masjid the bombs were made to explode at the times when large number of Muslims congregates at one time. Samjhauta Express was targeted as the major passengers are Muslims.

So we are dealing with two streams of terror, the Al Qaeda variety and Swami Aseemanand variety. Both these shades of terror wear the cloak of religion. Both have nothing to do with religion, both are motivated by politics. The question comes here if there are both the types of terror, how come youth only from one community are arrested left, right and center. Highlighting these issues, Ashish Khetan, a journalist with commitment to truth has started his web portal Gulail (slingshot), exposing many an acts of biased investigations and Muslims being the victims of that. Currently in Lucknow, Rihai Manch started a long lasting Dhrana to demand the release of innocent Muslims arrested for being terrorists, with no substance in the so called evidence. Many a Muslim groups took out a peace march from Malegaon to Mumbai to demand for the release of innocent Muslim youth who were in jails despite the fact that Swami Aseemanand had given the legally valid confession as per which his groups was the one behind Malegaon blast. Despite this, the innocent Muslims youth continued to be in jails without any evidence whatsoever. Since then they have now been released.

It is in this background that Sushil Kumar Shinde’s letter to the state Chief Ministers has to be seen. BJP, as is its wont is communalizing the issue by saying that it is another act of appeasement on the part of the Government. As per BJP it is an attempt to divide the nation and that the letter should be taken back. This attitude of BJP is in pursuance of its agenda of Hindu Rashtra, one which benefits the elite of majority community. BJP can never understand that the unequal people cannot be treated equally in a democracy. The concept of affirmative action, the concept of the state a guardian of the weak cannot be the part of this communal party’s ideology.

At one level they argue on the grounds of Constitution that all should be treated equally. So why is there provisions like Anti-Dalit Atrocities act, why is there a law against domestic violence for safeguarding women? A sensitive humane democratic society realizes that weak of the society need extra protection, extra provisions so that they don’t get trampled under the wheels of ‘Formal Equality’. As such the process of democracy is a march from formal equality to substantive equality. BJP cannot understand this journey and logic of democracy as they want a status quo of caste and gender hierarchy; they want supremacy of Hindu elite. So such actions which are meant to protect the weak are seen by them as dividing the society.

As a matter of fact the efforts of Mr. Shinde are coming too late in the day. Years ago once the citizens inquiries, the tribunals, the dharnas brought forward the plight of Muslim youth in the wake of acts of terror, such a letter should have been issued. Not only that there is a need to train the police to overcome its biased behavior against religious minorities and other weaker sections of society. Mr. Shinde must take the process forward and call the convention of the top police officers and discuss the roots of terrorism, they should be made to understand the plight of marginalized people, and they should be made to go through the reports of these tribunals. As human beings, as officers, and as those who can be important conduit to bring justice to society, the police needs to be trained in a delicate social issue. Many a BJP leaders had been supping with the likes of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Swami Aseemanand. In those cases they had even approached the Prime Minister to go soft on them! What a hypocrisy or is it? It is the part of their politics to protect Sadhvis and Swamis exploding bombs and to merrily oversee the torture of Muslim youth in the name of terrorism. That’s what communalism is, the ideology which is the base of this party!

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Americaroopam: Kamal Haasan’s Flawed Scripting

Ram Puniyani

The release of Vishwaroopam, the latest film from Kamal Haasan was mired in controversies. (Feb 2013). Haasan decided to arrange a pre-screening for some groups, despite the film being cleared by the censors. These Muslim groups raised lots of objections and demanded for the ban on the film. As matters unfolded, these groups agreed for the release of the film after some cuts in the film, which the renowned actor-producer did and film went on to get very good response on the box office.

The demand for ban was totally out of place and unwarranted. The cutting of some scenes and the background recitation of Quran, before and after the acts of terror, was done by the producer. .Film all through creates the feel that Quran is the source of inspiration for violence. Though Haasan went on to say that the film is a tribute to Indian Muslims, as such the film falls in the trap of the Islamophobia created by America, American media and media here at home. Briefly, in the film the hero helps the US troops against Taliban forces and helps in the Americans in preventing the blast by Muslim group. An analysis of script of the film can be summed up by stating that the hero of the film, a Muslim working with RAW; is a very conscientious person out to save the World from the terror created by Muslim groups. Some writers have summed it up by saying that the film tries to portray ‘one good Muslims and all other bad Muslims’. It leaves an impression that the terrorist Muslim groups are creating problem all over and US is the savior, its agencies trying to protect US and the World from these dastardly acts. Film also roughly goes on to portray that Muslim children are given the arms training right from childhood, and Quran is their training manual for these acts of terror.

While one knows the impeccable secular credentials of both the lead actors of the film, Kamal Haasan and Rahul Bose; still the film is based on the script which is very superficial in its attempt with tackling the problem of terrorism. It’s not that it is the first film trying to grapple with the phenomenon of terror. There had been earlier attempts to deal with the theme, some of them doing a commendable job to go beyond the obvious in unraveling the deeper causes of terror then restricting to the understanding that terrorism is to Islam itself. Films like New York, My Name is Khan, Tere bin Laden Aamir and others did a good job as the script writers tried to break the shackles of the US propaganda and the ‘constructed social common sense’ that ‘All Terrorists are Muslims’. This film takes this formulation as the basic dictum adds to that the imagery that the terrorists keep carrying Koran, keep offering Namaz, and keep shouting Allah Ho Akbar while indulging in the acts of brutality.

How come such a serious film maker like Kamal Haasan falls in to the trap of the US inspired thesis which links terrorism with the teaching of Islam? Haasan claims to have 300 evidences for his script. Going by the story line of the film it seems that his sources seem to be lacking deeper scholarship. One guesses that what is paraded as evidence is mostly the propaganda of dominant global power, America. Look at the statement made in all seriousness that Americans don’t kill women and children! Will the script writer be able to defend it after going through the list of victims of US aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq to give the recent examples?

The film while caricaturing Mullah Umar, as Omar in the film, or the nature of whole Taliban gang, gives the impression that all this is due to what Koran teaches. Here the film gives the impression, the script goes out to elaborate that the hero stands as an exception to all the bad Muslims out to destroy the World. One can say the story line of the film is the passive acceptance of the dominant World view. Karl Marx remarked that the dominant ideas are the ideas of the ruling classes. One can modify it to state that the dominant groups-powers can and do manipulate the social thinking and hide the truth. They project the falsehoods, which the large sections of society go on to accept. Same thing was articulated by Noam Chomsky, the US human rights activists, in his classical formulation of ‘manufacturing consent’. The extensive study undertaken by Chomsky into the policies of US Empire showed its machinations to create the opinion in its favor while attacking other countries for its narrow political goals.

It’s not that there are no dissenting scholars and serious researched material on the subject. There is enough in the arena of serious scholarship and some dedicated websites, which show the deeper truth. One can very well mention the two profound works of scholarship on the subject, Mahmud Mamdani’s ‘Good Muslim Bad Muslim’ and Tariq Ali’s ‘Clash of Fundamentalisms’, which show the deeper connection of the current terror groups, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda outfits themselves being the product of the US attempt to dominate West Asia for controlling oil wealth. The US imperialists worked with the thesis that oil is too important a commodity to be left to Arabs for control. The deeper peep into the current history of West Asia will clearly show the role of CIA in promoting the Madrassas, which picked up Salafi version of Islam to indoctrinate the generation of Muslim youth to undertake acts of terror. The whole sequence of Mujahideen, Taliban and Al Qaeda had been the outcome of that. All this, was richly funded by the United States to fight against the Russians; occupying Afghanistan. Apparently later Al Qaeda turned its guns against Western powers and today is playing the Frankenstein’s monster. The whole formulation of ‘Islamic-terrorism’ was the creation of US media post 9/11 2001, linking Islam-Muslims with terrorism. Here one is not referring to the conspiracy theories, which are doing rounds through various films and social media.

It’s a tragedy of times that despite the large presence of social media and serious scholarship on contemporary history of West Asia, the popular conceptions are those dictated by the US media, and Kamal Haasan’s script neatly falls into the superficial trap laid by the global ‘social common sense’. How come the film mentions the involvement of Al Qaeda type groups into the acts of terror in Malegaon and other cities in India, while totally forgetting Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Assemanand and their ilk who are currently in jails accused of being involved in the series of blasts in different places in India! Why film makers and others remain confined to the superficial level of analysis, which in turn worsens the popular perceptions? Surely, deepening of these perceptions does suit the interests of the Imperialist powers and also the communal forces. This pattern of projection of terrorism leads one to conclude that the power of ideas propagated by America, the other dominant social groups with their prowess to influence and shape the opinions emerging from mainstream media and films like Vishwaroopam, is immense. Films like Vishwaroopam have their own right to be screened without any cuts but are disgusting for the poverty of their research and regressive values, which in turn strengthens the Islamophobia, being perpetuated all round, and is serving the Western powers to dominate the oil zone primarily and also other areas. It strongly helps the communal thinking also.

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Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, and Critique of Religion

Ayatolah Khomenini’s fatwa sentencing Slaman Rushdie to death for writing the ‘blasphemous’ novel The Satanic Verses was perhaps the curtain raiser for the religious extremism, intolerance, and violence that would mark the dying decades of twentieth century and the birth of the next. The ugly, hydra-headed religious fanaticism of every variety continues to threaten the cherished values of enlightenment.

Rushdie’s recently published memoir, Joseph Anton, takes you through the travails of the author during those fatwa years, when Islamist assassins were on the prowl to execute him in order to claim the bounty announced by the Shia cleric and, of course, to reserve a place in heaven where rivers of wine flows non-stop and nubile girls roam around.

The book derives its title from the pseudonym Rushdie used during the fatwa years in order not to be identified by the fanatics. The memoir however is not merely a narrative of the ordeals that Rushdie had gone through during those years. The book provides a Rushdie enthusiast or a bibliophile a wealth of interesting materials on what led to the writing of Rushdie’s literary creations, including The Satanic Verses.

What we want to highlight here however is the book’s unequivocal advocacy of secularism, modernity, and rationality as opposed to religious bigotry and intolerance.

Rushdie finds the origin of Islam fascinating because, unlike many other religions, ‘it was an event inside history’, and hence “it was obviously influenced by the events and pressures and ideas of the time of its creation; that to historicise the story, to try to understand how a great ideas was shaped by those forces, was the only possible approach to the subject”.

Al-Lah, Mohammed and Divine Revelations

To Rushdie,

“Revelation was to be understood as an interior, subjective event, not an objective reality, and a revealed text was to be scrutinized like any other text, using all the tools of the critics, literary, historical, psychological, linguistic and sociological.  In short, the text was to be regarded as a human artifact and thus, like all such artifacts, prey to human fallibility and imperfection”. (Page 24)

Undoubtedly, this would be the stand of any right thinking person, though not of an Islamist, who recites Quran as the word of god and hence considers it blasphemous to read it rationally.

On Allah gaining prominence in the Islamic imagery, Rushdie writes:

“Mecca was prosperous….At the gates to the city stood temples to three goddesses, al-Lat, al-manat and al-Uzza. Winged goddesses, like exalted birds. Or angels. Each time the trading caravans from which the city gained its wealth left the city gates, or came back through them, they paused at one of the temples and made an offering. Or, to use modern language: paid a tax. The wealthiest families in Mecca controlled the temples and muchof their wealth came from these ‘offerings’. The winged goddesses were at the heart of the economy of the new city, of the urban civilisation that was coming into being.

“In the building known as the Cube, or Ka’aba, in the centre of town there were idols of hundreds of gods. One of these statues, by no means the most popular, represented a deity called al-Lah, meaning the god, just as al-Lat was the goddess. Al-Lah was unusual in that he didn’t specialize, he wasn’t a rain god or a wealth god or a war god or a love god, he was just, vaguely, an everything god.  It may be that this failure to specialize explained his relative unpopularity.  People making offering to gods usually did so for specific reasons, the health of a child, the future of a business enterprise, a drought, a quarrel, a romance.  There preferred gods who were experts in their field to this non-specific all-rounder of a deity. However, al-Lah was about to become more popular than any pagan deity had ever been. 

“The man who would pluck al-Lah from near-obscurity and become his Prophet, transforming him into the equal, or at least equivalent, of the Old Testament God I Am and the New Testament’s Three-in-One, was Muhammad Ibn Abdullah of the Banu Hashim family….

“Here was a fascinating paradox: that an essentially conservative theology, looking backwards with affection towards a vanishing culture, became a revolutionary idea, because the people whom it attracted most strongly were those who had been marginialised by urbanization – the disaffected poor, the street mob. This, perhaps, was why Islam, the new idea, felt so threatening to the Meccan elite…” (Page 41-43)

Satanic Verses and Status of women in Islam

Anyone pondering over the status of women in Islamic societies today may wonder how it came to be so. Here, again, Rushdie take us to the early years of Islam:

“… … most of the major collections of Hadith, or traditions, about the life of he Prophet told the story of an incident that afterwards became known as the incident of the satanic verses. The Prophet came down from the mountain one day and recited the sura (number 53) call an-Najm, the Star. It contained these words: ‘have you heard of al-Lat and al-Uzza, and al-Manat, the third, the other one? They are the exalted birds, and their intercession is greatly to be desired.’ At a later point – was it days later? Or weeks, or months? – he returned to the mountain and came down, abashed, to state that he had been deceived on his previous visit; the Devil had appeared to him in the guise of the archangel, and the verses he had been given were therefore not divine, but satanic, and should be expunged from the Quran at once. The angel had, on this occasion, brought new verses from God, which were to replace the satanic verses in the great book: ‘have you heard of al-lat and al-Uzza, and al-Manat, the third, the other one? They are but names that your forefathers invented, and there is no truth in them.  Shall God have daughters while you have sons? That would be an unjust division.’ And in this way the Recitation was purified of the Devil’s work. … …

“The ‘true’ verses, angelic or divine, were clear: it was the femaleness of the winged goddesses – the ‘exalted birds’ – that rendered them inferior and fraudulent and proved they could not be the children of God, as the angels were.  Sometime the birth of a great idea revealed things about it future; the way in which newness enters the world prophesied how it would behave when it grew old.  At the birth of this particular idea, femaleness was seen as a disqualification from exaltation.” (Page 43-45)

During the days following Ayatolah Khomeni’s fatwa, a number of writers came to the defence of Rushdie. The South African writer Paul Trewhela was one among them. Rushdie says, Trewhela defended him describing “the Islamist campaign as a ‘bursting forth of mass popular irrationalism’, arguing that “it was ‘the novel’s secularizing tendency that was at issue…its intention to ‘discuss Muhammad as if he were human’... and he argued for a robust secularist response to the religious attack” (Page 125).

Blasphemy

The Khomeni-inspired Islamists used every available means to spread their culture of hate and violence. Here is Rushdie:

“Modern information technology was being used in the service of retrograde ideas: the modern was being turned against itself by the medieval, in the service of a world view that disliked modernity itself – rational, reasonable, innovative, secular, skeptical, challenging, creative modernity, the antithesis of mystical, static, intolerant, stultifying faith.  The rising tide of Islamic radicalism was described by its own ideologues as a ‘revolt against history’. History, the forward progress of peoples through time, was itself the enemy, more than any mere infidels or blasphemers.” (Page 131)

Commenting on Iranian Nights, a play written by Tariq Ali with a character after Salman Rushdie himself, Rushdie writes in his memoir:

“Among the subjects the play did not explore were: religion as political repression and as international terrorism; the need for blasphemy (the writers of the French Enlightenment had deliberately used blasphemy as a weapon, refusing to accept the power of the Church to set limiting points on thought); religion as the enemy of the intellect.”  (Page 177). 

Rushdie says these were the themes he might have treated had he written the play!

On the other hand, The Blasphemer’s Banquet, a play written by the poet Tony Harrison, treats blasphemy “being at the very root of Western culture.  The trials of Socrates, Jesus Christ and Galileo had all been blasphemy trials and yet the history of philosophy, Christianity, and science owed them a mighty debt.”

“At the heart of the dispute over The Satanic Verses”, writes Rushdie,

“…was a question of profound importance: who shall have the control over the story? Who has, who should have, the power not only to tell the stories with which, and within which, we all lived, but also to say in what manner those stories may be told? For everyone lived by and inside stories, the so-called grand narratives. The nation was a story, and the family was another, and religion was a third.  As a creative artist he knew that the only answer to the question was: Everyone and anyone has, or should have that power.  We should all be free to take the grand narratives to task, to argue with them, satirise them, and insist that they change or reflect the changing times.  We should speak of them reverently, irreverently, passionately, caustically, or however we chose. That was our right as members of an open society.”

Cultural Relativism and Islamophobia

Cultural relativism is the favorite stance of religious apologists (and post-modernists as well). This has been used to justify every atrocities committed against the oppressed and especially against religion-based atrocities against women – be it burning of women in the pyre of their deceased husbands (sati), mutilation of girls, the practice of purdah, child marriage, and what not.

In this context, Rushdie quotes from an imaginary letter he wrote to the British Member of Parliament, Bernie Grant:

“Cultural relativism is the death of ethical thought, supporting the right of tyrannical priest to tyrannise, of despotic parent to mutilate their daughters, of bigoted individuals to hate homosexuals and Jews, because it is a part of their ‘culture’ to do so.  Bigotry, prejudice and violence or the threat of violence are not human ‘values’.  They are proof of the absence of such values.  They are not the manifestations of a person’s ‘culture’.  They are indications of a person’s lack of culture. (Page 187)

On the coinage of the word Islamophobia, Rushdie writes:

“A new word had been created to help the blind remain blind: Islamophobia. To criticize the militant stridency of this religion in its contemporary incarnation was to be a bigot. A phobic person was extreme and irrational in his views, and so the fault lay with such persons and not with the belief system that boasted over one billion followers worldwide. One billion believers could not be wrong, therefore the critics must be the ones foaming at the mouth. When did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race. It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. Strong ideas welcomed dissent….

“It was Islam that had changed, not people like himself, it was Islam that had become phobic of a very wide range of ideas, behaviours and things. In those years and in the years that followed, Islamic voices in this or that part of the world – Algeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan – anathematized theatre, film and music, and musicians and performers were mutilated and killed. Representational art was evil, and so the ancient Buddhist statues at Bamiyan were destroyed by the Taliban.

“‘Islamophobia’ was an addition to the vocabulary of Humpty Dumpty Newspeak. It took the language of analysis, reason and dispute, and stood it on its head.

“He knew, as surely as he knew anything, that the fanatical cancer spreading through Muslim communities would, in the end, explode into the wider world beyond Islam. Ifthe intellectual battle was lost – if this new Islam established its right to be ‘respected’ and to have its opponents excoriated, placed beyond the pale and, why not, even killed – then political defeat would follow” (Page 344-46)

Joseph Anton: A Memoir – Salman Rushdie
Published by Jonathan Cape, 2012

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Vicious Cycle of Islamophobia

Ram Puniyani

We are going through strange times. While the science, technology and rationalism has given us physical and intellectual tools to better the lot of humanity, we are witnessing the production of provocative material, literature and films in particular, which demonize the particular religion, Islam to be precise, and the prophet of Islam. On the other hand there is a section of community, feeling threatened and insecure coming to the streets to protest against such humiliation and insult of their religion. There are debates on freedom of expression, but how come the freedom of expression always goes to humiliate and demonize one particular religion only?

Currently (September 2012), there are massive protests in different countries against the American embassies, resulting in death of four from the US staff, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, in Benghazi. Different countries are asking Google, the owner of YouTube, which is hosting this provocative and insulting video clip, ‘Innocence of Muslims’, to withdraw the film clip. At places the video clip has been withdrawn and blocked. US sticks to its ‘Freedom of Expression’ stance and the many protesters are still on the streets.

The film clip, of around 14 minutes duration is part of the full length feature film made by Nakoula Basseley, a US based Christian. The film is very insulting to Islam. In this film large number of modern day mob of bearded Muslims is shown to be attacking Christians. It also takes the audience back in time to show a distorted life of Prophet Mohammad with negative and aggressive traits of personality. It is crude film, made in extremely poor taste and has generated strong reaction amongst large section of Muslims.  It must be pointed out that this is not the only type of reaction to this film. There are sections of clerics who have asked the Muslims to keep restrain. Quoting the moral precepts from Islam, Quran, they said that Islam is a religion of peace and no violent protests should be held. The best response to this despicable film has been from a section of Muslims distributing the book on life of Prophet Mohammad, the prophet of peace.

During last several years, it has become a sort of standard pattern by many in the West and some here in India to demonize Islam. We remember the Danish cartoon of Prophet, where he is shown as a terrorist, with a bomb tucked in his turban. A Florida Pastor went on to burn this holy book, Koran, saying that Koran teaches violence. Some US soldiers in Afghanistan also burnt copies of Koran, on the ground that the terrorist elements had written messages on those copies.

Muslims in Chennai protest against the film "Innocence of Muslims"
Courtesy: The Hindu

The demonization of Islam and Muslims has a pattern and agenda. The cartons and films are the outcome of the deeper political processes, which aim to control the oil wells in West Asia. The imperialist greed of United States marshaled the flag of “Islam the New threat” since Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in Iran, overthrowing the US stooge Raza Shah Pahlavi. Later the slogan was worsened with US setting up Madrassas in Pakistan to train Al Qaeda-Taliban to initiate the Muslim youth to fight against the occupying Russian armies in Afghanistan. The word, Jihad and kafir were distorted to indoctrinate the Muslim youth in these Madrassas.  With later trajectories and the event of 9/11, World Trade Center attack, the US media with all its guile, popularized the phrase ‘Islamic Terrorism’. The phrase was picked up by the media all over the World and later became part of the social common sense. This is a major abuse of religion for political goals by the imperialist power. One can understand this demonization of Islam as a part of US policy, a cover to hide its agenda to control the oil. To understand it in the way Noam Chomsky ‘coined the phrase’ Manufacturing Consent’, the coining of the word Islamic terrorism is part of the US mechanism of manufacturing consent of the world to give assent to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq.

This US policy gas given rise to twin processes. On one hand the phenomenon like a Florida Pastor Terry Jones burning Koran or the Danish cartoonist drawing Prophet Mohammad as terrorist or the present film has been the outcome of the intense propaganda against Islam. This US propaganda has been backed up by the US sponsored ideology of ‘Clash of Civilizations’, according to which the current era of World History is the era of assault of backward Islamic civilization on the advanced Western civilization. This distorted perception, this ideology was used as a cover for US agenda in West Asia. The other process which got unleashed was that the psyche of global Muslim community started being affected. The perception came up that Muslims (Afghanistan and Iraq) are being attacked, they are under threat. In India the added aspect was the rise of RSS type politics, bringing up Ram Temple issue and starting hatred for Muslims. A large section of Muslims started feeling intimidated and besieged. It became easy for mobilizing them around identity issues. Any community which feels besieged, section of it becomes vulnerable to easy provocation and identity based mobilization.

It is a vicious circle, the Islamophobia on one side and besieged community on the other. In this scenario the Muslim clerics who are asking for peace are the beacon lights of hope for the community. The Muslims who are distributing the books on life of prophet need to be complimented. This is what the sane response from the community has to be. What about US, imperialist designs and its mighty propaganda machinery doing all the mischief in the world? Can there be a process of controlling that? Under Kofi Annan, when he was Secretary General of United Nations, a high level committee produced a report, ‘Alliance of Civilizations’. This report got lost under the barrage of Islamphobia. It is time the world as such takes note of the deeper humane values which have developed by humanity over a period of time, the values which have led to the reports of type of ‘Alliance of civilizations’, the UN conventions which have conceptualized the Human rights for all.

The trigger which has incited the demonization process of religion and films like this one are provoking these insane reactions from a section of Muslims. Can United Nations be revived as a global platform for monitoring the norms for Nations, media and other aspects of our global life evolved to ensure that democratization and human dignity is promoted. Can the World come forward to check the aggressions of ‘The Super Power’? That’s when such films will cease to act as factors promoting violent reactions. And even such crude attempts at insulting others’ religion will come down. May be with such norms and restraints on US policies we can hope that such incidents will come down. Even if there are elements making some films like this there will be others making a film giving their own versions of Prophet’s Mission of peace in the World. 

And finally we also need to preserve the concept of freedom of expression moderated with its limits. We also need to cultivate methods of protest where hysterical emotions are kept at bay and rational approach is brought to the fore. 

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