Letters

Mr. Syed Nooruddin’s comments in “Azan is not disturbance” (IV,March 2009) is no doubt a statement of facts but solutions to objections of disturbance whenever and wherever raised should be tackled with wisdom, instead of getting into unhealthy competition with church bells and hymns from temples. Though criticism is welcome, yet it is not quite correct to run down such conscientiously thought out harmony prescription given by Mr Maqbool siraj. That Azan is a source of disturbance, especially at Fajr, is not just an Indian problem. Even in Muslim majority Malaysia people do object to azan, forcing mosques to either avoid the PA system at Fajr or force people to learn to live with the disturbance.

There can be technological solutions too to avoid undesirable blaring sound from speakers. In the UK, a company Nabishi UK Ltd fabricates and sells systems for radio transmission of azan from mosques which Muslims in the vicinity can receive on their receiver sets at home. Avoiding blare and having uniform clear sound from a public address system has always been a challenge to acoustic engineers. A US company has specially designed speakers (Bose L1 Model) which do not blare like the horn type or even the ordinary box type speakers but send out uniform sound output from a single speaker at 180 degrees angle thus enabling a pair of such speakers to give all around output of clear and uniform sound at desired intensity covering a large area.

The aforesaid systems may be expensive as of now but some research minded acoustic engineers from India can think of cost effective systems for our local mosques and temples who can send out low decibel but clear sound signals, be they of azan or hymns, over reasonable distances . I can think of one such person who can do this.. The Oscar award winning sound engineer Mr. Resul Pookutty!

I have read with interest the ‘Manual for Social Harmony’ proposed by Maqbool Ahmed Siraj in Islamic Voice. While a manual for setting standards of behaviour with the majority community, particularly in the present context is of immense value, we need to deeply analyse as to why we stand at such crossroads. It is true that we need to develop inclusive behaviour patterns in our social life and the list enumerated is long overdue, let us not do it from a position of disadvantage for it will appear to be a strategy of the defeated and may be counter productive.

If we analyse the reasons and areas where bonding has been possible, it is when the outsider sees in us, qualities that are positive and which hitherto he was unaware of that we possessed. These qualities are culture specific and rooted in the religious ethos of a people. These qualities need to be consciously listed and emphasized. For e.g., Christians are able to win goodwill because of their service in fields of education and health.

While parallely the doors of communication can be opened for the outsiders to glimpse into our way of life and have an understanding, we need to emphasize our presence in a way that the outsider feels that we are contributing something valuable to the society. At present, though it is not consciously articulated, we are looked on as weeds that are useless but taking up important resources and space in the garden. Much of the antagonism is due to this latent perception of us. Christianity is also an alien religion, yet it is more acceptable. Of course the reasons are not very simplistic, it is based on the status it enjoys as a religion followed by countries which are in power today, but yet hate fires cannot be ignited as easily against Christians as they can be against Muslims.

We need to honestly introspect and then plan out both long term and immediate strategies to mitigate the situation. We should also veer away from the temptation to get into dogma, metaphysical and theological debates in such forums. No doubt it is precisely to practice our faith in peace and freedom, and create a conducive atmosphere for ourselves that we need to start the crisis management.

We need to build in quality that evokes admiration. Simple things like good manners in our day to day interactions need to be inculcated among common folk. Christians are taught polite manners in their churches every Sunday. Our moulvis only exhort differences. We need to capacity build our community leaders, like moulvis etc.

Another issue which is looked at with askance is the perceived sense of gender injustice among Muslims. Women are oppressed and denied freedom of all kinds, is the idea that the non Muslim has of us .This view prevails because of obvious symbols like wearing of the burqa, the prevalence of arbitrary talaq and the right to practice polygamy. Though existing statistics actually prove contrary to prevailing notions, these are not well known and we have not really made much effort to straighten this record. On the fact of women’s repression, women are as good or as worse off, as their counterparts in other communities, but women’s status becomes a subject of discussion and women in Islam are looked on as victims. While I am not attempting to denounce the practice of wearing of the burqa, this misperception could be corrected by intelligently potraying the obvious advantages of wearing the Hijab to our brethren from other communities. More importantly a significant improvement in the literacy levels of Muslim women will automatically clear away such prevailing ideas about their victimization. Instead it will be looked on as a culturally specific habit.
Unfortunately most issues concerning Muslims are hazy. This is compounded by the efforts of some mischievous elements to deliberately target the Muslims by branding them as terrorists and anti social elements, as a people who are militant by nature and who cannot live in peaceful co-existence. Establishing communication channels to present our side of the argument is a wise investment which will pay substantial dividends. We need to be proactive and make available information about Muslims and Islam beforehand rather than indulge in damage control exercise at a later point of time. At present the literacy level of the community is so dismal that to find journalists, men of letters to do this is a hopeless task. But yet we cannot wait for us to reach the stage of producing these important resources to do the job for us.

We need to work strategies like for e.g., A group of individuals from various walks of life could meet at a common place for a single purpose once a week to write articles, pieces etc. on one or two topics, which could then be sent to different newspapers and magazines. The effort might look small, but if many such voluntary groups come together it would be a huge movement and will certainly make a dent sometime. This is only one suggestion; other such strategies could be worked out.