Engage, Not Alienate Muslims
By M Shamsur Rabb Khan
26 August,
2008
Countercurrents.org
The basic flaw in dealing with terror attacks in India has been the partisan and dubious role of two powerful organs – media and the investigating agency. While media leaves no stone unturned in highlighting everything associated with the terror attacks in such a manner that a community, i.e. Muslims becomes the ultimate target of focus, the investigations, statements, inputs, arrests, and strategies of the police have so far been directed to prosecute Muslims. After almost every bomb blasts in the country, the first reaction of the media as well the police have been to pinpoint their finger of suspicion on Muslim. This is what happened in the recent bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Balngalore and Jaipur. Albeit the identity of the perpetrators has hardly been established, there have been names, sketches and organisations – all are highlighted in newspapers or flashed on the TV channel – that send the message that Muslim individuals, outfits or groups are involved.
Pressure from the public prompt the police and the investigating agencies to go ahead with wholesale detention and questioning of Muslims that creates a sense of victimhood among the community. And media especially the newspapers and TV channels continue to highlight these names and sketches for days to send a distinct message. As a result, Muslims areas face the wrath in the form of late night raids and undue harassments. In most of the cases of arrests, the police has so far failed to provide evidence, as according BBC (October 10, 2006), for example, all the seven key accused in the Mumbai train blasts in July 2006 retracted their alleged confession to the police, saying they were illegally forced to sign blank papers. In the aftermath of Mumbai train blasts, Police detained over 400 people from Mumbai suburbs with no success.
The story of a Moradabad trader, a frail 56-year-old man named Hafiz Mohammad Tahir, who was acquitted in the 'RDX case' is an example of police injustice. Unlike others, Tahir was lucky when the Gujarat High Court granted him bail in the 'terrorist training case' in June 2004. In its eye-opening bail order, the judge said: "… All that remains against the present applicant [Tahir] is that he visited Ahmedabad and had visited camps to identify the children so that they can be better looked after. That by itself cannot be considered an offence." A man went to do a good work is trapped in RDX case is a sheer proof of how the police is engaged full time in torturing Muslims. This way it fills two purposes: it provides media the matter to add spice into it, so that Muslim names can be flashed again and again; second, a perpetual publicity would leave the Muslims to live under the shadow of constant fear.
In a Citizen for Peace meeting in Mumbai, the famous lyricist Javed Akhtar rightly asked with indignation: "Does RDX have a special stamp establishing its link to Muslims?" Several Muslim and human rights organisations, in recent times, have accused the police of acting with "preconceived notions" against the principal minority community. Media, in close association with the police jump to conclusions without even beginning the investigation, which means they are engaged in sending the wrong signals and making life difficult for Muslims.
The kind of terrorism that we are experiencing can only be defeated when the community on whose behalf the terrorists claim they are acting repudiate them and force them to stay away, or inform the police of their plans. But how will this happen if the police and media act hostile to the community? The logic that "all Muslims are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims" itself is a perpetuation of a policy to place Muslims on the altar of suspicion with a "terrorist" tag. It is like a well planned move to make Muslims the Jews of erstwhile Germany who could be hated, avoided, harassed, prosecuted and ostracized from the mainstream society.
In order to make the fight against terror a formidable strategy, Muslims must be made part of solving the problem, rather than being cornered to the wall with the burden of suspicion, fear, threat and prosecution. An effective anti-terrorist strategy, in fact, requires us to look even more deeply into the involvement of the community proactively to trace the missing links that the investigating agencies have failed to synchronize till date. If terrorism is not a Hindu-Muslim conflict, then there is a sheer urgency to define the state policy in case of bomb blasts. More than that, the role of Muslim community in providing vital inputs that could prevent such devastating blasts we have witnessed in recent times is crucial. The community's assistance should be proactive, based on mutual good faith rather than on suspicion leading to arrests and unnecessary harassment. No government – either BJP-led NDA or Congress-led UPA, has given a second thought to the proactive role of Muslim community in preventing terror attack. If Muslims' role in what is called "local connection" could help in seeing the subversive designs of the terrorists successful, then their role as whistleblowers and intelligent sleuths could help immensely.
The government must come out with a policy direction that should state the counter terror measure. Low presence of Muslims in intelligence agencies is one reason why we are unable to penetrate the sleeping cells spread across the country. Also, due to the negligible presence of Muslims in IB or RAW, we have shut the door of using community's reach and talent. While Muslim representation in intelligence agencies is one area that can be taken into account, their role as information provider is no less important. We must remember that we can fight terror with justice, not with revenge, since there is nothing as heinous as countering terror with terror. However, what the media coverage as well as the police actins are doing is only helping alienate the Muslim community.
Shamsur Rabb Khan is currently working as Editor with Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), Jaipur, an NGO and freelance writer on issues of national and international importance with regular contributor to newspapers and websites. [email protected]
