Khilafat In India: Who Are These Mysterious Jihadis

 

Khilafat In India: Who Are These Mysterious Jihadis? Author: Maqsoodul Hasan Qasmi Publication: New Age Islam Date: August 6, 2010 URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=3248 This was in the beginning of July. I was coming out of the mosque after offering the namaz of Isha (the last prayer of the day) when I saw some youth distributing pamphlets at both the doors of the mosque. I was taken aback at the title of the pamphlet and read the whole text standing there. In the pamphlet the Muslims were told that the day was not too far when the whole world would be under their rule and to achieve that they should establish Khilafat and that only Khilafat was the real Islamic form of government. In the pamphlet, the Muslims of Jamia Nagar were appealed to attend a meeting at the Bade Barat Ghar in Batla House on July 11, 2010 in connection with the efforts to establish Khilafat. Therefore, I also arrived at the place on the scheduled time. First of all, the audience were shown some video pictures. The pictures of Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey, Pakistan, Britain and the US apart from various European countries were shown. The pictures showed Muslims protesting with placards. A scroll was also running on the screen which said, "See, the Muslims the world over are demanding Khilafat( caliphate) and we should also be prepared for it." After that some speakers delivered their speeches. They said that the establishment of Islamic rule under Khilafat was inevitable and living under a non-Khilafat rule was a sin. As for jihad, it was said that jihad was mandatory and only a caliph elected by the Muslims can order it and that the violence and bloodshed unleashed nowadays was not jihad. The most important fact about the meeting was that no important figure of the neighbourhood was associated with it. Even the convenor of the meeting and the two speakers seated on the stage were unknown people. Though the convenor tried his best to conceal his identity, on someone's enquiry he said that his name was Abdur Rasheed, was a lawyer by profession and hailed from Gujarat. The participants of this secret meeting wondered what prompted them to come from a faraway place to convene a meeting here. Who are backing them and what are their plans? Their sincerity and honesty can be gauged by the fact that the pictures purportedly of the Khilafat movement in various countries they showed were a bundle of lies because they belonged to the time when blasphemous cartoons were published in Denmark which had caused deep anxiety among the Muslims. Nevertheless, they could not be termed as the movement for the establishment of Khilafat as they were part of peaceful protests of the Muslims the world over against the insult to the Prophet (PBUH). I was all the more surprised to realise that the person who was provoking the Muslims against the democratic government and democratic constitution terming it as 'satanic' and evil was himself a lawyer in the Indian judiciary and earning his bread and butter through the laws formed by the very constitution he branded un-Islamic. Could there be a bigger paradox than that? The attempts to mobilise Muslim youth by raising deceitful slogans have been made in the past as well that always led to destruction. The fate of the Jamat Islami of Pakistan, Ikhwanul Muslimeen of Egypt and the Taliban of Afghanistan is there for all to see. In our country too, some gullible elements earned name and fame by raising similar slogans, constituted Muslim Parliament through which they earned fame and wealth but at the same time played an important role in destroying the nation's unity and integrity. However, the Muslims of the country have become aware of their reality which is why no Muslim religious scholar of the country has extended his support to the people pushing for Khilafat or Islamic rule. No important personality of Batla House was seen in the meeting. I strongly believe that the Muslims of this country will not fall into the trap of these people any more. But the people who convene these meetings can, however, strengthen communal forces like Sangh Parivar and its affiliates. At a time when the whole country is peaceful and the involvement of Sangh Parivar is becoming more evident by the day, people raising slogans of Khilafat or Islamic state can only instill new life into the corpses of these outfits. My humble advice to these people is that in this country where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians live harmoniously together, they should not indulge in inflammatory and provocative religious sloganeering as it will not work in this country that belongs to Indians associated with different religions and cultures. They should go to Pakistan or Afghanistan and live with people establishing Khilafat through their so-called jihad and exploding bombs day in and day out in the name of jihad. Their wish of martyrdom and meeting the houris can be fulfilled sooner than later there. It is strange that these elements want Khilafat for the Muslims in a country where they constitute 20 per cent of the population and are better off educationally and religiously than their coreligionists in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Arab. They should go to Saudi Arabia and talk about Khilafat, then only they will realise what it means speaking against the rule of law and what fate awaits them. It is an irony that Abu Hamza of Egypt leaves his own country to become an imam in a mosque in a foreign country and openly supports Osama bin Laden. Masood Azhar of Pakistan speaks of jihad against India and America, brainwashes Muslim youth of Pakistan and sends them to Afghanistan to wage jihad against America but he himself remains in hiding in Pakistan. The peace loving citizens of Pakistan should ask these people why they do not go to the front first and meet with martyrdom instead of sending the boys and why don't they themselves try to meet the houris they promise the youth. It is high time we stood up against all forms of extremism. The Muslim intellectuals and scholars should deal with the extremism growing among the Muslim community strictly. Simultaneously, our Hindu brethren should also stand up against the Hindu extremists. We should bear this in mind that as Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians freed the country together, so we will have to wage a jihad against extremism of all hues unitedly. __._,_.___ -- SUHAS PATIL surapasa@hotmail.com