Focus - Mumbai -7/11

The recent 7/11 serial blasts in Mumbai was a heinous and inhuman crime.


• “Too often, the media in the West presents the image of Muslims as violent, but I know this is not correct. I am a Muslim, but I will never kill anyone. When I watch the genocide in Chechnya or Bosnia, or the tragedy which unfolds in Palestine, it makes me very angry and very sad”


• “ Jihad is enjoined by the Quran. Why then there is so much confusion about it”.


• “ Islam teaches peace and considers human life as sacred. Why then does a section of Muslim society justify terrorism as Jihad”?


These and similar questions are being asked by Muslim youngsters after the recent 7/11 serial blasts in Mumbai. It is the responsibility of the community to guide the Muslim youth on the question of jihad and the misinterpretation by few extremist organisations.


What happened on July 11, 2006, in Mumbai is heinous and inhuman. Islam has no place for such an inhuman act. If any Muslim even remotely tries to justify it as a jihad or a revenge for the Gujarat riots, he will be negating the teaching of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh).


The vast majority of Muslims feel that there is a huge gap between how they perceive themselves and their faith and how the rest of the world views them. Many blame the discrepancy on the Western media. They accuse it of distorting what is essentially a peace-loving and tolerant faith.


Jihad is an Arabic word which means to strive for a better way of life. The other meanings are: endeavour, strain, exertion, effort and diligence, fighting to defend one’s life, land and religion.


Jihad should not be confused with Holy War. The latter does not exist in Islam nor will Islam allow its followers to be involved in a Holy War. The latter refers to the Holy War of the Crusaders. Jihad is not a war to force the faith on others, as many people think of it. It should never be interpreted as a way of compulsion of the belief on others, since there is an explicit verse in the Qur’an that says: “There is no compulsion in religion.” (Al-Baqarah- 2:256).


Not only in peace, but also in war, Islam prohibits terrorism, kidnapping, and hijacking, when carried against civilians. Whoever commits such violations is considered a murderer in Islam, and is to be punished by the Islamic state. During wars, Islam prohibits Muslim soldiers from harming civilians, women, children and elderly.


Maulana Riaz Ahmed Khan, Idara Dawatul Quran told Islamic Voice that “Islam does not allow killing of innocent civilians and non-combatants under any circumstance”. Asked to explain the concept of jihad as expounded in mainstream Islamic thought, Maulana Riaz said it had been laid down in great detail precisely to avoid any confusion. “To begin with, jihad is not incumbent on all Muslims and a call for jihad can be given only under special circumstances,” he said. Maulana Riaz agrees that injunctions explaining the circumstances for jihad and the people’s conduct during jihad constitute the core principles of the doctrine.


The community must take certain concrete steps to educate Muslim youth about the trap laid down by CIA, Mossad and ISI who come with their moneybags through their local agents and try to trap Muslim organisations and Muslim youth. The community must launch an All -India campaign to warn Indian Muslims of the threat posed by the agents of foreign agencies.


The community needs to focus on transparency in financial dealings of the various community organisations. Many a time, the foreign agency spreads a trap by opening their moneybags to unsuspecting individuals and organisations to conduct welfare and social activities. Afterwards they impose their hidden agenda of distorting Islam.


Ironically, Muslims form 13 per cent of the population, but have a minuscule share of political and administrative power and a level of human development that lags the mainstream by a good measure. Not too infrequently, their lack of access to the levers of state power has resulted in situations that breed enduring insecurity, both physical and economic. The Gujarat pogroms are high profile, but they have been preceded by a series of similar events. Rarely, if ever, has justice intervened to give Muslims faith in the system.


Hence Muslim youngsters feel cheated and become sitting ducks for the extremist elements. The Muslim leaders and elite must focus on the grass root issues and form a network to solve the basic issues of common Muslims.

Muslims are targeted by the media too. Suspects rounded up by the police have been photographed by the media.


Attention always focuses on Muslims as militants after terror attacks in India, and Mumbai’s Muslim community was fearful as reports spilled out about the attacks, in which more than 200 people died when bombs tore through packed suburban trains.


“Muslims are targeted by both administration and political parties. We are fearing a fall-out of the blast,” said member of Rajya Sabha, Abu Asim Azmi.


Maulana Athar of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board said Muslims are targeted by the media too. “We are not against an investigation. Suspects have to be picked up and that is fine. But all the suspects rounded up by police in last few days have been photographed by the media,” says Maulana Athar. He feels that displaying images of the suspects on Indian television is unfair and misleading since they have not been convicted of any crime. But all the Ulema praised the city’s Hindu majority for showing “great restraint”.


As public pressure to find the bombers has mounted, a harried police force has gone into over-drive. Midnight searches of Muslim neighbourhoods have led to the detention of hundreds of Muslims in the past few days.


The police had rounded up almost 200 men in Malvani alone, a densely populated Muslim neighbourhood of tiny brick houses and corrugated metal shops constructed around a lavish mosque in the city’s western suburbs. Altogether, across the city formerly known as Bombay, 350 Muslims had been placed in cells.


Those who were arrested said they spent the night being interrogated, sometimes aggressively, by police, seeking information on the blast. The city’s police say they had no evidence linking any of the men, or hundreds of others who were arrested, to the bombings. Desperate to find the bombers, they acknowledge that they essentially rounded up the usual suspects - in this case, anyone from a Muslim family who was a “history-sheeter” known to the police.


“Look at the kind of people who were picked up for questioning- ordinary citizens dragged out of their homes and detained all night for questioning. The house-to-house searches at night and long waits at the police station, is creating a fear psychosis,” said Suhail Rokadia, a Muslim social activist.

A large number of human rights activists belonging to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in towns and cities across Pakistan including Chairperson Asma Jahangir; Secretary General Iqbal Haider; Mr. Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, former Governor Sindh; Dr. Mubashir Hasan, former Federal Finance Minister; Mr. I. A. Rehman, renowned journalist and peace activist; Mr. Afrasiab Khattak, Chairperson Pakistan-India People’s Forum; Hina Jilani, Zohra Yusuf, Zahoor Ahmed Shahwani, Kamran Arif, Vice-chairpersons HRCP; Mr. Tahir Mohammad Khan, former Minister and Deputy Chair Senate from Balochistan; Mr. Khalid Mahmood, former President Lahore High Court Bar Association; Mr. Haji Adil,former Deputy Speaker of Frontier Assembly; Khawaja Wasim, President Frontier Chapter of Pak-India People’s Forum; Anis Haroon, Secretary General Pakistan India Forum; Mr. Salim Asmi, former Editor Dawn; Dr. Haroon Ahmed, peace activist; Shahtaj Qizilbash, Chairperson of joint Action Committee for People’s Rights; Mr. Tariq Farooq, Secretary General Labour Party; and Mr. Joseph Francis of National Christian Party; have issued the following statement: “We have been shocked and deeply grieved at the wanton killing of over 160 people in the dastardly bomb attacks on railway passengers in Mumbai on July 11, 2006.The real target of this vile plot was the entire population of South Asia. For, incidents such as this are manifestly designed to derail the process of peace-building between India and Pakistan, foment communal violence and thus undermine the very existence of the two neighbours. It is necessary that all parties concerned should go beyond rhetoric and take stringent action against the culprits.  While we hope the governments of India and Pakistan will maintain due restraint, the people of India may be unable to avoid attributing the latest attack on the hands that have been taking the lives of innocent people and destabilizing Indo-Pak negotiations over the last several years”.

The Saifee Ambulance Society organised a blood collection camp for the injured in the catastrophe that struck Mumbai in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on local trains last month. The camp was held at the Saifee Ambulance premises in Bhendi Bazaar and there was a collection of 152 bottles of blood. 40 women from the Saifee Ambulance Corps also volunteered to participate in the drive. Organised with the Indian Red Cross Society, the event was the third camp to help victims of natural or man-made disasters. “The Saifee Ambulance donated 135 bottles of blood after the bomb explosion at Zaveri Bazaar two years ago,” said Shabbir Bharmal, Chief co-ordinator of the camp.


The society’s Ambulance service which is affiliated with St. Jones Ambulance Brigade was made available to the blast victims in Mahim, Matunga and Khar. “Our service is sought during house collapses, building fires, train accidents, riots and earthquakes,” added Shabbir Bagasrawala, Secretary of Saifee Ambulance.