Comments on: Walled away in faith’s defence

By: Rashid Ashraf

Rashid Ashraf — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:43:10 +0000

میرا نام راشد اشرف، کیمیکل انجینیر، مقیم کراچی ۔۔۔ ابن صفی پر پہلا آرٹیکل 1995 میں لکھا جس کا نام قلم کا قرض تھا۔ ابن صفی پر نئی ویب سائٹ کا اجرا جولائی سن دو ھزار نو میں کیا۔۔۔ 23 اگست دو ھزار نو کے جنگ انٹرنیٹ ایڈیشن میں تقریب ابن صفی ایک مکالمہ کی مکمل رپورٹ لکھی — 25 جولائی دو ھزار نو کو بزنس ریکارڈر میں ابن صفی پر آرٹیکل لکھا —- 26 جولائی دو ھزار نو کو ابن صفی کی برسی کے موقع پر آج ٹی وی پر خبر میں آمد۔
http://www.wadi-e-urdu.com ابن صفی پر نئی ویب سائٹ
فرزند ابن صفی، جناب احمد صفی کے ہمراہ ریڈیو چینل ایف ایم 105 پر چھبیس نومبر دو ھزار نو کو ڈیڑھ گھنٹے کے براہ راست انٹرویو میں آمد

By: inclusive-maldives.bestallinclusive

inclusive-maldives.bestallinclusive — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:41:50 +0000

[...] supernatural site now kick around this news http://www.kafila.org/2006/11/15/walled-away-in-faiths-defence and give comments [...]

By: english quran cd

english quran cd — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:02:17 +0000

english quran cd…

I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….

By: bookduniya

bookduniya — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:10:12 +0000

[...] Thursday, November 23, 2006 MAHMOOD FAROOQUI (via Amardeep Singh) on the complex position the modern secular Muslim finds himself in India. I am eager to tell the world that Muslims of the past were different, as they indeed were, but the hidden presumption is that the current Indian Muslims are a fallen lot, in need of reform. We are not entirely sure whether it is they or Islam itself that needs reform, but we are absolutely certain that reform is needed. The West is reformation itself, Christianity has been protestantised, Hinduism has been reformed by the State, but Islam we have been trying to reform for the last 150 years and have been on the defensive for as long as well. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan wrote letters justifying the British racial hatred of Indians — “They are right to treat us worse than dogs,”— before pleading that there is no contradiction between the Quran and science, that Islam was enlightenment and enlightenment Islam. Why must even those defending Muslims reduce all debate surrounding Muslims to Islam? Why do I continue to become perturbed by the treatment of Islam from both sides?I am confused. On the one hand I bemoan the condition of Muslims in India; on the other, I am strongly aware of the fact that this State, like most others, delivers mostly to its elite, outside whose pale are not only Muslims but also most other marginal groups. On the one hand, I feel that we should have the space to be critical of certain strains in the world of Indian Muslims; on the other, I feel that sometimes we make too much of freedom of expression. I want Muslims to be different from what they are, but cannot tell how much of that desire is an internalisation of a vein of criticism and interrogation that has now gone on for over 200 years, not merely in India. What I do know is that the stereotype of the exceptionalism of Islam as a religion and the inexorable Muslim urge for separateness from the mainstream is one that cuts both ways. You can use it to condemn Muslims, you can invoke it to celebrate difference in a world where history has ended, where all roads lead to New York. That cannot be our only fate.Read on. [...]

By: Eko ahem, dvitiyo na asti; na bhooto, na bhavishyati.

Eko ahem, dvitiyo na asti; na bhooto, na bhavishyati. — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:12:33 +0000

[...] (8 comments | Leave a comment) November 26th, 2006 09:17 am[Link]Walled Away in Faith’s DefenceIt is honest, it is uncomfortable, it is an atheist muslim talking. No answers, tons of questions and observations. Read it.Farooqi mentions the exceptionalism of Islam somewhere in the essay. It is not a new notion and, for centuries, common wisdom amongst the non-muslims has been ‘you can’t trust the muslims’. A muslim is a muslim first…they are different. Predictably, a climate is created wherein a muslim is never allowed to forget the fact that he is a muslim. I have often wondered about the effects of growing up in such a climate. This essay is a part of the answer.davenchit do click on the link to the post ‘Orkut Brahmins’. ‘Tis amusing. [...]

By: Serious Golmal » Inclusive by Choice, Defensive by Nature

Serious Golmal » Inclusive by Choice, Defensive by Nature — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 16:42:48 +0000

[...] Perusing Amardeep Singh’s excellent weblog, I found this write-up of a moving and illuminating essay posted on the Kafila blog by the writer and activist, Mahmood Farooqui – Walled away in faith’s defence. [...]

By: smita

smita — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 09:19:39 +0000

as one of very few indians at my american (alebiet hippie) highschool, i always felt like it was my responibility to represnt not only hinduism, but islam, sikhism, jainism and buddhism in every class discussion. it was intersting to see that the stereotypes of all those religions were set. hindus were a bunch of caste-flaunting, ganges-bathing brahmins. muslims were all mullahs, jihadists or veiled, battered women. until 9/11.
all of a sudden, there was a huge push to show islam to be a “normal” religion. rushdie became required reading. articles by muslim-americans were brought it. the koran joined the bible as a literary-analysis aide. non-muslims began to defend islam. but it felt like other religions didnt get that push.
buddhists still meditate and drink green tea on mountain tops, and we hindus still apparently dont look at people in other castes. well, i use “we” loosely… im agnostic from a non-religious family. but nonetheless, it feels like now people are willing to accept (much in the way it has with judaism) a view of non-extreme islam, if nothing more than to be politically correct.

By: PH

PH — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 03:33:25 +0000

Very touching and disarmingly honest post. I’ve read ur stuff in Mid Day pretty regularly but this one takes the cake.
I think your ‘mixed’ childhood is not at all paradoxical. Intelligent people pick and choose from their milieu and so did you. Keep up the good work!

By: May I offer you this picture? at Kafila

May I offer you this picture? at Kafila — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:18:13 +0000

[...] Shahrukh Alam was provoked by the dastango’s article on ‘the secular, moderate Indian Muslim‘ to write this beautiful essay. The essay revolves around this photograph, taken by Khalid Anis Ansari, of the entrance to the Palkikhana at the Dargah Shah Arzan in Patna. [...]

By: Mahmood the Atheist - Sepia Mutiny

Mahmood the Atheist - Sepia Mutiny — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:30:40 +0000

[...] For his first post at Kafila, Farooqui reprints an essay he had published in Tehelka, on the uncomfortable position he finds himself in as a secular — indeed, atheist — Muslim intellectual in today’s India. The place to start might be where he lays his cards on the table: Let me explain my locus. I am an atheist, I follow none of the Islamic taboos, but I live in a locality in the capital that can only be called a ghetto. I lived here for five years, when I was a student, when I was very self-consciously opposed to the Indian Muslim stereotype. I had grown up on Chandamama and Nandan, Holi was my favourite festival, Karna my hero, Shiva the great God, Hinduism a highly tolerant religion and I had dreams of attaining martyrdom fighting Pakistan. I was studying history and detested medieval Muslim rulers; I would expatiate on the reasons why Islam had trouble with modernity; I admired Naipaul and Rushdie; supported Mushirul Hasan during the Satanic Verses controversy � a novel I deeply admire in spite of its undoubted blasphemies � and I detested many things about Indian Muslims, except, predictably, Urdu literature and Sufism. I was, in short, a model Hinduised-Indian-Muslim, who always put India before Islam. I was desperate to leave Okhla. (link) [...]

By: Amardeep Singh

Amardeep Singh — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:36:54 +0000

[...] Mahmood the Atheist Mahmood Farooqui is among the bloggers signed on to a new group blog project called Kafila, which I discovered via DesiPundit. (Other names on the roster include Shivam Vij, the omnipresent progressive blogger/journalist, and Nivedita Menon, a well-known, Delhi-based sociologist). For his first post at Kafila, Farooqui reprints an essay he had recently published in Tehelka, on the uncomfortable position he finds himself in as a secular — indeed, atheist — Muslim intellectual in today’s India. The place to start might be where he lays his cards on the table:Let me explain my locus. I am an atheist, I follow none of the Islamic taboos, but I live in a locality in the capital that can only be called a ghetto. I lived here for five years, when I was a student, when I was very self-consciously opposed to the Indian Muslim stereotype. I had grown up on Chandamama and Nandan, Holi was my favourite festival, Karna my hero, Shiva the great God, Hinduism a highly tolerant religion and I had dreams of attaining martyrdom fighting Pakistan. I was studying history and detested medieval Muslim rulers; I would expatiate on the reasons why Islam had trouble with modernity; I admired Naipaul and Rushdie; supported Mushirul Hasan during the Satanic Verses controversy — a novel I deeply admire in spite of its undoubted blasphemies — and I detested many things about Indian Muslims, except, predictably, Urdu literature and Sufism. I was, in short, a model Hinduised-Indian-Muslim, who always put India before Islam. I was desperate to leave Okhla. (link)Okhla is a predominantly Muslim suburb (slum?) in south Delhi; Mahmood Farooqui has written a little more about life there in this article. Tellingly, Farooqui had trouble leaving Okhla for Delhi’s posher (predominantly Hindu/Sikh) neighborhoods:But I am now back in Okhla, arguing simultaneously for the legitimacy of difference and the fact of a universal human. Between the self-hatred of my youth and the current uneasiness with my earlier positions lies, possibly, a series of adult defeats — perhaps they have dulled my passions and my hatreds. However now I have, you could say, chosen to live here, after a series of eliminations — Defence Colony, Greater Kailash-I, Jangpura — on grounds of my being Muslim and/or not having a company lease. But, crucially, I came here because I was sickened by South Delhi and because I was incipiently aware of Okhla’s hospitableness. (link)When he says “eliminations,” he means he was denied a lease — at least some of the time — because of his Muslim name. What happens to Farooqui as he tries to leave Okhla is a reflection of the double-bind he faces as he tries to balance his social identiy and background with a self-critical attachment to the idea of modern India as a nation. He fits in uneasily in Okhla, surrounded by conservative Muslim neighbors. But mainstream society isn’t very encouraging, and as a result the pull of his social loyalites remains alive:More than this, however, my views, in conformity with the rest of the academic world, about the virtues of egalitarianism, liberty and a democratic welfare state are now far less uncomplicated than they were in my youth. I still search for vestiges of the narrative of liberty in Islamic pasts, I continue to valourise streams of pluralism in Muslim sultanates and extol those Indian Muslims of the past who were ecumenical and tolerant. I would still challenge descriptions of the medieval past that underline forced conversions or bemoan the second-class treatment of Hindus. If I do not have much truck with Islam, why then do I continue to search for narratives of tolerance in the Islamic past? Why do I smart when Vajpayee says that there is trouble and violence wherever Muslims live? Why is my attitude to Islam so defensive? (link)In this essay (you should really read the whole thing), Farooqui doesn’t really come upon any answers to the double-bind he faces, but it is a remarkably forthright and careful attempt to articulate the problem of minority belonging — which isn’t so different from minority belonging in other national contexts. * * * More Mahmood Farooqui links:Recent articles in Mid-DayMore articles in Mid-DayArticles in OutlookAmit Varma’s post on a controversy regarding a possible instance of plagiarism in a book review Farooqui wrote. [...]

By: Anon

Anon — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:35:46 +0000

Stimulating post. You might enjoy Akeel Bilgrami’s “What is a Muslim? Fundamental Commitment and Cultural Identity” in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 4, Identities (Summer 1992), p. 821-842. If you don’t have access to the journal, you could probably email him and ask him for a pdf copy.

By: Ajit Sanzgiri

Ajit Sanzgiri — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 15:03:59 +0000

“Simultaneous with the insistence on the erasure of difference — we are all Indians, join the mainstream — through a sleight of hand comes the reminder of the particularistic.”

Surely this ‘erasure of identity’ is as nothing compared to the one implicit in the repeated assertion of a ‘Muslim’ identity that is relevant to every political question.

By: dipesh

dipesh — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 17:05:54 +0000

Excellent post. Totally agree with you. I think a muslim in this country often feels acceptable only when he conforms to certain norms – like wishing happy diwali to everyone or not sporting a beard, not being overtly religious. Although the same rules do not apply to the hindu population – in my team people would go about distributing shirdi ka prasad without even thinking whether it hurts religious sentiments of christians or muslims or atheists (like me). Why can’t be religion be a personal matter ? ok you been to shirdi, perfectly alright, live with your belief, but for sphagetti monster’s sake don’t distribute prasad in an office, or rant about the virtues of fasting on ekadashi. I think the muslim community needs to share some part of the blame as well – for instance voting parties like the SP who repeatedly harp on the extremist line and allowing themselves to be trapped in the mullah-SP nexus. I agree with Krish. Obviously, education would be used by a certain section of the population to spread hatred, but if the education is effective a overwhelming majority will be tolerant, open to ideas and much more progressive. The people who are bloggina and commenting here are prime examples of such education, rooted in secularism, which has given us the opportunity to look beyond the propaganda and smell the coffee.

By: Krish

Krish — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:58:28 +0000

To those who argue that education is not a solution, here is my response. A good education is a big part of the solution. The current system of education in India is not a good one. At the best, it may churn out a few engineers who can do data entry work. What we need is an educational reform. Once we achieve that, the education could lead to a social reform. With a good education system, we cannot reform the society. We need a multi pronged approach to this problem. Once we have a good education, we will not have “educated people” holding Hindutva flags. Reform of education is the first step towards reforming the society.

By: TheTrickMan

TheTrickMan — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:48:07 +0000

Being a member of the so called “Harijan/Dalit” caste, i can understand the mixed feelings of the author. It often comes as a shock to many that i am a chamar because it is never expected that someone of a low birth like mine will be any good at english or even be in the States. From my personal experience most Indians, however educated or high up on the social ladder, or from any religion for that matter are highly critical or atleast uncomfortable if you do not conform to the prevailing Brahminisque way of life in India.

The point is that education is not the answer, because with education you can only achive self realisation and confidence, but to live in a biased and closed society like the Indian society, it is just not enough. It is the biased lot which needs to reform itself, and that in itself is if not an impossible than a losing cause.

By: Vikram’s Talking Points :: An atheist Muslim :: November :: 2006

Vikram’s Talking Points :: An atheist Muslim :: November :: 2006 — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:14:49 +0000

[...] But I am now back in Okhla, arguing simultaneously for the legitimacy of difference and the fact of a universal human. Between the self-hatred of my youth and the current uneasiness with my earlier positions lies, possibly, a series of adult defeats — perhaps they have dulled my passions and my hatreds. However now I have, you could say, chosen to live here, after a series of eliminations — Defence Colony, Greater Kailash-I, Jangpura — on grounds of my being Muslim and/or not having a company lease. But, crucially, I came here because I was sickened by South Delhi and because I was incipiently aware of Okhla’s hospitableness. [Kalifa] [...]

By: suresh

suresh — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 17:28:09 +0000

Adnan,

I wish I could be as optimistic and say that “Education and only education is the answer.” However – is it the illiterate who are the purveyors of hatred? Do you think that they have the sophistication to come up with things like “Hindutva” and its counterpoints like “Hindus and Muslims can never live together in the same nation.” Were such things the products of the uneducated?

Let’s face it – Education is a double-edged sword. Yes, it can enlighten but it very well can provide appropriate tools for the unscrupulous. Look at the hate-filled (and misleading) propoganda being disseminated in various newspapers, presumably by “educated” persons.

It is going to be a struggle – and a very long one at that – to make our country into one, where – to invoke Martin Luther King’s inspiring and immortal words – people are “judged by the content by their character” and not by their religious or other affiliations. Education may be a part of the solution but it certainly is not going to provide miracles.

I suppose for Muslims – and even for Hindus – this is not very encouraging news. I guess we have to continue to fight, for there is no other alternative – other than to migrate elsewhere and drop out of the fight altogether.

By: Adnan

Adnan — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 21:43:20 +0000

Exceptionally written. Ya, I too grew up on Nandan, Champak, Chandamama and Hindu mythology apart from Urdu, Ibne-e-Safi, Dastan Amir Hamza, Tilism Hoshruba in teen years.
Whenever in my childhood I asked my father if Muslims were discriminated against, I was told, ‘This country has given highest offices to Muslims and about Admiral Latif and umpteen others’ and I always felt proud.
However, many incidents shake your confidence in the system and the fact that you are always a kind of a fifth columnist, a suspect, in the eyes of many, HURTS you. Also, when you are told that you are a good Muslim because you have a social status, you speak English, good Urdu and ‘don’t look like Muslim’, the intense feeling of helplessness overcomes. But I guess, that makes one tough and always you get Hindu friends who will fight with others and defend you. These things boost the morale. The Moradabad riots, Babri Masjid and Gujarat were probably three such scars on my psyche that left indelible impressions. A million times I have consoled myself that in this country like a family ‘khat pat’ hoti hai but it could have been great had these things not happened. Or at least, the prejudices against Muslims could somehow end. Education and only education is the answer. When every Muslim would be educated, probably the image could change.

aao inquilaab taaza paidaa kareN
dahar par is tarah chhaa jayeN ki sab dekhaa kareN