Intolerance of the real kind

With the world in agreement that the biggest threat to civilization as we know it comes from Wahhabi Islam, India's debate about 'Hindu intolerance' sounds increasingly bizarre. India is no less or more intolerant than it was before, but because of the hysteria whipped up by our 'intellectuals' and the media, the impression that the world has is that India is being ruled by a government that subscribes to a Hindu version of Wahhabism. This is why it is unfortunate that Aamir Khan has leapt on to this bandwagon. As a leader of Indian Muslims, I had hoped when I asked him if he was worried about Wahhabi Islam, at the Ramnath Goenka awards ceremony, that he would say something inspirational. He chose to say only that he was worried about all extremist ideologies. This saddened me because never before has it been so important for educated, moderate Indian Muslims to stand up for our gentler Islam. When a huge star like Aamir Khan chooses instead to talk about his fears of Hindu intolerance, he does his faith a disservice. If Wahhabi influences spread (and they are spreading), then the first target will be men like him who work in a profession that Wahhabi Islam sees as against the teachings of the Prophet. Cinema was not around then, but his objection to the graven image has been interpreted by millions of believing Muslims as an injunction against cinema and television. If you add to this the Prophet's injunctions against music and dance, Muslims like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan would be disqualified from the ranks of the believers. If they have been able as actors to practise their profession freely it is because Islam in India became infected (mercifully) by our infidel ways. Nothing better could have happened, because it was from this contamination that our syncretic culture produced poets like Ghalib and Mir, who challenged the fundamentals of Islam and Allah himself. It was from this syncretic culture that we produced Iqbal and nobody called him an apostate, even when he wrote his famous complaint to Allah, Shikwa. Indian Islam has given us not just great poetry but great literature and great musicians. None of these things would have been possible if Wahhabi ideas had prevailed. When they found their way into the Kashmir Valley in the early nineties, they changed not just the culture and the way women dressed, but even the way religion was practiced. Shrines where both Hindus and Muslims worshipped were targeted by the militant groups that came from the Islamic republic across the Line of Control, and it did not take long before the Valley's lovely atmosphere of an endless holiday season disappeared completely. Wahhabi Islam is a totally joyless faith on Earth. It promises rivers of wine and 72 virgins only in heaven. Personally, it has always puzzled me why if these things are bad on earth they should be permitted in heaven, but there is little doubt that many young Muslim men have been persuaded to become human bombs because of these dreams of paradise. If Indian Islam is to be saved from this 'evil death cult', to use David Cameron's words, then a huge responsibility falls on educated, moderate Muslims like Aamir Khan. It is for them to persuade the men who control Islamic seminaries and the Imams who create a sense of grievance in their sermons, to start opposing Wahhabi ideas. Instead Muslim celebrities like Aamir have used their public statements to insist that jihadi terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. It is pointless saying this since the men who behead journalists in the Islamic State and rape infidel women quote verses from the Koran to justify their evil deeds. Yazidi women who have been rescued from IS tell stories of how their rapists said prayers before raping them. They also tell of how small children have been brutalised and killed on the grounds that infidels are fair game. A woman called Sahira's story was recently in the Wall Street Journal. Her 2-year-old daughter was locked up in a box and put in the sun for a week because she could not recite Arabic verses well. When after a week she was taken out, her captor broke her little back before throwing her on the ground, saying he had the right to do anything to infidels. The leaders of IS repeat over and over that they are doing these things to ensure that we live in a world in which not a single infidel is left alive. They have also repeated often that Hindus, Jews and Christians are their enemy and that they despise our way of life and our idolatrous ways. When moderate Muslims insist that this has nothing to do with Islam, they inadvertently support the Caliphate and its barbaric ideology.