Resetting the Discourse!

“Goodness will continue to be with my Ummah until they begin debating matters which don’t concern them.” Prophet Muhammad (SallAllahu Alaihe Wassalam)

The last few weeks have been quite tumultuous as far as we, Muslims, are concerned. First it was the Kamal Haasan spy thriller flick Vishwaroopam which created quite a furore in the restive Indian Muslim community. Reportedly, the movie contains sequences which enhance the existing negative stereotype regarding Islam and Muslims which potrays a systematic relationship between Global Terrorism and Islam. The release of the movie got delayed in India, thanks due to some ‘Muslim groups’ and hence, media houses got the cannon fodder for their Newshours for a few days! Almost simultaneously, we witnessed the second coming of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children in the form of Deepa Mehta’s movie. Seemingly, this movie had nothing Satanic in it. But there had to be something else to distract the common Muslims and make them feel good about politicians as their messiahs. Rushdie came to India for the premier of the movie and was not allowed to do so; he was hounded out of Kolkata just after he landed at the airport. And the ruling political party was quick to lay claim for being the saviour of the Muslims with statements like, “But for her, there could have been communal tension…People like Rushdie should be kept away,” referring to the efforts of the head of the state government in keeping Rushdie away.

Malala Yousafzai recently underwent Skull reconstruction surgery and is recovering well in a London hospital, as per reports. And back in India, media tried to create its own version of Malala(s) albeit Music Malalas. Some self-righteous users posted some comments on a facebook page about a Music band, touted as the first ever all-Girls Music Band from Kashmir. It has remained a mystery so far as to why would the band related post appear on a vague facebook page when their last ‘show’ took place not less than 40 days ago? Some of these comments which were touted as rape threats were actually ‘predictions’ by those who posted them as to what would happen in future as indicated by the lingo used in the comments. That these were not threats but ‘concern’ shown by those commenting is evident from the words used in those comments. Words like “raped & thrown into the Tawi river” in those comments don’t signify threats emanating from Kashmir but delineate the effect of Shopian like incidents on the psyche of the people. I may, in no way be deemed supportive of those who posted those comments. While the news channels were adjusting their taste buds after sensing a ‘story’ from a Kashmir, the news that the self-styled Grand Mufti of Jammu & Kashmir had issued a ‘fatwa’ which deemed the acts of the band un-Islamic were telecasted.

While the ‘story’ was ‘developing’ on the news channels, a common Kashmiri began to feel, what one of my friends called emptiness/void in leadership – this time religious leadership. “And hypocrisy fills in such voids pretty easily”, remarked my friend. While some of us took the position as demanded by religion i.e. It is un-Islamic. But, in doing so, we feigned to the inability of ours to equally condemn other people who have been and still are involved in the Kashmiri Music Industry! Most of the people among remaining people took the position that the Band should continue. In doing so, they ignored that, religious principles were being toyed with. But, both these groups were unanimous in the cause that this issue should not be be potrayed as the so called ‘Talibanisation’ of the Kashmiri society. (The term ‘Talibanisation’ being used in relative sense!). But there was even a fringe group among us who tried to give this issue a touch of “Misogyny & Patriarchy” ignoring the presence of huge number of female singers active in Kashmir! In the midst of all this it was the three girls who were at the receiving end from all sides.

In all this we saw, as a common feature, Muslims debating with each other on matters which would never be DEBATED in the normal discourse. I think we are meant to be the ones who would show humanity the purpose of life. On the contrary, our present discourse revolves around DEBATES about matters which are too obvious to merit one – in fact just a reminder would just do fine! And in the midst of all this the normal discourse has been overtaken by people who claim to be Muslims and present a morphed version of Islam to the world, in the process trying to weaken the very basis of the pristine glory of Islam.

When I started writing this piece, I was faced with the problem of giving a title to this write up and the two choices were – Resetting the Discourse & Reclaiming the Discourse. Do we need to Reclaim the Discourse from people who have taken it over or do we just need to Reset our Discourse in accordance to our purpose of life? I settled for ‘Resetting the Discourse’ as Quran says, “When truth and falsehood face each other, falsehood perishes as it is, by its nature, bound to perish”.