Silence of the lambs-the ground reality

Muslims have always shied away from establishing a single powerful body of leaders that can truly represent their hopes and aspirations. This has at once been our boon and bane. We believe that the Koranic teachings alone can serve as an adequate guide and have eschewed the showering of power on fallible mortals. Busy eking out daily lives, Muslims have largely shunned the stray small-time leaders who have tried to make their presence felt. While the lack of leadership prevents gross misuse of authority and large scale mischief, it has left a huge void.
This glaring difference from other organized religions is little understood. When there are riots involving Buddhist monks, a single declaration by the Dalai Lama that he stands for peace makes a world of difference. So the larger community is immediately absolved of any complicity and blame falls on a few miscreants. Similarly catholic interests are protected by the Pope. But in the case of Islam, anybody who makes noise immediately grabs media spotlight and is unwittingly portrayed as speaking for the whole community.

In truth, Islam wants to prevent such a scenario of power being held in the hands of a few because of the degree of corruption and exploitation that this can lead to. In spite of this, unwanted media attention on self-proclaimed leaders has marred this legacy. Anybody who reads the Koran fully with an open heart will understand that Islam does not stand for terror. Not only that, it is highly inclusive and exhorts moderation in all things and supports healthy competition with other religions. It is pro-science, pro-life, and pro-democracy. It also promotes tremendous respect and tolerance for other religions. This is the ground reality. In India no matter what the international media might say, our Hindu friends know this because they see it all around them firsthand. Compare this with the media view of Muslims being cloistered, fatwa-declaring maniacs with little tolerance for any other religion. By selectively illuminating the bad apples and keeping out the successful silent majority, a negative halo has been cast around Islam and a question mark on the loyalties of Muslims.

It is common knowledge that media focuses its attention on where the dirt is but in this case unwittingly, it has played right into the hands of both the terrorists and the Islamophobics. So endless rhetoric between these two groups hog the limelight and we poor daily-bread earning, 5-time-praying Muslims are colorless mute spectators. Over the years, what has this led to?

Number one: In countries where Muslim populations are less, perceptions about Muslims are shaped by media content and not by how the majority lives as there is hardly any personal contact. So, predictably, many Americans and Europeans are actually buying into the media view. Muslims really were hoping that common sense would prevail and we would be judged fairly but now we are beginning to fear that this might not be.

Number two: Now this is a scary one. What if some gullible Muslim youth fueled by the media portrayal and false arrests and constant monitoring and anti-Muslim riots and genocide start thinking about terrorist groups as being their allies (either u are with me or against psychology)?
Number three: What I know firsthand is that ordinary Muslims are really scared and sad now, that the whole world has a wrong image about us, that no Muslim will be given a visa to US, that people might look at us weirdly because of our attire, that good opportunities might pass us by because of our Muslim names, etc. etc. Muslims everywhere are just getting out of their homes and telling the world that we stand for peace (even the first Islamic TV Channel is called Peace TV). We are shouting from the rooftops that Islam teaches peace and not terror. We are willing to wear our ‘peace’ on our lapels. Is anyone listening?