Bomb Blast, Communal Violence
And Secular India
By Asghar Ali Engineer
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
23 September, 2003The recent bomb blast in Mumbai on 25th August 2003 is a wake up call, if we care. It should shake us up into deep reflection as to what is happening to our country which gave birth to doctrine of non-violence hundreds of years before Christ and also during our freedom struggle in last century. Why so much violence in contemporary India whether it is communal violence or such retaliatory violence in the form of bomb blast. Such sectarian and arbitrary violence seriously compromises with our doctrines of non-violence and secularism. We cannot build modern India without these doctrines.
First we would like to throw some light on the recent bomb blast. The police maintains that one Sayyad Mohammad, his wife and daughter were involved in these bomb blasts in Mumbai on black Monday i.e. on 25th August. The police also says that this was organised by an organisation called the Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force backed by Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-i-Tayyaba of Pakistan. Also we read news about suicide bombing regularly in Kashmir as well as in Palestine and other places.
Suicide bombing promoted by these Pak-based organisations, to say the least, is totally prohibited by Islam. The Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo, also said in his lecture in Malaysia that suicide is haram (prohibited) in Islam. And suicide bombing is doubly prohibited as it takes lives of innocent people and often they happen to be children, women and old persons. There is no way that such acts can at all be justified.
The Qur'an says that killing one person without justification amounts to killing whole humanity and saving one life amounts to saving whole humanity (5:32). Thus the Qur'an has very rigorous standards about respecting the right to live and no one has right to deprive others of this right to take revenge or otherwise except through due process of law. Also, no one has right to kill non-combatants even if one has waging jihad. Shari'ah law strictly prohibits killing non-combatants, children, women and old people. And in such bomb blasts or suicide bombing only such people get killed.
Jiash-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-i-Tayyaba etc. are working against the express rules of Shari'ah. Their high sounding and pious names should not deceive anyone. The bomb blasts in Mumbai on 25th August killed more than 50 persons all of whom were totally innocent. So many children were orphaned and many women were widowed. Can it be called an Islamic act even remotely? It is so shocking that two Muslim women were involved in this brutal act. It should really deeply concern all of us that all communal organisations are using women for their selfish ends.
Women who give birth to life should never be involved in any act, which leads to extinguishing life. And one who is truly religious can never indulge in revenge killing in the name of Islam. The Qur'an requires Muslims to suppress their anger rather than kill in retaliation. Thus we find in the Qur'an among virtues of the believers "Those who spend in ease as well as in adversity and those who restrain (their); anger and pardon men. And Allah loves the doers of good." (3:133).
In view of this verse there should be no doubt that acts of retaliation has absolutely no place as far as the Qur'an is concerned. A true believer has to restrain his/her anger and should pardon rather than kill in revenge and should be doer of good. Thus all these religious sounding armies should wind themselves up if they at all believe in Islam and should devote themselves to promote peace and security for innocent people. This bloodshed is most irreligious act. Mohammad Sayyad, his wife Fahmida and daughter Farhin are not the real culprits. It is these organisations like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-i-Tayyaba who are brainwashing these semi-literate people. They are Muslims but have no knowledge of Islam.
Indian Secular Democracy
As there is no place for violence and revenge killing in Islam there is no place for it in a secular democracy. Had there been no Gujarat carnage in post-Godhra phase there would have been no attack on Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar and these five bomb blasts in Mumbai since December 2002 in which many innocent lives were lost. There is no doubt that violence breeds violence.
The private armies like Lashkar-i-Tayyaba are no responsible to anyone and no one has elected them. For violence they perpetrate, howsoever strongly condemnable it may be, they are not responsible to anyone. But this cannot be said of Gujarat Government which was directly responsible for horrible violence perpetrated against innocent Muslim citizens of Gujarat after Godhra incident, which is equally condemnable. One must say the Godhra incident was perpetrated by some Muslims but what happened thereafter in Gujarat the Narendra Modi led government was directly responsible for it.
Can a government elected by people of a secular democratic country be pardoned for what it did to those innocent citizens who lost their lives, homes and other properties? Certainly not. Even the Central government, which is equally responsible for maintaining secular democratic values, did nothing to stop such violence in a state, which put whole country to shame in the eyes of the world.
If organisations like Lashkar-i-Tayyaba are a blot on the fair name of Islam government led by Narendra Modi in Gujarat is a blot on the fair name of secular democracy like India. We rejected the idea and ideology of Pakistan as it was against our commitment to secular democracy. It is thus our collective duty to keep secular democracy going in our country. Those who use religion for appealing for votes cannot be friends of this country, as those who invoke Islam for acts of retaliation cannot be believers in Islam.
Fifty-five years after our independence won on the basis of ideals of secular democracy we see more and more communal violence and still minorities are feeling insecure on one hand and deprived of their right to honourable and dignified existence. In fact our leaders of freedom struggle like Gandhi, Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad had expected that with the passage of time communal rancour will be forgotten and all citizens, as propounded in our Constitution, will be able to lead an honourable secure life enjoying all fundamental rights. But not only that this goal has not been realised it is receding ever further.
It is for all of us to reflect seriously why are we continuously receding from our goal. Is democracy a means for best form of governance or clever means to realise ambitions of some unscrupulous politicians by manoeuvring religious sentiments of innocent people? Can a democratic country afford blatantly communal organisations promoting hatred against minorities and branding them as enemies of the country?
Can we provide security even to the majority community if such hate politics is blatantly resorted to by these rank communal organisations? When these bomb blasts take place innocent citizens belonging to majority community get killed. Is government not then responsible for these deaths? Can we prevent this severe danger to our internal security only through policing? Our police force is also corrupt, communal and inefficient with a few honourable exceptions. How can we rely on such police force to protect innocent citizens?
And can even best kind of policing guarantee full security? It cannot if hate-politics is not kept under cheque. Today America is also chasing terrorists all over the world with no success. Terror attacks, if one goes by what is happening in Iraq and where America had gone to put and end to terror, are increasing and America is totally helpless. You cannot solve such problems by employing mighty armies and efficient policing but by providing people justice and living with dignity.
Today it is a fact that Indian Muslims are feeling alienated and insecure and are facing a ballast of communal propaganda. In such a situation it will not be wise to believe that every Muslim will keep his/her cool and will not be fragile enough to be brainwashed and misled by terrorist organisations operating from across the border. Unless we give a sense of security and dignity to Indian Muslims it will be very difficult to guarantee internal security.
Today we face much greater danger in the form of terrorist attacks as number of terrorist organisations have come into existence after 1990 when the Kashmiri youth took to violence. Earlier during the eighties and before number of major communal riots had taken place but no such bomb explosions took place right up to the period Babri Masjid was demolished by the Sangh Parivar activists by inciting some Hindus to grab their votes to come to power. It is since then that Sangh Parivar intensified its hate campaign beyond all limits and we are experiencing such bomb explosions in various parts of India.
We must learn a lesson and leave behind communal hatred and instil true patriotism in the minds of our youth. Patriotism does not lie in loving only territory but all the people of the country as well and respecting their right to dignified existence. If we want to be proud of our past let us be proud of philosophy of Upanishads, compassion of Buddha, love from the Bible and justice and benevolence from the Qur'an. Let us bury the hatchet of Mandir-Masjid conflicts forever.