ISLAM

FACTS
vs

FICTIONS
TEARING THE VEIL OF
MISCONCEPTIONS

SYED HAMID MOHSIN

Promotes Peace and Brotherhood

www.Misconceptions.in
www.Quranforall.in

ISLAM Facts vs Fictions

Copyright 2014 SYED HAMID MOHSIN.
ISBN: 978-81-928089-2-5
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the author, except for the situation below which is
permitted.

For Reprinting
Reprinting or reproducing this book on the condition that
absolutely no change, addition, or omission is introduced is
permitted free of charge. To make high quality reprints, you
may contact the author / Salaam Centre to obtain free copies
of the soft copy or printing files of this book.

The web site of this book :

This e-book is available on the Web, world wide at:
www.Misconceptions.in , www.QuranForAll.in

Price: Rs. 150/-

Printed and Published by :

SALAAM CENTRE
# 65, Ist main, S.R.K. Garden, Jayanagar, Bangalore 560 041
Branch: #5, Rich homes, Richmond Raod, Bangalore - 560 025
Contact: +91 99011 29956 / +91 99451 77477 / 080-2663 9007
Email: salaamcentrebangalore@gmail.com

Contents

Introduction

Myths and Realities

Love Binds Us

Popular Stereotypes

Biased History

Polygamy

Pakistan and Indian Muslims

786

Crescent and Star and Communal Campaigns

Mischief-mongering

10

Pakistani Flag

10

Objectionable Meat

11

Love Jihad

12

Vande Mataram, More Politics than Nationalism

14

Talaaq ( Divorce )

16

Khula, Women Rights to Obtain Divorce

19

Fatwa

20

Kufr and Kaafir

21

Why do Muslims consume Non-Veg food ?

23

Halaal and Haraam ( Lawful and Prohibited )

26

The Islamic Manner of slaughtering animals

27

Prohibition of Alcohol and Gambling

28

Rape : Sexual Terrorism

30

The difference in Islamic Law between

Adultery and Rape

31

Islamic state or Muslim country

is there a Difference?

32

Muslims or Muhammadans

34

Shia and Sunni Muslims

36

Is Urdu a Foreign Language ?

Madrasa Education

42

Mosque or Masjid

45

Some of the Features inside a Mosque

47

The whole Earth is a Mosque

48

Azaan, The Prayer Call

49

No Priesthood in Islam

51

Do Muslims Worship the Kaabah ?

54

Do Muslims Worship the Black Stone ?

54

Why Non-Muslims not allowed in Makkah ?

56

Difference between Dargah and Mosque ?

58

Visit to Dargahs

Why no images of God and the Prophet ?

61

Did Prophet Muhammad spread Islam by sword ?

64

Did Islam Spread by Force ?

67

Personal Law

75

Hajj Subsidy

75

Demographic Demon

76

Muslims Appeasement

78

Tippu Sultan, A Patriot Maligned

82

40

60

Ancient Enemy : Modern Hate

88

Rid our Body Politic of Communal Poison

100

Jihad

104

Greater Jihad

104

Supreme Jihad

Lesser Jihad

Social Jihad

107

What Did the Prophet Say About War ?

110

The word Jihad : Used and Abused

113

Misuse of Religion

117

Oppression and Terrorism is there a difference ?

120

Manufacturing Islamophobias

126

Roots of Terrorism

130

Media Doublespeak on Terrorism

135

Violence, Terrorism and Genocide

West Leads the List

138

Suicidal Bombing Prohibited in Islam

146

Islamic Fundamentalism

151

Women : Hidden past and Uncertain present

154

The Islamic view of Women

Rights of Women under Islamic Law

162

Duties of Woman in Islam

165

Hijab or Burqa

166

Hijab, Pinnacle of Intellect

169

The Consent of Women; the Islamic position

170

Some Controversial Womens issues

172

105
106

160

Under Islamic Law, why is a womens share of

inherited wealth half that of a mans ?

172

Why is it that women in a number of Muslim

countries have yet to achieve right to vote ?

174

Womens Education and Right to Driving

176

Polygamy and Monogamy

177

Polygamy a Western Weapon

177

Polygamy in Judaism

178

Polygamy in Christianity

179

Polygamy in Hinduism

180

Polygamy in Western Society

181

Polygamy in Islam

183

Remarriage of widows and

divorced women in Islam

187

Holy Prophet and His Family Life

190

Misunderstood Quranic Verses

193

Acknowledgments

204

Bibliographic References

206

Introduction
We are livingthroughtroubled times. Nation-states have
spawnedumpteen divides in the human society which was
already much divided along ethnic and religious lines.Intercommunity relations are under constant threat from forces
out to exploit religious, casteist and linguistic sentiments.
Religion is being used for dividing people rather than finding
them spiritual solace. Consumerism and commercialism have
combined together to rob the people and the nations of their
natural wealth and peace. The forces of consumerism that
guide the global powers are bent upon promoting wars to
keep the wheels of arms industry roaring. Academia, research
institutes and media that could have exposed their designs
are wary of criticizing them, dependant as they are upon their
largesse.It is an irony of our times thatwithout their
support, the voice of the civil society has no scope to be
heard.
Admittedly, promotion of wars have to be preceded
withhate campaigns by the media, a necessity for provoking
hostility through stereotypes and demonization of Muslim
community. These have taken a heavy toll of social harmony
around the world. So, today we see a lot of hate being spewed
through globalised channels and war-mongering from seats of
power. Doctrine of You are either with us or with the
terrorists is used to silence the ones who are undecided,
neutral or merely silent unable to judge the circumstances.

The word Islam and Muslims trigger images of bearded

fighters with bloodshot eyes, stinger missiles slinging by their
shoulders. These images dominate our airwaves, screens and
newspapers. Political discourses revolve round,Jihad, mullah,
Mujahideen, Fatwa, Kafir, Sharia, Shia, Sunni,
WahhabiandMadrasa. Terms like these have come handy
for justifying the Wests War on Terror.Over the years,
the steady propaganda dished out by the media has targeted
Muslims. These biases arerooted inmisconceptions of
history, competition over resources of the poor and politics.
Faith and social ethos of the poor, the powerless and the
underdogs therefore come for demonization. They are blamed
for all the ills around the world. Laughably, the victims of
the superpower terror and economic greed are themselves
being accused of terrorism. Concepts such asJihadare
misinterpreted as declaration of war against the innocents.
There is hardly any mistaking who is behind this game of
making the villains of the innocents.
There is no doubt who is eyeing the oil wells and energy
resources and thereby in need of hatred and wars. It is time
for us to see through the game and dissect the blatant lies.
An effort at developing positive understanding of each others
faith will go a long way in bringing the people together and
benefit from each others strengths.
The West has done a good deal of work topromote
misunderstandingsamong communities. The so-called war on
terror responsible for more than a million deaths in the
Middle East is rooted in spurious theories such as clash of
civilisation, aFourth World Warandsupremacy of
whites. Not long ago two-nation theory did the same for the
subcontinent. These need to be countered at the level of
thought and ideas. But the currentdiscourse has been mainly
one-sided, with no effort to make the people aware of the
Western interventionism in the Third World, West-sponsored
coups and foisting of dictators on weaker nations. Nor is there

any talk of highhandedness of Israel which was implanted in

the heart of the Middle East by way of compensating for the
European crimes against Jews.
Though larger issues do come under discussion to the
extent they cast shadow on the subcontinent, this book
specifically targets the average Indian mind and deals with
misconceptions that bedevil the Hindu-Muslim ties in India.
It is purely intended to explain the basic concepts of Islam
and the way Indian ethos, customs and ecology have shaped
the cultural practices of Muslims in this part of the region.
It deals with the mish-mash of issues and tries to separate
out various strands of them that link them with strategic
aims of the global powers, war on terror, electoral politics
and expedient urges of such politics that lead to deliberate
mischief from vested interests. It is not an exercise to prove
Muslims innocent, nor to lay entire blame upon others.
Delinquencies, divergences and deviant practices of Muslims
too come under scrutiny just as note has been taken of
compulsion of lifes miseries in South Asia burdened as it is
with overpopulation and attendant pressures on resources and
competition for scarce resources which often assumes
communal overtones.
It is quite likely that the book may be seen as an attempt
at highlighting the Muslim grievances against others,
particularly the West. That is indeed the case because they
have largely remained unheard in the high decible cacophony
raised over sporadic cases of terrorist-inspired violence which
are easily blamed upon Muslims. Muslims, being largely media
have-nots, have least chance of being heard and even lesser
felicity and sophistication in putting up a cogent perspective.
So the effort here is to make Muslim side of the discourse
easier to understand and make it clear to all what they think
and feel and how it gels with their worldview and where it
collides with others. It is certainly not an exercise in creating
a balance sheet of the positive and negatives stacked on either

side of the Islam-West divide. This is being done in the hope

that this would lead to building greater understanding on
either side thereby creating scope for cooperation.
If the people have to be brought closer to each other
and made to live in peace and harmonyby making them
contributeto progress, biases and phobias have to be fought
at the ideological levels. These should then penetrate down
to the masses in the form of social action for the betterment
of quality of life by people of all communities. The awareness
about truth behind the politics behind communalism and War
on terror needs to be taken to broad layers of our society.
Some of us have been engaged in doing this for several
years. There is a need to expedite it even further and bring
in more of us, activists, teachers and concerned individuals.
To help promote this crucial work wehave
broughtoutthis book, ISLAM, Facts vs Fictions ,
Tearing the veil of Misconceptions.

Facts vs Fictions

Myths and Realities

We are living through a time when equations between people,
individuals, nations and religions alter continually and impact
upon the public psyche. It calls upon all of us to constantly
interpret ourselves and our actions and blow off the dust and
grime that faiths, precepts and practices gather so frequently.
A lot of question marks are being raised today on Islam,
despite it being on the Indian scene for over a thousand years.
The Hindus and Muslims have not lived like frozen cubes in
the subcontinent. They shared the same land, drank the same
waters of the sacred rivers of Ganga and Sind and richly
interacted in the fields of arts, crafts, culture, and traditions.
Yet, due to the media, the divisive politics and the divergence
of strategic interest of nations in the subcontinent, shadows
of suspicions have soured the inter-community relations.
Distances have grown between neighbours and political
meanings are lent to otherwise quite normal actions by equally
normal people who raised no eyebrows previously.
Islam began to knock at the doors of Sind within the
passage of 100 years since the rise of the faith in the sands
of Arabia. But it was not before 1191 AD that first Muslim
sultanate was established in Delhi. Much before the British
imperial power began to administer the affairs of India, a
host of Sufis and Saints had set up their hospices or
sanatoriums and began to disseminate spirituality, peace and
light among people from all religions.

Facts vs Fictions

A long line of sufis have spread the message of peace,

love and harmony in the subcontinent, and won the devotion
and affection of thousands of people of all communities in
the land.
Rich synthesis of Hindu and Islamic culture, languages
and architecture, Hindustani music, qawwali, ghazals, Urdu,
Mughlai cuisines, Mughal paintings, Sikh religion,
Kabirpanthis, Arya Samaj and several other such trends were
outcome of this fusion and interaction.
Dynasties came and went. Wars constantly altered
borders and political changes spelled new equations. Legacies
of rising movements and declining regimes had their own
impact on the ties. The sun set on the Mughal Empire in
1857 and the British were the new masters of the land. The
distant colonial empire necessitated legacies with potential
to divide people rather than traditions that united them. An
education system that fulfilled this precise need to produce
clerks for them and extend the divide among the people was
put in place. A people who never had known hatred based on
religion began to view each other in terms of us versus them.
Educationally backward, ill at ease with the native
languages, the Muslims today are not able to explain their
case before the co-countrymen. Their image has suffered in
the wake of this deliberate maligning campaign. Myths are
concocted about them with ease and peddled successfully.
Distorted history poisons the minds of innocent citizens.
Their lapses are exaggerated and achievements belittled or
obscured. Communication lines with the general masses have
snapped. So, there is a strong need to restore and improve
communication between the communities, lest the darkness
of misinformation and misconception deepen the crises.

Facts vs Fictions

Love Binds Us
The manipulation of Indias religious tensions by militants,
criminals, and politicians highlight the extent to which
religious sentiments are vulnerable to exploitation. These may
serve their interest, but the social cost gets evident from the
disturbing divide between the Hindus and Muslims
A veteran Indian political leader comments that there
is often a tendency in India to treat Muslims as them rather
than us. And this tendency does have terrible manifestations.
Even today, by and large, Muslims have not been admitted
to what we call the Indian mainstream?
Extremism is nourished by mistrust which in turn feeds
on myths, half-truths and falsehood. Extremist forces
therefore employ everything that provoke hatred and arouse
passion to their service. They foment unreasonable hatred
against others and foster unnecessary pride in oneself.
Mocking others and exaggerating ones own importance,
power, or reputation is popular pastime for them. Tools that
have gained currency for the purpose have promoted distorted
history, image-tarring exercises and promotion of siege
mentality.
Indian Muslims, now constituting over 160 million
people, have been the constant targets of the criticism and
defamation campaign. Such is the atmosphere of mistrust and
suspicion that it requires only a small incident to light the
fuse of violence against them. Rarely did we behave as citizens
of secular and plural democracy where religion acts as a
positive force to bind us in brotherhood of love and mutual

Facts vs Fictions

respect. Questions like who did this and why, are too obvious
to be answered. But the reality is that much of the mud that
has been slung has stuck and requires vigorous rubbing. This
is possible only if channels of communication are opened
between the two principal communities in India and a
concerted effort is made to foster understanding between
them within the social, cultural and historical context. They
have to understand and respect each others faith, and build
communal harmony and brotherhood. Hate divides and love
binds us, should be the motto in the struggle to put the
nation on the trajectory of peace and prosperity.

Popular Stereotypes
Stereotypes of Muslim image and attitude abound in the
society. For example in a common mans knowledge, the
Muslim Personal Law is confined to the facility of four wives
and three Talaq (divorces) to discard an unwanted wife.
Similarly, all Muslims are generally considered to be detestful
of family planning. These practices then come handy for
explaining the prolific growth of the community which is
further projected as a demographic deluge out to overwhelm
the majority. Distortions of history add further fuel to fire.
For instance the canard of forcible conversion of people to
Islam; demolition of temples and construction of mosques
on their debris; desecration of idols; paint Muslim kings in
villainical light thereby justifying, if not demanding, revenge
or retaliation. Myth of block Muslim voting and stray forays
by Muslim parties into electoral arena are interpreted in
terms of a minoritys political designs. When certain political
parties play gimmicks like declaration of national holiday on
Prophets birthday or even initiate measures to improve the
lot of the Muslims, it is looked upon as appeasement and
dubbed minorityism. Stage is then set for psychic rupture and
confrontation.

Facts vs Fictions

Biased History
Biased characterization of historical personalities such as
Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan also serves the partisan political
needs of today to widen the gap between Hindus and the
Muslims. For instance Aurangzebs demolition of Banares
temple is selectively highlighted. No mention is made of the
fact that he also razed the Jama Masjid of Golconda when
its premises was misused for storing ill-gotten wealth by Qutb
Shahi monarch Abul Hasan Tanashah. In both instances,
Aurangzeb found the places of worship misused.

Polygamy
The myth of polygamy amongst the Muslims is also very firmly
sustained in popular imagination. The correlation of polygamy
with demographic expansion is the most simplistic concoction
to have taken grip of our psyche. Overall the number of
children born depends on the number of women in the
reproductive age group and is limited by that. On first count
it is immaterial whether a man is having one or more wives
as the total number of children depends on the number of
women, which does not get influenced by polygamy. If at all,
this number of women has more to do with the prevalence of
social practice of female infanticide and bride burnings in
the areas where the practice of extortion by parents of
grooms called dowry is prevalent.
Secondly the male-female ratio cannot permit the luxury
of four wives to the Muslim males unless three-fourths (75%)
of them go without marriage. As per 1981 census the male/
female ratio for Muslims was 1.068 and for Hindus 1.072 i.e.
for every 1,000 Muslim females there are 1,068 Muslim males.
One has to conceive of gigantic mental acrobatics, in the light
of these statistics, to believe that all Muslim males can have
four wives.

Facts vs Fictions

As such a slightly earlier but relevant statistics of

polygamy (1961 census report) totally smashes the myth of
Muslim polygamy; unless the social trends have worsened
drastically, which obviously have not. As per this the incidence
of polygamy is highest among the Adivasis (15.25%) followed
by Buddhists (7.9%), Jains (6.72%) Hindus (5.80%) and lo and
behold! followed by Muslims (5.70%); Research carried out
by Mallika B. Mistry of Gokhale Institute of Pune, concludes
there is no evidence that the percentage of polygamous
marriage (among Muslims) is larger than those among Hindus.
Propaganda machine of some extremist organisations has
done a remarkable job by making Hum do, hamare do: Woh
panch, unke puchchis, {We (Hindus) practice two children
norm, They (Muslims) practice four wives, twenty five children
norm}, a reference to permission for Muslim husbands being
permitted to have four wives. This then is picked up by
propagandists to tar the entire Muslim community. How
erroneous could be the impression and malicious would be
the impact, is only to be guessed!
A survey conducted in 1993 in eight blocks of Ahmedabad,
Gujarat, covering almost the entire Muslim population of the
city, found that there were only 279 cases of single individuals
having two wives. Reporting the result The Hindustan Times
(July 13, 2003) wrote: While Muslims have often been jeered,
that fact is that Hindus are also involved in polygamous
practices. As many as 29,951 cases of Maitri Karar (friendship
contract) were found officially registered at the District
Collectorate in Ahmedabad at that time. The Maitri Karar
was a pact between a married Hindu man and his other
woman to circumvent provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act
that prohibits another marriage while the wife is still alive.
The daily further added: It was not legally enforceable, but
the Maitri Karar was meant to give a sense of security to
the married mans other woman.

Facts vs Fictions

Pakistan and Indian Muslims

It is a great myth propagated by extremist groups that
Pakistan is holy land for Muslims. In fact, there is no religious
significance attached with Pakistan as is the case with
Makkah, where Kaabah is situated and Madina where the
Mosque of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is
situated. Pakistan could be one of the 57 Muslim countries
across the world like Malaysia, Chad or Uzbekistan. Likewise
there is no importance attached to Pakistans flag. Indian
Muslims neither worship that flag not consider hoisting it as
an act of virtue. It is flag of a nation like any other. No
religious, social or political leader in India ever suggested or
propagated celebrating the victory of Pakistan in a cricket or
a hockey match instead the refrain is to be loyal to the
country they reside in and take pride in its national symbols.
There is no shrine in Pakistan which is visited by Indian
Muslims. Nearly all holy shrines of Muslims remained within
India after Partition. Curiously, Indian Sikhs visit a
Gurudwara Dera Baba Nanak in Lahore (Pakistan) and Hindus
visit shrines at Katasraj near Islamabad.

786
Cross is the symbol of Christianity. Om or swastika
symbolizes Hinduism. People, who are accustomed to identify
religions with visual symbols, often end up considering the
figure of 786 or the crescent and star as symbols of Islam.
So entrenched has it become in public imagination that any
appeals directed towards religious groups come to rely on
these symbols. Islam itself has neither prescribed nor officially
recognized any symbols for its identification.
The figure of 786 is purported to represent Bismillahir

Facts vs Fictions

Rahmaanir Raheem in Arabic. This is a short prayer which

appears before the beginning of every chapter of the Quran.
It is recommended that a Muslim should begin all his
assignments with this prayer which means I begin in the name
of Allah, Who is Compassionate and Merciful. Arabic has
this tradition of assigning a numerical value to every single
of its alphabets. This is known as Abjad system of calculation.
The numerical value of alphabets that go into making
Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem totals up to 786. Some people
prefer to write 786 instead of writing the whole prayer when
they are recording something in writing or doing something
as writing a letter. It carries no religious sanction in Islam.
It is merely a literary tradition prevalent in Arabic literature.
Hence no religious significance should be attached to it.
Some superstitions morph into modern forms. Likewise,
the 786 too finds into modern gadgets and gizmos. Some rich
Muslims would like their cars to bear registration numbers
to have 786 as the final three digits. Some would like them
to be final digits in their cell numbers. They do not even
mind spending fancy sums to acquire them. Yet others would
opt for them merely because they are easy to remember and
convey to others. The celluloid industry too would like to
exploit the emotive appeal of the number as could be seen in
Shahrukh Khan playing the Qaidi no. 786 in Lahore jail in
the Bollywood blockbuster Veer Zarah.

Facts vs Fictions

Crescent and Star and

Communal Campaigns
Islamic calendar follows lunar movement. Islams Hijri
calendar which was introduced in the era of second Caliph or
the Head of Islamic State, Hazrat Umar, began to base itself
on the lunar calendar starting with first Hijra from the date
of the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) from Makkah to Madinah. Important rituals such as
Hajj, fasting month of Ramazan, Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha
coincide with various phases of Moon. It is therefore very
crucial that appearance of crescent is recorded accurately as
it constitutes beginning of the Islamic month. The Ottoman
Caliphate of Turkey which brought under its domain a vast
area of Europe and Asia took the crescent and star as the
symbol of their caliphate or kingdom and put this on their
flag. From then on the Muslim world began to emulate the
Ottoman flag. Following the traditions, several Muslim states
have adopted crescent and star as part of their national
emblem. It however does not bear any religious significance.
Nor does it carry any sanctity.
Sometimes, ignorant Muslims take crescent and star as
sacred to signify Islam. It is why we see green flags bearing
crescent and star hoisted over many graveyards or dargahs
(mausoleum). As such Islam has neither prescribed nor
sanctified this symbol, though it is part of the flags of several
modern Muslims states. The Ottoman Empire had adopted
it as its official symbol and it found a place on their flag for

10

Facts vs Fictions

nearly four centuries. Even a crescent-star symbol was

implanted in the garden overlooking the White House in
Washington DC in recent years in recognition of Muslim
presence and influence in the United States. Nothing in the
holy text of Islam recognizes or recommends its use as
emblem, seal or flag of a Muslim state. So no religious
sanctity should be attached to it.

Mischief-mongering
Interestingly, the rightists Hindutva organizations try to
confuse the general public by mixing issues such as flags
bearing crescent and star with Pakistani flag. While crescent
and star is associated with flags symbolic of Muslims and can
be seen fluttering at graveyard or dargahs, the Pakistani flag
has a white vertical strip on the left which covers about a
fourth of the portion on the left side.

Pakistani Flag
Curiously, the rightists Hindutva organizations who have been
in the forefront of accusing Muslims of being less patriotic
have often tried to confound the general public of traditional
crescent and star bearing Muslim flag being Pakistani flag.
But one would not have imagined these communal bodies
going a step further by themselves hoisting a Pakistani flag
on a government office as a stratagem to foment communal
strife. As is reported from Karnataka, the police rounded up
six Sri Rama Sene activists from Sindagi in Belgaum district
in January 2012. (See The Hindu, January 11, 2012). Curiously,
the Rama Sene youth had themselves hoisted the Pakistani
flag on the Tehsildar Office and had blamed the towns
Muslim community of the act. One would not have expected
the communalists to be so crude in their methods to incite
the public sentiments and also being caught in the act.

Facts vs Fictions

11

Objectionable Meat
Close on the heels, four Hindu youths were caught for
throwing pieces of beef in several temples in communally
sensitive city of Hyderabad around the first week of April
2012 leading to communal violence. The police who acted
swiftly, arrested four Hindu youths within the span of next
week for the desecration of the temple with the intention of
inciting communal trouble.
What these incidents signify is that people should not
be excessively obsessed with religious symbols or their
desecration. In a plural democracy like Indias, there is no
dearth of mischief mongers who try to cash in upon such
sentiments and can set the society aflame. Extremist bodies
can themselves appoint agents provocateurs to inflame
passions and polarize the society on communal lines to benefit
electorally. As is evident from the two incidents, the elements
from rightist Hindutva bodies themselves planted the
offending material in order to blame Muslims for something
they did not do and could not have imagined of doing.
It also points to the desperation among these right wing
outfits about the dwindling outcome of their age-old
stratagems. With milch cows like Ayodhya having been
sucked dry, they are up to any mischief to incite the communal
passions and solidify their vote banks. The general public,
the Hindus as well as Muslims should exercise great restraint
in reacting to issues and should not lose their cool. If people
remain vigilant, and the law and order authorities refuse to
be partisan such mischievous plots would not work to the
benefit of the forces insistent upon destabilizing the society.

12

Facts vs Fictions

Love Jihad
A calumnious campaign was run in the media around the
middle of the BJPs five-year rule in Karnataka suggesting a
deep-seated conspiracy by Muslim organizations to entice
Hindu girls into love affairs with Muslim boys leading to the
formers conversion to Islam. The issue blazed media headlines
for weeks together and also figured in legislatures of Kerala
and Karnataka. Karnataka instituted police investigation into
the affair which found no truth in it. The controversy was
being kicked up by communal forces mainly in coastal
districts. Prior to the issue breaking into the headlines, the
vigilante groups had begun assaulting Muslim youths found
to be talking to Hindu females in public places or travelling
with them in public transport.
Then there were political reasons for taking such issues.
The far right Hindutva bodies intend to project themselves
as the sole protectors of the Hindus, guarding their women
from falling prey to the Muslim youths and ensuring that the
flock of Hindus stays together. Somewhere, hidden in the
attempt is the thought that women are embodiment of honour
of a community and any attempt to take them away from
the communitys fold results in humiliation of the community.
The campaign by the right wing bodies lacked credibility
from its very inception. So when the allegation surfaced first,
the Karnataka High Court ordered an investigation. The
police, headed by a DIG rank officer, reported that all such

Facts vs Fictions

13

reports of enticing Hindu women by Muslim boys were mere

figments of imagination although there were cases of interfaith
marriages. It saw no element of coercion in such alliances.
Similarly, another report said there existed no organization
like Love Jihad, as alleged by some quarters, promoting such
alliances in an organized manner although it found some
evidence to the fact that there was some element of coercion
on women to convert to Islam following matrimony in case
husbands were Muslims. With investigation reports refuting
the presence of any organized attempt and element of force,
the media campaign fizzled out. But it has not dissuaded the
vigilante groups from carrying on their smear campaign against
Muslims and from using force to bar interaction between
them.
As a whole, existence of any organization named Love
Jihad defies logic as well as common sense. If Jihad is taken
in its misconstrued form, it certainly cannot be employed to
promote romance between two individuals, for love is
spontaneous as well as instinctive. It needs neither catalysts
nor external props. It can neither be feigned nor staged. It
blossoms in hearts and progresses with mutual interaction.
Given such requirements, element of force cannot be foreseen,
much less proved.

14

Facts vs Fictions

Vande Mataram
More Politics than Nationalism
This song has a complex history. It was written by Bankim
Chandra Chatterjee and, later was made a part of his novel
Anand Math. This novel has strong anti Muslim rhetoric.
This song was very popular with a section of the society. Islam
is a monotheistic religion. It does not recognize any other
god-goddess than Allah. Islam does not permit worship of
anyone except one God. But some elements eye an
opportunity in this refusal to browbeat the community and
dub anyone refusing to sing Vande Matram as anti-national.
Muslim recognize that being citizens of nation-states they
are bound to be respectful of nationalism and prove their
patriotism by faith and action. But for them their scope does
not extend to worship of the nation. The difference is
maintained between love for the nation and worship of the
nation. Whether it is Saudi Arabia or Iran, citizens there
are not asked to worship the nation. Loyalty to the nation
does not elevate the nation to the status of godhood.
Jana Gana Mana written by Rabindranath Tagore was
selected as the National Anthem as it celebrated the diversity
and plurality of India. It is useful to remember that only the
first two stanzas of the song Vande Mataram were adopted
as the national song, not the latter part wherein the
motherland has been compared to Hindu goddesses.
Simultaneously some elements have been in the forefront
of denigrating the Jana Gana Mana describing it to be
written in the praise of arrival of King George V in India.

Facts vs Fictions

15

This is a myth that has been fabricated recently in order to

defame the Nobel Laureate whose anti-colonial credentials
are well known.
Netaji Subhash Chandra Boses Azad Hind Fauj adopted
Jana gana mana as national anthem and Gandhiji went on
to say, Jana gana mana has found a place in our national
life. It is one reason why some elements are keen for
replacement ofJana gana mana by Bankim Chandra
Chatterjis Vande Mataram.
Muslim opposition to singingof Vande Mataramis less
significant than the attempt to downgrade the Jana Gana
Mana by some elements in India. The issue has overtones
of communal politics where focus on pushing a community
into a tight corner rather than choosing the manner of
saluting or celebrating the national glory.
Supreme Court had also to deal with this issue. Schoolchildren from the Jehovahs Witnesses had refused to sing
the national anthem because their religion forbade them to
sing it. School expelled the students. The matter went to
Supreme Court, which observed that a secular court cannot
enquire into the correctness or otherwise of religious beliefs.
The ground on which court gave its verdict was the assessment
whether the belief is genuinely and conscientiously held by a
sizable section of the community, and that the belief is not
opposed to public order and morality. The Supreme Court
struck down the students expulsion as violative of their
freedom of religion guaranteed by Article 25 of the
Constitution and students were taken back.
Soli Sorabjee one of our celebrated legal luminary takes
the cue from Justice Chinnappa Reddy to explain the rational
of the judgment, Our tradition teaches tolerance; our
philosophy preaches tolerance; our constitution practices
tolerance; let us not dilute it.

16

Facts vs Fictions

Talaaq
( Divorce )
Islam was first among the religions to lay down elaborate yet
simple procedure for marriage and divorce. According to the
Quran, marriage is solemnized between a male and a female
by entering into a social contract. The man and the woman
make an undertaking before a set of persons. An individual
from each side proposes an alliance. Two persons stand witness
and a qazi writes down the contract, recites a few verses of
the Holy Quran called the sermon of Nikah and gets the
signatures affixed by the spouses. This is acceptance of the
contracts and conclusion of the ceremony.
But Islam understood the facts and details of human
nature and made provision for separation if the two partners
find that their nature is incompatible and they cannot live
together despite their having sired children. There is a much
more elaborate procedure for parting of ways. It is called
talaaq or divorce. Somehow an impression has gained ground
that a Muslim man can divorce his wife by simply uttering
talaaq thrice. Now much fun has come to be associated with
the procedure. Some ill-informed moulvis (clerics) have issued
some fatwas regarding Talaaq being effective even when one
utters it on phone, mobile, or sends SMS or email to this
effect. Adding more spice, a few reports have even quoted
moulvis endorsing its validity even when uttered under the
influence of liquor or while seeing dreams. These have also
been stuff for a few Bollywood films.

Facts vs Fictions

17

Similarly, it is worth pondering as to how Islam would

validate a divorce administered under the influence of liquor
while even prayers done in an intoxicated state are not
accepted. It is therefore fair to suspect that some interested
quarters are fanning such misconceptions against Islam and
its family laws. No sane mind would accept such a proposition.
This playing up by some prejudiced media is totally
mischievous, to say the least. First the Muslim marriages
rarely end in Talaaq as is made out in the press and media.
Second, it is quite possible that some such cases are
stagemanaged to boost their TRP (Television Rating Point)
and fatwa is procured from ill-informed clerics to defame the
sharia and its provisions. Third, unfortunately for Islam, the
irresponsible behavior of some Muslim individuals announcing
Talaaq thrice, due to lack of knowledge or in a fit of temper,
ruins the life of women, does, considerable damage to the
image of Islam and provides colourful material for slander to
criticise the concept of Talaaq in Islam.
Islam recognizes the diversity of individual nature of men
and women. While Nikah joins them as husband and wife,
scope for separation too has been envisioned by the Almighty
God who is the Creator of the human beings. Had this not
been done, life would have been hell for several couples who
simply cannot pull together. Men could have resorted to killing
of women or the latter may have resorted to suicides to get
out of the inharmonious marriages. Islam certainly does not
intend to bind a man and a woman into a union they intensely
hate to sustain after having failed to bring about compatibility
between their tastes, dispositions, and nature. It is why an
honourable way to get out of this relationship was provided.
This is called talaaq. In those communities whose religious
laws do not allow the marital bonds to be dissolved at any
cost, women are subjected to harassment, torture and even
burning.

18

Facts vs Fictions

Now, this instrument of talaaq has come to be grossly

misused by certain Muslim men and over the years
misinterpretation of the Islamic law has made its
misapplication and validation possible.
But the fact remains that Talaaq is an extremely
detestable act in Islam despite it being on the statute book
as a legal instrument for dissolution of an inconvenient
marriage.
The Quran permits divorce, though the Prophet had said
that of all the lawful things, God hate nothing more than
divorce.
The manner of divorcing the wife by the husband is explained:
Divorce may be pronounced; then either your mate
should be sent away decently or you should part with
her decently. (Quran 2:229)
Again it is prescribed: A divorce is only Permissible
twice: after that, the parties should either hold
together on equitable terms, or separate with
kindness. It is not lawful for you, O Men, to take
back any of your gifts [from your wives], except when
both parties Fear that they would be unable to keep
the limits ordained by God. (Quran 2:229)
The above verses read together with verses 34 and 35 of
the 4th chapter (i.e., Nisaa) lay down a 7-stage procedure for
divorce. But somehow, this process has come to be ignored
and rulings by qazis (judges of Islamic family courts that are
not legally recognized in India) have validated annulment of
marriage by triple utterances of word talaaq.
The Prophet had declared people who resorted to such
divorce as those playing with the commandments of God.
Prophet Muhammads (peace be upon him) companion Umar
had punished the ones who did this.

19

Facts vs Fictions

Khula
Womens Right to Obtain Divorce
Islam also empowers women with the countervailing right to
seek a divorce from the husband in circumstances when they
are not willing to continue the partnership. A Muslim woman
may approach a qazi to grant her divorce if the husband
refuses to give divorce:
But the parting cannot be sudden; there has to be the
iddat, or waiting period, a supreme innovation of the Quran,
as Professor Coulson describes it. The period has to last until
the wife completes three menstrual circles or, if she is
pregnant, until she delivers.
During this time, she is entitled to the husbands financial
support. This period can also be used for reconciliation. The
Prophet was clearly told in the Quran:
Whenever you or other men divorce women, take
care of them during the waiting period fear the Lord
and do not turn them out of their homes. Nor should
they be made to leave, except if guilty of sexual
misconduct. (Quran 65:1)

Qurans warning to the Husbands

Another warning given to the husband is that he should not
obstruct his divorced wife from marrying someone else:
That is purer in conduct and more orderly, for God
knows while you do not What is best for you.
(Quran 2:232)

20

Facts vs Fictions

Fatwa
A fatwa is a juristic opinion in Islamic theology. But most
people have come to construe it as a ruling of the religious
court, thanks mainly to the publicity given to certain
ridiculous fatwas. It has led to the belief among general masses
that most Muslims live and comply by these kinds of fatwas.
Far from that, hardly ever a common Muslim approaches a
cleric to seek a legal opinion in any matter.
Even if a fatwa looks odd and does not look compatible
with the norms of justice and fairness, it should not gather
the kind of controversy as is witnessed today. The media, in
its pursuit of the odd and the absurd and in its zeal to malign
the Islamic religious establishment goes gaga over when it
lays its hands upon any such document. There being thousands
of madrassas and even arbitration panels in madrassas, there
can be any number of religious opinion, on a particular
subject. It is rather bizarre that some fatwas catch the fancy
of the prejudiced media and branded as rulings and later tomtommed as specimen of fanaticism. Even more outrageous is
the thought that most Muslims have deep attachment to such
opinion.
To set the record straight, a fatwa is not a judicial ruling.
It is merely a juristic opinion. A Shorter Encyclopedia of
Islam defines fatwa as: A formal legal opinion given by a mufti,
or canon lawyer of standing, in answer to a question submitted
to him either by a judge or private individual.

21

Facts vs Fictions

Fatwas are mere opinions and are not binding. They could
be accepted or rejected. Not even those who offer this opinion
insist on their being complied with. They themselves would
suggest: Take it or leave it, as you please. People who face
issues of complex nature seek juristic opinion from several
theological bodies at the same time and are not surprised
when they find them contradictory in nature.
Irresponsible fatwas, however, receive greater notice than
Muslim censure of them. Irans Imam Ayatollah Khomeinis
fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989 received short shrift
from jurists of repute. The religious authorities of Saudi
Arabia and the sheikhs of the prestigious Al-Azhar University
in Cairo condemned Imam Khomeinis fatwa as illegal and
un-Islamic. Muslim law does not permit a man to be
sentenced to death without trial and has no jurisdiction
outside the Islamic world. At the Islamic Conference of
March 1989, forty-four out of the forty five Muslim member
countries unanimously rejected Imam Khomeinis fatwa. But
this received only cursory attention in International press and
media, and left many people with the misleading impression
that the entire Muslim world was clamoring for Rushdies
blood.

Kufr and Kaafir

Objections have been raised against the word Kaafir. Some
sections of the prejudiced media have presented it in
controversial light as if this is used by Muslims as an abuse
or to insult the non-Muslims. The word and its implications
have been thoroughly misunderstood.
Kaafir has been derived from root word Kufr. Kufr means
to cover, to conceal. Night is referred to as Kaafir as it
covers what is visible. Thick clouds too are referred to as
Kaafir as they cover the bright sky and the sun. Even farmer

22

Facts vs Fictions

is often referred to as Kaafir as he covers seeds with mud in

the farm.
There are no negative connotations associated with
Kaafir or Kufr. It should therefore cause no offence to
anyone. Kaafir is not a substitute for non-Muslims, nor are
all non-Muslims Kaafir. In religious terminology, a Kaafir is
one who denies, rejects or refuses to accept something. So
people of one religion are Kaafir of another religion.
Communists and capitalists are mutually Kaafir to each other.
However, in Islamic terminology, one who denies or refuses
worship of any deity other than Allah is a believer. Kaafir is
of course a denier, but does not carry any abusive meaning.
It has to be understood that God has given the
freedom of choice in matters of religion. The Quran
says: There is no compulsion in religion, truly the
right way has become clearly distinct from error;
therefore whoever disbelieves in the Satan and
believes in Allah, he indeed has laid hold on the
firmest handle, which shall not break off, and Allah
is Hearing, Knowing. (Quran 2: 256)
So there is no scope for Islam or Muslims being
derogatory about those who do not have faith in one God
and his messengers.

Facts vs Fictions

23

Why do Muslims
Consume Non-Veg. food ?
The mankind has traditionally depended on food from two
sources, 1- Farms, fields and gardens on one hand and 2Animals, basically that from the cattle and some other living
beings from the sea, on the other. Those who survive only on
foods from plants are known as vegetarians while the ones
sourcing their nutrition from animalsbesides of course
plantsare called non-vegetarians. Followers of a third
category of dietary regimen are known as Vegan. Vegans avoid
all kinds of animal-derived products such as milk, honey, eggs
and all dairy products.
Vegetarianism and veganism have become worldwide
movements in recent years. They are based on the philosophy
of respecting animal rights and avoiding anything that leads
to killing of animals or profiting from them in any manner.
Islam like Christianity and Judaism took birth in a land
and a society which was basically pastoral or rural. The long
lines of prophets that are shared by these three faiths radiated
from the common pivot in Palestine and flourished in lands
that were largely parched and dry and animal-rearing and
breeding was the major occupation for the people. Followers
of the three major faiths had therefore inherited the
nutritional traditions from people who depended on animal
proteins in a major way. It was not that these faiths made it
obligatory for them to hunt or kill animals and compulsorily

24

Facts vs Fictions

make meat a part of their food.

Secondly, killing animals for food is considered perfectly
acceptable in most faiths. However, a few others do consider
it unethical, if not barbaric. Kindness and compassion are
not linked with food habits. One could be kind and
compassionate despite being a meat-eater and contrarily, a
person depending on completely vegetarian food could be
unkind.
Thirdly, modern researches establish that even plants have
life and they feel pain, react to music and other such external
influences and are happy or sad and cry for water. American
farmers have invented machines that amplify the cries of the
plant when they are in need of water and are in the process
of devising irrigation system that get activated by such cries.
Islamic doctrine is based upon the philosophy of man
being the supreme creature on the earth permitted to and
endowed with the capacity to use all the earths resources
for his benefit. Of course he is commanded to use them in a
way that nothing gets wasted. In the modern saying, such
use is called sustainable i.e., to use the resources in such a
manner that the nature is able to refill all the resources in
the natural process.
Islamic philosophy requires the human beings to act as
custodians of all that the earth contains and produces, not
as the owner. Owner is God and the custodian has to act
with full honesty and use the resources just to fulfill his needs
rather than amass them to fulfill his greed.
The Quran says:
O You who believe! Fulfill your contracts!
Permitted to you (for food) are four-footed grazing
animals, except what will be described to you.
(Quran 5:1)

Facts vs Fictions

25

At another place the Quran says:

Verily there is a lesson for you in the cattle: We
provide you with milk from what is in their bellies,
and there are benefits for you in them in abundance,
and of them do you eat. (Quran 23:21)
Nutritionists agree that meat or animal proteins make
complete food and supply all the eight essential amino acids
that are synthesized by the body and should be supplied in
the diet. Meat also contains iron, vitamin B-1 and Niacin. A
diet merely consisting of plant based food creates serious
deficiency of proteins and may lead to anemia which is the
case with general Indian population which does not get enough
protein-based nutrition.
Even a cursory glance at the oral anatomy reveals that
the human beings have been provided with teeth that are
suitable for both biting and chewing. Hence a man has been
designed to be both herbivorous and carnivorous by Nature.
But a similar observation among animals would reveal that
while cattle have merely flat teeth i.e., fit for chewing, the
beasts have only sharp or biting teeth, i.e., suitable for tearing
and biting their food. What could be concluded is that human
beings were expected to consume both kinds of food, plantbased as well as animal-based. Similarly, the human digestive
system is also endowed with the capacity to digest and absorb
both vegetative and animal based food.

26

Facts vs Fictions

Halaal and Haraam

( Lawful and Prohibited )
Islam lays down a code of discipline to be followed in life for
its followers with broad guidelines. The things that have been
permitted to be done, eaten or performed are called Halaal
or lawful while those things which have been prohibited under
the religious discipline are known as Haraam or unlawful.
Eating Haraam things or committing Haraam acts displeases
God and such people have been severely chastised in the holy
Quran. These are known as sins and a Muslim must stay away
from them. For instance in matters of consumption, pork and
liquor or any other intoxicating material is prohibited.
In mattersof wearing, Muslim men have been advised
not to wear gold and silk. While gold cannot be worn, silk is
permitted to be used in clothes when mixed with other fibres
like cotton or wool.
Halaal and Haraam extend to behavior and earning too.
A Muslim must not earn his livelihood through illegal means
such as stealing, cheating, corruption, bribery, extortion,
usurpation of others resources, or usury. Any believer who
benefits from or lives off wealth obtained through Haraam
means is a sinner. Similarly, a believing person should not
indulge in adultery. Backbiting, lying, homosexual liaisons,
spying on others, taunting, making fun of others too are traits
of behavior that range from undesirable to prohibited.

27

Facts vs Fictions

Halaal
The Islamic manner of Slaughtering Animals
Muslims and Jews insist on slaughtering religiously permitted
animals for eating, from lower side of the neck which is helpful
in draining out the entire blood from the slaughtered animal.
This ensures that the blood does not get stagnated within
the veins of the dead animals and is ritually clean. This is
called Halaal or Lawful when done by Muslims and is part of
the acceptable food that the Muslims eat.
Islam and Judaism prescribe the animals to be cut from
the lower side of the neck rather than the upper side of the
neck. In this method, the bodys connection with the brain
of the animal is not severed at once. The brain therefore
allows the blood to flow out and the carcass of the animals
to be free from blood. Flesh free from blood is healthy and
stays fresh for longer time. In this method, the windpipe,
vessels and throat are cut but the dorsal nerve cord functions
till the last moment and draws out the last drop of blood
from the body. Only after the animal is completely dead and
the body stilled, the head is removed from the carcass for
further processing of the meat.
Blood is considered to be a medium for culture of germs,
bacteria and toxins etc. Therefore the Muslim way of
slaughtering is held to be healthier, hygienic and bacteria-free
compared to other methods of slaughtering.

28

Facts vs Fictions

Haraam
Prohibition of Alcohol and Gambling
The Quran specifically prohibits the believers from
consumption of intoxicants and engaging in gambling. Alcohol
has been forbidden as it spoils the intellect and negatively
impacts the social behaviour. Intoxicants, chiefly alcohol, are
widely recognized as root cause of several social evils. Driving
under the influence of alcohol causes traffic accidents. Street
brawls and domestic violence against women and children are
mainly attributed to men who have consumed liquor. Crimes
against women are commonly committed under the influence
of alcohol when those who have consumed the intoxicants
lose their sense of social etiquettes and decorum. Shootouts
are becoming commonplace in the pubs in the United States
and by men under the influence of intoxicants.
The Quran commands the believers to stay away from
intoxicants and gambling and other such practices in the
following words:
O you who believe! Intoxicants and gambling and
(dedication of) stones, and divination by arrow, are
an abominationof Satans handiwork; eschew such
abominations, so that ye may prosper. (Quran 5:90)
Addiction to liquor besides being devastating for health
is ruinous for economy. People under the influence of
intoxicants are prone to wayward sexual behavior and are

Facts vs Fictions

29

easily driven to molestation, rape or even incest.

Gambling is prohibited in Islam as it is addictive and
causes more losses than benefit. It destroys domestic
economies. Whether it is played by means of lottery or horsebetting, gambling is a game of chance where loss of so many
is assured while fortune for some is doubtful. People who get
addicted to such pursuits lose interest in productive work
and look for gains by chance. Fate seldom smiles on them
while gambling gradually bleeds their economy rendering them
paupers or leaving them in debt and misery soon enough.
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey
Bureau of Justice under the US Department of Justice in the
year 1996 alone everyday on an average 2,713 rapes took place.
The statistics tell us that the majority of the rapists were
intoxicated while committing the crime. The same is true in
cases of molestation.

30

Facts vs Fictions

Rape : Sexual Terrorism

In Islam, rape is not classified as a distinct crime category in
the Shariah law, which has led to some of the confusion
concerning the punishment. Some people have misconstrued
Zina (fornication or adultery) as rape. Yet in actuality, rape
falls under the category of the crimes of Hiraabah, or terror
crimes.
Hiraabah means ambushing people and frightening them
with weapons or with the threat of force, killing them,
terrorizing them and seizing their property by force and
openly. Wealth is mentioned specifically because typically
Hiraabah is associated with robbery, but the ruling applies
equally to people who terrorize others for the purposes of
rape.
In Islam, Hiraabah is one of the most serious of the
major sins, and it is forbidden according to the Quran and
the Sunnah. In fact, God describes the punishment for such
crimes in the Quran:
The punishment of those who wage war against God
and His Messenger and strive to make mischief in
the land is only this that they should be killed or
crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut
off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned;
this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and
in the hereafter they shall have a grievous
chastisement. Except those who repent before you
have them in your power; so know that God is
Forgiving, Merciful. (Quran, 5:33-34)

Facts vs Fictions

31

The difference in Islamic law between

Adultery and Rape
The early Islamic scholars, most notably the scholar al-Dasuqi
and the judge Ibn al-Arabi, explained the reason why rape is
to be considered a crime of Hiraaba (terrorism) as opposed
to a crime of zina (fornication or adultery). Ibn al-Arabi
relates a story in which a group was attacked and a woman
in their party was raped. Responding to the argument of some
of those present there that the crime did not constitute
Hiraabah because no money was taken and no weapons were
used, Ibn al-Arabi replied that Hiraabah with the private
parts is much worse than Hiraabah involving robbery, and
that anyone would prefer to be robbed than to be raped.
This classification is logical, as the taking involved in such
a case is that of the victims property (the rape victims dignity
and sense of security) by force.
Thus, rape as Hiraabah is a violent crime that uses sexual
intercourse as a weapon. The focus then in a Hiraabah
prosecution is the accused rapists intent and physical actions.
Hiraabah does not require four witnesses to prove the offence
as has been sometimes mistakenly believed by some of the
pseudo-Shariah councils making headlines today (rural
Pakistan and Nigeria). Instead, the prosecution is based on
circumstantial evidence, medical data and testimony.
Consequently, establishing that a criminal case is that of
rape is extremely critical because in an Islamic court, it could
mean the difference between life and death to the perpetrator.
Hence, a thorough evaluation is performed to determine if
the person accused actually committed the crime. If evidence
shows that the intercourse was consensual and the alleged
rapist was unjustly accused, both of them would be determined
to have committed zina (fornication or adultery), and both of
them would be punished for it.

32

Facts vs Fictions

Islamic state and Muslim country

Is there a difference ?
The major misconceptions that exist today amongst many
people is the belief that Muslim countries are places where
Islam is the rule of law from both a personal and
governmental perspective. This leads people to equate
whatever is going on in such Muslim countries with the
practice of Islam, something which in most cases couldnt be
farther from the truth!
However, since independence of Muslim countries from
the colonial powers, Islamic movements all over the Muslim
world have been working for the creation of an Islamic state
in their respective countries. An Islamic state means a state
where the Shariah, or Islamic law, is established and the
religious scholars, or the leaders of the national Islamic
movement, either have some say in the government or have
total control of political power.
In recent times, a number of Muslim countries declared
themselves to be Islamic states and ostensibly established the
Shariah. But what is actually put into practice is a small
number of classical juristic rulings concerning punishments,
status of women and other spectacular aspects of classical
jurisprudence. Thus, great show is made of Islamic
punishments or hudood laws, and floggings and amputations
were advertised. These were, in fact, outer 1imit laws to be
carried out only under extreme conditions and after certain

Facts vs Fictions

33

basic requirements of social justice, distribution of wealth,

responsibilities of the state towards its citizens, mercy and
compassion were fulfilled. What we thus get is an austere
state operating on the basis of obscurantist and extremist
laws, behaving totally contrary to the teachings of the Quran
and spirit of Islam, yet justifying its oppressions in the name
of Islam! The self-declared Islamic states are thus nothing
more than cynical instruments to justify the rule of a
particular class, family or the military.
In fact, the vast majority of these Muslim countries
are run by severely tyrannical, oppressive dictatorships similar
to, and in many cases worse than, governments like that of
Saddam Hussein in Iraq. A brief look into the policies and
practices of countries like Algeria, Syria, Jordan and Pakistan,
just to name a few, will reveal severe and regularly practiced
human rights violations and curtailed civil liberties. The
dictators in these countries regularly rig elections, jail or
murder any opposition party leaders and/or their followers,
arrest entire families and keep them indefinitely in jail without
anything resembling due process and regularly practice acts
of physical and emotional torture on prisoners, among other
grave injustices and human rights violations.
But dont make the mistake of thinking that Islam has
anything to do with the oppressive conditions. A basic
understanding of Islamic law would show that Islam is the
absolute opposite of what is being practiced in these countries.

34

Facts vs Fictions

Muslims or Mohammedans ?
Muslims do not worship Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon
him, in any way. Muslims believe that he was the last
messenger sent by Almighty God and like all other prophets
who came before him, he was a human being. However, some
people mistakenly assume that Muslims worship Muhammad
and this is one of the reasons that Muslims were erroneously
called Mohammedans.
Prophet Muhammad, like Jesus, never claimed divine
status. He called people to worship Almighty Allah alone,
and he continually emphasized his humanity. In order to
prevent his deification, Prophet Muhammad always asked his
followers to refer to him as Allahs slave and messenger.
He said: Do not adulate me as the Christians adulated Jesus,
son of Mary. I am Allahs slave and messenger.
Muhammad was chosen to be Allahs final messenger and
to communicate His message to entire mankind, not only in
words, but also as a living example of its practical application.
Muslims love and respect him because of his impeccable and
upright moral character and because he conveyed the truth
from Allah which is the pure monotheism of Islam.
Muslims strive to follow the great example of Prophet
Muhammad but do not worship him in any way. Islam teaches
Muslims to respect all of Gods prophets. However, respecting
and loving them does not mean worshipping them. Muslims
know that all worship and prayer must be directed to Allah
alone.

Facts vs Fictions

35

In fact, the worship of Prophet Muhammador anyone

elsealong with, or instead of Almighty God is considered
an unpardonable sin in Islam. Even if a person claims to be
Muslim but worships or prays to anything other than God, it
invalidates ones claim to Islam. The delegation of faith makes
it clear that Muslims must worship Allah alone.
Islam and Muslims are words used in the Quran. The
Quran says, Surely, the way of life acceptable to Allah is
Islam.(Quran 3:19) He named you Muslims before and in
this.(Quran 22:78). The message of all the prophets from
Adam to Muhammad is the same: Obey Allah and none other.
This message, sent through prophet, was completed at the
time of Muhammad who was the last in the chain of prophets.
This is mentioned in the Quran: This day, I have perfected
your religion for you, completed My favor upon you and Have
chosen for you Islam as your way of life (Quran 5:3). It is
wrong, then, to call Islam Mohammedanism and Muslims
Mohammedans. And Muhammad as founder of Islam, instead
Muhammad was the last Prophet of Islam.

36

Facts vs Fictions

Shia and Sunni Muslims

The sects within Muslims like Shias and Sunnis raise queries
among non-Muslim brothers and sisters. These remain
unanswered as several Muslim themselves lack the knowledge
of history or are not articulate enough to put the issue in
the correct historical perspective.
Both Sunni and Shia Muslims share the most
fundamentalIslamic beliefs and articles of faith; prayer,
fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage and so on. The differences
between these two main sects within Islam were mainly
political and began two decades after the death of Prophet
Muhammad. Over the centuries, however, these differences
have spawned a number of varying practices and positions
which have come to carry a spiritual significance too for their
followers.

Origins - A Question of Leadership

The division between Shia and Sunni owes itself to the
question of succession to the Prophet and as to who was the
rightful successor to him. Sunni Muslims agree with the
position taken by many of the Prophets companions, that
the new leader should be elected from among those capable
of the job. This is what was done, and the Prophet
Muhammads close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr became the
first Caliph or president of the Islamic nation. The word
Sunni in Arabic comes from a word meaning one who

Facts vs Fictions

37

follows the traditions of the Prophet.

On the other hand, some Muslims argue that leadership
should have stayed within the Prophets own family, among
those specifically appointed by him, or among Imams
appointed by God Himself.
The Shia Muslims believe that following the Prophet
Muhammads death, leadership should have passed directly
to his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. Throughout history, Shia
Muslims have not recognized the authority of elected Muslim
leaders, choosing instead to follow a line of Imams which they
believe to have been appointed by the Prophet Muhammad
or God Himself. The word Shia in Arabic means a group
or supportive party of people. The commonly-known term is
shortened from the historical Shia-t-Ali, or the Party of
Ali. They are also known as followers of Ahl-al-Bayt or
People of the Household (of the Prophet).

Distribution
Sunni Muslims make up the majority (85%) of Muslims all
over the world.Of the nearly 56 Muslim majority countries
in the world, four i.e., Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Azerbaijan,
are Shia majority states.But significant populations of Shia
Muslims can be found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen,
Bahrain, Syria, and Lebanon.

Differences in Religious Practice

From this initial question of political leadership, some aspects
of spiritual life have been affected andhave led to differing
practices, rites and ritualsamong the two groups of Muslims.
It is important to remember that despite these
differences in opinion and practice, Shia and Sunni Muslims
share the main articles of Islamic belief and are considered

38

Facts vs Fictions

by most to be brethren in faith. In fact, most Muslims do

not distinguish themselves by claiming membership in any
particular group, but prefer to call themselves simply,
Muslims.

Religious Leadership
Shia Muslims believe that the Imam is sinless by nature, and
that his authority is infallible as it comes directly from God.
Therefore, Shia Muslims often venerate the Imams as saints
and perform pilgrimages to their tombs and shrines in the
hopes of divine intercession.
Sunni Muslims argue that there is no basis in Islam for
a hereditary privileged class of spiritual leaders or priesthood,
and certainly no basis for the veneration or intercession of
saints. Sunni Muslims contend that leadership of the
community is not a birthright, but a trust that is earned and
which may be given or taken away by the people themselves.

Conflicts and Clashes

The Shia-Sunni sectarian division extends to social and political
spheres in several countries such as Pakistan, India and Saudi
Arabia. Wherever there is democracy, e.g., in Lebanon, India
Pakistan etc, such differences manifest themselves in divergent
political perception or groupings. In places like Saudi Arabia
and Syria tension between the two is ever present. There have
been armed clashes in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan
which have witnessed war during the last one decade and social
turbulence is ever eager to cash upon any kind of differences.
Even in places like Lucknow in India clashes do take place
on petty issues such as route for the Muharram procession
to be taken out on the eve of Muharram. These get exploited
at the hands of the vested interests too.

Facts vs Fictions

39

What could be essentially gleaned from the above is that

Islam also shows the diversity expected of a widely followed
religion. It does not imprison its adherents into a
straitjacketed monolithic community out to overwhelm other
faiths. Islam has creatively engaged itself with diverse ethnic,
linguistic, social and political entities and emerged as a
tapestry of divergent cultures. This should not be surprising.
Rather its absence should have made it an object of fear. No
faith or religion that extends from Casablanca in the
Mediterranean to Brunei in the Pacific can afford to retain
the social and cultural homogeneity over such a wide
geographical expanse. Nor does Islam lay any claim to it. The
only cord that runs central among them all is the doctrine of
Islam. Shia and Sunni differences deserve to be seen in this
perspective.

40

Facts vs Fictions

Is Urdu a Foreign Language ?

Measures to help promote Urdu are often held out as
incentive to a foreign language. This is also among a modern
myth. Urdu may have been an essential ingredient of Indian
Muslim identity in the Indo-Gangetic plain. But it is purely
an Indo-Aryan language with its grammar embedded in
Sanskrit. Urdu developed in military cantonments of Mughal
India with several ethnic groups mixing there and shows
strands of Hindi, Sanskrit, Braj Bhasha, Prakrit and Pali.
Neither all Muslims in India speak Urdu, nor all those
who use it (or have contributed to it in the past) are Muslims.
Urdus literary heritage has robust secular credentials with
innumerable Hindu poets, writers, playwrights and essayists
having contributed to it in enormous proportions. Bhagwad
Gita has more number of translations in Urdu than any other
Indian language. Several leading Urdu writers such as Anand
Narain Mulla, Malik Ram, Krishen Chander, Bisheshar
Pradeep, Manorama Diwan, Premchand, Raghupathi Sahay
Firaq Gorakhpuri, Brajnarain Chakbast and Gopichand
Narang belonged to Hindu community. Urdu has got nothing
to do with the Middle East or the Arabs. Pakistan has of
course adopted it as its official language at the national level,
but people residing in all the four states of Pakistan speak
their respective regional languages i.e., Sindhi, Baluchi, Punjabi
and Pashto. Similarly, Sindhi, one of the four regional
languages of Pakistan finds a place among the Indias national
languages. This mutuality is extension of our common legacies

Facts vs Fictions

41

rather than being a reason to suspect each other. Not even

its Persian script makes itforeign. Three other
Indianlanguages i.e., Sindhi, Punjabi and Kashmiri also use
the Persian script. If any proof is needed, turn over a Rs.
100 note issued by the Reserve Bank of India and take a
close look at the script of the various languages.
The oldest surviving Urdu magazine, more than a hundred
year old, Mastana Jogi, is owned by Hindus and currently,
the largest circulated Urdu daily Rashtriya Saharais published
by a non-Muslim owned publication i.e., Sahara Group.

42

Facts vs Fictions

Madrasa Education
In India madrasas came under fire especially from those who
were politically motivated and also from a section of the
prejudiced media which took a biased view. Most of the views
about madrasas were expressed by those who hardly had any
firsthand knowledge of madrasa system or what is taught in
these madrasas. They just presumed that since these are
Islamic institution they must be teaching about Jihad and
war.
Islam entered into India from earliest time, some maintain
even during Prophets lifetime through Kerala, and a century
later through Sindh in North India. Both in South and North
India hundreds of people converted to Islam and hence right
from earliest time there was need for madrasa institution to
teach religion and also to create Ulama (literally scholars) who
in turn could teach others and also help perform prayers and
other religious rites.
Madarasa literally means a place where learning and
mentoring are done. The word madrasa is like the term school
in British / American English. Madrasas are divided into all
categories from primary to secondary to university-level or
post-graduate school as well. In Islamic countries even
institutions of higher learning are known as madrasas. In
Kolkata there is Madrasa Aliyah i.e., higher institution of
learning to which now West Bengal government has given
university status. It is interesting to note that these madrasas
were open to students of other communities as well. Raja
Ram Mohan Roy studied in Madrasa Aliyah and was as much
a scholar of Persian and Arabic as that of Sanskrit and Hindu
religion.
In many cases these madrasas, in fact, imparted
instructions in religious and secular sciences.
Today, around 20,000 Madrassas educate over 1.5 million

Facts vs Fictions

43

students per year. As per Sachar Committee report presented

to the Government of India in 2006, about 3% Muslim
children go to madrasas. What is important is that madrasa
continues to be an important institution for poorer rural and
to some extent urban Muslims. A large number of Muslims
in India, in fact a vast majority, is of poor and illiterate
variety. These poor Muslims cannot afford, even if they have
the urge, to send their children to institutions of secular
education.
Moreover they have religious needs and madrasas can
fulfill not only religious needs but also provide free education,
food, hostel facilities and what is more, are conveniently
located. Also, we should not homogenize all madrasas. They
need to be divided into different categories i.e., preliminary
known as maktabs where only preliminary religious teaching
is imparted. Then comes middle level madrasas where Arabic
language, Quran, commentary on Quran, hadith etc. are
taught. Then higher madrasas which can be compared with
graduate and post-graduate level studies. In parallel with the
evolution of colleges emerged Jamia or Universities. The
oldest university in the world is Qarawiyin University of Fez
in Morocco which was established in 859. A little later alAzhar University in Cairo, Egypt came up in in 970. Apart
from religious sciences, the university students learned logic,
metaphysics, philosophy, mathematics, physics, astronomy,
rhetoric and tool-making.
A preponderant majority of the madrasas still follow a
curriculum which was formulated 400 years ago which has
outlived its utility and relevance today. Any talk of change in
curriculum greatly upsets the managements of these madrasas
as they fear loss of employment for the old hands which still
manage their levers. Though some of them have introduced
preliminary English and computers in their syllabus, the urge
to overhaul it cannot be overemphasized. Under the fierce
resistance, the Government of India has begun financial
assistance to those madrasas which bring about changes the

44

Facts vs Fictions

curriculum and introduce modern sciences. Parallel to these

official moves, even within the community, there is a
movement for modernization of madrasas and many madrasas
have gone for modernization.
Recently NCERT (National Council for Education
Research and Training), a premier government institution has
conducted a study which has revealed that the modernisation
in madrasas has been going-on in many states, most
particularly in Kerala and Kolkata. The study could not
notice any anti-national element in Madrasa syllabus.
The reasons for preference of madrasa education among
Muslims are:
1. Paucity of modern schools in Muslim majority areas.
2. Lack of separate girls schools and even female teachers in
common schools.
3. Cost of modern education and the poor quality of
government schools.
4. Poor quality of education in government schools.
5. Grievance of orthodox Muslims is that there is a Hindu
bias in school textbooks.

Madrasa and Maktab

A lot of people confuse the Madrasa with Maktab and going
by the growing number of children attending the latter feel
that the conservatism is on the rise within Muslims. While
Madarsas provide education (religious and/or regular), Maktabs
are neighbourhood schools, often attached to mosques, that
provide religious education to children who attend secular
schools to get mainstream education. Thus Maktabs provide
part-time religious education and are complementary to the
formal educational institutions.

Facts vs Fictions

Mosque or Masjid
1. A mosque is a place of worship for followers of
Islam, and it is the Place, where one prostrates (face
down) oneself.
2. Many mosques have elaborate domes, minarets,
and prayer halls.
3. No idol, sketch, relic, frieze, fresco or holy book
is kept in front while praying in the Mosque.
4. Neither any entry fee, nor any offerings like
coconut, sweets, essence sticks, chador, etc is
required to be offered while entering the mosque
for Namaz.
5. The Mosque serves as a place where Muslims can
come together for Salah or namaz (prayer) as well as
a center for information, education, and dispute
settlement.
6. All Muslims, stand in a single row and pray. No
person is treated with privileges in Mosque while
offering the Namaz or allotted with a place at the
front rows on the basis of his social, economic or
political status.
7. Timings of Namaz (prayers) are fixed according
to the position of the sun on the sky.

45

46

Facts vs Fictions

The dawn prayers (fajr) are held just before the

sunrise.
Afternoon prayers (Zuhr) are held when the sun
starts to incline from its apogee.
The third (Asr) prayer is said when the shadow of
things become twice their own length.
The sunset (Maghrib) prayers are offered
immediately after the sun sets.
The fifth or the final prayer of the day (Isha) is said
when the darkness has completely settled or say after
90 minutes of the sunset.
Strict timings are followed; the fixed timings cannot
be altered just to accommodate any important
person.
8. Imam leads the prayer; Mosques do not follow
any priesthood. Any learned person or a person
whose bona fides are well established in the society
can lead the prayer.
9. Non-Muslims are also allowed inside Mosque.
10. Animal sacrifice is not the part of Namaz in the
Mosque.
11. Entry into Mosque after consuming alcoholic
drinks is prohibited and even those who have chewed
raw onion or garlic are advised to wash their mouths
before gaining entry.
12. Before prayer Muslims are required to cleanse
themselves in an ablution process known as Wadu.

Facts vs Fictions

47

Some of the Features Inside a Mosque

Prayer Hall
The prayer hall, also known as the Musallah or the carpet
area, where one prostrates (face down) oneself.

Mihrab
Mihrab is semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that
indicates the Qibla; that is, the direction of the Kaabah in
Makkah and hence the direction that Muslims should face
when praying. The wall in which a mihrab appears is thus the
Qibla wall.

Minbar
A Minbar is a pulpit (raised platform) in the mosque where
the imam (leader of prayer) stands to deliver sermons (khutbah)
or addresses the congregation. This usually happens on Friday
afternoon when larger congregations are held.

Ablution Facilities
Mosques often have cisterns or fountains for ablution or a
series of taps for washing. Before prayer Muslims are required
to cleanse themselves in an ablution process known as Wudu.
Shoes must not be worn inside the carpeted prayer hall.
Congregants and visitors to mosques are supposed to clean
themselves.

48

Facts vs Fictions

The whole Earth is a Mosque

Prophet Muhammad said, the whole earth is a Mosque, this
saying of Prophet has the simple meaning that, Prophet was
permitted (by Allah) to offer prayers anywhere on earth; no
part of the earth was unclean as such. Similarly, Muslims
following the Prophet are allowed (by the Islamic law) to pray
anywhere. Hence one can routinely observe Muslims offering
prayers in such diverse places as parks, by the roadside, on
railway platforms, airport terminals, etc... The whole of the
earth is a place of worship for Muslims; they remember
God and offer prayers at the appointed time, wherever they
may be.
Apart from this simple meaning, the saying of the
Prophet Muhammad has another, more profound meaning. A
Muslim realizes that a mosque is a peaceful place; people
enter it in a state of purity. Their body and their clothes are
clean. Their minds and hearts are also clean; they approach
the mosque as humble servants of God. When they enter
the mosque, they pronounce Assalamu Alaikum (Allahs peace
be upon you) to those already present in the mosque. This is
a declaration of peace by the newcomers. The mosque
radiates peace and harmony and it gives the twin message of
Tawheed (oneness of God) and human brotherhood.
Thus when the Prophet Muhammad likened the earth
to a mosque, he was also emphasizing the need of making
the earth a Peaceful place. All human beings should be able
to enjoy Peace everywhere on the earth, according to the
Prophetic vision. The ideal of peace would be achieved when
the earth actually resembles a mosque and, like a mosque,
spreads the message of harmony and human brotherhood.

49

Facts vs Fictions

AZAAN
The Prayer Call
Namaz or the Islamic prayer is held five times in each and
every mosque around the earth. A Muslim is supposed to
pray five times, preferably in a mosque. This is recommended
to reinforce social bonds between people and raise a society
where people know each other and share joys and sorrows
and concerns and commitments.
In order to call people to the mosque for prayers, Azaan
is called from the minarets. Often our non-Muslim brothers
and Sisters confuse Azaan or call for prayer with Namaz or
prayers itself. Some people think that the Muslims prayers
are conducted on loudspeaker! Yet others are curious to know
as to why Muslims call Akbar Badshah, (Emperor Akbar) long
after he has ceased to rule and live.
The Azaan barely takes two to three minutes to be read
out over the microphones.
The Prophet of Islam fixed the wordings and one would hear
them from minarets jutting out into the skies from Jakarta
to Casablanca. Azaan was adopted as a distinctive call from
the mosque from the then prevalent ringing of the bell in
churches and blowing of conches in other temples. It will be
useful if the meaning of the Azaan too is brought to the
people:

50

Facts vs Fictions

1. Allahu Akbar

Allah is the Greatest,

(repeated four times)

2. Ashhadu An La-ilaha Illa-l-Lah

I bear witness that there

is no god but the One
God. (repeated twice)

3. Ashhadu Anna Muhammad

Rasulu-l-lha

I bear witness that

Muhammad is the
Messenger of Allah,
(repeat twice)

4. Hayya Ala-s-salah

Come fast to Prayer,

(repeated twice)

5. Hayya Ala-l-falah

Come fast to success,

(repeated twice)

6. Allahu Akbar

Allah is the Greatest,

(repeated twice)

7. La illaha illa-l-lah

There is no god but the

One and True God, (once)

Two additional phrases are added after Hayya Ala-l-falah

for Morning Prayers Azaan, those are:
Assalatu Khairum menan Naum

Prayer is better than

sleep (repeated twice)

This same, never changing call, based on the affirmation

of Gods greatness (Allahu Akbar), the profession of faith
(I bear witness that there is no god but God and that
Muhammad is Gods Messenger), and an invitation to prayer
and success in this world and the next, has for almost fifteen
centuries been resounding through all places where Muslim
have been living. In all its different accents, rhythms, and
voices, this call in its musicality, has been singing praise of
God and inviting people towards spirituality.

Facts vs Fictions

51

If it serves as a wake-up call at dawn, it comes as a

reminder at the end of a hectic day in the evening and lends
a finishing touch to the day after the night has settled.
It is a reminder of the One God, Allah, who intends to
draw his servants (the people) for spiritual regeneration out
of their busy schedules to remember God and go back
recharged with piety to their duties after having renewed their
commitment to Him.

No Priesthood in Islam
People tend to confuse the position of imam, mufti, qazi or
moulvi in Islam with the concept of priesthood. An imam is
merely the prayer leader while the mufti is one who offers
opinion or advice on the basis of his religious scholarship on
issue of religious interest. Qazi heads a court and settles
disputes while moulvi is religious scholar who may teach or
recite Quran. None among them have anything to do with
any superhuman status. They are not considered intercessor
or mediator between God and the man. No confessions need
be made before an imam. An individual can supplicate before
God and seek forgiveness for his sins. Anyone who has
memorized a part of the Quran and is seen as a practicing
Muslim can lead prayer in a mosque. No one need be called
for household ceremonies such as sunnat, maktab, inauguration
of house or business. No seats are reserved for anyone in the
mosque. Place has to be claimed on first come first served
basis. There are no holinesses in Islam. All stand on the same
plane and eat from the same plate. It is useful to bear in
mind the Quranic dictum: The most honourable among you
in the sight of God is the one who is most pious.

52

Facts vs Fictions

Do Muslims worship the Kaabah ?

The central mosque in the world is Harem Mosque in
Makkah. The Kaabah or the cubic box like structure sits in
the centre of it.
Kaabah is a sanctuary where no one should kill any living
being. One should not even swat a fly or a mosquito. Even if
one finds his fathers killer, he is not supposed to kill or harm
him. One is not supposed to enter any duel, debate or
argument after entering the Harem mosque.
A common query often directed from the non-Muslims
brothers is as to why Muslims worship and bow down to the
Kaabah in their prayers.
The answer is very simple.
Kaabah in the city of Makkah is the Qibla i.e., the
direction towards which Muslims turn their face during the
prayers. It is important to note that though Muslims face
the Kaabah during prayers, they do not worship it. Muslims
worship and bow to none but Allah.
It is mentioned in the Quran:
We see your face turning to the heavens: (for
guidance). Now shall We turn you to the Qiblah (the
direction of Prayer) that shall please you. Turn then
your face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque (in
Makkah): wherever you are, turn your faces in that
direction. (Quran 2:144)

Facts vs Fictions

53

1. Islam believes in Fostering Unity

Had they not been instructed to face the Kaabah, Muslims
may have been praying facing all the directions. In order to
foster unity among them through their worship of the one
God, Muslims, wherever they may be, are asked to face in
only one direction i.e., towards the Kaabah. If some Muslims
live towards the west of the Kaabah they face the east.
Similarly if they live towards the east of the Kaabah, they
face the west. If one were to observe them praying from above
in the space, he would find them standing in concentric rings
converging on Kaabah in Makkah.

2. Tawaf around Kaabah for indicating One God

When the Muslims go to Masjid-e-Haram in Makkah, they
perform tawaf or circumambulation around the Kaabah. This
act symbolizes the belief and worship of One God, since, just
as every circle has one centre, so also there is only one Allah
worthy of worship.

3. People stood on Kaabah and gave the Azaan

During the time of Prophet, people would stand on the
Kaabah and call the Azaan. This practice shows that Prophet
has not prayed the Kaabah but prayed facing towards it.

54

Facts vs Fictions

Do Muslims Worship the Black Stone ?

The Black Stone or Hajar al-Aswad is the eastern cornerstone
of the Kaabah. It is admired by Muslims as an Islamic relic
which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time
of Adam and Eve. Islamic tradition holds that it fell from
Heaven to show Adam and Eve where to build Kaabah, a
house of God.
According to another Islamic tradition, the Black Stone
is one of the stones of the Kaabah. Its significance is that it
is the only surviving stone from the original structure built
by Abraham and Ishmael (peace be upon them both). The
Kaabah had been destroyed and rebuilt many times in its
history, even before the arrival of Prophet Muhammad. The
Black Stone is the single stone that has survived all the
mishaps that have taken place since the time of Abraham
and Ishmael.
When Prophet Muhammad offered his Pilgrimage after
years of exile from Makkah, he started circumambulation of
Kaabah by kissing the Black Stone. It was a poignant
homecoming for the Prophet who had years earlier been driven
out of his beloved city on account of his religion.
Caliph Umar made this clear to the people when he led
them in the pilgrimage. He used to kiss the Black Stone when
he walked around Kaabah and said: I know that you are
nothing but a stone. You cannot hurt or help anyone. And if
I had not seen the Prophet kissing you, I would never have
kissed you.

Facts vs Fictions

55

The Black Stone requires a particular mention on account

of the many misunderstandings on its score. It is not a
meteorite, but simply a black stone. Its practical importance
is to show the starting point of the circumambulation, and
by its colour it is conspicuous in the building. Secondly, this
stone is not worshipped, nor do Muslims prostrate in the
direction of this stone, prostration being done towards any
and every part of the building of the Kaabah, and more often
than not, one turns to directions besides the Black Stone. It
may be recalled that once when the Qaramitah ravaged
Makkah, they carried the Black Stone to their country as
booty and it remained there for many years. During the course
of its absence, Muslims did not turn to the place where it
was kept (in Uman), but continued to turn towards the
Kaabah in Makkah. Even the building of the Kaabah is not
essential. For instance, if it is demolished for repairs or new
construction, Muslims will turn to the same spot, whether
the Kaabah and its Black Stone is there or not. As has been
said, the practical importance of the Black Stone is that it
indicates the point from which the circumambulation begins.

56

Facts vs Fictions

Why non-Muslims not

allowed in Makkah ?
Some non-Muslims are also critical of people from other faiths
not being allowed to visit the sites of Islamic pilgrimage, i.e.,
Makkah and Madinah. It is true that non-Muslims are not
allowed in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah by law.
The following points will serve to elucidate the possible
reasoning behind such a restriction.
Makkah and Madinah are holy cities of Islam. Muslims
go there to perform pilgrimage. Nobody goes there for mere
visit or to make fun or for entertainment. So only the
believers in the faith they represent are allowed to go there.
Centres of various other faiths too apply such rules. If one
intends to visit the sacred area of the Tirupati Thirumala
Devasthanam, he must declare his faith in Hinduism. NonHindus are barred from the visit as the Temple is not a place
for visit or entertainment.
There are many places of worship where Dalits are not
solicited, women are not allowed, and non vegetarian persons
have certain restrictions.
There are areas within ones own country where entry of
common citizens is barred. People other than Defence
personnel cannot go inside the Cantonments. Nuclear
reactors, laboratories engaged in research in sensitive areas
and headquarters of intelligence are barred for commoners.

Facts vs Fictions

57

People who have genuine necessity can only go there with

prior permission from the appropriate authorities. It would
be illogical for a common citizen to object to the restrictions
on entering a cantonment area. Similarly it is not appropriate
for non-Muslims to object to the restriction on non-Muslims
for entry into Makkah and Madinah.
All countries apply certain rules and norms for allowing
entry of foreign nationals. Visas are issued only when they
undertake to abide by those rules. Similarly, Saudi Arabia
allows entry of people to the pilgrim centres only after
confirming their faith. Non-believers are kept away from the
holy areas but allowed to go to other cities for purposes of
trade, employment and, tourism.

58

Facts vs Fictions

Difference between
Dargah and Mosque
Mosque is the place of worship in Islam. Muslims gather there
five times in a day to do Namaz. Dargahs are basically
mausoleums of Muslim saints and mendicants. At some places
the dargahs stand by the side of the mosques. These saints
won the devotion of masses during their lifetime. People were
attracted with their pacifist nature and message of love and
compassion and service to the community. When they died,
their followers turned into devotees of their grave and raised
buildings over them which came to be called dargahs or
mausoleums.
Some even started attributing healing properties to such
places. All these led to mausoleums becoming pilgrim centres.
The dargah of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishty (1141-1230 AD) in
Ajmer is one such major pilgrimage centre in India. Graves
of great many Muslim saints such as Khawja Bakhtiyar Kaaki
of Delhi, Baba Fariduddin Ganj Shakr of Punjab, Nizamuddin
Aulia at Delhi, Khawja Bande Nawaz at Gulbarga and
Yusufain at Hyderabad are some of the more important saints
who preached peace and love in India. Their mausoleums have
turned into dargahs and attract a large number of devotees.
They are syncretic in nature as often Hindu brethren
outnumber Muslims. Though they may be disapproved by the
mainstream Islam, they could be called cultural offshoot of
Islam in the subcontinent as they depict Islamic architecture

Facts vs Fictions

59

(domes and minarets), host qawwali soirees (singings of poems

composed in Urdu in praise of the saint in accompaniment
of music).
Grave worship was not only disapproved and discouraged
by Islam but was even condemned because it amounts to
making partners with God and is viewed as incipient
polytheism. Islamic doctrine is strictly monotheistic and no
accretions and corruptions are accepted. Islam is very definite
about the borders between godhood and sainthood. The two
do not merge. Even Prophets do not qualify for worship.
Prophets themselves declared that they were nothing more
than human beings and as fallible as any other human beings.
In the Quran, the first chapter Al-Fatiha itself teaches the
manner of supplication to the followers of Islam in the
following words:
You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn
for help. (Quran, 1:4)
Thus there is no fusion or confusion of boundaries.
Secondly, Islamic doctrine puts the individual human
being in direct touch with God. A man supplicates directly
before God and should seek no intercessor or mediator. No
brokers are accepted in between God and the man. The grave
worship seeks to put the departed saint between God and
the man. Islam detests this practice. While no living saint
or prophet could intercede on behalf of the man, how could
a dead saint do this.
The Quran says: And you cannot make those hear
who are in their graves. (Quran 35: 22)
It is one reason why dargahs do not qualify for places of
worship. That some sections attach some sanctity to the
mausoleums does not alter the basic doctrine of Islam.

60

Facts vs Fictions

Visit to Dargahs :
Some Muslims who visit dargahs and mausoleums often
misrepresent Islam which is a strictly monotheistic faith, i.e.,
belief in one supreme God. This corruption in Islamic faith
has come about in South Asian countries where mausoleums
were raised over the graves of Sufis, Saints and Dervishes.
They were preachers of love and harmony and were extremely
selfless. But the love they won from the people soon
graduated into adoration and reverence. Later it
metamorphosed into some kind of worship. The dead became
cult figures. Tales and legends kept growing around their
persona and superhuman achievements and powers were
attributed to them. The exclusive group of persons with a
unifying common interest or purpose cashed in upon their
image and elevated them to almost demi-gods. That the simple
creed of Islam should gather all these was in itself a proof
that few faiths and ideologies can remain pristine pure long
after their founders have departed. This grave-worship is today
part of cultural Islam in the Indian subcontinent, although it
has no role in the doctrine.
No Prophet ever asked people to raise mausoleums over
the graves, illuminate them, burn incense sticks, offer flowers,
chadors and celebrate Urs (death anniversary) and organize
musical soirees in the form of marsiya and qawwali. Islam is
totally opposed to all such practices and firmly rejects them
as corruptions or distortions.
Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said:
Woe unto them that they turned the graves of
their Prophets into the place of worship; Do not
turn my grave into a place of worship.

Facts vs Fictions

61

Why no images of
God and the Prophet ?
Most of the followers of various faiths have either images or
idols of their gods and holy men adorning their places of
worship or sacred corners of their homes. Mosques and
Muslim homes do not have any pictures of God or the
Prophet. It makes people to ask as to why Islam does not
allow images or idols.
Prophet Muhammad was the last messenger of Allah sent
to the mankind for guidance. He preached the faith of Islam
based on three fundamentals: 1- Belief in one supreme God,
2- Prophethood i.e., belief in all the prophets sent by Allah
from Adam till himself, and 3- Accountability on the Day of
Judgment.
Prophet made it plain to the people that he was nothing
but a human being like all others and warned against assigning
any element of divinity to him. Islam was therefore very
specific about separating God and his messengers. The
prophets were never mistaken with the concept of avatars
(incarnations) as is believed in some other faiths. They stood
separately. God was eternal and everlasting while prophets
were mortals like all other human beings and were bearers of
Divine message for their guidance. It is why Prophet
Muhammad prohibited elevating his persona to the stature
of God. The Quran declared that the Prophet would die and
God is ever alive. He does not sleep nor does he suffer from
even a wink.

62

Facts vs Fictions

Islam therefore made God as the sole centre of all

worship and prayers. Nothing that diluted the concept of
divinity was accepted or allowed. It is in this spirit that
making of images and idols of God and the prophets were
strictly prohibited under Islam. There were precedents of idols
leading to idolatry and the real God being forgotten. The
Kaabah, a house for the worship of Allah raised by Prophet
Ibrahim (Abraham), nearly four thousand years ago, had
suffered decline because of this. It had become a pantheon
of various gods; each being attributed a particular function.
Islam restored divinity of God and completely prohibited
idolatry.
Similarly, making images or idol of the Prophet too was
prohibited. There was this fear that given the human tendency
of raising the holy men to the status of God, people who had
seen and interacted with the Prophet would be tempted to
make his image soon and would start worshipping it and
abandon God.
The mosques all over the world bear no images or idols.
They are plain spaces for devotion to one Supreme God and
focusing on him and directing all the prayers, supplications,
wishes and desires to Him. Even Prophet Muhammad does
not come into the picture of the divinity. He stands apart
from God. His place is that of the guide, spiritual leader, an
ideal human being, reformer and harbinger of glad tidings and
a warner. No idols of him could be made. Nor his imagery
can be turned into statues, busts, friezes, photographs,
sculptures and idols. This being the position, there is no
question of gods of prophets being represented through
cartoons or caricature which have an element of contempt
and disrespect.
Often the visual images of the Prophet raise storms of
protest. In recent years there were massive protests when
cartoons depicting Prophet were made by a Dutch cartoonist

Facts vs Fictions

63

and published by Dutch newspaper Jylland Posten. Muslims

view these acts as deliberately provocative and would like such
actions to be covered under laws of blasphemy just as showing
disrespect to holy figures such as Jesus Christ is prohibited
in the West. The West has maintained double standards in
such issues. Several dramas making fun of Jesus Christ have
been banned in the Western countries. This, in their
knowledge, does not constitute any restriction on freedom of
expression. Holy men and sacred symbols of religion are to
be respected.
The freedom to expression does not and should not
include freedom to commit sacrilege. In fact freedom of
expression does not give right to depiction of obscene images,
indecency, produce libelous writings and sedition. All nations
have enacted laws to respect privacy and dignity of individuals.
How could a Dutch cartoonist indulge in producing
sacrilegious cartoons of the holy Prophet?
In the Muslim world, nobody can even draw pictures of
any of the Prophets, let alone ridiculing them. Islam accords
highest respect to Mary, holy mother of Jesus Christ even
though he was born without a father. The holy Quran forbids
its followers from reviling, abusing and showing disrespect to
others gods, deities and religion, lest they also return the
same and the situation becomes worse than before.

64

Facts vs Fictions

Did the Prophet

spread Islam by sword ?
Every Prophet had his own approach and own style of
functioning; each came at a different time and worked among
different people. To compare one Prophet with another in
the context of their environment would be inappropriate.
True, Prophet Jesus, fought no wars, for his situation did
not require it. But Prophet Muhammad had to fight to defend
the truth.
When Muhammad was raised to the status of
Prophethood, he invited people to the way of peace, but
enemies of Islam, Quraysh leaders opposed him, abused him,
and persistently persecuted him and his companions for years,
confiscated their property and compelled them to leave
Makkah. They pursued Muslims even after they had gone
into their exile in Madinah and called upon the people of
Madinah either to expel their enemy, or to eliminate him
altogether. In the event of their failure to comply with the
demand, the people of Madinah were warned of dire
consequences. The leaders of Quraysh sent a message to the
leaders and hypocrites of Madinah, that they had given refuge
to an enemy and that they should kill him otherwise, they
would attack Madinah and destroy them along with
Muhammad. Left with no alternative but to die or offer
organized resistance to defend the Islamic faith, the Prophet
chose the latter.

Facts vs Fictions

65

These wars were forced on him by his enemies, who were

opposing the mission of spreading the truth. His wars have,
therefore, to be viewed from a larger historical perspective.
The threat of military invasion could not be taken lightly
by any responsible leader, least of all by the Prophet who
had to set an example for everyone and leave behind a model
for rulers and military commanders of the succeeding
generation. The Prophet, at Gods direction, attempted to
establish rules of warfare that would make war as humane as
possible, to encourage peace and to minimize the loss of
human lives.
Enemies and prejudiced people portray him as a man with
a sword, as if fighting battles was his main occupation. But,
in reality, out of the ten years of his life in Madinah, only 95
days were spent in battles and expeditions. Prophet
Muhammad won most of the battles in less than one day.
The rest of the days, that is, approximately 3,555 days were
spent on bringing revolutionary changes to peoples lives and
reforming a pagan society and established peace and order in
the whole of the Arab Peninsula. The rule of evil, vice and
oppression was brought to an end and instead, the rule of
goodness, virtue, peace and justice for all was established in
the land.
The total of all casualties on all the sides in all the battles
of Prophet Muhammad is not more than 1,014 dead; his loss
in men was only 255 against his enemies loss of 759, the
percentage of people killed in these wars, relative to the
number of people who participated in them amounted to about
1.5%. Compare this with other revolutions that have been
brought about only with wars. These wars devoured millions
of lives and displaced further millions. The extent of loss of
human lives in these revolutions is enormously high. For
example, in the World War II alone, the number of actual
combatants was 1.7 crore while the civilians who were dead

66

Facts vs Fictions

consequent to fighting was 5.48 crore.

But one can ask a more relevant question: given the
circumstances of time and place, is it conceivable that Prophet
Muhammads mission could have been accomplished without
his battles? In the early part of his mission, the Prophet
certainly avoided conflict as much as possible. His community
had neither the strength nor resources to do otherwise. After
the hijra (migration to Madinah from Makkah) it is evident
that a military option was adopted.
Pre-Islamic Arabia was a society and culture deeply
wedded to the code of the warrior where raiding, looting and
plundering were endemic. To survive, the Muslims had to
defend and fight. The important caveat is that the Quran
lays down a clear ethical code, a kind of just war theory
inclusive of a Geneva Convention on the rules of war. These
make clear that war must only be defensive in nature; civilians,
women, children and the elderly should not be attacked; places
of worship of whatever kindchurch, synagogue, temple or
mosquecould not be ransacked; and animals, water sources
and crops could not be destroyed. Furthermore, if the enemy
asks for peace the offer must be accepted immediately.
Muslims have fared much better in pursuit of peace, tolerance
and living together with peoples of other faiths and cultures.

Facts vs Fictions

67

Did Islam Spread by Force ?

The unequivocal and emphatic answer is, NO!
The Quran declares:
Let there be no compulsion in the religion (Islam).
The right direction is distinctly clear from error.
(Quran 2:256)
A popular myth that has gained currency around the
world links Islams expansion to the force of the sword.
History textbooks and some section of prejudiced media lend
credibility to such propaganda motivated by politics. In India
it became a necessity for extremist organisations and some
political parties who were out to polarise votes on communal
lines. Hate-mongering therefore needed certain fodder which
was dug out from the history.
They were however only following the footsteps of the
British colonial historians who had followed the principle of
Divide and Rule in a country whose diversity was bewildering.
The very fact that Muslims ruled India for over 650 years
and therefore had the power to force every Non-Muslim
resident of India to convert, but they did not and thus more
than 80% of the Indian population remains Hindu. This is
enough to debunk the myth of Islam being spread at the point
of sword.
A cursory look at the current world and the location of
Muslim majority states would reveal that nearly 1.7 billion of

68

Facts vs Fictions

the total seven billion people today profess Islam. Arabs

constitute merely 22% of them. Country with the largest
Muslim population i.e., Indonesia is situated almost half the
globe away from the Islamic heartland of Arabia. The South
Asian countries have nearly 400 million of Muslims, India
itself having 150 million of them. A country like Bangladesh
whose culture is embedded in Hindu-Sanskrit tradition has
another 120 million Muslims.
Nearly 30% of the worlds Muslims live as minorities in
the worlds major democracies such as India, the United
States, the United Kingdom, the nations of Europe and
Russia. A good many African states have Muslim populations
that were never had any Muslim ruler. Similarly, some
countries such as Spain and the Philippines which were ruled
by Muslims in the past have no sizeable Muslim communities
today. More interestingly, in several of the developed
democracies of the West, such as the US, the UK,
Scandinavian nations and France and Germany, Islam is
considered the fastest growing religion.
Study of history suggests that Islamic forces never
entered the regions like Indonesia and Malaysia. Islam reached
there through maritime routes, made inroads into the local
culture and traditions and got lodged into the peoples hearts.
It did not alter the cultural mores, dresses, food and
languages.
Islamic history bears witness that most lands where Islam
entered by way of conquest turned over to Islam and remain
so till date. Islam conquered not merely their lands but the
hearts of the people. It ensured religious freedom to those
who wanted to retain their non-Islamic faith such as Coptic
Christians in Egypt or Maronites in Lebanon. It did not
devastate the cultural property of heritage value or interest.
Sphinx and Pharaonic temples of Abu Simbel and pyramids
stand as sentinels of the history even today. Persepolis in Iran

Facts vs Fictions

69

is preserved even today. Hindu temples of Borbudor and Bali

in Indonesia continue to attract tourists. It was mainly the
oppressive rule of their former monarchs that made Islam a
liberative force.
Now take the case of the Indian subcontinent, a region
whose north-western borders are contiguous to the Arab
dominated Middle East. It is true that the early advent of
Islam was through the Islamic army conquering the region of
Sind. But look at Kerala where Islam had made an early foray
almost within the lifespan of the Prophet Muhammad. There
were thriving communities of Muslims all through the coast
of the Peninsular India during the 11thto 13thcentury when
Ibne Batuta visited these parts. Even Mughals ruling Delhi
were unaware of the presence of these Muslims and said to
have granted rights to the Portuguese to deal with Pirates
(read Muslims) at their own terms. In Kerala, where Islam
came through Arab merchants, Travancore Rajas helped
Muslims because they were conduits for maritime trade which
was prohibited under traditional belief.Since the Kingdoms
prosperity depended upon sea trade, they allowed rather
facilitated and even encouraged fishermen to convert to Islam
in order to have a team of expert navigators among the natives.
They even ordered that all fishermen families must bring up
one son as a Muslim. Ibne Batuta thus witnessed a lot of
Muslim colonies along the Malabar Coast in 8thcentury AD
when he came to India and proceeded to the Maldives.
Even in the north where major chunks of people came
under the influence of Islam, there were no forcible
conversions. Mohammad bin Kasim who conquered Sind, was
loved by the people of Sind. The people under the tyrannical
reign of Raja Dahir welcomed him. When Muhammad bin
Kasim was sent as a prisoner with Muawiya ibn Muhallab to
Damascus on the orders of caliph Sulaiman ibne Marwan, the
people of Sind wept for Muhammad bin Qasim and preserved
his likeness (made an idol of him) at Kiraj. (Ref: William

70

Facts vs Fictions

Jackson A.V., (ed) History of India, Vol. 5, The Grolier

Society, London, Baroda edition 1907, page 14).Muhammad
bin Qasim recruited Jats and Meidis in his army who were so
disgusted with the rule of Dahir that they joined the forces
of a stranger. They were being ill-treated and humiliated under
the rule of Dahir. They were prohibited from riding horses,
wearing headgears and putting on decent robes. They had
been reduced to woodcutters and water drawers.(Ref: Prof.
Eswari Prasad,History of Medieval India, page 55-56)
Islam spread fast in those areas where Buddhism was
prevalent, though weakening.In Sind also people were largely
Buddhist and were highly disgusted with the Brahmin king.
Similarly, Bengal, North Western frontier provinces (NWFP),
and Punjab were the areas of Buddhist predominance facing
persecution from Brahmanical religion.Buddhism did not
disappear from India mysteriously. In the face of persecution,
Buddhists either left the country or sought refuge in Islam
as soon as they got the opportunity. When Omar bin Abdul
Aziz became the Umayyad caliph, he wrote letters to princes
and princesses of Sind inviting them to embrace Islam.
Jaishiya, son of Raja Dahir, had heard about the character
and creed of Islam, accepted the offer and turned a
Muslim.(Ref: William Jackson A.V., (ed) History of India,
Vol. 5, , page 15).
Much against the charge of Muslim sultans of Delhi
forcibly converting Hindus to Islam, Allauddin Khilji banned
conversions to Islam. It was not because he was highly secular.
He found that the state revenue from jizya(Social tax on
non-Muslims) was coming down as a lot of Banias were
converting to Islam.
Emperors like Akbar instead of converting the people to
Islam tried to reform the customs within the Hindus by
abolishing oppressive laws. He introduced several reforms
which may be construed as interference in Hindu customs.

Facts vs Fictions

71

Whatever he thought offended his human sensitivities, he tried

to change, for instance he forbade child marriages, trial by
walk on fire and animal sacrifice. He permitted widows to
remarry and made Sati voluntary. He did not ban sati as he
thought abolition would cause widespread resentment. He
made it compulsory to seek consent of bride and bridegroom
in marriage.(Ref: Jackson (ed.), History of India, Vol. IV,
page 15, 18,)
Statecraft does not endear emperors with their subjects.
No Muslim emperor could win any converts to Islam. More
people were attracted by the Sufis and saints whose hospices
or sanatorium gave asylum to the sick, the poor and the needy
and the despondent folk. These hospices such as the dargahs
at Ajmer, Mehrauli and Basti Nizamuddin won the love and
respect of the vast number of devotees. The saints lived
ordinarily, fed the poor insofar as nothing was left in store
by the end of the evening for the next day, and employed
healers who treated the sick free of cost. Historical records
say, Delhi was sacked several times by opponents of the
Sultanate regime during the lifespan of Hazrath Nizamuddin
Aulia but no one touched his Khanqah (hospice or
sanatorium).
Jammu and Kashmir, the Muslim majority state under
Indian union was converted to Islam by Central Asian Sufis
and was ruled for centuries by Hindu kings.
The Nizams state of Hyderabad had only 12% Muslim
when it joined the Indian Union in 1948 even though Muslims
had ruled it for about four centuries by then.
There is a community of Hindu Jats in Jalandhar who
are known as Sultani Jats because they are devotees of Sultan
Sakhi Sarwar, a sage whose mausoleum is in Shahkot, now in
Pakistan. They eat only halal meat and smoke huqqah even
today. They are mostly peasants. They set up Sultan Ziyarat
in the outskirts of their villages which they clean every

72

Facts vs Fictions

Thursday and light up lamps. They used to take outjatras

to mausoleum of Sultan Sakhi Sarwar in Shahkot.
During Sikh rule, Governor of Multan, Savanmal tried
to stop thisJatra.He levied a fine of Rs. 100 as penalty
for all such Hindus who went on sultanijatras.But they
continued till end of 19thcentury when Ludhiana and Jalandar
Gazetteer were started to be compiled. That is all about India.
States like Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar were never
invaded by any Muslim forces, yet they host sizeable Muslim
communities.
1. Tanzanias 70% people are Muslims, but they have
always been ruled by Christians.
2. Islam made deep inroads into the heart of Europe
too. Balkan states of Eastern Europe were ruled by
the Ottomans of Turkey for over five centuries, but
never converted to Islam except the ones in Albania
and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Albania was a 90%
Muslim nation while Bosnia and Herzegovina were
a Muslim dominant province under the Yugoslavian
federation till recently when it broke up and Bosnia
became a sovereign state.
3. Contrastingly, Spain which was ruled by Muslims
for nearly eight centuries (from 712 to 1492 precisely)
never had a Muslim majority. During this period,
the Christians and Jews enjoyed freedom to practice
their respective religions. This is a documented
historical fact. Muslims and Jews living there were
then forcibly converted to Christianity after
establishment of Christian Rule. Those who did not
convert were asked to leave or expelled.
Similarly, in the Arab lands presence of sizeable
Christian communities serves to indicate that Islam
was not forced upon people.

Facts vs Fictions

4. Coptic Christians make up 10% of Egyptian

population.
5. Indonesia is the country that has the largest
number of Muslims in the world, Bali is Hindu
dominated Island of Indonesia and ancient Hindu
temples dot the Indonesian landscape generously.
6. The majority of people in Malaysia are Muslims.
But, no Muslim army ever entered, Islam spread not
due to war, but because of its moral message.
Malaysias 45 per cent people are non-Malays and
they have a dominant role in business, education and
governance inasmuch as there is reservation for
Bhumiputras (sons of the soil).
7. Lebanon, where the Muslims are in majority,
President is always a Maronite Christian according
to law, Prime Minister is Muslim, Speaker is a Shia
and all other posts are distributed according to the
multi-ethnic demography of the country.
8. Old communities of Christians still exist in Syria,
Jordan and Iraq.
9. Jews still live in Tunisia and Iran. Jews play a
dominant role in business and industry in Tunisia.
10. Around 12% of Bangladesh population professes
Hinduism. They dominate the sectors of art,
literature, media and Bengali cinema. Dhaka, the
capital of the country is named after Dhakeshwari
temple and no attempt has been made to Islamise
the name of the capital. Bangladesh is still following
several Hindu customs which do not clash with
Islamic doctrine. Bangla is a highly sanskritised
language. Islam does not put people in uniform, it
tolerates multiculturalism.

73

74

Facts vs Fictions

11. It is also interesting to note that when the

Mongols invaded and conquered large portions of
the Islamic Empire, instead of destroying the
religion, they adopted it. This is a unique occurrence
in history - the conquerors adopting the religion of
the conquered! Since they were the victors, they
certainly could not have been forced to become
Muslims! So where was the sword? How could
someone be forced to adhere to a spiritually
rewarding and demanding religion like Islam?
These mixed strands of history made Sir Thomas Arnold
to write that Islam was spread, not by the exploits of that
mythical personagethe Muslim warrior with the sword in
one hand and Quran in the other, but by the force of the
teaching of the Quran and the character of the Prophet. (Ref.
Preaching of Islam)
Islams appeal to the people in the West is clearly on
the rise. Thousands have joined the fold of Islam following
personal study of the religion after 9/11 episode. And studies
suggest that 70% of these neo-converts are women. These
facts should effectively debunk the myth that force was
integral to the spread of Islam. Had it been so, there should
have been a reverse trend today, given the attempts to project
the misogynist and violent image of the Islamic faith. It is
time that Islam-baiters assessed their own folly of
misrepresenting Islam and skeptics refused to be led (or
misled) by anti-Islamic forces.

75

Facts vs Fictions

Personal Law
Some sections even highlight Muslim Personal Law as a
privilege for the Muslims. But they do not explain the fact
that such privileges exist for all communities. The Hindus
and the communities within the Hindus, have distinct laws
which are recognized at some or the other legal level. The
Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) is recognized for alienation
of property and taxes. The various tribes in the North
Eastern states have been guaranteed regulation of family
affairs under their customary laws. Goa follows the Portuguese
law. Hindus in the southern states follow a set of family
laws that are totally at variance with the ones in the Northern
states. Yes, of course, need for constant reform is felt by all
sections, but jump-starting a nation by imposing a uniform
civil code will be much more inconvenientand likely to be
opposed more fiercelyby the Hindu majority than Muslims.

Hajj Subsidy
Hajj Subsidy being granted to Muslim pilgrims (now under
phased elimination following a ruling by the Supreme Court)
has also been a sore point. Availing the chartered flights by
the Central Haj Committee was an anomaly which even
several enlightened Muslim individuals had been constantly
opposing. It was not in sync with the secular nature of the
state and was totally untenable under Islam. But meanwhile,
several states have begun subsidizing pilgrimages by other
communities.

76

Facts vs Fictions

Demographic Demon
Is the growth of Muslim
population really alarming ?
There is a misconception that the rate of population rise is
higher amongst Muslims, that they marry four wives and
shortly their population will overshoot the population of
Hindus and this country will become a Muslim state. Some
say Muslims dont practice family planning; indulge in
polygamy to increase their population.
The truth is that some extremist organisations over the
years have propagated these myths. They have on purpose
projected the fear of Muslim population growth to consolidate
their own electoral majority and towards this strategy they
have effectively combined half-truths, ideological concoctions
and rumour-spreading techniques to entrench these myths in
popular psyche.
The Census surveys by religion totally negate this firmly
held popular belief. Religion is one of the markers used in
these surveys. As per 1971 survey Hindus constituted 82.7%
and Muslims 11.2% of the population. The corresponding
figures for 1991 census are Hindus 82.6% and Muslims 11.4%.
(Malayala Manorama Yearbook 1992). The rate of growth of
Muslims is only slightly higher, that is 2.7% annually against
2.3% for the Hindus, as per the 2001 Census. But this is

Facts vs Fictions

77

because low socio-economic status and higher illiteracy. Given

the same socio-economic status, the Muslims and Hindus have
common growth rate. In this context Kerala serves as an
example where all three major communities i.e., Hindus,
Muslims and Christians have identical growth rate of 1.8%
due to general spread of literacy. In contrast, in Jammu and
Kashmir, the Hindus have a higher rate of growth than
Muslims, nearly 3.7% against 2.6% among Muslims.
Overall, this statistics shows a reasonably stable (religion
wise) population. That apart, even if the current differentials
persist, it is not only unlikely, but impossible for Muslim
population to overtake the Hindu population for the next
century or so. On the contrary, if the prevailing growth rates
are analysed, it will be clear that between 1961-71 and 197181, Hindu population increase went up from 23.71% to 24.42%,
while between the same period Muslim population increase
went down from 30.85% to 30.20%. lf these rates of growth
are frozen at same level hundred years from 1981 Hindus and
Muslims will record a decadal growth rate of 30.71% and
30.55% respectively i.e. growth rates of Hindus will be higher.

78

Facts vs Fictions

Muslims Appeasement
It is staple for some extremist organisations to propagate
that some political parties appease the Muslims and they give
more than their due share in Nations economy and resources.
It was proved wrong by the Rajinder Sachar Committee,
which was appointed in 2005 by the Indian Government to
prepare a report on the latest social and educational condition
of the Muslim community of India. The committee submitted
its report in 2006. The committee concluded that the socioeconomic and educational status of Indian Muslims has slid
to levels lower than that of the scheduled castes and scheduled
Tribes. The committee has come out with astonishing data.
As a matter of fact, status of Muslims in employment and
other socio-economic parameters are the real parameter for
judging their social condition, to assess appeasement. Let us
see where they stand when compared on these parameters.
Remember Muslim population is around 13%.
1. The literacy rate among Muslims is far below the national
average. 25% of Muslim children in the 6-14 year age group
have either never attended school or have dropped out.
Expansion of educational opportunities since Independence
has not much benefitted the Indian Muslims. In premier
colleges only one out of 25 under-graduate students and one
out of 50 post-graduate students is a Muslim. Unemployment
rate among Muslim graduates is the highest among all socioreligious communities. Only 3% of Muslim children among
the school-going age go to the Madarsas. The Committee
also pointed out that the affirmative action taken for the
uplift of the SCs and STs has reaped at least some
advantages and similar affirmative action is required in the
case of Indian Muslims too.
2. In Government sectors higher cadres their representation
is very meagre, class I3.19%, class II4.30%, and in class

Facts vs Fictions

79

IV it is just 8.16%, while in private sector this figure is much

lower.
3. The overall percentage of Muslims in bureaucracy is just
2.5% where as Muslims constitute about 13% of Indian
population.
4. Jobs: The representation of Muslims in the IAS is just
about 3%, 1.8% in the IFS and 4% in the IPS, though 13% of
the Indian population is Muslim. The Muslim community has
a representation of only 4.5% in Indian Railways and 98.7%
of those employees are positioned at lower levels.
Representation of Muslims is very low in the universities and
banks. In no state does the representation of Muslims in the
government departments match their population share. Their
share among police constables is only 6%, in health 4.4%,
and in transport 6.5%.
5. In High Courts, out of 310 judges (as on April 1, 1980),
only 14 were Muslims.
6. In terms of financial assistance, Muslims borrowers were
4.3%, and the volume of loans paid out to them was 2.02%.
The total financial sector disbursed only 3.76% differential
interest rate credit to Muslims.
7. Industry: Among the countrys top industrial houses, not
many are owned or controlled by Muslims. Industrial licenses
issued to the individuals from the community make up only
2%.
Muslims are predominantly engaged in the handicraft
sector as 52% skilled artisans and artisans employed in the
sector were Muslims. But Muslim ownership accounted for
only 4.4%.
Most shockingly, the Committee also found that there
is some truth in the allegation about a systematic conspiracy
to deny Indian Muslims any meaningful political participation.

80

Facts vs Fictions

For example, in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal

and most of the other Indian states, Assembly constituencies
with high Muslim concentration were declared reserved for
the Scheduled Castes(SCs). And no Muslims are categorized
under SCs.

Appeasement ?
The results of a survey conducted among Indian Muslims
shows that various governments took little or no heed to
these suggestions [made by various commissions], using the
commissions simply as vote-grabbing gimmicks in order to give
the impression of being serious about Muslim backwardness,
but, in fact, doing precious little about it.
The survey shows that the economic condition of the
Indian Muslims is pathetic indeed. 30.4% reported an annual
household income of less than Rs.10,000, 24.4% between
Rs.10,001 - Rs. 20,000, 7.5% between Rs.20,001-Rs.30,000,
3.8% between Rs.30,001-Rs.40,000, 1% between Rs.40,001Rs.50,000 and 5.6% above Rs.50,000. A significant 27.6% live
in jhuggis in slums.... 46.1% respondents live in one-room
tenements
If the Indian Muslims were appeased by various
governments why is their economic condition so pathetic? The
answer is that they were not appeased; but only made to look
like so! Vested interests had ulterior motives in doing that.
Vote bank politics is the arch villain among the motives
found in Indian politics. When the Mandal recommendations
on reservations were implemented, they were to benefit the
backward communities among Hindus. Not the Muslims.
They had nothing to gain from Mandal. It were the Hindu
backward communities who were being appeased. About 20%
of the populations in North India are upper caste Hindus.
Their interests were being undermined by Mandal. It is they
who led the violent protests against Mandal recommendations;

Facts vs Fictions

81

against the less privileged sections of their own religion.

The Rajinder Sachar committee report about the status
of Muslim minorities in India makes one sit up with deep
sense of anguish. The current socio-economic status of
Muslim minorities in particular, has slipped down in the
human development index. Also their representation in jobs
is abysmal and more of them are living below poverty line
and are illiterate. Without serious affirmative action, it is
feared that they will suffer more deprivation in socio-economic
and political spheres. Their political representation started
declining massively. Due to insecurity and lack of equity, they
felt threatened and resorted more to the minority identity.
The communal violence unleashed against them with sickening
frequency leads to ghettotization. Civic conditions In the
ghettoes are pitiable and denies them frequent interaction
with other communities and makes the youth vulnerable to
parochial ideologies and partisan appeal. Thus further enhances
the distance between communities.
The attitude of civic authorities towards areas inhabited
by the Muslims is one of total neglect, paving the way for
relegating them to second class citizens. Gradually two sets
of norms and attitudes started becoming rooted, one for the
affluent and powerful among the majority community and the
other for the underprivileged classes and the minorities.
Indeed, some of the extremist organizations have been
pursuing the objective of relegating the minorities to second
class citizens through formulation of policies and execution
of programmes.
Muslims are not the appeased folk the right wing bodies
would like to believe. Even a cursory look at their existence
would make it abundantly clear that by no stretch of
imagination the Indian Muslims have enjoyed any iota of
privilege. Rather what is clear is that they are not able to
exercise even the normal rights and access the ordinary
entitlements due to a citizen.

82

Facts vs Fictions

Tipu Sultan
A Patriot Maligned
There have been constant efforts to malign the persona of
18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan by biased historians.
He has often been projected as a tyrant and more painfully,
as a bigoted Muslim ruler. Certain incidents such as
punishment imposed on people who collectively sided with
the British colonial rulers have been employed for the
purpose.
Mostly such efforts have been part of historians who are
out to cast the Muslim rule in India into negative light. A
few instances of their antipathy against political foes therefore
come handy to communalise the history of certain periods
and project non-Muslim people or rulers as victims. More of
such efforts in historiography were blessed by the British
colonial rulers who were following the Divide and Rule
policies to ensure longevity for their own reign.
Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali have been major
victims of attempts at such portrayals. The British had an
obvious bias against these formidable foes who had chased
them till their bastion in Fort St. George, Madras in First
Mysore War (1767). But for a treacherous treaty, the British
reign in South India would have come to an end. Evidently,
these setbacks only encouraged the British to pursue their
hate-mongering agenda with greater zeal and see that a

Facts vs Fictions

83

Muslim ruler in a predominantly Hindu territory comes to

be despised by its subjects. Though they did not succeed in
their project instantaneously in the 18th century, the haze of
communalized history has hung heavily over the centuries.
Thanks to the emergence of a small coterie of saffron
historians in the post 1980 decades, lengthening reflections
of such partisan interpretations seek to smudge the fair image
of certain rulers in the mainstream media and the textbooks.
No wonder, more of such efforts have been successful in the
last two decades with context to Tipu Sultan.
It is rather bizarre to find voices opposing inclusion of
Tipu Sultan among those who fought for the freedom of India.
Tipu stands tallest among them as he not merely fought the
expulsion of the British from the Peninsula, but laid down
his life for the cause of keeping the land free from anything
British. Not alone this, he agreed to British keeping his two
sons hostage with them till he paid Rs. 2.30 crore in
pursuance of a treaty towards indemnity cost of the 1793
Third Mysore War in which the British had taken an
upperhand. (Ref. Wikipedia).
No doubt, Islamic traditions were important for Tipu
Sultan. His kingdom was called Sultanat-e-Khudadad or
God-given Government. But there should be equally no doubt
that he was an ardent believer in religious coexistence and
strove for the welfare of his subjects regardless of Muslims
or Hindus and Masjid or Mandir. He not merely employed
Hindus in his administration but had placed some of prominent
Hindus on high positions in his court. He appointed Purnaiah
as his Mir Asaf (or Dewan) and Krishna Rao as Minister of
Finance. Shama Rao was appointed as incharge of Post and
Police; Srinivasa Rao was ambassador in Madras, Appaji Rao
in Poona; and Moolchand in Delhi. His personal attendant
was Subba Rao; His confidants were Nayak Rao and Nayak
Sangana, his Munshi (Accountant) was Narnaiah and
Nagappaiah was the commandant of Coorg, Harisingh was a

84

Facts vs Fictions

commander of a division in the army; Shivaji was the

commander of his cavalry with 3,000 horses. Evidently, no
king who oppressed people of other faiths could afford to
employ members of the very same communities in such large
numbers and in such key positions.
Tipus gifts to the temples could also be explained in
detail. But this short essay does not bear such elaboration.
It is adequate to say that Tipu did not do that in order to
exhibit his secularism as such concepts were still not current
then nor were essential to be displayed. It was just part of a
rulers scheme to keep his subjects happy and not to deviate
from what they traditionally owed.
Obviously, what these narrow-minded historians miss out
is the larger picture of a political tug of war in which friends
and foes were identified in terms of those who sided with the
British and the ones committed to remaining free from the
clutches of the British colonial rulers. If wars were necessary
to subdue the Coorgis and the Nairs of Kerala, wars were
also fought against the Nawabs of Carnatic who were Muslims
and were stooges of the British. Writes Dr. B. N. Pandey in
his book titled Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan: Evaluation of their
Religious Policies,(Institute of Objective Studies, New Delhi):
If he crushed the Hindus of Coorg, the Christians of
Mangalore and the Nayars of Malabar that was due to the
fact that they wished to undermine his authority by joining
the British. He did not spare the Mopillas of Malabar or the
Mahadevi Muslims or Nawabs of Sawanur or Nizam whenever
he suspected such tendencies among them.
Therefore, to dub Tipu an extremist is highly erroneous.
His harshness was only towards those who had joined the
British to overthrow his regime, and hence it was politically
motivated and not religiously inspired.
Had this not been so, Mahatma Gandhi would not have
extolled Tipu as an embodiment of Hindu-Muslim unity.

Facts vs Fictions

85

A classic case of historys distortion was highlighted by

later Dr. B.N. Pandey, (then Governor of Orissa, who also
headed the AICCs History Research Cell), who on finding a
reference of killing of people in Coorg, sought their
verification from Mysore Gazetteer.
Dr. Pandey had come across a history textbook taught
in the Anglo-Bengali College, Allahabad which claimed that
three thousand Brahmins had committed suicide
asTipuwanted to convert them forcibly into the fold of
Islam. The author was a very famous scholar,Dr Har
Prashad Shastri, head of the department of Sanskrit at
Calcutta University.
Dr. Pandey wrote to the Dr. Shastri immediately and
asked him to furnish the source from which the instances
have been quoted. After several reminders, Dr. Shastri replied
that he had taken this information from theMysore
Gazetteer. So Pandey requested the then Mysore University
vice chancellor, Sir Brijendra Nath Seal, to verify for him Dr.
Shastris statement from the Gazetteer. Sir Brijendra referred
his letter toProf. Srikantiahwho was then working on a
new edition of the Gazetteer. Srikantiah wrote to say that
the Gazetteer mentioned no such incident and, as a historian
himself, he was certain that nothing like this had taken place.
Srikantiah added that both the prime minister and the
commander-in-chief of Tipu Sultan were themselves Brahmins.
He also enclosed a list of 156 Hindu temples which used to
receive annual grants from the Sultans treasury. A Linga
donated by Tipu is worshipped even today in the Nanjangud
temple. Ranganatha temple at Srirangapatana was hardly a
stone throw from his palace from where he listened with equal
respect the ringing of temple bells and the call of the mosque.
(Impact International, London, Vol. 28, July 1998)
It was later discovered that Shastri had lifted this
Brahmins Suicide story fromColonel Miles History of

86

Facts vs Fictions

Mysorein which Miles claimed he had quoted this from a

Persian manuscript in the personal library of Queen Victoria.
When Dr. Pandey checked further, he found that no such
manuscript existed in Queen Victorias library. Yet Dr.
Shastris book was being used as a high school history textbook
in seven Indian states, namely Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa,
Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. So he sent
his entire correspondence about the book to the vice
chancellor of Calcutta University,Sir Ashutosh Chaudhary.
Ashutosh promptly ordered Shastris book out of the syllabus.
Yet years later, in 1972, Pandey was surprised to discover the
same suicide story was still being taught as history in junior
high schools in Uttar Pradesh. The lie had found currency as
a fact of history.
Tipus grants of land (jagir) and gifts to temples are
plentiful enough to require a few volumes. Documents
discovered in recent decades from archives of famous temple
at Sringeri reveal that he was deeply grieved at the vandalizing
of the temple by the armies of the Peshwas and restored the
idol at the venerable spot from the official funds of the
Sultanat e Khudad. He gave 10,000 huns (Cash) to complete
the temple at Kanjeevaram in Tamil Nadu and participated
in its chariot festival when the temple was completed. He
settled the dispute between two sects of Melkote temple and
both parties accepted his decision as final. In a campaign at
Dindigul he ordered not to fire from the south, for the Rajas
temple was located there. Old Kannada literature is replete
with elegies to the Sultan and these have also found
expressions in frescoes on the ceiling of the famous temple
at Seebi (in Tumkur district in Karnataka). Ballads extolling
Tipu Sultan are still sung in rural areas of Old Mysore State.
The fact that the frescoes were painted fifty years after the
martyrdom of the legendry ruler testifies to the popular
affection the ruler commanded among his people much after
he had passed away.

Facts vs Fictions

87

A ruler despised by his Hindu subjects would not have

deserved the very same people prostrating before his bloodied
corpse at his funeral. But history records that even while the
victorious British troops were pillaging the homes at
Srirangapatnam, his Hindu subjects had lined at his palace to
prostrate before the body amid loud expression of grief and
lamentation. (Beatson 1880 quoted by Md. Moienuddin,
Sunset at Srirangapatnam, Orient Longman, 2000). This
should not be expected of subjects ruled by a bigoted tyrant.
Sir Jadunath Sarkar, a prominent Indian Bengali
aristocrat and historian held Tipu in high esteem and
appreciated his work and said: Tipu sultan was a great
freedom fighter, an able administrator and an innovator in
social, economic and political sectors.
If we were to quote an eye-witness account of Tipus
adversary, Edward Moore, who was marching with Bombay
detachment to fight against Tipu in the Third Mysore War,
it would be more objective in knowing the reality of Tipus
regime. Moore wrote:
When a person travelling through a strange country
finds it well cultivated, populous with industrious
inhabitants, cities newly founded, commerce
extending, towns increasing and everything
flourishing so as to indicate happiness, he will
naturally conclude to be under a form of
Government congenial to the minds of the people
This is a picture of Tipus country, and this is our
conclusion in respect of its Government.

88

Facts vs Fictions

Ancient Enmity, Modern Hatred

The demonization of Islam at the hands of the West has a
long history, as much as the tussle between Islam and the
Christian Europe expanding over a millennium. Islam began
to knock over the gates of Europe in less than a century
after its rise in the Arabian Peninsula. By 712 AD, Spain was
conquered by the Umayyad general Tariq bin Ziad which put
the Iberian Peninsula (that came to called Andalus) firmly
under the Islamic rule for nearly eight centuries. It was here
that Islam outgrew of its theological and imperial fold and
blossomed into a civilization developing itself into a soft
power unparalleled in the then known world. Islamic
Universities and laboratories at the cities of Cordova and
Granada attracted scholars, astronomers, physicians, scientists
and philosophers from the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Islamic doctrine of Tawheed or Unity of God appeared
much solid-footed than the complexities involved in the
concept of Trinity. The Quran preserved in its pristine pure
form too posed a challenge. More than anything else, the
liberty that Islam offered from the clergy, enhanced its appeal.
Bounties of this freedom were visible in flowering of knowledge
and scientific development of Muslims in Spain. Christian
Europe felt a threat to its existence. It set them on a quest
to find fronts to arrest the rising tide of Islam. The West
began theological and ideological attacks against Islam.
Persona of the Prophet Muhammad was chosen as the major
target. His multiple marriages and battles came handy for

Facts vs Fictions

89

the vilification. Attrition and destruction caused by the

Crusades, reoccupation of the holy lands by Salahuddin Ayyubi
and much later fall of Constantinople (currently known as
Istanbul, was the capital city of the Eastern Roman or
Byzantine Empire) and entry of Ottoman empire into the
eastern flank of Europe, gave additional reasons for Europe
to feel bruised.
Today, Islam being a pale shadow of its former self,
Muslims divided among themselves, the Wests hunt for
energy resources triggering wars in the oil-rich Middle East,
the need for stoking the dormant wellsprings of hate has
redoubled in the recent decades. It is therefore needless to
explain why the Western media and political establishment
fall prey to machination to this effect? All they needed was
to turn the hate into anger. Though Europe never had paucity
of small nationalities struggling to separate out of the fixed
national frontiersBasques, Irish were a few among them
it badly required distinctly and differently complexioned
militants to fill the image of the new enemy. Refugees from
Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan and other carpet-bombed
lands proved a fertile recruiting ground for forces bent upon
teaching the West a lesson.
It will be useful to take a glance into the historical
animosities that have characterized the relations between
Islam and the West. The following article by scholar Ziauddin
Sardar may serve as a guide.
Muslims became a problem for Europe right from
the birth of Islam. First, Islam was a theological
problem. What was the purpose of an Arabian
Prophet some 600 years after the crucifixion and
resurrection of Gods own son? Second, when Islam
arrived - within a few decades of its inception at
Europes borders, it became a political problem.
Third, the scholarly achievements of Muslim

90

Facts vs Fictions

civilization made Islam an intellectual problem as

well. Each aspect of the problem of Islam was
tackled by specific means.
Theologically, Christian Europe could only
denounce Islam, its Prophet and its followers.
Politically, Europe launched a series of Crusades
against Islam. When these failed, it embarked on
full-fledged colonization of the Muslim world.
Intellectually, it created a series of disciplines to
contain Muslim thought and history.

1. Denunciation
Denunciation of Islam and its Prophet began early on. Paul
Alvarus (d.859) used the Book of Daniel to discover that
Prophet Muhammad fitted the description of the Antichrist,
complete with the sign of the beast 666, which was supposed
to be the year of the Prophets death. This defamatory picture
of the Prophet was incorporated in the cycle of popular
performance literature known as chansons de geste where
the Prophet is given the Devils synonym, Mahound and
the epic romances that later developed out of them.
Throughout the middle ages, they exerted tremendous
influence on Italian, German, Spanish, French and English
literature, surviving right up to the 17th century in different
forms. The genre made a comeback in the 19th and 20th
centuries. The most recent example of the genre is Salman
Rushdies The Satanic Verses which rewrites the life of
Prophet Muhammad in the defamatory style of chansons
literature.

2. The Crusades
Once Islam was cast in the permanent role of demonic infidel
enemy, perpetual war against it was relatively easy to justify.

Facts vs Fictions

91

At the famous Peace of God Council of Clermond in

November 1095, Pope Urban II launched the crusades. The
Council called for a War of God against Islam and the
liberation of Jerusalem.
The Christian Crusades began with the slaughter of the
Jews in Europe. The crusaders entered Jerusalem, after a 40day siege, on 15 July, 1099. They killed some 70,000 men,
women and children, according to the Muslim historian ibn
al-Athir.
Listen to Raymund Aguiles, an eye-witness reporter.
Wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men
(and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of
their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that
they fell from the towers; others tortured them
longer by casting them into flames. Piles of heads,
hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the
city. It was necessary to pick ones way over the
bodies of men and horses. But these were small
matters compared to what happened at the Temple
of Solomon, a place where religious services are
normally chanted. What happened there? If I tell
the truth it will exceed the powers of belief. So let it
suffice to say this much, at least, that in the Temple
and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their
knees and bridle reins. Indeed it was a lust and
splendid judgment of God that this place should be
filled with the blood of the unbelievers since it had
suffered so long from their blasphemies.
Elsewhere in the Holy Land, the crusaders boiled
Muslims in cooking pots, roasted children on spits and roamed
the countryside hunting for pagan Saracens.
Contradictory to above, when Umar, the Second Caliph,
or Islamic Ruler, captured Jerusalem in 638, he treated the

92

Facts vs Fictions

Christians and Jews with utmost respect. No one was harmed.

When Umar met the Christian Patriarch, he assured him that
the life and property of the citys inhabitants would be
respected and then asked to be taken to Christian holy places.
During the visit, the time of prayer arrived when they were
in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Umar asked the
Patriarchs permission to pray. The Patriarch invited Umar
to do so right where he stood, Umar answered: If I do, the
Muslims would want to appropriate this site, saying Umar
prayed here. Then, with his prayer mat in his hand, Umar
walked outside and prayed on naked ground.
The Muslims recaptured Jerusalem on 2nd October, 1187.
When the Ayyubid Caliph Salah-ad-Din (Saladin) entered the
city, he gave strict orders to his troop that no Christian shall
be touched. He announced that Christian holy places would
be protected and that anyone who wished to stay could stay
and anyone who wished to leave could leave. Many left and
took their (looted) wealth with them. The patriarch of
Jerusalem himself raided the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
and drove out of the city with numerous carpets filled with
gold, carpets and all varieties of precious goods.
The companions of Salah-ad-Din were scandalized, Imam
al-Din al-Asfahani, Salah-ad-Dins treasurer, was beside himself
with rage.
I said to the sultan: This patriarch is carrying off riches
worth at least two hundred thousand dinars. We gave them
permission to take their personal property with them, but
not the treasures of the churches and the convents. You must
not let them do it. But Salah-ad-Din answered: We must
apply the letter of the accords we have signed, so that no
one will be able to accuse the believers of having violated
their treaties. On the contrary, Christians everywhere will
remember the kindness we have bestowed upon them.
Contradictory to above, Christians everywhere painted

Facts vs Fictions

93

Salah-Ad-Din as a violent Infidel, who ate babies, killed

Christian knights and destroyed Christian holy places.
The crusaders have had a tremendous influence on
Europes perception of Islam. The crusades projected Islam
as the evil, dark side of Europe. This stereotype picture of
Muslims as barbaric, licentious, depraved, fanatical, ignorant,
stupid, unclean and inferior became an integral part of
European thought, literature and outlook. It was sustained
and developed under colonialism and is periodically recycled
in our time.

3. Orientalism
Special disciplines evolved to provide academic justification
for false images of Islam. Anthropology emerged to study all
non-Western cultures as the imperfect and primitive versions
of Western society. Islam received the expected racist
treatment at the hands of many colonial anthropologists.
Orientalism was developed specifically to cast the fear and
loathing of Islam into an acceptable objective and academic
framework.
Orientalist writers, who have often tended to be priests,
have since the 15th century been rewriting Islamic history,
presenting perversely ugly descriptions of Islamic sources,
attributing wicked and innately evil characteristics to Muslim
societies. The Quran was repeatedly analysed as an incoherent,
repetitious, violent book of little consequence. Prophet
Muhammad was constantly presented as amoral and licentious,
Muslim thought and learning was suppressed and written out
of the history of science!
Orientalism was/is not just an academic pursuitit was/
is also an outlook towards Islam. European travelers, novelists
and artists have produced a vast corpus of literature and
paintings depicting Islam as a barbaric fusion of sex and

94

Facts vs Fictions

violence, a treasure house of magic, superstition, drugs and

deformations. Many of these writers - such as Richard Burton
(d. 1890), Isabelle Eberhardt (d.1904), T. E. Lawrence (d.1935)
- went to the Muslim world either as spies or to seek sexual
gratification denied to them in Europe.

4. Spread of Muslim Learning to Europe

Up to the 15th century, the flow of knowledge was strictly
from Islam to Europe. The works of Muslim scholars were
regularly translated into Latin and other European languages,
used as textbooks and practical manuals. European scholars
and thinkers were regular visitors at Muslim centres of
learning. European students went to Cordova, Fez, Cairo,
Baghdad and Samarkand to study under great masters just as
Muslim students nowadays go to Europe and North America
for further study. Arabic was the language of science and
culture, and those who cared for thought and learning showed
their concern by dressing like Muslim scholars. The European
Renaissance and all the progress in science, technology,
medicine, learning and humanism that it produced, was built
squarely on the shoulders of Muslim scholars and thinkers.
Indeed, the Renaissance is inconceivable without the
contribution of Muslim civilization. This fact is seldom
acknowledged. On the contrary, the achievements of Muslim
scholars and scientists were frequently plagiarized, deliberately
and systematically downgraded, undermined and brushed aside.

Europes fear of Islam

Minou Reeves, rightly remarks in her book; Muhammad in
Europe
Islam was not only a military threat to Europe but also an
ideological and moral challenge because it enunciated an
alternative vision. In intellectual and cultural spheres the Arab

Facts vs Fictions

95

world could mock at Europe. The Islamic world was far ahead
of the Christian West in medicine, mathematics and in some
aspects of physics such as optics, in astronomy, chemistry,
botany and other natural sciences. With the adoption of the
Indian zero, the Arabs had greatly simplified arithmetical
exercises and had developed new disciplines in mathematics
such as algebra, analytical geometry and spherical
trigonometry. Until 1600 the chief medical textbook in Europe
was the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna, an eleventh-century
Persian scientist and philosopher whose homeland had become
part of the rapidly expanding Islamic Empire. The Arabs
established colleges of translation in Spain and Sicily which
made the wealth of knowledge in Greek, Syriac, Persian and
Sanskrit writings, available in Arabic. They were in turn
translated into Latin. Great halls of science with libraries and
astronomical laboratories were created alongside the
translation colleges to promote research. Spain and Sicily thus
became two major centres for intellectual and scientific
exchange between East and West, contributing significantly
to the emergence of European Humanism and the
Renaissance.
But how could these Bedouin men of the desert, whose
civilization had begun in tribalism, achieve such high levels of
sophistication and knowledge in such a short time? The answer
is simple. The freshness or the new religion had enabled the
Arabs to extend their faith beyond the boundaries of the
Arabian Peninsula into the highly civilized world of the
Persians, the Greeks and the Byzantines. They had inherited
the dazzling riches of Persian and Greek philosophies and had
been remarkably apt in- imitating the courtly manners habits
and traditions of the Persian nobility, aspects of which they
introduced to southern Europe. The Europeans thus became
more and more convinced of the superiority of Muslim
culture, which made them envious and resentful.
Consequently, Prophet Muhammad as the initiator and

96

Facts vs Fictions

inspirer of this ever-growing success began to haunt them in

all walks of life. Medieval Europes (In European history, the
Middle Ages, or Medieval period, lasted from the 5th to the
15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western
Roman Empire) fear of Islam drove it to demonizing Prophet
Muhammad.
Muslims would-do well to reflect why Europe, which had
borrowed a lot: from them, forged ahead, while Muslim states
stagnated. Historically, the intellectual stagnation in the
Muslim world preceded Western colonialism and made
resistance to its march difficult. In the West, the campaign
of calumny of Islam and its Prophet Muhammad, which had
begun when the Muslim world was resurgent, did not stop as
Europe gained ascendancy. It acquired a sharper edge and
greater assurance which, in turn, fuelled Muslim anger.
(Minou Reeves, Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years
of Western Myth-Making, NYU Press, 2001)

5. Colonialism
With minor variations, the European powers which colonized
the Muslim world Britain, France, Holland behaved
according to a set pattern. Divide and conquer was the policy
of occupation. For example, by playing on one ruler in India
against another till exhausted, the British could easily devour
the Mughal empire. The war of independence in 1857 was the
last effort on the part of the Indian masses to overthrow the
British. It failed miserably, Bahadurshah Zafar, the last Mughal
Emperor of India, was not very keen on free trade and was
reluctant to give the British trading concessions as he
suspected their motives. His suspicions proved to be correct.
As a first gesture of their intentions to civilize the
natives, the British presented him with the heads of his entire
family on silver platters. Zafar was exiled to Rangoon where

Facts vs Fictions

97

he died in abject poverty and wrote some of the greatest

poems in Urdu literature.
On taking control, colonial powers systematically stripped
Muslim society of all its learning and expertise. One of the
first acts of colonial rulers was to ban all intellectual, learned
and educational activities. For example, when the Dutch took
over Indonesia in 1595, they closed all madrasas, colleges and
libraries and banned education. Natives were forbidden from
entering the few libraries that the Dutch established for their
own purposes. In 1850, they allowed primary education for
the natives but still prohibited secondary education. The
destruction of Islamic medicine came next. At the beginning
of the nineteenth century, a French doctor needed permission
to practice medicine in Tunisia from the Muslim Chief of
Physicians. By the end of the century, French colonial
administrators classed Islamic medicine as second rate and
then proceeded ruthlessly to suppress it. Eventually, Islamic
medicine was outlawed all over the Muslim world.

Manufacturing Colonialism
The colonial powers looted everything they could from the
Muslim societies they colonized, and established a structure
for transferring all the local raw material to the mother
country.
The textile mills of Northern England, for example, were
built on the ruins of the Indian textile industry; colonialism
and the industrial revolution were locked together.
The European rulers created a special class, generally of
civil servants, as their local surrogates. Macaulay echoed other
colonial rulers when he wrote in 1835 in his Minutes of Indian
Education : We must at present do our best to form a class
who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom
we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour,

98

Facts vs Fictions

but English in taste, in opinion, in morals, and in intellect.

The British East India Company and the Dutch East
Indies Company were free market ventures in the Muslim
world. They were given concessions by various Muslim rulers
to trade freely. But their trade included conquests and
annexations.
Muslim societies became an experimental ground where
all sorts of ideas of brave new modernists missionaries with
civilizing zeal, believers in science, progress and White Mans
burden, tested out new, utopian and innovative educational,
social and cultural policies on Muslim societies.
Colonialism dismantled Muslim civilization brick by brick.
It occupied not only the bodies but also the minds of
Muslims. It equated anything that could remotely be described
as Islamic with inferiority and low moral worth. It altered
the cultural priorities of Muslim societies. It drained the
Muslim countries of every source of wealth. And it reduced
the Muslim people to abject poverty.
The Western attempts to solve the Problem of Islam
have produced a catalogue of crimes and injustices against
Muslims that defies description. It has led to an
institutionalization of Islam and Muslims as the Demonised
Other in European thought and history.
(Ziauddin Sardar, Introducing Islam, 2009, National Book
Network, Icon Books ltd, London)

Modern Hatred
Time did nothing to erase and extinguish hatred from the
Western mindset. It only got metamorphosed into modern
forms. Today the West seeks to bludgeon the Muslim world
and the East into submission through other means. September
11 came as a godsend to launch military onslaughts against

Facts vs Fictions

99

Afghanistan and Iraq, pounding the entire infrastructure of

the two countries to dust and victimising the innocent
millions. It has unleashed a new wave of demonization of
Islam and Muslims. But it has only served to radicalize the
new generation of Muslims which has been at the receiving
end of the West-inflicted violence. This does not augur well
for either Islam or the world, for no purpose will be served
by countering hate with fanaticism. Thirteen centuries of
fossilized Western prejudice today finds retail buyers in
countries such as India, Myanmar etc where it had not taken
roots even during medieval ages when Muslims ruled those
lands.
In the past the West skipped tackling Islam ideologically
and intellectually. Islam was too simple and seductive for the
Western audiences and attacking it would have only raised
awkward questions about the Christian dogma. It therefore
chose to personalise the attack against Holy Prophet or
individuals such as Salahuddin Ayyubi projecting them as
demon, devil and the ideology as inherently flawed. The way
to peace and reconciliation lies in genuine understanding and
empathy rather than prejudices and peddling of stereotypes.

100

Facts vs Fictions

Rid our Body

Politic of Communal Poison
Markandey Katju *
Indians must defeat all those elements that promote and
thrive on religious hatred. Though many Hindus and Muslims
in India are today infected by the virus of communalism, the
fact is that before 1857 there was no communal feeling at all
in most Indians. There were, no doubt, some differences
between Hindus and Muslims, but there was no animosity.
Hindus used to join Muslims in celebrating Eid, Muslims used
to join Hindus in celebrating Holi and Diwali, and they lived
together like brothers and sisters.
How is it that around 150 years later, suspicion, if not
animosity, has developed between the two major religious
communities on our subcontinent? Today, Muslims in India
find it difficult to get a house on rent from Hindus. When a
bomb blast takes place in India the police, incapable of
catching the real culprits (because they have no training in
scientific investigation), solve the crime by arresting half-adozen Muslims. Most of them are ultimately found innocent
in a court of law, but after spending many years in jail. This
has resulted in tremendous alienation among Muslims in India.
In Pakistan, things are even worse for the minorities who
often live in a state of terror, scared of extremists and
religious bigots.
* The author is a retired judge of Supreme Court of India
and Chairperson, Press Council of India

Facts vs Fictions

101

Watershed
1857 is the watershed year in the history of communal relations
in India. Before 1857, there was no communal problem, no
communal riot. It is true there were differences between
Hindus and Muslims, but then there are differences even
between two sons or daughters of the same father. Hindus
and Muslims lived peacefully, and invariably helped each other
in times of difficulty.
No doubt, Muslims who invaded India broke a lot of
temples. But their descendants, who became local Muslim
rulers, almost all fostered communal harmony. This they did
in their own interest, because the vast majority of their
subjects were Hindus. They knew that if they broke Hindu
temples, there would be turbulence and riots, which no ruler
wants. Hence almost all the Muslim rulers in India promoted
communal harmony the Mughals, the Nawabs of Awadh,
Murshidabad or Arcot, Tipu Sultan or the Nizam of
Hyderabad.
In 1857, the First Indian War of Independence broke
out, in which Hindus and Muslims jointly fought against the
British. After suppressing the revolt, the British decided that
the only way to control India was to divide and rule. Thus,
the Secretary of State for India, Sir Charles Wood, in a letter
to the Viceroy, Lord Elgin, in 1862 wrote, We have
maintained our power in India by playing off one community
against the other and we must continue to do so. Do all you
can, therefore, to prevent all having a common feeling.

Divide and Rule

In a letter dated January 14, 1887, Secretary of State
Viscount Cross wrote to Governor General Dufferin: This
division of religious feeling is greatly to our advantage and I
look forward for some good as a result of your Committee

102

Facts vs Fictions

of Inquiry on Indian Education and on teaching material.

George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India wrote to
Curzon, the Governor General: I think the real danger to
our rule in India is the gradual adoption and extension of
Western ideas and if we could break educated Indians into
two sections [Hindus and Muslims] we should, by such a
division, strengthen our position against the subtle and
continuous attack which the spread of education must make
upon our system of government. We should so plan education
textbooks that the differences between the two communities
are further enhanced. Thus, after 1857, a deliberate policy
was started of generating hatred between Hindus and
Muslims. This was done in a number of ways.

Religious leaders bribed to speak against the

other community
The English Collector would secretly call the Panditji, and
give him money to speak against Muslims, and similarly he
would secretly call the Maulvi and pay him money to speak
against Hindus.

History books distorted to generate communal

hatred
As already mentioned, it is true that the initial Muslim
invaders broke a lot of Hindu temples. However, their
descendants (like Akbar, who was the descendant of the
invader Babur) who were local Muslims rulers, far from
breaking temples, regularly gave grants to Hindu temples,
organised Ram Lilas and participated in Holi and Diwali (like
the Nawabs of Awadh, Murshidabad and Arcot). This second
part of our history, namely, that the descendants of the
Muslim invaders, almost all, promoted communal harmony,
has been totally suppressed from our history books. Our

Facts vs Fictions

103

children are only taught that Mahmud of Ghazni broke the

Somnath Temple, but they are not taught that the Mughal
emperors, Tipu Sultan, etc., used to give grants to Hindu
temples and celebrate Hindu festivals (see online History in
the Service of Imperialism by B.N. Pande).

Communal riots deliberately instigated

All communal riots began after 1857; there was none before
that year. Agent provocateursdeliberately instigated religious
hatred in a variety of ways e.g., by playing music before a
mosque at prayer time, or breaking Hindu idols.
This poison was systematically injected by the British
rulers into our body politic year after year, decade after
decade, until it resulted in the Partition of 1947. We still
have nefarious elements that promote and thrive on religious
hatred.
Whenever a bomb blast takes place, many television news
channels start saying that an email or SMS has been received
claiming that the Indian Mujahideen, the Jaish-e-Muhammad,
or the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al- Islamia has owned responsibility.
Now an email or an SMS message can be sent by any
mischievous person, but by showing this on TV and the next
day in print a subtle impression is created in Hindu minds
that all Muslims are terrorists who throw bombs (when the
truth is that 99 per cent of all communities are peace loving
and good). During the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi
agitation, a section of the media (particularly the Hindi print
media) became kar sevaks.
It is time Indians saw through this nefarious and evil
game of certain vested interests. India is a country of great
diversity, and so the only path to unity and prosperity is equal
respect for all communities and sections of society.

104

Facts vs Fictions

JIHAD
Jihad which is almost always mistranslated as holy war against
enemies of Islam is held equivalent to violence and
oppression.
Jihad means struggling in the way of God. The way of
God, being goodness, justice, passion, compassion, etc. It is
putting up the good fight against whatever odds or barriers
you face in your life. It is a central tenet of the Islamic creed
that has unfortunately been widely misrepresented due to a)
first and foremost, the actions of Muslim extremists, b)
attempts at public indoctrination by Islamophobes who claim
that the extremists are right and the rest of us are wrong,
and c) a selective media that understandably focuses on the
sensational.
Jihad should be seen in the light of Quran and the sayings
of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. The basic root
of the word Jihad in Arabic means, to Struggle or I will
make an effort, do my best. This struggle can be intellectual,
spiritual, social, economic, and political, of course, quite
physical too and can take a number of forms, such as:

Greater Jihad
A tradition of the Prophet Muhammad declares that, the
Greater Jihad is against oneself: that is, against ones ego,
greed, insatiable desires and evil not only from within ones
own self, but also from society.
Jihad is aimed at attaining peace in the collective life by
fighting all kinds of aggressions, excesses and injustice and
establishing virtues, justice and peace in the society. If Islam
is peace, Jihad is the method to achieve it.
In the moderate view Jihad is still necessary, but it must

Facts vs Fictions

105

now be directed toward two issues: the individuals struggle

for piety and societys struggle for justice. In a brilliant
exposition of the concept of jihad, a Beirut academic Yusuf
bish wrote: The Greater Jihad is fighting ones animal
tendencies. It is internal rather than external: striving in the
path of God to overcome ones animal side. Man shares with
animals certain characteristics which, if let loose, make him
a very dangerous beast`. To bring these passions under control,
that is what Jihad means. Man has a tendency to overestimate
himself; and to underestimate his spiritual potential, He has
a tendency to control and exploit his environment and other
human beings. Jihad is essential against such tendencies.
While, returning from the Hunayn expedition, Prophet
Muhammad had declared:
We are back from the lesser Jihad [efforts, resistance, and
struggle for reform] to the greater Jihad.
A Companion asked: What is the greater Jihad , Messenger
of God?
Prophet Muhammad answered: It is fighting the self [the
ego]; to overcome temptations towards evil.
Thus, Prophet Muhammad gave top precedence to the
greater Jihad, humanitys spiritual struggle against evil. For
the Muslims, or Non-Muslim as for all human beings, this
inner struggle is the most difficult. It is also the most noble
and the one that required the most understanding, forgiveness,
and, of course, sincerity to oneself.

Supreme Jihad
One of the highest forms of Jihad is to stand up before a
tyrant and to speak truth before him. Prophet Muhammad
exhorted his followers to raise their voice against oppression
and for oppressed classes. Quran says, Be a friend of the

106

Facts vs Fictions

oppressed and resist ( by proper means ) the oppression by

tyrant rulers and their corrupt ways. Furthermore, the Quran
says:
And what is wrong with you that you fight not in
the cause of God, and for those weak, ill-treated
and oppressed among men, women, and children,
whose cry is: Our Lord! Rescue us from this town
whose people are oppressors; and let arise for us
from You one who will protect, and let arise for us
from You one who will help. (Quran 4:75)

Lesser Jihad
Lesser Jihad as defined originally by the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him), refers to military efforts in a context of
military struggle in which the key obligations were defence
and preservation of Islam and the justice.
It is a recognized principle that in the face of aggression,
any state has the right to defend itself. The struggle to defend
state can also be carried out through writings, media,
dialogues, diplomacy, agreements, peace process etc. If all
these measures fail to achieve peace and the threat is still
persisting then the state authority can resort to armed
struggle to defend the state. This is a legitimate right of any
country.
It is important to note that International Law does
justify armed resistance by a people against invading or
occupying foreign military forces.
But Jihad cannot be a war of aggression, or a war for
territorial gain. It is a defensive war which places certain
responsibilities on those who are called to engage in it. As a
moral exercise, Jihad must be performed strictly under the
Islamic rules of engagement. This means that innocent
individuals, women, children and unarmed civilians cannot be

Facts vs Fictions

107

harmed, property and environment cannot be destroyed, and

places of worship of other faiths cannot be demolished. As
such, kidnapping, hostage-taking, indiscriminate shooting of
civilians, placing bombs in areas and buildings where people
work are evil deeds that Islam totally condemns. These fall
in the category of terrorism and senseless killings.
Moreover, Jihad cannot be declared by anybody on
everybody. For example, Jihad cannot be declared by one
Muslim country on another, or an oppressive dictator cannot
declare Jihad on countries lined up against him, Jihad requires
consensus of the whole Muslim community and a clear
identification of the enemy as the aggressor or the oppressor
of helpless victims.
Similarly, the so-called Islamic Jihad groups have no right
to take this authority to themselves. In addition, their
extremist methods that involve violence against the innocent
have no basis in Islamic law.
It is completely unfair to judge Islam by the wrongdoings
of some misguided or ignorant Muslims, or by the
deteriorating condition of Muslims and the blatant corruption
that pervades the world.
Former Pop Singer Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf
Islam, observed: It is wrong to judge Islam in the light of
the behaviour of some deviant Muslims who are always shown
in the media. It is like judging a car to be bad if the driver is
drunk and he crashes it into a wall.

Social Jihad
Social activism is yet another kind of struggle (Jihad) that
fits the modern context. If indeed one intends to bring about
change in the society towards better, he or she must take up
social activism which groups of civil society adopt in todays
world. It is a silent but consistent struggle to change the

108

Facts vs Fictions

attitudes of people. The tools for this kind of struggle are

education, awareness, moulding of attitudes, persuasion and
motivation. The social jihad has under its ambit vast number
of causes and missions. Be it the compliance with childrens
rights or empowering women; eradication of child labour or
checking infant mortality; conserving environment or
protecting wildlife; checking dropout from schools or
modernizing madrassa curriculum; rehabilitating fallen women
or rehabilitating addicts; ending rural indebtedness or
providing employment to the jobless; popularizing books or
imparting vocational skills to the untrained; building cre`ches
(day care center) for children of construction labour or
providing safety aids to the mine workers; counseling prisoners
or taking care of their families; safeguarding the waqf
properties or taking care of choultries and old age homes;
reforming ex-convicts or setting up homes for rehabilitating
the young criminals, making provision for cheaper housing for
the homeless or arranging drinking water for the poor; the
list is endless. The Quran exhorts its readers to do good to
others, as Allah has done good to you (Ahsin, kama
ahsinallahu alaik). It is time Muslims understood the value
of the social work and launch a social Jihad to rid this world
free from poverty, illiteracy, diseases, addictions, indebtedness,
servitude and serfdoms.
This clarification about the central notions of the Muslim
religion allows us to shed new light on the question of social
action. All Muslims know and repeat that the practice of
Islam does not stop at the exercise of Prayer (Namaz),
Almsgiving (Zakat), Fasting (Roza) and Pilgrimage (Hajj). Every
act of daily life which is fulfilled with remembrance of God
is, in itself, an act of gratitude and worship. Moreover, we
know the close link, which is established in the Quran, between
belief and action through the oft-repeated expression i.e.,
Those who believe and do good deeds. Thus, to have faith is
tantamount to believing and acting, and action here is of

Facts vs Fictions

109

multiple nature. It is the honesty that one imposes on oneself,

goodness and generosity towards ones relatives, just as it is
the determined engagement in social reform, or even
mobilisation against injustice. All these efforts which are
deployed in action are part of Jihad in the sense whereby
they are oriented towards that which is more just and more
respectful of the revealed principles. The following verse
clarifies the same:
Strive hard and fight in the cause of God with your
wealth and your lives; that will be better for you, if
you but know! (Quran 61:11)
A Muslim is enjoined to spend his wealth and life for all
worthy causes and projects. In a broader sense, a sense which
is confirmed by the entire Quranic message and that of the
traditions of Prophet, fighting in the path of God, means
mobilizing all our human forces, directing all our efforts and
giving of our properties and of our own persons in order to
overcome all adversities whether they be injustices,
exploitation, hunger, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy,
criminal behavior and addiction to drugs, liquor and gambling.
They require intense efforts, a continuous fight and a
complete Jihad which needs each and every ones participation.
How many are those Muslims who want to fight beyond
their own doorsteps, who want to offer, in the most sincere
fashion their own persons for the cause of Islam, But, filled
with this intention, they forget and remain blind to the fight
that must be carried out here in their own locality to the
cause that ought to be defended in their own neighbourhoods,
cities and in every country. Egyptian scholar, Hasan al-Banna
said: Dying in the way of God is difficult, but living in the
way of God is still more difficult. This Jihad is a Jihad for
life, in order that every human being is given the rights which
are his. The entire message of Islam carries this requirement
as well as its necessary achievement.

110

Facts vs Fictions

What the Prophet said about War ?

Being fundamentally realistic, the Quranic revelation admits
the reality of war. However, war is permitted only to check
injustice. War must necessarily be declared as a form of selfprotection or legitimate defense. Aggression and the initiation
of combat without any valid reasons are forbidden.
Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but
do not commit aggression for God loves not
aggressors. (Quran, 2:190)
Other than the defense of the community, injustice and
persecution are also valid reasons for authorizing war. To
these against whom war is made, permission is given to fight
because they are wronged. They are those who have been
expelled from their homes in defiance of right (for no cause)
except that they say, our Lord is God. (22: 39-40) However,
mans natural tendencies toward violence, his greed for
domination, desire for revenge, material motivation or
tendencies of plunder are all considered as sinful, evil and
immoral causes. In short, aggression is forbidden.

War Ethics
By introducing an entirely new term Jihad-fee-sabi-lillah
(resistance in the way of God), Prophet Muhammad purified
warfare from its purely material or vested interests and selfserving motives. By adding In the way of God (fee-sabilillah), he taught that war must not be waged for the sake of
the self, for spoils, pride, prestige, or subjugation and
oppression of other people. This belief served as the glue
holding the principles of warfare together.
Under this new conception of war, the Prophet
introduced a comprehensive set of laws that encompassed the

Facts vs Fictions

111

conduct of war: its moral boundaries, components, rights and

obligations; the difference between combatants and noncombatants and their rights; and the right of envoys, prisoners
of war and conquered people. All of these principles were
expressed clearly and unequivocally by Prophet Muhammad.

Ten Commandments
From the beginning of the Arab-Muslim conquest, the warriors
of Islam adopted a magnificent spirit of tolerance toward the
nonbelievers and subjugated peoples. At a time when violence
knew neither law nor feelings, Abu Bakr, the Prophets
successor, collected the commands of the Prophet on this
matter and issued that well-known document to his soldiers.
While dispatching an army to the territories of the Levant,
(Eastern-Arabia), gave the following command to his General;
In the history of warfare perhaps this was the first document
on war ethics and those instructions contained the moral spirit
of Islamic law:
Do not kill the woman; nor a child, nor a weak old
person; do not cut down a fruit-bearing tree; do
not destroy a dwelling [home]; do not kill a sheep or
camel, unless [you need to kill it] for food; do not
set bees on fire, nor drown them; do not
misappropriate the spoils of war; and do not be
cowardly.
From this one statement containing ten commands, one
should see that the Muslim is obliged in warfare not only to
show mercy to innocent and non-combatant humans, but even
to the environment and to the animals. If all armies would
only follow this advice today then the world would certainly
be a far more humane and conscious place as opposed to the
widespread destruction that war brings with it today, no
matter who the combatants are.

112

Facts vs Fictions

The Biological unity of mankind was a fact, about which

the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, O God, I
bear witness that all human beings are brothers [and sisters].
We find a practical example of this unity in the life of
Prophet Muhammad. Once, the Prophet was with his
Companions and a funeral procession passed by. The Prophet
stood up in respect for the deceased. The Muslims were
surprised and said to the Prophet that this was a Jews funeral.
The Prophet asked them with clarity and dignity: Was this
not a human soul?
Islam accords such a high value to human life that the Quran
commands:
The unjust killing of a single human being is
considered equivalent to the assassination of the
whole of mankind. And the protection of a single
human life is equivalent to the protection of the
whole of mankind (Quran 5:27-32)
Through this divine instruction, Prophet Muhammad also
underscored the sanctity and inviolability of human life, be it
Muslim or non-Muslim.
During a battle, some children who were accidentally
caught between the opposing forces were killed. When he
learned of this, the Prophet was very distressed. A man said,
O Gods Prophet, they were the children of non-Muslims.
The Prophet replied, Even children of non-Muslims are better
than you. Beware! Do not kill children. Beware! Do not kill
Children. Every soul is born in the nature of God.
Contrast this with the American arrogance over death
of children in Iraq. When a reporter asked Madeleine
Albright, Secretary of State, USA, that in the sanctions
imposed by US on Iraq over half a million children have died
due to that, whether it was worth it. To this she replied in
affirmative saying that we think the price is worth it.

Facts vs Fictions

113

Jihad : Used and Abused

Jihad is an Arabic word which has been derived from root
word j-h-d which means to struggle. Jihad is defined as to
exert utmost for the attainment of a cause. This is employed
for a wide variety of situations and methods. In common Urdu
we often use jadd o Jihad which plainly means struggle. An
Arabic axiom says: Yamil bi zaka, wa la yamil bi jahada kaseera
(Do smart work, dont work hard unnecessarily).
Jihad in its more modern usage has been applied to many
quite secular tasks. People use slogans like Jihad against
corruption, pollution, foeticide and for womens rights.
The freedom struggle by Indias Father of the Nation,
Mahatma Gandhi is often referred in Arabic as Jihad.
Tunisian President Habib Bourguibas campaign for national
economic development too was termed as Jihad. Habib
Bourguiba was a hardcore secularist. Jihad has been applied
by some feminists for the struggle for womens liberation and
by others to a struggle for a just moral and social order.
Over time, defence and offence became increasingly
conflated, and the concept of Jihad began to be used
extensively to refer to warfare in Muslim military campaigns.
Muslim states often warred and fought with other Muslim
states i.e., a Muslim versus Muslim struggle. Obviously, Islam
played no role in it. Indeed Mahdi, the rebel leader in 19th
century Sudan, called his rebellion against the Ottoman
Empire a Jihad, and he called for the death of all Turks. An

114

Facts vs Fictions

extremist sect from so called Islamic countries has been

calling for Jihad against virtually all other Muslims. Curiously,
even within Islam, some sects use the term Jihad for their
warfare against other sects and in their struggle to refute
the version of Islam propounded by other sects.
Some extreme radical groups have now appropriated the
Quranic concept even for war against their own domestic
political opponents within the Muslim world.
Of late, extremely radical groups too have latched on to
the idea of projecting their activities as Jihad. As could be
seen in Nigeria, Niger, Somalia, Mali, Afghanistan and
Lebanon, these group justify their terror activities such as
kidnappings, holding hostage and hijacking etc as part of
overall Jihad they are waging against established governments.
So the term Jihad has been used and abused extensively
over the centuries, and has come into its own again today in
the resistance against the Western forces in the Muslim world.
Whatever the name, it is important to note that
international law does permit armed resistance by people
against invading or occupying foreign military forces.
The Western powers too have manipulated the term Jihad
wherever it has suited them. The term found widespread
useduring resistance movement of Afghans against the Soviet
Communist expansion. The Central Intelligence Agency of
the US recruited thousands of Afghan militants, armed and
trained them, provided financial and diplomatic aid and
mobilized support from the Muslim countries: The CIA
mobilized huge number of radicals from as far as Algeria,
Yemen, Chechnya, and Central Asian States etc. A whole
glossary of Islamic terms such asMujahideen, Jihad, Shaheed
(martyrs) was introduced into media parlance.
The Kissinger doctrine proposed Asians to be made to
fight against Asians and by employing Islamic traditions to

Facts vs Fictions

115

motivate the fighters. A few special madrassas were set up

along the Pakistans frontiers with Afghanistan. These
madrassas, often indirectly funded by the US dished out
formulations like Communists being Kafirs and dubbed killing
them Jihad and those dying in this kind of warfare would
straight head to Jannat (heaven), where 72 virgins are waiting
for them. This ideological cocktail had strong impact on the
Muslim youth who came in to get training in these institutions
with the readiness to lay down their lives to get Shahadat
(martyrdom).
Two generations of Afghan youth received armed training
and indoctrination necessary to fuel the Americas proxy war
against the Communist Soviet Union. Seven major political
groupings of Afghanistan, all representing extremist ideologies,
were inducted into the game and made to fight the Soviets:
As later revealed by former National Security Advisor,
Zbigniew Brzezinski. The CIA gave arms and ammunition
to Mujahedeen using these weapons and sophisticated
training in the art of terror, these men successfully drove
out the Soviets, but also waged terrible war on their own
people killing at least 45,000 people in Kabul alone. (Ninan
Koshy WOT, pp. 62-63).
Not only these groups were able to drive away the
Soviets, they used the same arms and ideology against each
other and fought a fratricidal war (killing of ones brother or
sister) for full six years after the last Soviet troop had left
the rugged country. It was only around 1995 that the most
powerful group among them i.e., Taliban emerged on the top
and grabbed power in Kabul and began the disastrous stint
in power during which girls schools were demolished, ancient
statutes of Buddha at Bamiyan were blasted away and Indian
Airlines aircraft was hijacked to Kandahar and hostages and
the plane were released in lieu of dreaded terrorist like
Masood Azhar. Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and others were

116

Facts vs Fictions

products of this warfare. As guns began to turn against the

Americans and their interests, a campaign began against the
Taliban and terms like Jihadi Terrorism gained currency. The
events reached a peak with 9/11 attack on the twin towers of
World Trade Centre and set the stage for President Bushs
War on Terror. Rest is history.
Violence begets violence. The two US-led wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq have only served to provoke more
revenge, retaliation and suicide bombings in the entire Middle
East. The US intervention has turned the area into a social
and political mess. More than a million Iraqis have perished
in the so called War on Terror. Future of Afghanistan is
uncertain. Pakistan bears the brunt as suicide bombers wreak
havoc on a daily basis.
These do not fit into the category of Jihad. Violence
and terror are not part of Jihad. Jihad is meant to cleanse
the individuals and the society of undesirable traits. Jihad does
not apply to expansion of territory, usurpation of resources,
ethnic cleansing, senseless violence against people and
activities amounting to striking fear in the hearts of the
people. Jihad simply means to strive for the establishment of
peace, order and justice. War is the final stage of Jihad. It
begins from cleansing of inner selves from desires. Jihad has
been used, abused, and misused by a host of forces and no
longer reflects the true Islamic spirit.

Facts vs Fictions

117

Misuse of Religion
A frequent explanation for dubbing the violent acts committed
by the Muslim radical groups is that these groups invoke
religion while carrying out violent activity. Since the reference
is made to religion, the religion gets tagged with violence and
terrorism, is how it is explained.
It is not unique to Muslim groups alone but is a wider
phenomenon. Even nationalist movements and struggles for
freedom seek to depend on certain religious slogans or
symbols as religion strikes deeper chords with people as it
has been there with them for millennia while nation-states
have emerged only during the last two centuries. So Islamism
with its deep roots in regional culture and ability to stir up
popular support in the name of the regional cause is the most
recent and most potent ideological vehicle for action. As said
before, this did not happen with Islamic groups alone.
Consider the following quote taken from the book The
First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye Witnesses and
Participants by August C. Krey. In November of 1095, pope
Urban II initiated the first European attempt at colonizing
the Muslim world, known in the West as the Crusades: Herein
he calls Muslim people infidels and barbarians, and he
commands the Christian people of Europe to empty their
lands to go and murder them one and all in the name
of Christ, in fact as a command of Christ. The book goes on
further to describe the scene Jerusalem was conquered on

118

Facts vs Fictions

the 15th of July 1099 by the Crusaders who were also known
as the Christian Knights, more than 70,000 inhabitants, both
Jewish and Muslim, were slaughtered in cold blood.
It should be further understood that no one survived
this carnage on the side of the Muslims, or the Jews. Babies,
children, women, and the elderly all fell under the swords of
the Christian knights who then went to say thank you before
the tomb of Christ. Should Christianity be judged by such
events? Of course no Christian, in fact not even a civilized
and just non-Christian, would agree to that. So then it can
only be fair that Islam should not be judged for the farsmaller minority of extremists who kill innocent people in
the name of God.
Another point which is worth remembering here is how
the killing and looting in the name of Christianity has in most
cases been initiated, instituted and supported by governments
and the Church alike what would be termed institutional
terrorism. On the other hand, the acts carried out in the
name of Islam are most often the work of individuals without
the support of any recognized or established government and
likewise without the support of Muslim leadership.

Some members of the Baptist Christians denomination

twisted their scriptures to support and carry out numerous
abortion clinics bombing wherein many innocent people were
killed?

When Stalin found himself under assault from the army

of the Third Reich in World War II, he certainly knew that
Marxism-Leninism could not stir the hearts of the people to
resistance. He turned to Russian nationalism, and later, in
desperation, ended up embracing the Orthodox Church itself
as a rallying point, the symbol of Holy Mother Russia.

The Japanese Empire prior to World War II sought a

Facts vs Fictions

119

vehicle to gain Japanese public support for its expansionist

and imperial policies in Asia; the sacred character of the
Shinto religion and even forms of Buddhism were invoked to
stir the Japanese soul.

In Sri Lanka, the dominant Buddhist Sinhalese, in their

struggle against the Hindu Tamil separatists, employed
Buddhist monks to mobilize Sinhalese public support against
Tamil insurgents.

Nazi Germany dictator Hitler, who happened to be a

devout Christian acting out on what he believed, was Gods
plan, carried out the genocide in which nearly six million Jews
were killed; he worked to gain church support for the German
war effort.
Even in the United States in times of war, most mainstream
churches and clergyProtestant, Catholic, and Jewishare
pressed into service to lend religious legitimacy to the national
struggle.
On similar lines in India, the extreme right forces have
relied heavily on Hindu symbols and tried to fuse the
nationalist causes with religious ones and vice versa in times
of elections. Still worse it kicks up canards and controversies
such as Minority appeasement to polarize the majority
community.
Thus, religion will always be invoked wherever it can to
galvanize the public and to justify major campaigns, battles
and wars. But the causes, campaigns, battles and wars are
not about religion. Take away the religion, and there are still
causes, campaigns, battles and wars.

120

Facts vs Fictions

Oppression and Terrorism

Is there a difference ?
Terrorism is not a religious phenomenon. It owes itself to
political, economic and social reasons. Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Elam, Irish Republican Army, ULFA and some outfits
owing allegiance to Hindutva ideology such as Abhinav Bharat
are names that need no introduction. They serve to highlight
the connection between religious ultras and militancy. But of
late it has come to be tagged to Islam in a section of the
media. Since there is a convergence of interest on the global
and local level, the media tries to play up such a terminology
as Islamic terrorism with gay abandon. Islam is least likely
to be a source of it.
Injustice and suppression of peoples liberties give rise
to violence which often takes the form of terrorism. If they
happen to belong to a particular faith, it tends to take the
colour of the religion as far as its sources of inspiration are
concerned. It is quite well known that activists and warriors
of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were mainly
Hindus. But a section of media did not depict it that way.
Irish Republican Army that fought for the rights of people
of Northern Ireland professed Catholic faith. But the Western
media was cautious enough not to portray it in that light.
There is also the possibility of what one perceives as
freedom fighters being viewed as terrorists by those from
whom freedom is being sought.Look at the case of Sardar
Bhagat Singh. While he was the hero of millions, the all time

Facts vs Fictions

121

idol of the youths and revolutionaries, was part of the group

which killed British police officer John Saunders. Bhagat Singh
himself threw a bomb in Assembly in which no one was killed,
he is looked up as one of the greatest revolutionaries, as a
freedom fighter. But he was labeled as terrorist by the British.
While such groups have wreaked havoc, even the elected
governments of the West have also resorted to such violence.
British terrorist Peter Bleach was convicted for arms dropping
in Purulia in West Bengal, arrested and sentenced for seven
years in jail. Even while he was halfway through his sentence
in Calcutta jail, he was given Presidential clemency on specific
request from the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who
himself was a champion of the so-called war on terror.
Interestingly another five Russians who were convicted in the
case and lodged in Calcutta Jail were also pardoned during
Vajpayee-headed NDA Government at the Centre. (India
Pardons Pilots in Purulia arms drop case,The Times of
India, July 22, 2000) Similar was the case with American
terrorist Raymond Davies who was found recruiting Taliban
for terrorism in Lahore. The Americans went overboard to
get him released and surprisingly paidDiyat(Blood money)
to the next of kin of two persons he had killed on a Lahore
square.
The US role in bombing of the Cuban plane in 1976,
which got the media exposure in 2005 also unveiled the US
doublespeak. It was revealed that Posada was a CIA agent
who bombed the plane killing 73 Cubans. He found asylum in
Florida. Commenting on the US role in rejection of Cuban
pleas for Posadas extradition,The Guardianwrote: The
case is an important one because at its heart is the belief,
held in many part of the World that the US has one standard
of morality for its allies and another for its enemies. (Duncan
Campbell, How the US deals with friends and foes, Guardian
Newspaper Limited 2005 reproduced inThe Hindu, June 30,
2005.)

122

Facts vs Fictions

Then there are reports of the United States funding

terrorist groups in countries like Iran. According to aNew
Yorkerarticleby Seymour Hersh, during the George W.
Bush administration the United States funded, armed, and
trained in Nevada members of Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK)
an Iranian dissident group seeking the overthrow of Irans
government and who, along with Israel, arereportedto have
been behind the assassinations of several Iranian nuclear
scientists.MEK has been designated by the U.S. Department
of State as a terrorist organization since 1997.In other
words, the U.S. government has given material support to a
group that by its own admission is comprised of terrorists,
which as Glenn Greenwaldpoints out, is a crime in the
U.S.(http://www.policymic.com/articles/6587/u-s-funded-iranterrorist-group-says-shocking-report). These glaring hypocrisies
merely highlight the political nature of the propaganda on
terrorism by the West. What is evident is that terrorism is
more of a tool for intimidation against the smaller and weaker
nations.
Clearly, the West ignores the oppression but takes notice
of responses and reactions to them. The Organisation of
Islamic Conference (OIC) in its session in 2003 took notice
of the same and called upon the UN to call for an
international convention under UN auspices to formulate a
joint response to terrorism in all its forms and manifestation.
It said: We emphasise the importance of addressing the root
causes of international terrorism, convinced that the war
against terrorism will not succeed if the environment that
breeds terrorism, including foreign occupation, injustice and
exclusion, is allowed to thrive. (The Hindu, Palestinians not
terrorists: OIC March 4, 2002)
But singular acts of violence by misguided elements come
to be described as Jihad, as some of them project it in the
same manner. These actions in the name ofJihadare the

Facts vs Fictions

123

worst enemies of Muslims as a community. These insane

elements create hatred against this community and the
demonization process against Muslims and Islam gets a boost
after every such event.
Jihad, as is explained in Islam stands for struggle by
employing all suitable resources, by pen, by word or by action.
But some sections of prejudiced media would have none of
it. When it comes to Muslims, violence perpetrated by
misguided elements, gets branded asJihad.
One may see how in some of the Muslim nations nonstate actors have risen against the repression. There is no
doubt that Middle East societies are less developed in many
respects. Education levels, living standards and job
opportunities are often low for the great majority of its
citizens, aside from a few oil elites and the tiny rich Gulf
States populations. Prospects for the future are perceived as
limited.
Most Muslim nations have been under monarchs,
dictators and despots. Movements for democracy were
suppressed with iron hands. Denial of fundamental rights and
civil liberties, non-transparent governance, rampant corruption
have combined together to render the civic life hellish. These
autocrats were able to seek legitimacy of their rule from the
Western powers in lieu of free access to their natural
resources such as oil and natural gas. No wonder then why
some of the resistance movements were products of this
environment. These were a reaction to the regimes within
their own countries. They may employ weapons, but in the
process also expose the Wests doublespeak.
Michael Walzer, a prominent American political
philosopher and public intellectual, skillfully summarizes the
problem:
First oppression is made into an excuse for

124

Facts vs Fictions

terrorism, and then terrorism is made into an excuse

for oppression. The first is the excuse of the far left,
the second is the excuse of the neoconservative
right.
Everyone would agree that political violence in any society
is undesirable. Terrorism is a form of political violence. But
in much of the world, political violence is routinely exercised
by repressive regimes themselves against their own people and
against their domestic opponents. Illegitimate regimes will
inevitably be faced with political violence.
The Palestinians had retaliated against the Israeli rockets
and missiles with mere stones and slingshots for too long.
But no longer so. Ever spiraling violence from the Israeli
authorities has compelled a more coordinated and forceful
response from Hamas and Hezbollah. Wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan for over a decade have fuelled the suspicion that
the West instead of solving the Palestinian issue was interested
in expanding the area of conflict and looking for battlefields
for test of newer weapons. The exposure of Western lies with
regard to weapons of mass destruction in Saddams Iraq, have
further reinforced the belief that Wests fondness for wars,
violence, bloodshed and jingoism knows no boundaries. It is
this environment of despair and despondency that has led
some individuals to take up organised effort against the West.
And at the end of it all, the West is being seen kneeling
before the same Taliban whom it had accused of terrorism.
With this hindsight and perception, the special interest
in prefixing terrorism with Islam or Muslims gives away the
real intention.
It will be unfair to judge Islam or Muslims in the light
of what goes on in todays world. The victims, of course,
happen to be Muslims but their anger, repression and
resistance is on expected lines just as we see victims reacting
or responding to oppression in Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland

Facts vs Fictions

125

or Congo. Islam cherishes peace and co-existence in the world

and protection of lives, liberties, property and dignity of all
human beings. The Quran declares:
If anyone slays a human beingunless it be (in
punishment) for murder or for spreading corruption
on earthit shall be as though he had slain all
mankind; whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be
as though he had saved the lives of all mankind
(Quran 5: 32)
Given this background, it will be rather fallacious to
accept that terrorism is an Islamic phenomenon. Solution
does not lie in defaming certain faiths but in rooting out
injustice and repression of humanity.

126

Facts vs Fictions

Manufacturing Islamophobia
The West and particularly the United States of America has
been on the lookout for new enemies ever since the Cold
War ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
William Pfaff, an American author and a columnist with the
New Yorker and a regular contributor for op-ed pages for
the International Herald Tribune, wrote:
There are a good many people who think that the
war between communism and the West is about to
be replaced by a war between the West and Muslim.
To some Americans, searching for a new enemy
against whom to test our mettle and power, after
the death of communism, Islam is the preferred
antagonist. But to declare Islam an enemy of the
United States is to declare a second Cold War that
is unlikely to end in the same resounding victory as
the first. Fear of the Green (green being the color of
Islam) may well replace that of the Red Menace of
world communism.
The CIA had backed the mujahideen and the Al-Qaeda
in helping them to roll back the Soviet invasion from
Afghanistan. It did not take long for the Afghan warlords
armed by the West to turn their guns towards the West and
its interest. Thanks to the refurbished sense of Jihad over
the years by the CIA propaganda machines against the

Facts vs Fictions

127

atheists and the infidels, the US-nurtured mujahideen

thereafter began to target the American interests in the
Middle East and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the American weapon manufacturers had
begun to put pressure for newer markets. End of the Cold
War had dipped the arms sales. The industry was entering a
period of prolonged sluggishness. This bode ill for the members
of the American Congress who owed their victories to the
election funding from the MNCs engaged in manufacturing
arms. The 9/11 boosted their sales phenomenally. NASDAQ
figures suggest that it were only the shares of weapon giants
like Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin that appreciated
in the wake of the terrorist attack on New York towers.
Suddenly the war cries rose and arms manufacturers had their
cash registers ringing.
Propaganda machinery now in place in the Western
democracies is vast and huge and can turn the myth into
reality and vice versa. They operate on the principle that most
people are very stupid and dumb to be made active partners
in the governance. They need to be tamed through sentimental
issues and emotive propaganda. The public relations industry
was an offshoot of this concept and it believes in controlling
the public mind. Whole point of the good propaganda is that
people should not be allowed to think rationally on a public
issue and should instead be given a slogan which distracts
them totally from the main issue. For instance, President
George W. Bushs slogan You are either with us, or with
the terrorists had the effect of no one opposing him.
(Recommended reading on the subject: Media Control, by
Noam Chomsky).
Fear, inc., a 2011 report published by the Center for
American Progress, describes the orchestrated propagation
of lslamophobia in America by key groups and figures.
lslamophobia has spread widely in the World, leading to

128

Facts vs Fictions

divisions between communities, discrimination and hate

crimes.
In many a European countries, the Muslims have faced
intense intimidation, which is going up lately. The situation
has gone to the extent that even the state governments have
to wake up now if they want harmonious sailing of their
affairs. Starting from inoffensive looking jokes against
Muslims, the matters have gone to the extent that a fully
fledged attempt is on to project Islam as the religion
preaching hate and violence and Muslims as intolerant
fanatics. Every other person will tell you as to how Islam
preaches to kill the Kafirs. How Jihad is an integral part of
Islamic teaching and as to how Jihadis are mere Islamic
soldiers. Here in India there is a long list of charges against
Muslims, starting from the misconceptions about Muslim
Kings breaking temples to humiliate Hindu religion, to every
Muslim having four wives and twenty children to every
terrorist being a Muslim. As such of course, whatever be the
underlying cause of these misconceptions, currently there had
been enough number of incidents in which Muslims have been
accused of violence to give a pretext to the political forces
benefiting from this, to give bad name to the whole Muslim
community.
Here in India, this Islamophobia, propaganda succeeds
as an average person will not exercise their critical faculties
at every juncture when seeing the content of what is beamed
on the tube of idiot box or what one keeps reading in print
over and over again.
The matters have gone too far. The targeted hate against
the Muslims, the construction of phobia against Islam has
crossed the threshold. While it served the US to attack many
a countries for the sake of oil wealth, it has helped the
extremist groups to appropriate the social privileges. At the
same time it has played, and more so now than any time

Facts vs Fictions

129

before, a counterproductive role for those states/societies and

communities themselves. The schism between communities is
acting on the nerves of democracies and weakening them as
the process of societal development is getting retarded. It
surely will have the impact on weaker sections of society and
also will affect the economies worldwide. Human values have
taken a backseat during this period. This era of dark
sectarianism needs to be overcome as soon as possible. The
rise of right wing, religious right at various places is a warning
to the democracies and the progressive liberal elements all
over the world. The reality in the world is standing on the
head many a time; though it seems currently as if terrorism
is due to violence inherent in Islam and Muslims, the fact is
that it is the political lust of vested interests that Islam is
demonised.
We need to work on intercommunity relations, on
spreading the words of harmony and peace, to look at religion
as a set of moral values and not just a set of rituals. We
need to have the human spirit prevail over the machinations
of the interests of those out to grab the global and local
resources for their own selves.

130

Facts vs Fictions

Roots of Terrorism
A lot of violence has been seen around the world in the last
few decades with huge loss of lives and disruption of public
life. The collapse of twin towers of the World Trade Centre
in New York, said to be the handiwork of terrorists, is recent
history and we need not go into details. Much of this has
been attributed to the terrorists who are said to have been
inspired with the spirit ofJihad. It was also said that they
belonged to an area extending from Pakistan to the Middle
East. It has raised questions about Islam and ideology of Jihad
which is explained as Holy War against infidels.
Muslims form nearly 23% of the world population which
currently stands at 1.7 billion (170 crore). Islam comes from
the Arabic root wordsilmor peace and is understood as
religion of peace. Even its opponents would admit that Islam
indeed means peace and there is nothing in the faith that
encourages its followers to undertake unjustified violence.
Even the decade following the 9/11 has shown that Muslims
and the Islamic world has been the principal victim of
organized violence unleashed by the NATO nations. America,
even while claiming to maintain world peace and security,
invaded two Muslim nations, i.e., Afghanistan and Iraq and
devastated them completely. The cycle of violence continues
and peace is yet to return to the inhabitants. More than one
million people have lost their lives and as many as five million
have been displaced.

Facts vs Fictions

131

Almighty God says about their likes in the Quran:

When it is said to them; Make not mischief on
the earth, they say; Weare only peace makers.
Verily! They are the ones who make mischief, but
they perceive it not. (Quran2:11-12)
The current debate on peace and security in the world
is dominated by the powerful West and its mighty media.
Even the world bodies such as UN Security Council are
controlled by them. What this media offers by way of peace
discourse comes to be believed. The voice of the smaller
nations, however reasonable, does not find mention in the
international media. No wonder then that Islam and Muslims
have been the target of their accusation for the violence and
mayhem. Themselves convinced that the Islamic states are
barely capable of defending themselves, the West accuses
them of encouraging forces hostile to the West to inflict
violent attack against them or their citizens or interests
worldwide. The West has coined the term Terrorism to
describe these violent attacks and has developed an entire
verbiage to explain the same to the entire world. Most of
the developing nations have their interests tied to the West
and are forced to follow its diktat and avoid confronting it
with alternative facts and definitions. The ones that refuse
to toe their line are punished with sanctions. All these being
the various facets of politics, we need to discuss the reality
of terrorism as it is said to exist today and the factors that
feed its sources.
Roots of terrorism in the current context could be traced to
the Middle East where the Wests penchant for compensating
the Jews for the Europes anti-semitism and Nazi Germanys
genocide of the Jews led to creation of Zionist state of Israel.
The British conceived the illegitimate baby and it was nursed
and nurtured by the United States of America, the greatest
champion of democracy and civil liberties.

132

Facts vs Fictions

There were barely 60,000 Jews when Israel came into

being against 750,000 Arabs. But the British Foreign
Secretary A. J. Balfour wrote in 1918: The four Great Powers
are committed to Zionism and Zionism, be it right or wrong,
good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs,
future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and
prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient
land.
Ilan Pappe, a Haifa University scholar, is the most
outspoken among historians in Israel. In an interview to Dan
Perry of the Associated Press, he gave a resounding Yes to
the question Was Israel born in sin? He amplified: The Jews
came and took, by means of uprooting and expulsion, a land
that was Arab We wanted to be a colonialist occupier, and
yet to come across as moral at the same time. Can such a
gross outrage ever be condoned? Palestine had been underMuslim rule for seven centuries.
Tom Segev, an Israeli journalist and historian, has
documented in his bookJews and Arabs Under the British
Mandatethat, how force and fraud were systematically
employed by British rulers of Palestine from 1919 to 1948 to
establish Jewish rule, in complicity with Zionist leaders. The
authors research led him to an interesting encounter.
Segev records: The Zionist Organization and the British
government continued to bribe influential Arabs! President
Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, told
Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader, President of a Zionist
Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel,
that, in his opinion, the Arabs could be bought In the
minutes of their conversation the Arab word Baksheesh
appears. The Jewish agencys biggest client seems to have been
Prince Abdullah of Trans-Jordan.
Today Arab wrath is directed against their own corrupt
and incompetent leaders not less than against the United

Facts vs Fictions

133

States, Britain, and the state they planted in the Arab world
Israel. Those bomb throwers and wild men are the result of
an almost unimaginably corrupt and mediocre government.
Seen against this backdrop, Islam seems to have no role
in the Middle Easts current crisis which has solely its roots
in Israels creation in the region, Western designs on the oil
that was struck during 1950s and 1960s and the forces of
Arab nationalism that have been activated in the wake of
Israels atrocities.Three major wars with Israel, Lebanons
destruction in the war between Hezbollah and Israel, forcible
occupation of West Bank, parts of Syria and constant effort
to besiege Palestinians in small cantons reminiscent of
Apartheid South Africa,usurpation of their agricultural lands
and water resources, three waves of expulsion of Arabs from
their homes, raising of a 375 kilometers of wall separating the
Arabs from each other and from workplaces continue to fuel
their rage. No doubts war crimes have assumed Islamic tinge
just as George Bushs use of the term crusade in his initial
reaction to the terror attack on twin towers of the World
Trade Centre.
But nothing of this sort can convince the United States,
United Kingdom and Israel, the international promoters of
jingoism in the Muslim lands. Not merely this, the case for
invasion of Iraq was built up on the fake theory of Iraq
possessing Weapons of Mass Disaster (WMD) and carpet
bombing of Afghanistan was justified for Al-Qaeda using that
country for plotting the 9/11 attack on New York. Noted
author Noam Chomsky (Hegemony or Survival, Penguin,
2003, page 200) accuses Bush administration of initiating
aggression against Afghanistan much ahead of that countrys
complicity in 9/11 attack could be known and proved.
The United States had been plotting the invasion,
aggression, control of Muslim nations since 1958. President
Eisenhowers administration had identified three areas, North

134

Facts vs Fictions

Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East, all oil-producing

regions. Secretary of State Dulles had identified the problem
as radical nationalism. Remember it was not Radical
Islam. In North Africa, the major victory of nationalist
forces against French colonial rule, President Nassers Arab
nationalism and non-alignment and Indonesian President
Sukarnos more than necessary democratic behavior were
bothering the State Department (Noam Chomsky,Hegemony
or Survival). It was then on that Israel was encouraged to
wage wars and involve Arabs in internecine feuds. No guessing
then what constitutes the dominant motivation behind the
current rage in Arab and Muslim lands.
The Wests accusation against Islam with regard to
terrorism and Muslims therefore need to be seen and analysed
in this backdrop. Terrorism is the latest among the
techniques to foment Islamophobia (fear of Islam) among
people unaware of Islam.

Facts vs Fictions

135

Media Doublespeak on Terrorism

The Western electronic empire has developed awesome reach.
Globalisation has lent it the massive muscles to flex on the
ideological stage. It has gained instant global reach through
satellite and cable technology. Western and, more specifically,
Anglo-American media dominate the worlds online services,
radio and print journalism.
The bulk of international television news is disseminated
through western news organizationsboth raw footage from
TV news agencies such a Reuters Television, worldwide
Television News and APTV, and reports from satellite and
cable-based organizations such as CNN, Sky and BBC World
Service, with their various language services, dominate the
worlds airwaves.
Of the worlds four big international news agencies
Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters and
Agency France Press, the first three are Anglo-American, and
between them the four disseminate nearly 80% of global news.
Despite having international staff, these companies promote
consciously or unconsciously, a western and more specifically
an Anglo-American news agenda.
Moreover, virtually all major English language newspapers
in India and news magazines proudly carry regular
commentaries and features from western newspapers and
magazines, thanks to syndication arrangements. Thus western
news organizations wield great influence in setting and then

136

Facts vs Fictions

building a global news agenda, conforming to western

interests. Even the vernacular newspapers have to depend on
the stuff translated from the major distributors of news in
English, thereby extending their sway even to the homebred
news consumers. It is not merely India where it happens.
Entire developing world has to view what the dominant West
wants to show. Many Indian journals mimic the idiom and
adopt its language, news, values.
Islamic Terrorism is a term coined by the Western
media. It does find an echo in Indian media with inclination
towards the Western interest. However, to say that Islam
does not preach or promote terrorism would not be a
sufficient rebuttal. Some terrorists do take shelter behind
Islam and provide a handle to the US- leaned media to equate
Jihad with terrorism.
Israelioccupationof the Palestinian areas and
continued violation of UN resolutions and the bloody mess
the US is creating in the Middle East in pursuit of energy
resources provide the motivation for some groups to take up
arms. Western media indulges in double standards in reporting
of the events from the Middle East. Israelioccupationis
treated with kid gloves while Palestinian Muslims resistance
against oppression is dubbed Islamic terrorism. Needless to
say those media owners have different yardsticks to judge
crimes committed by different nationals.
It all points to a special interest in prefixing terrorism
with Islam or Muslims. With so much of doublespeak and
double standards everywhere in matters of dealing with
terrorism and terrorists, there must be some design behind
it; because Islam and Muslims alone are being held responsible
for disruptive acts. Individual acts of terror by Muslims should
not be attributed to Islam just as Hinduism cannot be held
automatically responsible for anything done by Hindus. But
such kind of media imbalance does empower some in the

Facts vs Fictions

137

developed West to accuse the media have-nots with terrorism.

Wests doublespeak extends much farther. Salman
Rushdies sacrilege hurts Muslims, but for the Western media
he must be defended for his freedom of expression. The
West defends Rushdie but jails David Irving for denying
Holocaust. What a travesty of freedom of expression! The
criticism of Israel and its policies is next to impossible within
the United States and all such efforts are tried under laws of
being anti-Semitic. What is clear is that the West too has
certain shibboleths to defend.

138

Facts vs Fictions

Violence, Terrorism and Genocide

West Leads the List
Terrorists need not be practicing Christians, Jews, Buddhists,
Hindus or Muslims. But the element of hate they carry has
its origin in their cultural upbringing and the worldview
fostered by the societies they live in. It will be useful to take
a cursory glance over the major incidents of violence, genocide
and spreading of terror in recent history. Yet they have been
exempted from the kind of maligning of their faith as it is
happening in the case of terror incidents currently being
witnessed around the world and bear the stamp of Islam or
Muslims.
Yet ever since the spread of Islam into Christian
territories in the seventh century, the religion of Islam began
to be branded as a religion of violence and war. With the
more recent violence in the Middle East and the events of 9/
11, Islam has further been accused of being a religion of
terrorism and intolerance. Is this true, or are there some
important pieces missing from the puzzle ?
A lot of instances could be quoted as examples of the Wests
double standards on terrorism and other such tendencies. In
regards to the focusing of peoples attention by the media,
consider the following facts that most people are unaware of
since the media rarely discusses them:

Facts vs Fictions

139

Martin Luther King founded his own Protestant faith in

response to despotic stranglehold of the Pope who presided
the Catholics church. Following this, Kings followers were
brutally victimized, their houses burnt and women raped by
Catholics. No one has accused the Catholics of ever practicing
terrorism. Did anyone? l Martin Luther King founded his own
Protestant faith in response to despotic stranglehold of the
Pope who presided the Catholics church. Following this, Kings
followers were brutally victimized, their houses burnt and
women raped by Catholics. No one has accused the Catholics
of ever practicing terrorism. Did any anyone?

Nazi German dictator Hitler, who happened to be a devout

Christian acting out on what he believed was Gods plan,
carried out the genocide in which nearly six million Jews were
killed. One would agree that it was Christian prejudice against
Jews that had peaked during this period. Does anyone describe
Hitler a Christian terrorist? Hardly ever!

Stalin, Mussolini and Mao Tse Tung killed millions but

are yet to be dubbed terrorists? One could ask why.

Serbs carried out genocide of Bosnian Muslims in the

terminal decade of the 20th century but have been spared of
the stigma of being Christian Orthodox Terrorists.

British hooligan Peter Bleach and Danish militant Kim

Davy dropped arms for insurgents in Purulia in West Bengal.
The prejudiced Indian media fought shy of calling them British
or Western terrorists. Indian Government rather released
Peter Bleach even while he was passing his seven-year
sentence.

The American Navy shot down an Iranian jetliner over

the Persian Gulf killing 259 innocent passengers in 1990. No
one described this to be an act of terrorism. Why?

140

Facts vs Fictions

The leak of poisonous gas from the American MNC Union

Carbide (now taken over by Dow Jones) plant in Bhopal killed
over 2,500 persons in December 1984. The Americans refused
to hand over Union Carbide chief Anderson for trial in India.
Contrast this with the attitude when the West insisted on
trial of Lockerbie bombers in their own courts. Why these
double standards?

Israel perpetrates unimaginable atrocities against unarmed

Palestinians, has usurped lands three times its own territory,
has built an apartheid wall inside its own territory to separate
the Palestinian people and usurp their water resources. Yet
it is hailed as the only democracy in a Middle East otherwise
ruled by dictators. Its prime minister, Menachem Begin, once
designated a terrorist by the British government, was awarded
Nobel Peace Prize. Ears are still thirsting to hear a term like
Jewish Terrorists. What a travesty of even-handedness!

Irish Republican Army (IRA) rebels bombed and killed

innumerable British citizens but were never dubbed IRA
terrorists even though it was well known that Northern
Ireland was seeking secession owing to its catholic faith. One
is yet to know why?

More Americans have been murdered or kidnapped in

Central and South America than in all Muslim countries
combined ( www.Nationmaster.com statistics report).

The combined homicide rate in all countries where Muslims

represent the majority of the populace (1.7 billion people) is
significantly less than that of America alone where every night
people are murdering one another over often trivial issues
(www.Nationmaster.com statistics report).

From a more secular standpoint, arent all Americans

responsible for the death of the 200,000 innocent women,

Facts vs Fictions

141

children and men who were annihilated by the nuclear bombs

dropped upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki? As Americans
repeatedly say that war should be between armies and that
innocent civilians should never be targeted, yet in this very
notable case some people decided that killing such a large
number of people might break the Japanese will and cause
them to submit.
Certainly, this is something that many fair and reasonable
people dont want their religions, nationalities even, to be
judged based upon the actions of a group of their own
adherents. For example, Germans should not be judged for
the actions of Hitler, nor should the average American be
made responsible for the nuclear bombs dropped upon
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing millions of innocents.
Most Christians are similarly truly appalled by the
barbarity of the Crusade wars or the Spanish Inquisition.
Indeed this is the same logic that the great boxer Muhammad
Ali used when a Christian reporter asked him how he felt
knowing that he practiced the same religion as Osama bin
Laden and he simply replied to the reporter, How do you
feel about Hitler belonging to your religion?
Most religions and even cultures have the concept of
people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones. So now
consider for yourself, have you been throwing stones at
Muslims while ignoring the condition of your own house?
Now let us look at the profile of world terrorism in the
light of the facts emanating from the Western sources alone
and let us judge where Muslims or the Muslim world figures
in this. According to the annual US State Department report
Patterns of Global Terrorism 1997, among the reported
incidents of terrorism from years 1992 to 1997, the largest
number of terrorist incidents occurred in Europe (831); second
largest (602) in Latin America; the Middle East ranked third
with 422 incidents. For the same years there were 7,621

142

Facts vs Fictions

casualties in the European incidents and 2,692 casualties in

Middle East incidents. These statistics have made Ralph
Braibanti of the Edmund. A. Walsh School of International
Affairs in Washington to make the following comment:
The use of poison gas by the Buddhist Aum
Shinrikyo, the Oklahoma Bombings by an American
Christian, the long standing terrorism by Northern
Irish Catholics, the violence of Indian Hindus
(remember Babri Masjid and its bloody aftermath)
and Buddhist against Muslims, the vicious ethnic
cleansing by Christian Orthodox Serbs in Bosnia and
Kosovo, the violence of drug-related Catholic mobs
in Latin America, and the terrorism of Hindu Tamils
against the Sinhalese Buddhist government of Sri
Lanka demonstrates the universality of terrorism and
the cultural and religious diversity of its origins.
Let has a peek into the facts of terrorism in America, in the
light of FBI report (fbi.gov):
1. According to FBI files, which can be accessed
through fbi.gov, only 6% of terrorists are Muslim.
The remaining percentage of terrorist attacks on
U.S. territory includes: Latinos at 42%, extreme Left
Wing groups at 24%, Jewish extremist at 7%,
Communists at 5%, and other terrorist
organizations at 16%.
2. If only 6% of terrorists are Muslims, then why do
the prejudiced media only cover the attack by Islamic
extremists? It doesnt make sense and the way it is
being portrayed is entirely deceptive and misleading.
3. Again, if we look into the facts of terrorism in
Europe, according to Europol report published in
Times of India, 29-07- 2011.

Facts vs Fictions

143

Separatists, not Islamists, behind most of terror

strikes in Europe,
4. White Terrorism: Culture of Hate
Editorial in Deccan Herald, Bangalore reads thus:
The killing of six Sikhs at a gurudwara in Wisconsin
by an ex-US army man with reported links to White
supremacist groups underscores the continuing and
serious threat posed by racism and intolerance in
the United States.
The terrorist assault on the American Sikh community
draws attention again to White terrorism, Thousands of
Americans have been interrogated and arrested simply because
they are Muslim or have beards.
This stereotyping blinded America to the enemy within.
While US officials focused on Islamic terrorists, they allowed
Christian/White supremacism to spread and terrorist
organisations to proliferate. Since 2009 the number of rightwing extremist groups in the US is reported to have increased
from 149 to 824.
The American media only very reluctantly admitted that
white supremacy was behind the hate crime. Militancy and
terrorism are the direct result of unstinted US support for
Israel and its continuedoccupationof Arab areas,
occupation of Jerusalem, heavy subsidizing ofIsraelistate
by the US. Several people and intellectuals have begun to
take notice of it. Look at the following facts.

UN
resolutions
against
rolling
backIsraelioccupation, is never implemented but
US forces ingress into the Middle East for rolling
back Iraqioccupationof Kuwait.

Americais jubilant when Berlin Wall comes

144

Facts vs Fictions

down but fundsIsraelwhen it constructs 370 km

long wall to separate Palestinians from their irrigated
lands, wells and the Jewish settlements.

A lie is planted in the MNC owned media with

effect to Iraqs possession of the Weapons of Mass
Destruction and a hype is generated to build a
coalition of forces for occupationof oil rich Iraq
against UN and the opinion of the world.

No notice is taken ofIsraeldeveloping nuclear

capability. ButIsraelis allowed to bomb Iraqs
nuclear facility. Threats are issued against Iran. Iran
is projected as a threat to US security while the US
is the only country which has so far used an Atom
Bomb on human habitations in Japan.

Islam is being developed as a bugbear for the

world security by American think tanks. Reasons
cited are most Islamic countries are undemocratic,
deficient in human rights and Governments are
repressive. Seminars are held on Islam versus the
West. But Americans feel no qualm in doing business
with China and feel no need for engaging in dialogue
between Chinese and the West.
People naturally react and defend themselves wherever
their rights are suppressed, and most freedom struggles
emanate from the sense of nationalism, which is again a
Western innovation. In the end, we all should think of a new
World Order which can give us peace with justice, not the
peace of the graveyard.
Tamil separatists carried out insurgency for nearly three
decades in North eastern regions of Sri Lanka. The militants
were provided training in Tamil Nadu. They bombed
Meenambakkam Airport and a suicide bomber killed former

Facts vs Fictions

145

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. But they were never dubbed

Tamil terrorists. It is well known that all Tamils in Sri Lanka
are Hindus, albeit in only cultural sense.
ULFA carried out 749 acts of terrorism in the North
Eastern region between 1990 and 2006 but has never been
described as a terrorist organisation.
The larger question then that needs to be raised is: Is
not the West trying to malign the Islamic faith under the
guise of combating terrorism? Are they not making it a trick
to invade Muslim countries, vandalise them, install pliant and
client regimes, tapping their resources, foisting their consumer
good and allotting rebuilding contracts to their own MNCs?

146

Facts vs Fictions

Suicide Bombings
Prohibited in Islam
Research studies relate suicide attacks to foreign occupation
of lands.
Lets first define what a suicide bombing is:
Suicide bombing would be when a person delivers an explosive
to a location, detonates it and dies because of the explosion
willingly. This tactic is being used currently in Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Somalia by different groups.
Unfortunately this tactic isnt only used to target military
targets but also civilian targets.
Several amongst us have even come to believe that this
is the most popular tool to counter the foreign occupation
at the hands of the Muslim militants. It were the Tamil
Tigers in Sri Lanka (who happened to belong to the Hindu
community though had nothing to do with religion) who were
the first to operationalize regular use of suicide vest in the
1980s, with one of the highest rates of suicide operations in
that era. Since then, the frequency of suicide bombings in
the Middle East have soared dramatically, peaking since the
US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Widely respected American political scientists Robert
Pepe, who authored the most comprehensive book on the

Facts vs Fictions

147

subjects titled Dying to win, and who headed the Chicago

Project on Suicide Terrorism had the following opinion to
offer:
Suicide terrorism is rising around the world, but
there is great confusion as to why. Since many such
attacksincluding, of course, those of September
11, 2001have been perpetrated by Muslim
terrorists professing religious motives, it might seem
obvious that Islamic fundamentalism is the central
cause. This presumption has fueled the belief that
future 9/11s can be avoided only by a wholesale
transformation of Muslim societies, a core reason
for broad public support in the United States for
the recent conquest of Iraq.
However, the presumed connection between suicide
terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism is misleading and may
be encouraging domestic and foreign policies likely to worsen
Americas situation and to harm many Muslims needlessly.
Prof. Pepe compiled a database of every suicide bombing
and attack around the globe from 1980 through 2003315
attacks in all. It included every attack in which at least one
terrorist killed himself or herself while attempting to kill
others; it excluded attacks authorized by a national
government, for example by North Korea against the South.
This database was the first complete universe of suicide
terrorist attacks worldwide with information collected from
besides English, from languages such as Arabic, Hebrew,
Russian, and Tamil in print and on-line. The data showed
that there was little connection between suicide terrorism and
Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the worlds religions.
In fact, the leading instigators of suicide attacks were the
Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist-Leninist group whose
members were from Hindu families but who were adamantly
opposed to religion.

148

Facts vs Fictions

In 2007, the year with the highest number to date, there

were 658 suicide attacks, including 542 in US-occupied
Afghanistan and Iraq, according to US government figures.
This is more than double the number of attacks in any of
the past 25 years. Furthermore, more than four-fifths of all
those suicide bombings occurred only in the last seven years,
and the practice is now spreading around the globe. The
Washington Post notes, Since 1983 bombers in more than
50 groups from Argentina to Algeria, Croatia to China, and
India to Indonesia have adapted truck bombs, car bombs to
make explosive belts, vests, toys, motorcycles, bikes, boats,
backpacks and false-pregnancy stomachs Of the 1,840
incidents in the last quarter century, more than 86 percent
have occurred since 2001, and the highest annual numbers
have occurred in the past four years.
Most youth are radicalized by the situation on the ground
in lands under foreign occupation; killings of large numbers
of civilians at the hands of Western military forces; a sense
of humiliation and defeat; a thirst for revenge; sometimes for
people killed within their own family. These are very concrete
and practical issues, quite unrelated to Islamic
theology.Pepes observation in this regard is instructive. He
concluded:
Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in
common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel
modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory
that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is
rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by
terrorist organizations in recruiting and in other efforts in
service of the broader strategic objective.
If a horrific experience is not lived firsthand, it is
witnessed on television. A radicalized individual will not likely
be deterred from taking up violence simply because he heard
a sermon that says Islam does not support suicide bombing

Facts vs Fictions

149

or the killing of civilians. An individual bent on revenge and

retribution for the real or imagined assault against family,
community, and religion wills seek the blood of the enemy.
He will likely shop around among theological opinions until
he finds the one that gives license and authority to his
murderous anger. The rage comes first, the theological
justification is an afterthought, a moral reinforcement to
support an act already determined upon.
Sometimes one feels that with these terrorists claiming
to be Muslims and indulging in such acts: Muslims do not
need any other enemies, these elements are doing their best
possible to get the whole community stereotyped in an adverse
way, nobody can do a better job in demonizing Islam than
the acts of these insane elements.
Why should somebody take to such a path of insanity?
Is it the teaching of religion, the parents of these terrorists,
or are there some other mechanisms which create these
terrorists. There are multiple routes by which one takes up
the path of terror, killing of the innocents. When anti Muslim
pogrom (an organized massacre of helpless people) was stalking
the streets in Mumbai, one did meet many a reasonable
sounding Muslim youth who expressed their explicit desire
to take to the path of revenge through retaliatory violence.
After Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom, many a social scientists
prophesied that this pogrom will surely give rise to terrorists.
In a vast community surely there are going to be more than
the critical mass of Muslims to take recourse to revenge
through insane methods, terrorism being one amongst them.
This is the anger, hurt and the feeling that guilty will not be
punished which later gets channelized through conduits which
dish out terror.
Mercifully, the fears proved imaginary. Nothing of that
sort happened in Gujarat, or elsewhere in India. A series of
conventions by Muslim organizations exhorted the victims to

150

Facts vs Fictions

opt for the legal path to seek justice for the atrocities. Ulema
opined against any action, that called for revenge and
retaliation or targeting the innocents and unsuspecting ones.
Some of the leading Muslim scholars declared that suicide
attacks were haraam (prohibited). There were similar edicts
issued from leading seminaries of Cairo and Saudi Arabia.
Ulema agree that this act is sinful and not according to Islam.
Some misguided Muslims should stop being so ignorant
about the rules of war in Islam. You cannot think that
something that has been Haraam would suddenly become
Halal, this is not Islam. Suicide is forbidden not only by
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), but by Almighty
God. Seek knowledge from the people of knowledge, and not
from Muslims who have little or no knowledge and come up
with their own rulings. Many of these attacks are only done
for political reasons and not for religious reasons, but no one
should be fooled that you will gain the status of a martyr
when doing something that is a great sin.
Almighty God says in the Quran:
Destroy not yourselves. Surely Allah is ever merciful
to you. (Quran 4:29)
And do not throw yourselves in destruction.
(Quran 2:195)
There is also a Hadith about suicide:
The Prophet Muhammad said:
Indeed, whoever (intentionally) kills himself, and then
certainly he will be punished in the Fire of Hell, wherein he
shall dwell forever. (Ref: Bukhari 5.77.87)
The verses from the Quran and this Hadith makes it
quite clear that taking ones own life is forbidden, the hadith
even says that Allah forbade the man from entering paradise.

Facts vs Fictions

151

Islamic Fundamentalism
The tendency to label anyone who speaks for Islam as
fundamentalist is not just meaningless, it is also dangerously
wrong. The Muslims are not a monolithic entity. They include
people with all shades of political opinions, positions and
interpretations of Islam.
However, the last decades have seen a rise in fanaticism
and intolerance amongst certain types of highly visible and
vocal group of traditional Muslims.
Fundamentalism has emerged for a number of reasons:
1. The excesses of modernist leaders who have
maintained their power in Muslim societies largely
by coercive means and have ruthlessly persecuted
the traditional Muslim leadership, including
imprisonment, torture and execution of religious
leaders and thinkers.
2. The spectacular failure of the economic and
development policies of the modernist leaders which
have led to the accumulation of wealth in fewer and
fewer hands.
3. The continuous abuse and ridicule since the 1950s
of traditional thought, lifestyle and everything
associated with it.
4. The policies of Western powers to deliberately
undermine Islamic oppositions in Muslim countries,
demonize Islamic leaders, prop up oppressive westinclined regimes, and reduce Muslim states to
economic paupers and debt-ridden societies.

152

Facts vs Fictions

Today and
Islam and terrorism have become synonymous. After the
events of 11 September 2001, this would seem to be a natural
coloration. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Islam
cannot be blamed for the action of the terrorists who attacked
the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in
Washington, any more than Christianity can be blamed for
the gas chambers, or Catholicism for the activities of Irish
terrorists. Terrorists follow their own twisted logic and exist
outside normality and beyond reason. They are senseless men
whose evil acts appall and upset all people of conscience.
The Islamic conscience, the conscience of the vast
majority of Muslims, stands for justice, truth and common
human values. By painting all Muslims with the same brush,
we undermine their humanity and defame over a 1.7 billion
people - one in five of those who inhabit our planet - their
societies, their histories, as a caricature of the darker side of
the West.
Muslims are real people with real histories. For over eight
hundred years, their civilization led the world in science and
learning, in thought and innovation, in literature and in travel,
in politics and international relations.
Today, Muslims are trying to rediscover their historic
identity, liberate themselves from the crushing burdens of neocolonialism and an oppressive and unjust world order, and
shape a responsible and viable future.

Facts vs Fictions

153

Tomorrow
Behind the turmoil and contradictions which are pulling it in
so many different directions, the Muslim world is
reconstructing itself as a dynamic, progressive civilization of
the future, away from the clamour and slogans of a highly
visible minority of extremists, it is bubbling with ideas,
debates, and discussions on contemporary and future
significance of the message of Prophet Muhammad. Many of
these new ideas, theories, institutions and outlooks will not
only transform Islam and Muslim societies from within, but
will also make a genuine and original contribution to the
evolution of a pluralistic world.
To be sure, the questions facing the Muslim world have
neither simple answer nor are its problems amenable to
soothing solutions. Sometimes the situation looks truly
awesome and hopeless. But Muslims, by virtue of their faith,
are eternal optimists. And they are becoming increasingly
aware that only sustained and prolonged intellectual, social
and political effort, combined with a continuous process of
rethinking, will yield viable options and alternatives for the
future. Awareness, as they say, is half the battle!

154

Facts vs Fictions

Women
Hidden Past and Uncertain Present
In order to judge the incorrect ideas held by the people in
the west and the east, it would be useful to survey the
attitudes towards women in different societies in the past.

1. Babylonian Civilization
The women were degraded and were denied all rights under
the Babylonian law. If a man murdered a woman, instead of
him being punished, his wife was put to death.

2. Greek Civilization
Greek Civilization is considered the most glorious of all
ancient civilizations. Under this very glorious system, women
were deprived of all rights and were looked down upon. In
Greek mythology, an imaginary woman called Pandora is the
root cause of misfortune of human beings. The Greeks
considered women to be subhuman and inferior to men.
Though chastity of women was precious and women were held
in high esteem, the Greeks were later overwhelmed by ego
and sexual perversions. Prostitution became a regular practice
amongst all classes of Greek society.

Facts vs Fictions

155

3. Roman Civilization
When Roman Civilization was at the zenith of its glory, a
man even had the right to take the life of his wife.
Prostitution and nudity were common amongst the Romans.

4. Egyptian Civilization
The Egyptian considered women evil and a sign of a devil.

5. Early Christianity
Early Christianity regarded women as temptresses, (a women
who sets out to allure or seduce a man or men) responsible
for the fall of Adam from Heaven.
In France, in 587 CE, a conference was held to study
the status of women and to determine whether a woman could
truly be considered a human being or not! Henry VIII in
England forbade the reading of the bible by women and
throughout the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church treated
women as second class citizens. Before 1850, women were not
counted as citizens in England and English women had no
personal rights until 1882.

6. Indian Civilization
In India, Sati was a religious funeral practice among some
Indian communities in which a widowed woman would have
immolated herself on her husbands funeral pyre. The practice
had been banned several times.

7. Pre-Islamic Arabia
The inferior view of women that characterized much of the
world in the 7th century CE was also thriving in the pagan

156

Facts vs Fictions

societies of Arabia prior to the advent of the Prophet

Muhammad. The social environment at that time was rampant
with tribal rivalry, wars over petty issues, plundering, and
general chaos led by the male members of the various tribes.
In such an environment, the status of women was
unquestionably inferior.
In Arabian Peninsula prior to Islam, a newly born girl
child was a subject of embarrassment and she was buried alive
in order to avoid disgrace of having a female child, one out
of every ten men was guilty of this crime. Not only men, but
women also participated in the act. Mothers handed over their
girl child for burial. Secondly, they killed their children for
fear of poverty.
Arabian Peninsula prior to Islam had a number of rather
strange marriage customs. Men married frequently, taking as
many wives as they liked, ten, twenty, sometimes hundreds
of wives as a measure of social status. Divorce was easy and
frequent. Quran prohibited this practice and put restriction
and strict rules. There was another prevailing practice: men
would swear oaths to abstain from sex with their wives, thus
leaving them in limbo: they would neither be divorced and
free to remarry nor be treated as proper wives. Some women
could pass their entire life in such bondage. The Quran tells
these men to make up their mind, either keep or release
them in a fair manner. (See Quran 2:224 to 227).
Also in many cases, a widowed woman was counted as
part of her husbands property to be inherited by his male
heirs in which case she was often given in marriage to the
deceased mans eldest son from another wife.
The Quran clearly abolished this degrading custom:
And marry not women whom your fathers married,
except those marriages that have already taken place
in the past; it was a shameful, detestable, and
abominable custom indeed. (Quran 4:22)

Facts vs Fictions

157

If the widow was not married to her deceased husbands

eldest son, then she was bound to be inherited by her brotherin-law. In this case, one of his brothers would throw his
clothes over her and thus claim her as his property. The
widow was not allowed to leave the home of her husband in
either circumstance.
Children were often conceived out of wedlock due to
the widespread promiscuity in Pre-Islamic Arabia. Moreover,
women were often beaten severely for disobedience.
In most of the tribes, they held little or no honour and
were primarily seen as sexual objects for mens pleasure and
were given the freedom to dress scantily outdoors, even while
performing acts of ritual worship (such as circling around the
Sacred House in Makkah), for the pleasure and entertainment
of the men in their societies.
In the Pre-Islamic Arabia, females were not entitled to
any inheritance. On the contrary, women were used as
property to be bought and sold or owned and inherited and
assigned as payment for debts. The Quran repeals all this
and establishes new rules. It insists that women have a right
not just to inheritance but also, by corollary, to property.

Women in Modern society

Many incidents reported these days from various parts of the
world give us the impression that we, at least in terms of the
treatment of women, are going back to a time identical to
the period of ignorance, the age before the emergence of Islam
in 7th Century.
Killing of girl child is witnessing a revival in todays
modern world in the form of female foeticide. According to
a World Childrens Report by UNICEF, boys are
outnumbering girls in India; there are only 880 girls per 1,000
boys in India. It also reveals the global sex ratio of 954 girls

158

Facts vs Fictions

to 1,000 boys. The drop is attributed to female foeticide.

An estimated number of about 70 million of female
children are caused to perish before their birth every year;
these staggering figures must put the whole mankind to shame
and must jolt from head to toe every person with conscience.
But still, we are forced to believe that we are living in a
civilised era that offers dignity and liberty to women and
respects the human rights?
In this modern era, women have been reduced almost to
a plaything of enjoyment and fancy. Women have tended to
degrade themselves probably unwittingly in modern times for
the sake of real or imaginary equality.
The modern world can boast of giving rights to women;
but it has hardly cared for their safety and security. The result
is that freedom of women has opened ways for their
exploitation; and a strange kind of chaos prevails in society.
Freedom has in truth proved to be nothing but a ploy to
ensure a growing availability of women in market. Sex has
not only become one of the biggest global markets; it has
also become perhaps the greatest tormentor of humanity. It
is killing people (AIDS, suicides, murders), destroying families
and disturbing social harmony.
Women were treated worse than chattels; prostitution,
female sex workers, vulgar dances. Modeling, nudity, dowry
deaths, bride burning, suicides, gambling, live bands and
drinking of alcohol are common, sexual and romantic desire
between females and indiscriminate casual sex with many
sexual partners, has become a norm.
So this commoditization continues today where the sexual
objectification of women has supposedly taken more subtle
and socially acceptable forms like: scantily clad women in
advertising and media (in many cases having nothing to do
with the product itself, hamburger commercials, soft drinks,

Facts vs Fictions

159

car sales, etc.), pornography, strip bars, certain chain

restaurants requiring waitresses to dress in short and revealing
uniforms, and most recently the great emphasis on cosmetic
surgery, breast enlargement in specific.

Mad Sex Rush

Women, girls and even innocent children are not safe from
sex maniacs. There were several cases in which women and
young girls were abused kidnapped raped and killed. In some
of these shameful cases videography was also done either to
intimidate, malign or defame the victims. Some atrocious
culprits were so bold and fearless that they loaded the
shameful photographs of their sex crimes on social media as
if to challenge the law and order machinery to catch them if
they can. These events make a mockery of our religiosity,
social sense and norms of civilized living.
History is a witness to this fact that uncontrolled
exploitation of women has led to destruction of several
civilizations. Our films, magazines and newspapers have also
been playing their part in raising the pitch of sex frenzy. And
it is very unfortunate that even nationally reputed English
magazines and newspapers also have these pornographic
supplements. Easy access to internet has further increased
the vulnerability of young and impressionable minds to
unhealthy material.
If we want to solve this modern problem of Mad Sex
Rush, all out efforts on the part of government, social
scientists, media and religious leaders are required. Not only
our culture and family life but the very basis of our civilization
is at stake. Nothing unhealthy should be allowed in the name
of freedom of expression in literature and print and electronic
media. Writings which promote or support unnatural sex, premarital sex and sex outside marriage must be crushed with
an iron hand. Fear of God, respect for moral values and a

160

Facts vs Fictions

sense of responsibility should be promoted as guiding principles

of society.
Let us take a look at the rights women are blessed with
in Islam. It is essential that we maintain the essential
difference between the rights ensured and the existential
socio-economic realities obtaining in Muslim societies of 21st
century.

The Islamic view of Women

From the start of the Quranic revelation, Islam restored the
rights of the woman and ensured her full spiritual equality
with man. In Islam, men and women are described as partners
in life, each having different but complementary roles and
responsibilities, suited to their unique abilities and strengths.
When the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad reached the
women of Arabia, they knew that in these teachings there
would be liberation for them. In fact, the first person to
accept Islam was a woman (Khadijah, wife of the Prophet).
Another notable example is Fatimah daughter of Umar, who
became Muslim before her brother Umar and then became
instrumental in bringing him into the fold of Islam. In
becoming servants of God, they would become free from the
worship of created objects.
In Islam, women were freed from the shackles of
oppression that were, previously placed upon them. Prophet
Muhammad defended and reinforced womens rights
throughout his mission even till the very end when he stated
in his farewell sermon:
O People, it is true that you have certain rights in
regard to your women, but they also have rights over
you. Remember that you have taken them as your
wives, only under Gods trust and with His

Facts vs Fictions

161

permission. If they abide by your right then to them

belongs the right to be fed and clothed with love.
Do treat your women well and be kind and gentle
with them, for they are your partners and committed
helpers. And it is your right that they do not make
friends with anyone of whom you do not approve, as
well as never to be unchaste.

Transformation
After era of being second-class citizens in all spheres of life,
women were finally liberated. Islam came, establishing their
rights and equality with men, as partners and helpers. It
established for every woman specific and sacred rights,
elevating her to the noble status that she deserved. How such
far-reaching and pioneering changes were brought about?
In Islam, the liberation of women did not stem from
women, or men for that matter. It was revealed by God to
humanity. When the Prophet Muhammad received Quranic
revelations, he would convey them unto the people and the
people would then work to implement them immediately.
Thus, the revelations concerning the rights of women and
the command to treat women kindly were not taken lightly.
Muslim men, for the most part, adjusted their previously held
views and attitudes as they heard the revelations of God
recited to them. This meant that women did not have to
fight for their rights. There were no rebellions, no rallies,
and no protests needed. Those same men who grew up in
pre-Islamic Arabia burying their daughters alive and indulging
in the promiscuity of women were now merciful, God-fearing
men, remorseful of their past sins. They used to listen
attentively and emulated the Prophet Muhammad when he
said: The best among you is the one, who is the best towards
his wife.

162

Facts vs Fictions

And Prophet also said: Whoever, God has given

two daughters and is kind towards them; there will
be a reason for him entering Paradise.
After reforming the society, Prophet Muhammad applied
strict punishments for rape, murder and killing of new-born
girl child, and initiated such measures that would end
prostitution, gambling, dance and consumption of liquor.
Prophet Muhammad also prohibited extravagance and sexual
promiscuity (promiscuity refers to the practice of casual sex
with multiple sexual partners). He did not allow females to
be looked upon as economic burden or plaything or object of
lust.

Rights of women under Islamic Law

Islam views marriage as a means of emotional and sexual
gratification, legitimate procreation and inter-familial alliance
and solidarity. The contractual rather than proprietary nature
of marriage in Islam has a positive bearing on the status of
women.
1. When a Muslim woman gets married, she does
not surrender her maiden name, but keeps her
distinct identity.
2. The woman has freedom to choose her husband.
Her consent for marriage and choice of husband is a
must.
3. In a Muslim marriage, the groom gives a dowry
(Meher) to the bride herself, and not to her father:
she can demand, fix, and receive dower (Meher) at
the time of marriage. This becomes her own personal
property to keep, invest or spend, and is not subject
to the dictates of any of her male relatives.

Facts vs Fictions

4. Islam forbids dowry being demanded from the

bride or her parents.
5. She is absolute owner of whatever she receives by
way of inheritance or gift from her parents and she
does not have to share or give it to her husband or
in-laws. Thus, she is entitled to inherit husbands
property as well as that of her parents.
(Quran 4:7, 32, 176)
6. The Quran places on men the responsibility of
protecting and maintaining all of their female
relatives. It means, as well, that a man must provide
for his wife and family even if she has money of her
own. She is not obligated to spend any of her money
towards the maintenance of her family. Women in
return, are expected to remain loyal and chaste.
(Quran 4:34)
7. A women can get divorce ( Khula ) if she is
convinced that it is difficult to carry on partnership
with her husband and he refuses to divorce her.
8. Widows and divorcee women can re-marry.
9. A women can work and earn, if she chooses to do
so or if her circumstances warrant it.
Contrary to the popular stereotype, Islam does not
confine the role of women to the four walls of the
house. It places no restrictions on women who wish
to take up an occupation.
10. A woman can earn and spend money as per her
wish, she can help her parents or siblings with money
earned by her parents or donate it in charity; for
this permission from her husband or in-laws are not
required.

163

164

Facts vs Fictions

11. After marriage if a husband gifts anything in kind

or cash to his wife and makes her owner, he cannot
demand its return if he divorces her.
12. Islam considers men and women equal in respect
of the pursuit of knowledge and emphasizes that it
is an obligation on both men and women to acquire
knowledge.
All this is not by way of favour from the society which
can be withdrawn any time by somebodys whims or fancy.
All of it is guaranteed by the Islamic law which is permanent
and beyond the modifying power of any authority on earth.
Thus Islam protects the dignity of women. Women were given
all these rights, this too, at a time when in the Western world
they were considered chattels and it was seriously doubted
whether they possessed a soul.
Islam regards women as precious and valuable not to be
disrespected or disgrace. It must be borne in mind that the
mistreatment of women, in some Middle-East nations or the
or the Indian sub-continent or in Muslims families, owes itself
to cultural factors that Muslims have absorbed from the
native cultures, be it dowry, confinement of women to homes,
denial of opportunities for education and employment and
have got nothing to do with Islam. It could also be juxtaposed
with the fact that most converts to Islam in the West are
women. If indeed Islam would have been oppressive, why would
they make a beeline for the fold of Islam?

Facts vs Fictions

165

Duties of a Woman in Islam

Islam is a fair and balanced system of life. While it specifies
the rights of women, it also lays down duties. A Muslim woman
is expected to observe the following:
1. Belief in One God (Tawhid) and the practice of Islam
should be her foremost duty. A Muslim woman must perform
her Prayer (Namaz), observe Fasting (Sawm) during Ramadan,
give out Alms (Zakah) on her own wealth (if it is applicable)
and go to Pilgrimage (Hajj) if she can afford it.
2. She is required to maintain her chastity at all times. She
must not have any extra-marital relationship.
3. She should dress modestly and should put on Hijab (Hijab
means a long outer garment or headscarf) while going out
and meeting adult males beyond her close relatives (Quran
33:59, 24:30-31).
4. It is her duty to bring up children with the best training
and grooming, according to the rules of Islam. She has to
look after the family and has almost absolute control over
domestic affairs, although the family is run by mutual
consultation and co-operation. She is the Queen of the family.
5. She is her husbands helpmate. A faithful wife is like a
garment, a source of peace, love, happiness and contentment
for her husband. (Quran 30:21, 2:187)
6. If she is asked to do something against the command of
Allah, she must defy even her husband, father or brother.
(Quran 9:23)
7. Islam considers a husband and a wife as complementary
to one another. Neither dominates the other. Each has his
or her own individual rights and duties together they form
a peaceful and happy family which is at the core of a sound,
stable and peaceful society.

166

Facts vs Fictions

Hijab or Burqa
One of the greatest criticisms leveled at Muslim women today
is with regard to their dress code. In the minds of many
people today, freedom-or womens liberation-somehow equates
with a reduction in clothing; the more skin that a woman
shows, or is allowed to show, is an indicator of how liberated
she is. Yet, the oppressed women of ancient societies were
often encouraged, if not forced, to display their bodies in
public and to dress as provocatively as possible. This of course
did not represent liberation or the attainment of any rights
for them, but it represented only the actualization of the
carnal desires of the men around them who sought to gaze
lustfully at womens bodies in much the same way that they
continue to do today.
A lot of debate about status of women in Islam centres
round the hijab or burqa or veil. In Wests perception, it is
an instrument of subjugation, deprivation and symbol of
backwardness. It is defended passionately, by the lovers of
hijab; and attacked ferociously by critics of hijab. For
centuries, the hijab has been used to represent Muslim women
in stereotypical terms. Nowadays, it has acquired symbolic
as well as political significance. But what does the Quran say
about the Veil?
The term associated with the veil in the Quran is hijab.
The word occurs eight times in the sacred text of the Quran,
19:17; 38:32; 17:45; 42:51; 7:46; 33:53; 83:15. Literally Hijab means
a curtain, partition or screen. Hijab used in the sense
traditionally understood by Muslim societies as a piece of
clothing covering the head and entire body.
In order to safeguard the chastity and honour of women
and to nurture a pious society, it was decreed that women
should don loose garments. It took several forms in diverse

Facts vs Fictions

167

regions where Islam reached. The head to toe shroud worn

by Muslim women in the Indian subcontinents is called Burqa.
In the Middle East it is called Abaya. Some women even veil
their faces which is called Niqab. The all enfolding black
Chador constitutes hijab used in Iran. In various other parts
of the world, it is merely headscarf that represents the hijab.

Hijab : Womens chioce to Please God

The benefits of Hijab, loose garments and modest dress are
not far to seek. Even today the women who do not display
the contours and shape of their body by wearing skin-tight
or revealing dresses are treated with respect. Contrarily, the
ones who act in films, dance, dare to bare, and commodified
through advertisements, become the objects of lust. The
multi-billion dollar industry manufacturing cosmetics, soaps,
shampoos, lingerie, vanity bags, garments, and even items as
personal as sanitary napkins and contraceptive pills and devices
thrive by promoting female obscenity. The western preference
for scantily dressed females and well-suited males speaks
volumes about the anti-women bias when it comes to cashing
upon physical charm.
The materialistic societys breast-beating over
suppression of Muslim women and measures such as ban on
veil and burqa becomes plain in this context. Naturally,
cosmetic industry stands out to lose billions of rupees and
dollars, if women begin to reserve their charm only for their
husbands rather than for social audiences or celluloid screens.
No wonder then why the West feels perturbed at the constant
exodus of women to the fold of Islam where their femininity
finds security from prying eyes or glare of the media.
Materialistic societys talk of womens liberation is nothing
but a disguised form of exploitation of her body, degradation
of her soul, and deprivation of her honour. Western society
claims to have uplifted women. On the contrary it has

168

Facts vs Fictions

actually degraded them to the status of concubines, mistresses

and society butterflies who are mere tools in the hands of
pleasure-seekers and sex marketers, hidden behind the
colourful screen of art and culture and fashion parade.
At a time when women have more and more freedom to
make choices, it is rather bizarre that they are being deprived
of the most basic freedom, the freedom to choose what to
wear, in several modern societies? If forcing someone to wear
the burqa is oppressive, is not forcing someone to remove it
equally oppressive? Why are the champions of equality, liberty
and fraternity enforcing an oppressive code of dressing (or
the lack of it) on the followers of Islam?
The Hijab or burqa is the personal choice of Muslim
women, and should be respected by others. Other religious,
cultural, professional symbols or clothing such as Nuns
dresses, Robes of Pastors, Apron for Doctors, Black coats
for Judges and Advocates, Turban, Skull caps, or Lockets
Studded with Crosses, are not only tolerated, but respected.
Burqa is nothing dissimilar to what the Christian Nuns wear.
Why these double standards then while dealing with Islamic
Hijab and norms of modesty and decency alone.
Being tolerant does not only mean accepting people who
look and act exactly like oneself; but accepting the choices
of other people, especially, if you do not understand or agree
with them.
Many women celebrities from glamour world and
common women are disappointed with illusion of so called
womens liberties and materialistic culture, these noble souls
find solace in Islam and Hijab, so thousands of women are
accepting hijab in the West. Lauren Booth, sister in-law of
former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Maryam Jameela
(formerly Margret Marquis), British journalist Yvonne Ridley
and Malayalam poet Kamala Suraiya found solace in Islam
and Hijab. Even in our country a survey by CNN-IBN had

Facts vs Fictions

169

revealed that women accept burqa willingly to protect their

modesty and feel protected from eve-teasing and mischief
mongers.
In conclusion, the loose garment covering the bodies does
not result in negative feelings among most Muslim women; it
remains a fact 1400 years after the message of Islam was
delivered by the Prophet Muhammad that women still proudly
wear this garment of modesty and religious distinction.
Furthermore, the act of covering for millions of Muslim
women today remains a choice that they freely make and not
an act of coercion as is often portrayed in the West. These
women choose to dress this way so as to please God, in
the words of one woman, while others dress the way that
they do in order to please the societies in which they live.

Hijab : Pinnacle of Intellect

Perhaps no one more aptly summed up the respect and
honour women enjoyed within the fold of Islam than Yemeni
woman activist and 2011 Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karmen.
She surprised the International print and electronic media
by appearing dressed in Abaya and headscarf at the Nobel
Peace Prize Award Ceremony at City Hall in Norwegian
capital Oslo. They asked her: Doesnt she feel her mode of
dressing as something which contradicts her education and
intellectual level as the hijab is viewed as oppression of women
and backwardness? Tawakkol replied: The human being in
early times was almost naked. With the development of his
thought over time he began to wear clothes. What I am today
and what I wear is the height of intellect and sophistication
reached by man through the ages, not backwardness.
Nakedness is a sign of backwardness and human thinking
going back to early times.

170

Facts vs Fictions

The Consent of Women;

the Islamic position
It is compulsory that the woman who is the object of the
mans choice should be willing to enter into the married state.
This willingness on the womans part is a must before a
marriage can be lawful in Islam. It is unlawful to marry a
woman by force. There is no example in the history of Islam
where a man has been allowed to force a woman into marriage.
Prophet Muhammads (peace be upon him) own view was that,
an unmarried girl should not be married until her
permission has been taken.
Abdullah, son of Abbas, one of the Prophets
Companions and a commentator on the Quran, narrates the
story of a girl who came to the Prophet complaining that her
father had her married off against her wishes. The Prophet
gave her the choice of either remaining within the bonds of
wedlock or of freeing herself from them.
Another such incident narrated by Abdullah son of
Abbas concerns a woman called Burairah and her husband,
Mughith, who was a black slave. Abdullah son of Abbas tells
the story as if it were all happening before his very eyes:
Mughith is following Burairah through the paths of Medina.
He is crying and his tears are running down his beard. Seeing
him, the Prophet said to me, O Abbas are you not surprised
at Mughiths love for Burairah and Burairahs hate for

Facts vs Fictions

171

Mughith? Then the Prophet said to Burairah I wish you

would take him back Burairah asked the Prophet Is that a
command from God? The Prophet replied, No, it is only a
recommendation. Then, Burairah politely refused saying, I
dont need this recommendation.
An interesting case of polygamy took place during the
Caliphate of Umar. A certain widow, Ume Aban daughter of
Uthbah, had four suitors for marriage. All four Umar, Ali,
Zubayr and Talhah were already married. Umm Aban
accepted the proposal of marriage made by Talhah and, refused
the other three, whereupon she was married to Talhah.
This happened in Medina, the capital of the Islamic State.
Among the rejected suitors was the Umar the ruler of Islamic
State of Medina. But no one expressed surprise or dismay,
because in Islam, a woman is completely free to make her
own decisions. This is a right that no one can take away from
her not even the ruler of the day.
These incidents show that the Islamic commandments
giving permission to marry up to four women does not mean
having the right to seize four women and shut them up inside
ones home. Marriage is a matter of mutual consent. Only
that woman can be made a second or a third wife who is
willing to be made a second or a third wife. And when this
matter rests wholly on the willingness of the woman, there is
no cause for objection.
The present age gives great importance to freedom of
choice. This value is fully supported by Islamic law. On the
other hand, the upholders of feminism want to turn freedom
of choice into restriction of choice.

172

Facts vs Fictions

Some Controversial Muslim womens Issues

Questions & Answers

Q: Under Islamic Law, why is that a woman
inherits from her parents a share only half of
that her brothers inherits?
A: In the pre-Islam Arab society only sons bequeathed the
property from their fathers. But the Quran enjoined that the
daughters be given shares in property equivalent to half of
what the sons inherited from their fathers. It was a
revolutionary step in the then society where women themselves
were considered a property and were handed down to the
sons from the fathers. It had twin objectives: first to
recognize the identity of women as free and independent
human individuals and second empowering them financially.
The Quran enjoined that the women be given shares in
property from fathers, husbands and sons and even childless
brothers. The three verses that broadly describe the share of
close relatives are found in Chapter an-Nisaa, (ref. verses 11,
12 and 176). In these verses, Allah established the right of
children, parents and spouse to inherit a specific share without
leaving the matter to human judgment and emotions. The
Islamic system of inheritance is a perfectly balanced product
of the Creators knowledge of human needs.
Looked at from the todays context, it might appear
unjust if women are given just half of what a male heir inherits
from father. This is because her inheritance kitty includes
shares of her parents, husband, children and childless brothers
as mentioned above. But if one were to consider the situation
prevailing in 7thcentury Arabia, it was a unique initiative

Facts vs Fictions

173

as Prophet and Islam were taking a step towards making

women owner of assets and resources they could never imagine
to own, possess, control, use, spend and invest. Let us
acknowledge the fact that women were being entitled to more
than half of what their brothers were inheriting rather than
their share was being halved. Viewed in this context, one
cannot but admire this initiative.
Now let us turn our attention towards the womens role
and the justification for the share of inheritance for women.
Looking from the womens role in the society even what was
designated for them by Islam and the Quran was not unjust.
It was logically commensurate to their financial and economic
responsibilities which were far less than the male heirs. Islam
places the responsibility of sustenance and maintenance of
the family on men. It is for men to look after the wives,
children and parents. It is they who pay for their food,
clothing, shelter and education and even marriage. So women
are exempted from any real life expenses compared to men.
In such circumstances if they receive half of what their male
siblings receive, it could be held more than their legitimate
and fair share and quite just and equitable. So when we look
at many roles of women, they will be maintained as daughters
by their fathers, as wives by their husbands and as mothers
(if they are widows) by their sons. Their financial liability being
nil, what they were enjoined to receive was quite substantial.
So the allegation of gender disparity or bias does not
hold much water. All it denotes is that Islam was trying to
strike a balance between the financial rights and duties of
men and women. While women could save and invest their
assets and properties, the men were obligated to spend off
their assets and incomes on their women and kids. Over and
above the share in property, men were being asked to give
Meher (dowry) upon marriage to their wives.
Suppose someone died leaving a son and a daughter. The
sons shares of inheritance will be depleted when he gives a

174

Facts vs Fictions

dowry to his wife and supports his family, including his sister
until she marries. Any additional income will have to be earned
through his work. However, his sisters share remains
untouched, or might even increase if she invests it. When
she marries, she will receive a dowry from her husband and
will be maintained by him, having no financial responsibilities
whatsoever. Thus, a man might conclude that Islam has
favoured women over men!

Q: Although women in virtually all the Western

nations have now secu red the right to vote, why
is it that women in a number of predominantly
Muslim nations have yet to be given this right?
A: All Muslim nations that practice democracy have provided
equal rights for both men and women to vote as well contest
the elections. Women have not only voted but even headed
the countries such as Turkey (Ms. Tansu Ciller was Prime
Minister from 1993 to 1996), Bangladesh (constantly being
headed by two famous begums since 1991), Pakistan (Benazir
Bhutto twice became prime minister) and the largest Muslim
nation Indonesia (where Megawati Sukarnoputri was President
for four years). It is only in the six Gulf Kingdoms which are
absolute monarchies and no oneboth men as well as
womencan vote. However, Kuwait has an elected Parliament
where women are allowed to vote as well as contest. However
Kuwaiti Parliament has limited rights and its decisions can
be revoked by the Emir (King) of Kuwait. Saudi Arabia has
begun the democratic process from civic bodies where only
men can vote. The women have been promised voting rights
after 2015. It is expected that these Kingdoms would soon
be falling in line as pressure is mounting to accord the voting
as well as contesting rights to women. However, democracy
has to precede the voting rights are granted to the people.
It is useful to remember that women in most of the

Facts vs Fictions

175

Western democracies got the voting rights only in the

beginning of the last century.
But autocracy is not unique to Muslim nations alone.
China despite being a world power is still under the
Communist Party dictatorship and no one has a right to vote.
As far as Islam is concerned, it does not differentiate
between men and women in matters of political consultation.
During the caliphate after the death of the Holy Prophet,
caliphs were appointed after a process of consultation (shoora)
in which both men and women were consulted. Once the
caliph was appointed, both men and women would come and
dobayt(swearing allegiance) to the caliph.
Looking into the earliest part of Islamic history, we see
that during the election process of the third Caliphate the
famed Companion Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf took it upon
himself to poll every person living in Madinah as to their
opinion regarding who should take charge of the Islamic state.
This process of course involved him asking every woman living
in Madinah as well as a large segment of the young people
too. As a result of his efforts he declared:
I have sought the opinion of every person in Madinah
man, woman and youth and have found that
all of them prefer Uthman as Caliph before Ali.
(Awasim min al-Qawasim, ibn al-Arabi)
This indicates to us that even those women who
remained concealed in their homes were consulted on the
matter. So to deny a woman the right to vote cannot be based
upon any Islamic evidence, and is in fact contrary to the
established practice among the Companions which would
herein qualify as consensus (ijmaa). However, things did not
remain as they were in early Islamic society. Womens status
was downgraded after the first two centuries of Islam leading
to their being consigned a secondary role.

176

Facts vs Fictions

Womens Education and Right to Driving

It has come to observation that Muslim women are not
allowed to attend schools or attain higher education in certain
societies while some countries do not allow them the right
to drive cars. Has it got something to do with Islamic Sharia?
Contrary to restricting the right to education, Islam
recognizes the right of attaining education for both males
and females. The Prophet is reported to have said: It is
obligatory for both Muslim men as well women, to attain
education. In most of the Gulf States and in Egypt, women
outnumber men among university students and among the
degree-holders in general population. This has been possible
over the last few decades due to creation of huge facilities
for women. It is only the fundamentalist Taliban in
Afghanistan who had been blasting girls schools. Their version
of Islam does not find endorsement from any Islamic quarter.
As far as the question of allowing women to drive cars,
it is only Saudi Arabia which has sat tight over this matter.
Saudi Arabia is a conservative monarchy. Its rulers fear that
allowing driving license to women will lead to free intermingling
of sexes. But the Islamic sharia does not disallow women from
riding. In the Prophets era, women used to travel on
horseback or camelback. By this token there should not be
any restriction on womens movement. Mere apprehension of
free mixing of sexes, should in no way lead to a blanket ban
on their use of vehicles by themselves. Whichever country is
doing it; it is doing it out of its own will and certainly negates
sharia on this score. To blame Islam for such restrictions is
improper.

Facts vs Fictions

177

Polygamy and Monogamy

Strictly speaking, polygamy means the plurality of mates.
More specifically, if a man has more than one wife at the
same time, this is called polygamy. Monogamy is the practice
of having only one marital partner at a time.

Polygamy, a Western Weapon

Ignorant people have criticized Prophet Muhammad over his
multiple marriages without ever seriously studying the nature,
manner and purpose of these marriages. All the criticisms
are made without any historical support for it. Nor any
rational grounds are cited for such criticism.
It is from sheer ignorance, religious prejudice or hatred
for the Prophet of Islam and his unique philosophy of life,
from which the criticizers are benefitting without recognizing
it, that such controversy is raised now and then to overshadow
and undermine the Prophets true contributions to human
culture and civilization.
At the outset, we must not forget that monogamy, a
western weapon for enforcement of morality, is a recent
phenomenon; in the middle ages, polygamy was the prevalent
norm in most parts of the world. Men took hundreds of wives
as a measure of social status. Except for Christ, who was
celibate, most prophets were much-married men even saints
kept concubines.

178

Facts vs Fictions

In Arabia, women were treated worse than chattels;

fathers buried their new-born daughters alive. Marriages were
contracted for social convenience, and divorces were common
and were not looked down upon.
In todays West, sexual promiscuity (Indiscriminate casual
sex with many sexual partners) has become a norm.
Even today, polygamy is practiced among Muslims and
non-Muslims of the West and the East, some of which are
legal, and some illegal and hypocritical; some in secret and
some in public. It does not require much research to find
out where and how a great number of married people maintain
private mistresses, or spare sweethearts, or visit their beloved
ones, or simply go around with other women. Whether
moralists like it or not, the point remains that illegal polygamy
is in practice and it can be seen everywhere.

Polygamy in Judaism
Biblical and Talmudic times show that ancient Israelites were
polygamous, some having hundreds of wives. The Talmudic
Law and Mosaic Law encouraged it and most of their prophets
had more than one wife. According to the Wikipedia, Prophet
Abraham had two wives (Sarah, and Hajar), Prophet Solomon
had seven hundredwivesand three hundred concubines,
Prophet Jacob had four wives. Prophet David had eightwives
and Prophet Moses had fourwives(Safire, Gibshia, bint
Kini, bint Hubab).
According to the Encyclopedia Biblica, A common Jew
could take as many as four wives, and a king up to eighteen.
The practice of polygamy continued till Rabbi Gershom
bin Yehudah (960 C.E. to 1030 C.E) issued an edict against
it. The Jewish Sephardic communities continued the practice
till as late as 1950, until an Act of the Chief Rabbinate of
Israel extended the ban on marrying more than one wife.

Facts vs Fictions

179

However, it is not right that Judaism and Christianity

have always been monogamous or categorically opposed to
polygamy, not even today, we are informed by some prominent
Jewish scholars. (For example refer to S. D. Goitien, Jews
and Arabs: L.T.Hobhouse, Marals in Evolution:
E.A.Westermark, A Short History of Marriage). It is also
reported that polygynous Jewish immigrants caused the Israeli
housing authorities a great deal of both difficulty and
embarrassment. The position of the Christian Mormons is
well known. So is the view of Afro-Asian bishops who prefer
polygamy to infidelity, fornication, and mate-swapping.
It will be revealing to examine the high correlation and
link between strict formal monogamy and the frequency of
prostitution, homo sexuality, illegitimacy, infidelity, and general
sexual laxity. The historical record of the Greek-Roman and
the Jewish-Christian Civilizations is even more revealing in
this respect as any standard sociological history of the family
will show.

Polygamy in Christianity
During the time of Biblical revelations, polygamy was
commonly accepted and practiced. Prophet Jesus was not
known to have spoken against polygamy. It was accepted
religiously, socially, and morally; and there was no objection
to it. Perhaps this is why the Bible itself did not deal with
the subject. The Bible does not forbid it or regulate it or
even restrict it. Some people have interpreted the ten-virgin
story of the Bible as a sanction for maintaining ten wives at
a time. The stories of biblical prophets, kings, and patriarchs
in this regard are incredible.
There are many examples of Christian kings marrying
more than one woman. Fredrick Wilhelm II and Philip married
more than one wife with the approval of the church and St.

180

Facts vs Fictions

Luther himself. The Nuremburg Conference of 1650 agreed

to allow people to marry more than one wife in order to
solve the problem of under-population.
As recent as the 17th century, polygamy was practiced
and accepted by the Christian church. The Mormons (Church
of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints) has allowed and
practiced polygamy.
This shows that the institution of polygamy has always
been practiced as a lawful institution by all nations in all times,
even the Prophets of Jews had several wives and Prophet Jesus
also did not forbid it.
Monogamy was introduced in Christianity at the time of
Paul when many revisions took place in Christianity. This was
done for the Church to conform to the Greco-Roman culture
where men were monogamous, but owned many slaves who
were free for them to use: in other words, unrestricted
polygamy.
Early Christians invented ideas that women were full of
sin and man was better off to never marry. Since this would
be the end of mankind, these same people compromised and
said marry only one.

Polygamy in Hinduism
Since ancient times, polygamy has been an established
institution of human society and part and parcel of every
known civilization in history. In ancient India, having multiple
wives was not only permitted by common custom, but was
commonly practiced. Many Hindu religious personalities,
according to Wikipedia, Rig-Veda and other Hindu religious
books, mention the multiple wives, of King Dashrath, father
of Lord Rama, had more than three wives namely, Kaushalya,
Sumitra, and Kaikeyi. Lord Krishna had 16,100 wives,

Facts vs Fictions

181

prominent among them are, Radha,Rukmini, Satyabhama,

Jambavati, Satya, Lakshmana, Kalindi, Bhadra and Mitravinda.
Hindu scriptures whether it be the Vedas, the
Ramayana, the Mahabharat, or the holy Geeta do not mention
any restriction on the number of wives. According to these
scriptures, one can marry as many as one would wish. It was
only in 1955 when the Hindu Marriage Act was passed that it
became illegal for a Hindu to have more than one wife. At
present it is the Indian Law that restricts a Hindu man
from having more than one wife and not the Hindu
scriptures.

Polygamy in Western Society

In Western society, often when relations are strained, the
husband simply deserts his wife. Then he cohabits with other
women without marriage. There are three kinds of polygamy
practiced in Western societies: (1) serial polygamy, that is,
marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce and so for any number
of times; (2) a man married to one woman, but having and
supporting one or more mistresses; (3) an unmarried man
having a number of mistresses.
The West does not admit it, but in practice, it is a
polygamous society. In the words of Dr. Annie Besant, a
prominent British socialist and womens rights activist.
There is pretentious monogamy in the West, but
there is really a polygamy without responsibility; the
mistress is cast off when the man is weary of her,
and sinks gradually to be a woman of the street, for
the first lover has no responsibility for her future
and she is hundred times worse off than the sheltered
wife and mother in a polygamous home. When we
see thousands of miserable women who crowd the
streets of Western towns at night, we must surely

182

Facts vs Fictions

feel that it does not suit the westerners mouth to

reproach Islam for polygamy. It is better for women,
and more respectable for women, to live in polygamy,
united to one man only, with the legitimate child in
her arms, and surrounded with respect, than to be
reduced, cast out in the streets perhaps with an
illegitimate child outside the pale of law
unsheltered and uncared for, to become the victim
of any passerby, night after night and rendered
incapable of motherhood and despised by all.
The present Western society which permits free sex
between consenting adults has given rise to irresponsible sexual
relationships, an abundance of fatherless children, many
unmarried teenage mothers; all becoming a burden on the
countries welfare system.
Some western men take the position that monogamy
protects the right of women. But are these men really
concerned about the rights of women? Their society has so
many practices which exploit and suppress women, leading to
womens liberation movements from the suffragettes of the
early twentieth century to the feminists of today.
In Western societies, the truth of the matter is that
monogamy protects men, allowing them to play around
without responsibility.
Easy birth control and easy legal abortion has opened
the door of illicit sex to women and she has been lured into
the so-called sexual revolution. But she is still the one who
suffers the trauma of abortion and the side effects of the
birth control methods. Taking aside the plagues of venereal
diseases, like herpes and AIDS, the male continues to enjoy
himself free of worry.
Men are the ones protected by monogamy while women
continue to be victims of mens desires. Polygamy is very

183

Facts vs Fictions

much opposed by the male dominated society because it would

force men to face up to responsibility and fidelity. It would
force them to take responsibility for their polygamous
inclinations and protect and provide for women and children.

Polygamy in Islam
Turning to the case of Islam, we find many people in the
western and eastern world who think that a Muslim is a man
who is possessed by physical passion and is himself in
possession of a number of wives, limited or unlimited. They
think that the Muslim is at full liberty to shift from one wife
or a number of wives to another, and that this is as easy as
shifting from one apartment to another, or even as changing
ones suit. This is aggravated partly by sensational motion
pictures, TV serials, cheap paperback stories, wrong portrayal
in media and partly by the irresponsible behavior of some
Muslim individuals.
Unfortunately for Islam, what the Quran prescribed and
the Prophet practiced, most Muslim rulers defied with
impunity (exemption from punishment, harm, or recrimination)
and to ease their conscience, had traditions concocted in
Prophet Muhammads name, which did considerable damage
to his image and provided colorful material for slander.
The inevitable result of this situation is that stationary
barriers have cut off millions of people from seeing the
brilliant lights of Islam and its social philosophy.
When the religion of Islam was presented by Prophet
Muhammad, the practice of polygamy was common and
deeply-rooted in the social life. The Quran did not ignore
the practice or discard it, nor did it let it continue unchecked
or unrestricted. The Quran could not be indifferent or
tolerant of the chaos and irresponsibility associated with

184

Facts vs Fictions

polygamy. As it did with other prevailing social customs and

practices, the Quran stepped in to organize the institution
and polish it in such a way as to eradicate its traditional
evils and insure its benefits. The Quran interfered because it
had to be realistic and could not condone any chaos in the
family structure which is the very foundation of society.
Quran is the only religious book that says Marry only one.
The context of this phrase is the following verse from Qurans
chapter 3 (An-Nisa):
Marry women who seem good to you, two or three
or four, and if you fear that you shall not deal justly
(with many) then (marry) only one.
Before the Quran was revealed, there was no upper limit
for polygamy and men had scores of wives, some even
hundreds. The Quran, in any case, restricts the number of
wives to four, and that, too, is hedged with several conditions.
A man must treat all his wives equally, even in love and this
instruction was accompanied by an explicit assertion that it
was not possible to do so.
You will never be able to deal justly between wives
however much you desire (to do so). But (if you have
more than one wife) do not turn all together away
(from one), leaving her as in suspense...(Quran, 4:129)
This further emphasizes fair treatment. But in special
circumstances, Islam allows polygamy. These situations are:
1. When a wife is barren and cannot bear children,
but the husband wants children. It is better to have
a second wife than to divorce the childless one.
However, a barren wife has the option to seek
separation from her husband if she wishes on the
grounds of the second marriage of her husband.

Facts vs Fictions

2. If the first wife is chronically ill and she is unable

to carry out her marital and household chores, the
husband may marry another woman and thus help
restore family stability.
3. Polygamy may be the solution to the problems of
a society which has more women than men. This
happens especially after a war. The above verse of
the Quran were revealed after the battle of Uhud in
which many Muslims were killed, leaving widows and
orphans for whom due care was incumbent upon the
Muslim survivors. Marriage was one way of
protecting those widows and orphans.
4. The proportion of women to men increased
considerably in the countries which took part in the
First and Second World Wars; during and after First
and Second World War, the world has seen
thousands of widows displaying Wanted Husbands
boards outside their homes. A solution to such a
situation is marriage or more than one wife by those
men who are able to and can be fair to each wife.
This is better than leaving a large number of
unmarried women.
5. Islam strictly forbids any sexual relationship
outside marriage. There is no such thing as a mistress
in Islamic society. Islam has given dignity to men.
Having more than one wife is better and more
dignified than having a number of mistresses. Islam
holds one responsible for his or her actions. Men
cannot just multiply the opportunity for sex and
avoid the responsibilities of fatherhood. This is
inhuman and unjust.
6. A woman who is going to be a second wife can
refuse to marry the man on the grounds that he

185

186

Facts vs Fictions

already has a wife. But if a woman happily consents

to her husband marrying again and the second wife
agrees, why should anyone else object to it?
Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said that if a
man has two wives and if he is unduly inclined towards one
at the expense of the other, half of his body will be dangling
on one side (as in disability) on the Day of Judgment. Thus
Islam regards monogamy as the rule and polygamy as an
exception, permissible under extraordinary circumstances.
Islamic Jurist Imam Abu Hanifah quotes that Prophet said:
A person who has one wife leads a happy, contented
life, while a man with two wives falls prey to
afflictions and tribulations.
The overwhelming majority of Muslims are monogamous
they have only one wife. The fact that some Muslims have
more than one wife has become a matter for propaganda and
leads to a misleading impression of the Islamic way of life.
This is especially so when non-practicing Muslims are given
prominence in this propaganda.
With this background, it is apparent that Islam did not
invent polygamy and that by introducing the said regulations;
it does not encourage it as a rule. It did not abolish it
because, if it were abolished, that would have been in theory
only, and people would have continued the practice as it is
observed today among other people whose laws and social
standards do not approve polygamy.
Islam came to be lived, to be practised, and not to stay
in suspense or be considered a mere theory. It is realistic
and its outlook on life is most practical. And that is why it
permits conditional and restricted polygamy; because, had it
been in the best interest of humanity as a whole to do without
this institution, God would have certainly ordered its
termination. But who knows better than God?

Facts vs Fictions

187

Remarriage of widows and

divorced women in Islam
There are a variety of reasons why Islam permits polygamy,
re-marriage of widows and divorced women. One does not
have to imagine such reasons or make hypotheses. They are
real and can be seen every-day, everywhere. Let us examine
some of these reasons.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:
In general, the risk of death at any given age is less
for females than for males.
Due to many social and political reasons, the number of
widows and destitute will keep increasing to a considerable
extent. The major reasons are: wars, accidents, natural
calamities, and imprisonments.
In the First World War (1914-18), about 80 lakhs (8
million) soldiers were killed. Most of the civilian soldiers were
also men.
In the Second World War (1939-45 ), about 6 crores (60
million) people were either killed or maimed for life, most of
them men.
In the Iraq-Iran war alone ( 1979-1988 ), 82,000 Iranian
women and about 1,00, 000 Iraqi women were widowed, all
in the space of ten years.

188

Facts vs Fictions

There is no country in which accidents do not take place

every day on the streets. In India as per official report, a
total of 3, 60,000 accidental deaths were reported during the
year 2009. Among these males are 77% and Females are 23%.
Another drain on the availability of men in society is
imprisonment. In the U.S., the Bureau of Justice Statistics
reported the prison population 1,613,740. Of these 148,4,641
or 92 per cent were men while women accounted for 12,9099
or merely 8 per cent. (Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics,
US Dept of Justice, Prisoners in 2009 by Heather C. West
and others.)
Some convicts will get long term imprisonment or death
penalties. For a healthy society, a proper and humane solution
is necessary, and it can only be achieved by providing the
rights of womanhood. In this peculiar situation, Islam
recommends dissolution of marriage. And in some severe
punishments, the marriage dissolves by virtue of imprisonment
of more than three years. Women affected in this way shall
be allowed to select their new partner legally. Thus polygamy
can rescue these women and solve this severe problem.
Now, if any society comes in the above category, and if
it were to forbid polygamy and restrict legal marriage to one
wife only, what would widows and divorced women do? Where
and how would they find the naturally desirable
companionship? Where and how would they find sympathy,
understanding, support and protection? The implications of
the problem are not simply physical; they are also moral,
social, emotional and natural. Every normal woman whether
she is in business or in Foreign Service or in the intelligence
department longs for a home, a family of her own. She
needs someone to take care of and someone to care for her.
Even if we look at it from a strictly physical point of view,
the implications are still very serious, and we cannot just
ignore them; otherwise, psychological complexes, nervous

189

Facts vs Fictions

breakdowns, social disgust and mental instability would

develop.
These natural desires and sentimental aspirations have
to be realized. The need to belong, to care, and to be cared
for, has to be satisfied somehow. Women in such a situation
do not usually transform their nature or lead an angelic course
of life. They feel that they have every right to enjoy life. If
they cannot have it in a legal and decent way, they never fail
to find other channels, although risky and temporary. Very
few women can do without the permanent and assured
companionship of men. Any woman in this situation is bound
to become a nervous wreck or a rebel and destroyer of
morality.
In the past also too, when a womens husband died, she
was given as inherited property to his brother and her step
sons behaved with her cruelly. In Indian society, there was a
tradition of immolation of the widow on the funeral pyre of
her husband. If she would live, she had to be away from
worldly attraction and lead her whole life in mourning.
But Islam confined widows and divorced womens
mourning to four months and ten days which is called waiting
period or Iddat. After that, she is permitted all beautification.
She can opt for remarriage now and the Quran gives sanction
to it.
Marry those among you who are single.
(Quran, 24:32)

190

Facts vs Fictions

Holy Prophet and his Family life

Prophet Muhammads family life has often been put through
the scanner by Islam-baiters and critics. Comparison is made
between Prophet Muhammads multiple marriages and Jesus
Christ who remained unmarried, in this regard. Religious
thought has proceeded on the belief (or disbelief) that celibacy
(abstaining from marriage) should be the ideal of the
prophethood and saintliness while marriage and family life are
held to be features of common men who pursue desires and
are driven by passions.
Prophet Muhammad led his life in a way that his
followers could emulate it. According to one tradition, some
of his companions boasted of leading pious lives. The first
said he did not marry; the second said, he did not eat meat;
the third said, he slept on bare ground; and the fourth said
he fasted all the time. The Prophet told them: Praise be to
Allah! I am married and I lead a pious life. I eat meat and I
also fast. I sleep and I also keep awake.
Thus the Prophet struck a balance and emphasized that
religious activity had to be combined with worldly pursuits.
He neither gave excessive credence to material things nor
did he undermine the significance of spiritual bliss. He
denounced the acquisition of wealth and the glitter of the
world, but did not favour harshness or abandonment. He did
not divide life between God and Caesar. That is the basic
difference in the approach of Muhammad and Christ. Islam
does not encourage extremism in human behavior; it favours

Facts vs Fictions

191

neither mortification of the flesh nor indulgence; it prefers

monogamy, but does not insist on it; it allows war under
certain conditions but its central message is one of submission
to God and of peace. In short, it seeks to regulate human
conduct according to mans inherent capacity, requirement
and limitation, but it refuses to radically transform human
nature, as it is neither physically feasible nor spiritually
desirable.
Islam combines the spiritual and temporal aspects of life
into one. It does not differentiate between the two and guides
the human beings in both spheres asking them not to divorce
them from each other. It recognizes both the physical and
the spiritual urges of the human individuals and fixes the
parameters within which the desires have to be satisfied and
limits that should not be crossed. It also recognizes the fact
that corruptions could creep into the human life and morally
wreck it from within, if the biological wants are not allowed
to be satisfied with legitimate means and within the moral
boundaries.
Similarly, Islam aimed at raising a society where people
could live transparent lives with satisfaction of their physical
urges. It was also aware of the moral risks of masking desires
with celibacy which in the past led several societies to selfruin. Hospices turned into dens of vices and monasteries were
dragged into scandals. Lest such a fate befall the society,
Islam asked its followers to marry, raise a family, and build a
society on the basis of birth and marital bonds. It was also
viewed as essential so that economic responsibilities could be
fixed and individual could be connected with each through
rights and duties and entitlements and responsibilities.
Nothing could be more appropriate than asking the
prophets to present themselves as ideal husbands and fathers.
It was in this context that Prophet Muhammad married
several womenthough mostly widowsand raised a family.

192

Facts vs Fictions

It could be borne in mind that Prophet Muhammad declared

himself to be just another human being, neither more nor
less. Ideal for a human society could only be a human
individual, not a superhuman being. A being devoid of human
desires and propensities could fit into the category of angels
and may even attract sanctity or respect, but would not
personify human characteristics. It may be object of wonder
and adoration, but will not be worthy of emulation, for its
basic lack of properties that go into making of a human being.
Similarly, only a prophet who married and raised a family
could possess the understanding of its difficulties and
challenges, and would be able to guide the followers on
tackling the nitty-gritty of such a life. Only such a leader
would be considered competent enough to set the ideal for
others in those crucial affairs of life that each and every
common individual will inevitably face.
Had Prophet Muhammad remained unmarried, perhaps
he would not have fitted the image of a full blown human
being, let alone being a leader. His vision of an ideal society
would have remained incomplete and would not have carried
the credibility it does today. Only a guidance laced with
experience deserved this space. Moreover, it would have made
the task of an ordinary individual of tackling sexuality, biology,
family and society much more difficult, for the lack of
substantial guidance from an experienced leader. Blending
these spheres with morality would have remained an unfulfilled
assignment, as far as divine guidance is concerned.

Facts vs Fictions

193

Misunderstood Quranic Verses

Islam has its own fair share of critics as well as enemies. A
popular sport for them is to accuse Islam of advocating
violence against non-Muslims. And most of them come from
those quarters of the world which are engaged in committing
the worst crimes against the humanity. Their cannons have
not fallen silent even after having caused two World Wars,
Bosnian genocide, Stalinist terror, nuclear attack on Japan
and complete devastation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and
Lebanon. To paint Islam in the darkest colours, their media
is ever engaged in distorting the Quranic verses to make them
appear preaching violence. This is done in order to
manufacture justification for war against developing yet
resource-rich Muslim countries.
The Quran is the principal text of guidance for Muslims.
It is well known that it was not revealed at once. It was
rather sent over a period of 23 years to guide the course of
the transformation of a small society of early followers of
Prophet Muhammad in cities of Makkah and Madinah. The
audience at these two places was quite different from each
other. So was the nature of circumstances. In Makkah, where
the Prophet preached Islam for early 13 of the 23 years of his
tenure as prophet, he faced a hostile atmosphere. The hostility
began from opposition from the Quraysh and gradually turned
into criticism, harassment, torture, persecution and attempts
at assassination. Prophet Muhammad and his followers shifted
to Madinah where they could live in peace. Several of them

194

Facts vs Fictions

were even expelled and asked to go leaving their families and

property. Some other had to leave under the darkness of night
fearing for their lives. Some were brave enough to declare
their intent to migrate. In Madinah, they had a large number
of followers who were devout in their obedience and keen to
order their lives in accordance with the commandments from
God and his Prophet.
But in the very second year of the migration, enemies of
Islam Makkan Quraysh, attacked Madinah and the battle of
Badr took place in which the infidels, Quraysh were roundly
defeated by Muslims. In the third year too, the Makkans
again led an assault against Madinah. The Muslims suffered
heavy losses but were able to avert a complete rout. In the
fifth year of Hijrah (or migration), the Makkans led a huge
army of nearly 10,000 troops. The Prophet and his followers
finding themselves too outnumbered and underequipped, dug
a huge trench around Madinah and avoided a direct
confrontation. Tired of war, the Makkans never returned. In
the 7th year, the two sides reached a pact which was violated
by the Makkans within a span of six months. In retribution,
the Prophet himself led an army of 10,000 persons to Makkah
in the 8thyear and conquered Makkah without a fight and
any bloodshed. The enemies of Islam and the Prophet were
given amnesty. In short, this is the history of military
engagement of early Islam. The Quran continued to guide
the Prophet during all these years.
What could be seen from the above history is that these
battles were imposed on the Prophet. He did not initiate
them. But when attacked, he repulsed with full force. And
when pacts were breached, he declared his intent to fight
against the violators but announced amnesty for all noncombatants.
This being the historical pattern, the Prophet was guided
accordingly. Now in understanding the verses the Quran, it

Facts vs Fictions

195

is essential that each of them is related to its context. The

critics of the Quran precisely err on this account and tear
them out of context to support their prejudices against Islam.
There has been an attempt in India and other parts of
the world to create confusion about a few verses of Quran.
Writers with ill intentions misquote the verses out of context
and write the commentary with their own perceptions. Quran
should be read in context. If anyone just chooses a verse and
ignores the perspective, he will many a time go astray. The
pre-condition to read Quran and its verses is to have sincerity
of faith. If one read with bad intention he will not find
guidance.
Those explanations and commentaries shall be accepted
which are authentic, written by persons having knowledge of
Quran, historical perspective and life of Prophet Muhammad.
Here we are presenting such verses of Quran which are
used by some writers whose intention is to create confusion
and mislead the people:
2:190: Fight in the cause of God those who fight
you, but do not commit aggression: God loves not
the aggressors.
2:191: Slay them wherever you may come upon
them, and expel them from where they had expelled
you; for oppression (persecution) is worse than
slaughter; but fight them not near the Sacred
Mosque, unless they fight you therein; but if they
fight you therein, slay them. Such is the reward of
unbelievers.
2:192: But if they desist, then God is All-forgiving,
Compassionate to each.
2:193: Fight them until persecution is no more; and
religion is for God. But if they desist, then all

196

Facts vs Fictions

hostility shall cease, except against those who

willfully do wrong.
2:194: A Holy month will substitute for a holy
month, and sacrilege calls for retaliation. Thus, if
anyone commits aggression against you; retaliate
against him in the same measure. But fear God, and
know that God is with those who are conscious of
Him.
The aforementioned verses from the Quran are, in many
ways, an indicator of the predicament and dilemma of our
modern times. By misinterpreting these verses the critics of
Islam and prejudiced people say that Islam is inherently
violent.
These verses indicate the guidelines that regulate
relations between Muslims and other communities; therefore,
they demand a careful analysis and a clear understanding by
all. The verses are critical to our understanding of what
Muslims should demand of themselves and how other
communities ought to hold Muslims to account.
Now, the question is simple: how does one deduce from
the definitive declarative statement that opens this passage
but do not commit aggression: God loves not the
aggressors to a blanket warrant for violence?
Answer: Only by distorting ones reason and ignoring how
this passage fits within the whole of the Qurans moral and
ethical framework.
Of course, in reading these Quranic verses, it is absolutely
essential to keep in mind not one, but several, notes of
caution. Firstly, no verse must be read out of context; all
must be read in conjunction and in the light of their
relationship to the whole of the Quran. Secondly, it must
not be forgotten that the Quran was revealed over a span of
23 years and addresses itself not only to the actual

Facts vs Fictions

197

circumstances of a real and living community of ordinary

people, but also to the rest of mankind for all time to come.
What this obviously means is that quite apart from knowing
the problems that confronted the Muslims at the time of
the Quranic Revelation, some 1,500 years ago, we also have
to consider the mindset, indeed, the outlook the Quran seeks
to promote.
The context in which these verses were revealed calls
for particular study; the emerging Muslim communityof no
more than a few hundred peopleis under siege; caught in
terrible circumstances of life and death. Open hostility prevails
between the Muslims and various Arabian tribes, particularly
the Quraysh of Makkah. Having failed to suppress Islam in
Makkah, and knowing that the Muslims have found refuge
and an ever-growing and gaining strength in Madinah, the
enemy Quraysh have taken up the swords and arms to destroy
the Muslims once and for all.
The Quraysh are preparing for a major battle which will
decide whether Muslims survive or perish [this encounter
would finally result in the famous Battle of Badr. (Quran,
2:624)]. The Quraysh are, thus, committed to the complete
destruction of the Muslim community, as a later Quranic verse
makes clear:
They will persist in fighting you until they turn you
away from your faith, if they can. (Quran 2:217)
So what should immediately become clear is that God is
guiding the believers in this verse on how to deal with
oppression and persecution; how to deal with those that would
attack you!
So the valid question then becomes, should God have
instead said, Hug them wherever you find them, and kiss
them in return for them evicting you from your homes and
trying to murder you? There is no law on Earth, nor logic

198

Facts vs Fictions

that would support this, and this is quite clear in todays

world where some nations even attack others based on the
possibility that they will be attacked, not even waiting for
hostilities to start what has come to be termed the American
jingoistic lexicon as pre-emptive war.
So what options do the Muslims have? In these ultimate
circumstances permission is given by God to the Muslim
community to fight to defend their faith, who up to this point
had refrained from fighting. Thus, the Quranic verses were
revealed at a time when hostilities between Makkan Quraysh
and Madinah Muslims were in progress and the very survival
of the Muslims as a community was at stake.
And there are specific instructions in these verses which
indicate the historic situation. For example, slay them makes
it clear that the Quran is referring to action that must be
taken against those who are engaged in hostilities against the
Muslims, specifically the Quraysh. These persecutors, the
Quraysh, had driven Muslims out of their homes in Makkah.
So the followers of the Prophet are given permission to expel
them from where they had expelled you. They occupied the
Sacred Mosque in Makkah, and the Muslims are asked not
to fight within the boundaries of Sacred Mosque if possible.
And yet, in these difficult, trying, circumstances, Muslims
are asked not to transgress limits i.e., they are not to
commit atrocities, kill women, children or non-combatants,
or burn down property or destroy cattle and crop, or respond
disproportionately to aggression for transgression could
lead to self-destruction:
Do not, with your own hands, hurl yourself to
destruction. (Quran 2:195)
And, if the enemy ceases and stops fighting, Muslims
must lay down their arms; only hostility is to be met with
hostility. Thus, the Muslims fight is, in reality, an act of

Facts vs Fictions

199

resistance against hostilities.

There are, then, general principles here which have
broader applications. According to the Quran, war in selfdefense; is of course justified against the legitimate enemy if
they wage war against Islam and its communitya principle
that is also laid down in the Quran [Permission to fight is
given to those against whom war is being wrongfully waged
(22: 39). Also see: Quran 60: 80 and 4: 91]. This is why the
three battles of the Prophetthe Battle of Badr, the Battle
of Uhud, and the Battle of the Trenchwere all defensive in
character. The last one was in fact not a battle at all: the
defence, i.e., a trench around Madinah, was so good that the
enemy was unable to cross it and turned back after a month
of laying siege out of sheer boredom. The underlying lesson
here is that aggression is forbidden, Muslims are not to begin
hostilities:
Do not commit aggression For God loves not the
aggressors.
Defensive fighting in the Quran is related directly to
oppression. Oppression, persecution, the Quran says; is worse
than slaughter. As history shows, oppression can lead to
unspeakable atrocities, the ongoing defamation and humiliation
of human dignity by denying people their freedom and right
to flourish and prosper. Oppression and persecution degrade
both the oppressor and the oppressed. They fuel hatred and
generate new conflicts by denying the rightful liberties and
opportunities to thrive that should be enjoyed by all people.
They are the living death of the spirit inflicted on the
innocent. It was to prevent just such an occurrence that the
Quran permits the Muslims of Madinah to stand up and fight
against the oppressors of Makkah who are torturing, abusing
and suppressing Muslims of Madinah.

200

Facts vs Fictions

In a later verse, the Quran considers the nature of oppression:

If they do not let you be, and do not offer you peace,
and do not stay their hands; in other words,
oppression is continuous suppression, that denies
the right and freedom to live according to ones
conscience and identity and allows no option for
peace. The word often translated as oppression is
fitna. It incorporates the idea of persecution,
suffering, slaughter, sedition and constant distress.
It is also synonymous and identical with hindering
people from practicing their faith. It is in these
circumstances that war, which the Quran later in
this chapter describes as a heinous thing (Quran
2:217), becomes legitimate and justifiable.
It is this fight against oppression and this struggle for
survival that the Quran sees as just war In the cause of God.
The phrase and expression in the cause of God has nothing
to do with fighting for the propagation of faith, which is not
mentioned once in the Quran. The cause here is strictly
liberation from persecution and oppression. Neither does the
verse until persecution is no more and religion is for God
(Quran 2:193) have anything to do with the domination of
Islam and the subjugation and suppression of non-believers.
Rather, this expression only serves to emphasize the fruits of
a social order free from the slavery of man under man, and
also, it points to the end result of freedom from oppression:
God can be worshipped without fear of persecution. Indeed,
the phrase religion is for God implies worship in general by
all Faith communities. This is made clear in Quran, chapter
22, verse 40 where those who fight oppression in the cause
of God, liberate cloisters and churches and synagogues and
mosques in which Gods name is much remembered and which
otherwise would have been pulled down. The words used are
exactly the same: religion is for God.

Facts vs Fictions

201

The message of these verses is that the final outcome of

the fight against oppression should be that there is no
persecution on the basis of religion. And everyone is at liberty
to hold their chosen beliefs. Clearly, therefore, there is no
tension between these verses and the pluralist outlook that
is found in all the earlier Quranic verses.
In fact, the opposite interpretation that fighting should
continue until all people accept Islam under compulsion
goes against the very spirit of the Quran. It makes several
other verses [like There is no compulsion in religion (2:256)]
seem contradictory. It also renders pointless all those verses
where the Quran exhorts and encourages the Muslim believer
to make agreements, and enter into peace, treaties, whenever
possible.
These Quranic verses (2:190-195) are usually read together
with a number of other verses (such as 4:76, 4:34, 4:89, 4:91
and 9:5, 9:12, 9:14, 9:29, 9:36, 9:123) all of which speak of the
injunction to fight. But the verses that have attracted the
most attention, both from the classical commentators and
from critics of the Quran, are 9:5 and 3:151. Given their
particular relevance here, it seems worthwhile to discuss these
verses here.
The verse 9:5 Kill the associators (Mushrikin) wherever
you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in
wait for them at every place of ambush, cannot be seen as a
command for all times. Once again, it is a specific instruction
to those who violated the peace treaty. The verse speaks of
the sacred months when a truce of sorts was supposed to
be in operation. But actually with the exception of the tribes
of the Bani Damrah and the Bani Kananah, (who respected
the treaties they made with Muslims) all other tribes in, and
around, Madinah frequently violated the agreement and
continued to kill and persecute the Muslims. Indeed, such
violations were a common characteristic of the Arabian tribes

202

Facts vs Fictions

in their relations with Muslims. Here again, the survival of

the Muslim community was at stake. Muslims are, therefore,
urged to adopt war methods to defend themselves till the
hostilities cease. On the battlefield too, the enemies of Islam
did not play fair and did not abide by widely accepted tribal
agreements. Muslims followed the injunction to desist from
fighting, and would sheathe and wrap their swords when the
enemy laid down their weapons. But the Quraysh of Makkah
often took advantage of this Muslim policy and practiced
deception, dishonesty, thus, killing many Muslims. This
Quranic verse, therefore, expresses total annoyance and anger
against those with whom you make an agreement, and then
they break their agreement every time (Quran 8:56). These
are the specific people to whom this verse refers.
We now consider the verse i.e., We will put terror into
the hearts of the unbelievers; they serve other gods for whom
no sanction has been revealed (3:151). This verse has remained
the favourite tool of the real as well as imagined antagonists
of the Quran.
Much against what these Islamophobes and critics of
Islam propagate, this verse is actually a statement of fact.
Look at the context. This verse was revealed when the
Prophet was confronting aggression for the second time from
the enemies from Makkah within a year after the battle of
Badr had been won by the Muslims. As the Prophet prepared
for the battle of Uhud, the Quran, here reassures him that
the enemy will be terrified even though the Muslim army is
unprofessional as well as underequipped. It talks about the
perception in the enemy camp rather than a commandment
to the Muslims.
People who are eager to see terror even in the most
normal defensive action tend to read more sinister implications
in this kind of text. Their eagerness to tar the scripture with
a black brush can even find encouragement and instigation in

Facts vs Fictions

203

instances related in Bhagwad Gita. Gita prescribes fighting

for self defense and fighting against oppression and for Justice.
When Arjuna prefers to be killed unarmed rather than fight
his cousins Kauravas, Krishna exhorted Arjuna in the following
words: How these impure thoughts have come to you, which
prevent you from entering heaven. Give up this degrading
impotence and weakness of heart and arise, O defeater of
enemy. (Bhagwad Gita, ch.1 v.43-46 & ch.2 v.2-3)
Imagine if someone were to interpret these verses of
Bhagwad Gita as encouragement for violence and unjustified
killing! Wont such a deliberate attempt sound devilish and
totally out of context? Understood with proper context, Gita
makes a recommendation for taking up the cause of justice
and fighting against the evil. It therefore makes abundant
sense.

204

Facts vs Fictions

Acknowledgments
This book reflects ideas and insights I have gained over long
years, from many hundreds of people. I cant begin to sort
out who has influenced me on these themes over the years.
I would like to acknowledge here, however, the very
direct help and comments on this manuscript from a number
of people. In particular, I am sincerely thankful to the authors
from whose work I have benefited in compiling / writing this
book. First among them is Mr. Graham E. Fuller, veteran
political scientist and former Vice Chairman of the National
Intelligence Council at the C.I.A, of the United States of
America. Mr. John Louis Esposito, Professor of International
Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University,
Washington D.C., Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss academic and
writer, also a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in
the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University. Dr. Rafiq
Zakaria, Mr. A.G. Noorani, Indian Islamic scholars, Mr.
Ziauddin Sardar, writer and professor of Law, at Middlesex
University, London and Mr. Maqbool Ahmed Siraj, Bangalore
based journalist who works for several media organization
including the BBC World Service deserve special mention
among them.
Primary manuscripts were vetted by experts such as Dr.
U. R. Ananthamurthy, nominee for Man Booker-International
Prize and the recipient of Jnanpith Award and conferred with
Padma Bhushan, from the Government of India. Prof. B. Sheik
Ali, former Vice Chancellor of Mangalore and Goa
Universities, Dr. Chandrashekar Kambar, recipient of the
Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India
and he is a Founder Vice Chancellor Kannada University,

Facts vs Fictions

205

Hampi, Mr. Bipin Gopalakrishna, Deputy Director General

of Karnataka Police (Law and Order), Mr. Abdul Rahman
Kamaruddin, Ex-Advisor, UNESCO, UNIDO and IDB, Mr.
Mohammed Sanaulla, IAS, Principal secretary to Government
of Karnataka and Mr. U. Nisar Ahmed, IPS, Ex-Inspector
General of Police.
Their advices proved invaluable in further refining the
work. May God bless them all and accept their endeavours
in completion of the work. Ameen!
I am very thankful to Mr. Syed Tanveer Ahmed, Chief
Editor, www.karnatakamuslims.com, for their constant
accompaniment and support.
I would like to thank Mr. Mohammed Numan Khan for
his enthusiasm, faithfulness and humility with which he has
been assisting me in materialization of this work.
I am also thankful to my family members, brothers and
sisters. I am also indebted to my wife Shabana Firdose and
daughter Syeda Sufiya who missed my company on several
crucial occasions while being engaged in this work. And more
than anyone else, I must express my deepest gratitude to my
mother Asmath Sara, who had been the prime and constant
motivator behind the mission. It were her prayers and kind
words that were continuously propelling me forward. But
above all, it was the infinite mercy of Almighty Allah that
provided me the necessary resources, insight and zeal to
undertake this venture. Without His blessings, the mission
would neither be complete nor fruitful. I pray to Him to
guide me on the path of spreading the message of peace and
love among the entire humanity. Ameen!
February, 2013

Syed Hamid Mohsin

Chairman, Salaam Centre

206

Facts vs Fictions

Bibliographic References
1. Muhammad
Encyclopedia of Seerah

Afzalur Rehman.

2. The Emergence of Islam

Dr. Mohammed
Hameedullah.

3. The Life of Muhammad

Haykal.

4. Muhammad

Martine Lings.

5. Prophet Muhammad

Fethullah Gulen.

6. Muhammad, all that Matters

Ziauddin Sardar.

7. Islam, the West and

the Challenges of Modernity

Tariq Ramadan.

8. A World Without Islam

Graham E. Fuller.

9. Islam and Jihad

A.G. Noorani

10. The Islamic Threat,

Myth or Reality

John L. Esposito.

11. Demystifying Islam

Dr. Ali Shehata.

12. Muhammad and the Quran

Rafiq Zakaria.

13. Islam in Focus

Hammudah Abdalati.

14. The Holy Quran

Abdullah Yusuf Ali.

15. The Quran

Dr. Nazeer Ahmed.