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Mind is turbulent like wind but when held immobile through powerful concentration can unlock the secrets of the universe.

This is a rendezvous for contemplating about human existence, mysteries of the mind, and importance of wisdom in daily life. Perhaps when we look at the larger picture, when we are reminded of the true meaning of life, we can strive for a better world filled with understanding, mutual respect and peace.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Missing the trees for the forest

It is unfortunate that some elements of the media want to peddle the view of the Indian Muslim community as a homogeneous entity flirting with terrorism, steeped in fundamentalism, struggling with a perpetual victimhood complex, and eager for handouts. The truth is that there are all colours of Muslims from the very pious to the agnostic to the atheistic and even within these divisions there are so many shades in between that defy definition. The most religious Muslim necessarily need not be the one flaunting a skull cap or a Burqa. There are quieter modes of devotion and every spiritual Muslim does not wear his heart on his sleeve. Such subtleties are entirely lost when we constantly create group identities and cease to see the individual.

Now, I have very little knowledge about the post-Partition mentality of North Indian Muslims but hailing from Kerala and that too from a middle-class milieu and dedicated to Allah, I have usually found a number of both the older and younger generation of Malayali Muslims to be unburdened by a negative Muslim identity (at least the ones I have seen in my life). The idea of “Indian Muslim” as a separate entity at odds with mainstream India is a bogey that only rises with the occasional advent of religious riots or terrorism. If a woman can at once be a mother and a wife, I don’t see why a devout Muslim can also not be a patriotic Indian.  Thus as far as the many Malayali Muslims that I know are concerned, being simultaneously Indian, Malayali and Muslim without any of these identities usurping the importance of the other is their natural state irrespective of whether they are clean shaven and shorts-clad or bearded and lungi-clad.

The progressive flaunting of religious symbols among Muslims is a phenomenon that is world-wide and I feel it to be quite independent of the state of affairs in India. Whether sporting ¾-pants would make a Muslim more worthy in God’s eyes and thus more spiritual/religious is another idea for another day that has to be debated within the Muslim community. 

Please do not hesitate to leave your valuable comments.

I look forward to reading your thoughts and gaining new ideas.