[Reader-list] Fwd: "Muslims must quit UK armed forces"

[Rakesh Iyer]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 5:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] "Muslims must quit UK armed forces"
To: Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>


Hi (to all)

Today, after a long time, am I sending one mail to Sarai, having read some
of the most shocking kind of statements, presented in a very dubious manner
or shocking ways to prove that Muslims are either traitors, or that they
can't be loyal to anybody except to the Ummah.

It is disgusting that some people have assumed that Muslims are loyal not to
their own conscience or even to the nations which they are citizens of, but
to the Ummah, Mecca or the Saudi regime, or to the Mullahs and Maulvis who
for them are more important than what the law of the land states. Some
people on this forum, as also elsewhere across the nation, media and among
others, have thought this to be obvious.

It is very wrong on any basis to make such conjectures and perception-based
statements unless one has done an academic study on this issue, to find out
the effect of what such statements do, or how many among the Muslims across
different nations, not only in India, but also in Europe and others, are
actually involved in terrorist activities, or at the least, supporting the
ideology of terrorism or even the Al-Qaeda. I don't know myself about any
such study having been conducted in India or any other nation for that
matter; if any of you has anything or any study to prove so, please do put
it forward.

It is also shameful that Muslims across India or other regions have to prove
their loyalty because of these shameful perceptions. It's on this perception
factor that we have a Raj Thackeray who is stating that UP and Bihar people
are actually taking over the jobs of the Marathis. The ironic thing is that
in a newspaper article I have read, the total no. of migrants to Mumbai is
actually around 45%, out of which 37.3% (the largest) are from within
Maharashtra, followed by Uttar Pradesh (which when added to Maharashtra
migrants come over to close to 60%) and then Gujarat. Where does even Bihar
come into the picture? And all these statistics are based on a UNDP-BMC
survey report which has been done recently. And the report also says that
the situation has been the same with little difference in composition of
migrants since the 1960's.

When did Muslims claim that they are loyal to Ayatollah Khamenei, Osama Bin
Laden, Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed, Syed Salahuddin, Tehrik-i-Taliban, or even the
local Mullah on the street for that matter? And how many Muslims even made
that claim? I know definitely of one Muslim family which always supported
Pakistan in matches against India, but for that one family, I know of at
least 5 Muslim friends of mine who had abuses to shower at Pakistan when
India won the Twenty-20 World Cup in 2007. Infact, some of them even claim
we should nuke Pakistan. Are they loyal to Pakistan? (although I do agree
nuking is not what we should do)

When the Hindutva ideologues, be it RSS, VHP or anybody including the Hindu
Munnani say something, I don't consider it as the views of the Hindus. Who
are they to represent the Hindus? Do they even know what being a Hindu is,
or what Hinduism is? The same argument even extends to those who think they
speak on behalf of the Muslims. Do they know what Islam is? Have they even
studied the Koran properly, and do understand in what context what has been
said? Every person has the right to speak for himself/herself.

Hence stop questioning the Muslims. Or even Hindus. Or Marathis. Or others.
If you want to question someone for his/her beliefs, don't ask questions to
anyone else but that person alone. Neither assume that somebody has got the
right to speak on behalf of others. One Deoband conference doesn't have the
right to speak for Muslims across India, forget across even entire
South-Asian region.


As far as the content of the previous mail is concerned, I think there are
positives to be taken, many of them. We should respect those. At the same
time, the representative has a right to request Muslims not to join the
forces, and his perspective is skewed, fine. That doesn't mean Muslims will,
by default, accept it. Muslims don't have to. It's their right to accept or
not accept, this skewed perspective. What we have a right to do, is to
explain to them why this perspective is skewed or not, depending on our
value system and judgement.

Don't just assume please, that Muslims are traitors or not traitors. Each
individual is different, please go ahead and respect their individuality.

Rakesh