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Muslims in India: Perceptions & Misperceptions LET me start with a confession. As a journalist, my brush with religion has been limited to its periphery, the cultural aspect of it to be precise, and, as a person, I do not understand religion at all. However, my lack of interest or ignorance has not been able to save me from those pointed questions thrown at me at times: Why does Islam breed violence or why do Muslims multiply mindlessly?
The preface and the opening chapter of the book make it look more like an answer to the objections raised by the Hindu Mahasabha against 24 verses in the Holy Quran. The immediate question that follows is: Does the Mahasabha, which occupies only a fringe position in the mainstream society and known for making such obnoxious comments even deserve an answer? To me, it does not. But the authors, Ishtiyaque Danish, a Reader of Islamic Studies at Jamia Hamdard, Md Nejatullah Siddiqi who has taught in several Indian and foreign universities, Asmer Beg, a Professor at Aligarh Muslim University, and Md Firoz Khan of Jamia Millia Islamia do not share my sentiment and would rather explain things with a social scientist’s precision, which exactly they are, in their respective fields. Danish in his opening article, The So-Called Objectionable Verses, painstakingly explains each "objectionable" verse, its meaning and, most of all, putting each of them back into the right context which, according to the author, has been distorted beyond belief in the Mahasabha’s recently published and widely distributed pamphlet Bharat Mein Dange Kuin Hote Hain. In this article, a reader gets to understand what those verses actually imply and what may sound offensive to a non-Muslim, if they are read in isolation. But one wishes the author had also given some subsidiary arguments in addition to his main argument, which is that when those verses were revealed, the time, place and the situations demanded them that way. By giving a contextual framework to each verse in question, the author has been able to drive home his point, though it may sound a bit repetitive. Others, too, have gone into depth, explaining different aspects to mitigate misperceptions like religious violence, intolerance towards other faiths, polygamy and the growth rate of Muslim population. By the way, the Muslim growth rate is comparable to people of other faiths but with similar social, economic and educational backgrounds. Siddiqui, in his article Muslims and Violence, admits that violence does have a place in religion and goes on to explain important issues like Islamic stand on killings and terrorism. He dons a slightly preachy tone when he asks his brethren to shun violence and present the real picture of Islam to the people—the Islam that consists of love, kindness and forgiveness. Danish in his other article Madaris: Seats of Religious Learning tries to rinse the black spot off Madaris (plural for madrasa), known as the breeding ground for terrorism, by giving a historical background along with a proper dissection of the present-day system, finding out the lacunae that have been ailing this Muslim seat of learning. Interesting tit-bits of information by other authors like the presence of over 11 per cent Christians in Syria, a land which has been under total Muslim control since the 7th century showing Islam’s stand on pluralism or facts like 5.8 per cent Hindus practice polygamy as against 4.3 per cent Muslims makes for good argument but, sadly enough, the underlying tone in the book remains the same—defensive. Ironic but true, one
still has to defend one’s religious belief. All said and done, I,
for one, would have been happier had this book germinated in a
scholastic ground to satiate people’s curiosity rather than as an
expression of the community’s collective defense mechanism.
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So,
when I saw the book Muslims in India: Perceptions and
Misperceptions lying in the heap of books earmarked for reviewing,
I picked it up not as a critic but as a lay(wo)man trying to
understand the religion she was born into.