[Reader-list] Sinister designs behind Muharram ban in Kashmir: Zafar Mehdi

[shivam at kafila.org]

Sinister designs behind Muharram ban in Kashmir

Guest post by ZAFAR MEHDI
http://kafila.org/2010/12/08/shia-sunni-azadi-sinister-designs-behind-muharram-ban-in-kashmir-minorities

Muharram, the month of epic action, has announced its arrival. Black
banners symbolizing grief are fluttering around. A pall of gloom has
descended. 1500 years later, the lessons of Karbala continue to be the
beacon of inspiration for strugglers of truth and righteousness.
Muharram, contrary to perception, is not an event, episode or chapter
in history. It is a philosophy, a concept, a movement. As centuries
roll by, the great uprising of Husain(as), the beloved grandson of
Holy Prophet (saww), continues to drive believers to hurl defiance at
the forces of evil. The final call Imam gave to humanity still lingers
in the minds of millions of Muslims around the world. It teaches that
notwithstanding the inadequacy of numbers, if you run down the
gauntlet backed by the staunch faith in the Almighty, triumph will be
yours.

Muharram has been often derided by some hate-mongers as a harmful
grief-centric ritual, a political war, and a ritual that lacks a
contemporary significance. In contrast, these commemorations are held
to help the followers of justice and truth re-organize their life
around the pristine principles exemplified by Hussain(as). His supreme
sacrifice promotes the enjoining of good for there is no better
victory than defeating a tyrant.

You must have heard how a child dies every five minutes in Darfur. You
know about the cold-blooded attacks on religious congregations in
Pakistan, about the shrieks of wailing mothers in Kashmir. You must
also have come across gut-wrenching tales of prisoners lodged in the
world’s jails. These are some of the contemporary struggles against
injustice and tyranny unleashed on the weak and vulnerable the world
over. The threat of injustice will always have a contemporary
significance. This explains why Muslims annually commemorate the
principles of Hussain as it helps strengthen the ability to stand up
against injustice.

For the next few weeks, mourning processions will be carried out and
grand congregations will be held in every part of the world, to pay
tribute to the Master of Challengers and his fellow martyrs. The
situation in Pakistan remains tense, with shoot-at-sight orders being
given for Muharram owing to “serious security reasons” in and around
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But elsewhere, preparations are afoot. Large
processions are taken out in London, New York, Toronto, Trinidad. It
goes to the credit of the powers-that-be in these places that not only
do they allow Muharram processions on busy roads, but ensure their
safety as well. But back in Kashmir, it is the same old atrocious
story since 1989. Peaceful Muharram processions are attacked by the
police; processionists are brutally cane-charged, manhandled and
whisked away in police gypsies. Our religious leaders are kept under
house arrest, the streets are manned by the Kalashnikov-yielding
monsters-in-khakhi. It will be the same this year.

The peaceful processions on 8 and 10 Muharram have been banned in
Kashmir since the outbreak of insurgency in 1989. Small mourning
rallies and processions are allowed in select areas with sizeable Shia
populations. The state authorities say that “emotional religious
rituals” could be used by separatists to stoke the anti-India
sentiments. Absolutely preposterous. It is like diallowing Guru Purab
or Baisakhi in Punjab as Khalistanis might use it to stoke anti-India
feelings. The government cannot deny the people their right to
peacefully observe religious rituals just because a few senior Shia
clerics happen to be heavyweight separatist leaders (Maulana Abbas
Ansari is former chairman of Hurriyat Conference and Aga Hasan Mosavi,
president of the J&K Anjuman Sharee Shiaan, is an executive member of
the Hurriyat Conference. It indeed needs to be highlighted that
Tehreek is not a Sunni thing only but Shias play equally catalytic
role in it n perhaps thats why State fails to distinguish between
Azadi and Azadari processions!

The argument that these processions provoke Sunnis, who may get all
riled up and attack Shias, is laughable. There have never been riots
in Kashmir between any two communities, so how can the state justify
banning Shia processions to prevent riots? I wonder why Ripley’s
Believe It Or Not missed it. It is not secret how these processions
have become inclusive over the years, with the participation of Sunnis
and even Sikhs and Pandits. The Sunnis, in a demographic majority,
have been extremely accommodating towards the Shia minority, and both
communities have co-existed in harmony and amity for centuries.  In
turn, both Shias and Sunnis go out of their way in extending their
support to rallies and processions taken out by non-Muslims. In the
context of Kashmir, communal riots are out of question.

The truth is that the state is hell-bent on creating fissures among
Kashmiri Muslims on sectarian lines. By provoking Shias against
Sunnis, and giving this Muharram ban a sectarian and separatist
colour, they want to achieve their sinister targets. They hope that
the disintegration of Muslims in Kashmir will be a fatal blow to the
Tehreek, the movement and that is what these scheming rulers gun for.

The assault on the processionsists, who bring out the processions in
defiance of the ban to exercise their religious freedom, by the police
is unprovoked and barbaric. Take this:

“Eyewitnesses alleged that as they marched ahead, a CRPF man on guard
outside the house of Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig took
aim at the crowd with his rifle. Other policemen, however, put him at
ease,” (Indian Express Feb 08 2006).

Need I say more?

Some Shia groups had challenged the ban in court, but as they say,
“Mera qatil hi mera munsif nikla!” (My killer turned out to be my
judge!) The Shias of Kashmir contest the draconian ban alleging
blatant double standards. If the Amarnath yatra, Dushhera or Baisakhi
processions don’t pose any “security threat”, why should Muharram
processions, carried out in an equally peaceful manner, be subject to
such brutality and barbarism?

It won’t be exaggeration to say that we have not helped our cause
either. Just recently representatives of all Shia organisations
attended a high-level meeting chaired by the District Development
Commission in Srinagar to “finalize arrangements for Muharram”. I
wonder why didn’t these “representatives” raise the issue of the ban
during the meeting. Why didn’t they boycott the meeting in the first
place?

It reminds me of how Muslims in Lucknow valiantly confronted the
government to protest the ban on Muharram processions in city in
Muharram 1997. Women had stormed District Magistrate office and
protested there. Shia youth did matam (eulogy) at the Vidhan Sabha
(Legislative Assembly). It led to the arrest of Lucknow-based
prominent Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad under National Security Act
(NSA) on June 28, 1997. He was sent to Lalitpur Jail while his family
was incarcerated with the prisoners of TADA. Word spread like wildfire
and soon protests and agitations were reported from the different
parts of the country and even from New York, Syria, Pakistan, Iran and
other countries. The situation went out of control and the then
Mayawati government was left with no other option but to release the
cleric and lift the ban on processions.

Now is the time for all of us to stand up to this injustice and demand
our rights.