E-Paper
Free to speak
In ?Silence of Liberal Muslims? (Counterpoint, February 12), Vir Sanghvi fails to take note of some basic points.
In ‘Silence of Liberal Muslims’ (Counterpoint, February 12), Vir Sanghvi fails to take note of some basic points. These are extremely trying times for Muslims — particularly the community’s youth who are confused, demoralised, desperate and humiliated. A humiliated people react with unbalanced behaviour. The community is battered. It is not the best time to judge its resilience. Community confidence is at an all-time low. We require support and understanding, not mockery or confrontation.
We are put on the defensive when media stalwarts unwittingly help in creating the Muslim fundamental stereotype. Radical spitfire elements are projected because they make better copy. Saner voices of the community are lost. Is it morally right to raise the banner of ‘Muslim issue’ each time an Imrana takes place? It is a ‘status of women’ issue, isn’t it? This form of selective representation damages Muslim psyche into believing that there is a conspiracy to project the stereotype. The media has caught Muslims in a trap. It builds up extremists and later beats us with them.
I am being forced to react as a Muslim, so let me clearly denounce all violence. Please conduct a nationwide survey of Indian Muslim opinion on Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, terrorism, death threats, dress codes, fatwas, triple talaqs and other such symbols of extreme attitudes. Such a survey will redefine national perceptions.
At what decibel level must one condemn Muslim fundamentalism to establish secular credentials? What defines a liberal Muslim? The definition is needed before we unravel the “conspiracy of silence among Muslim liberals” as the article suggests.
The blasphemous cartoon controversy and outrage has to be seen against the constant baiting of the Muslim world by the West. A media favourite is the issue, “Is Islam headed for a clash with the West?” It is not Islam that is heading for a clash but the West which is on a collision path with the Muslim world. It is sending armies into Muslim nations, occupying Muslim homelands, supporting dictators in Muslim countries and now striking at the very epicentre of Muslim belief. A bruised Muslim community is simply crying out for justice.
I find the cartoons devious and reeking of deliberate malicious intent. They cannot damage Islam but have caused deep hurt. Even had I not seen them, just the knowledge would have me outraged. A refined society gives up some freedoms to accommodate the other. In the US, scholars and activists who exercise freedom of speech in calling Israel a terrorist state are not given TV time, are harassed and jailed. The media practise, as it should, the principle of self-censorship. Self-restraint is exercised all over the world. Are these denials of freedom of expression illiberal as well?
