Home > 2006 Issues > September 03, 2006

Editorial Fatwa And Polity Mullahs have a penchant for trivia. But are they innocuous? The latest to hit their attention is the life insurance. Reports say that Darul Uloom of Deoband has declared life insurance illegal saying that interest earned on bank deposits as well as insurance of life are bad as per the Shariat. Muslims should not go in for insurance or assurance of life which has been given to them by Allah, Deoband decreed. It is to be seen how many Muslims in India will now withdraw their money from banks and insurance institutions to comply with the definitions of the Mullahs. Another report from the other part of the country said that Onam, the biggest cultural festival of Kerala, has been banned in some Muslim-run educational institutions in Kozhikode and Malappuram, Muslim-dominated districts in Kerala, by the local maulvis. We have been getting reports of ban on cinema halls, video parlours, beauty and fitness clubs and even elite restaurants in Kashmir Valley by the custodians of the religion. By this yard-stick their fatwa against the singing of Vande Mataram should be taken with disdain and contempt it deserves. Vande Mataram singing on September 7 to mark the centenary of the great song may not have become a great controversy but for the pusillanimous response of the so-called secular political class. The HRD Minister Arjun Singh amended his own circular post-haste in a characteristic display of reverence to unreasonable bullying of the Muslim fanatics. Some leaders from other parties followed the Congress lead, though the usual suspects like Mulayam Singh and Lalu Yadav did not jump into the fray. Majority of the Muslim leadership, and largely the community ignored the fatwa against Vande Mataram. The Mullahs like the rogue elephant in the herd, are trying the limits of their strength. Their idea is to provoke, to create artificial situations to heighten the social tension, push the community to extreme positions so that they will stand out as a sore thumb. They are afraid of modern education?these men are largely illiterate, blissfully unaware of the march of time?they are envious of their brethren marching shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the country to the new prosperous, strong India. Muslim symphysis into the national mainstream is what frightens the Mullahs. So they insist on madrasa education, they want to force their people into the ghettos and ghettoise the entire population, so that they become breeding grounds and cannon fodder for the Islamic terror industry. So we will never hear of a fatwa against terrorism. Against child marriage or ill-treatment of women. They will not speak against smuggling or the thriving lethal traffic in narcotics or hawala transfers, chief sources funding terrorist activities in the country. What do they hope to achieve by trying to keep some 14 per cent of the population captive to their evil designs? Do they hope to construct another communal divide? The Mullah mindset has not changed. It is the same that promoted a theory that in an independent India, Muslims will be treated second-class citizens and they can never hope to implement Shariat or live according to the dictates of their religion and so they need a separate sovereign country. This mindset forced the creation of Pakistan. Those who propounded this, hopefully left for Pakistan to live the life they desired. But what about the rest who opted to live in the secular India? They perhaps believed in the country?s rich and composite culture, they lived to share and belong to this great land and rebuild India as the dreamland of the universe. Should these mad Mullahs be allowed to destroy this garden of a billion flowers? Should they succeed in their evil designs once again, that will be the end of all that we cherish as eternal. We cannot allow the idea of India to be challenged. We have to set the bottom line. The defining institutions, ethos and symbols of our nationhood cannot be allowed to be trampled upon. The country has to once and for all set the ground rule. This far and no further. National flag, national anthem, national icons, national song, national sentiments, sensitivities and national boundaries have to be defined and made finally inviolable. Let?s take this vow on September 7, to revive the spirit and emotive dynamics of Vande Mataram.

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