The Muslims today stand on a precipice. They need to build bridges with others in the plural society that we are destined to live in. There are multiple approaches to the building of understanding. Some people would think presenting message of Islam to non-Muslims could be the most effective one. Others believe that adopting the majority’s culture would put their fears to rest. Yet others think panacea lies in banishing religion from the social and political life could be the ideal recipe. A few consider the hate-mongers to be belonging to the upper castes. So an ideal antidote would be to build alliance with the socially oppressed classes. All these approaches should be followed by whoever thinks he or they can achieve social harmony this way.
It must be borne in mind that a minority must try to reach out to others in its own interest rather than expecting others to come to it.
Here we suggest some community measures:
Being proactive
* The most effective way to tackle the communal forces or communal hatred is to be proactive. Relief and rehabilitation starts after the damage has been done. It is better to prevent riots than seek cures later.
* It is better to spread love and promote understanding than douse fires and do troubleshooting.
* It is better to build friendships than to allow the hate-mongers to gain advantage and promote hostilities.
On individual plain
* Be friendly with non-Muslims.
* Invite them home on festivals, share meals with them and get invited at their festivals.
* Send your friends greetings/cards on festivals, marriage and other special occasions.
* Know your neighbours’ and friends’ dietary habits beforehand. Befriend them with a right menu.
* Never throw a bone to your neighbour’s dog if he happens to be a vegetarian.
* Offer gifts, tips or eatables or at least tea and snacks to lowly functionaries of the society like the garbage collectors, scavengers, meter readers, newspaper boys, municipal tax collectors. Mostly such people come from underprivileged sections of the society and look forward to such freebies and favours. A tea in your drawing room is undreamt by them.
During Ramadan
* Do not allow the sehri wake-up teams to beat drums through the streets inhabited by non-Muslim localities or even mixed localities. Drum beating has outlived its utility. It has to be abandoned totally.
* Let not the locality mosque read out taraweeh prayers on microphones.
* Let not the samosa shops encroach upon streets and lead to clogging of traffic. Such manifestations of Ramadan are not welcomed by anyone.
Azan
* Azan may appear a wake up call to us, but may not be approved of by members of other communities. It is better if the morning azan is called without amplifiers. If indeed attendance for Fajr is thin, the mosques could send out sms to musallis.
* Wherever there is no need for amplifiers, they could be taken off the minarets. The musallis could be instructed to feed azan in their mobiles and times of azan be set frequently as the timings change.
Jumaa (Friday congregation)
* Friday congregations are snowballing in size everywhere. It is therefore imperative for the community to expand capacity of mosques.
* Spilling of namazis onto the roads must be avoided all costs. Blocking traffic will put people to inconvenience.
* If the mosque cannot be expanded, the congregations should be held twice or thrice.
* Jumaa sermons should focus on issues of public concern and communal harmony rather than being merely ritualistic.
On Bakrid
* Bakrid or Eidul Azha is the occasion when the communal forces look for the most prized opportunity for stoking communal hatred and mobilize groups to physically attack Muslims. It is true that 80 per cent of the people of India eat meat. But it is useful to remember that power elite of the nation is vegetarian or at least maintains that position.
* Do not sacrifice animals in public.
* Arrange safe disposal of the waste away from the municipal garbage bins.
* Possibly go for collective qurbani and away from large human concentrations and away from the public eye.
* Do not throw bones, entrails and blood on the streets.
* Avoid qurbani of the big animals that cause hurt to other groups who worship them.
* Sacrifice only that many animals as are obligatory. Do not unnecessarily slaughter animals after the name of every buzurg. Seek other avenues for donating this money for socially beneficial purposes.
* Do not put up posters for collective qurbani on public spaces. Communal forces keep an eye on that and can create disharmony on that score.
With Police
* Police are the maintainers of the law, order and security. It is desirable that a positive relationship is built with them. The task begins with everyone keeping himself abreast of the functionaries of the local police station, division and the city or thana. Background of such functionaries should be known, their human rights record, their education, their family ties, their nexus with politicians should also be known.
* The locality Muslim should arrange a community iftar or meals for the local police station at least once during the month of Ramadan and on the eve of Eidul fitr or Bakrid.
* If the locality Muslims happen to be resourceful, they could also arrange something like a water cooler, fridge, or whatever is a common need for the station.
* The new Circle Inspector should be invited to the mosque soon after his appointment/transfer and be presented a shawl, a sweet box, a memento or gift for his family and be garlanded.
* The important people in the community should cooperate with the local police station during festivals, conclaves and times of tensions.
* Water, tea and meals should be arranged for the cops on the bandobust for Eid congregation, sandal procession or tablighi ijtima or Hajj camp or any other occasion when their presence is warranted. Arrangements should be made for their officers to sit.
On Media front
* Media is the purveyor of the news, views and pictures. A positive rapport is essential for the long term harmony. For this the community in the cities and towns should keep itself aware of the people in the media, their background, their religious persuasions, their ideological affiliations, their caste, their educational career and families and strengths and weaknesses. Proper documentation of these should be done. Addresses, phones, email IDs and locations should be updated.
* The media always recognizes people by their designations, organizations. A few knowledgeable and prominent people should maintain rapport with them and act as spokesperson. All and sundry should not speak on behalf of the community but they could speak individually and such opinion should be held individual. Before interacting with the media, the spokespersons or organizations should coordinate their response with the cross section of the people.
* Media has various organizations such as Working Journalists Association, Press Guild, Press Photographers associations, local Press Club, Press Academy, etc. Their functions and functionaries and antecedents should be known to the community.
* On special community occasions the media persons should be invited for lunch or dinner. They could be offered modest gifts. There should not be any overt measures to woo media persons. Such things are detected and prove counterproductive. But one-to-one rapport with individual reporters and journalists is always useful. They could be helped from community scholarship funds, medical aid foundations, or even marriage gifts are quite in order. Advertisements carrying greetings on special occasions and significance of the occasion should be inserted in the media.
* Some journalists whose attitude has been consistently positive, could be commissioned for special reports and researches about the community under an open system of fellowship from a recognized body. This is a recognized way of interacting with the media by communities and interest lobbies.
* When a negative report, opinion about the community appears in the media, there should not be an angry outburst from the community. Following steps should be taken: 1-Source of the news should be identified. 2-there should be effort to investigate the news at the source. 3-Distortion and corruption should be outlined and brought to the notice of the newspaper editors.
On contentious issues
There are bound to be conflicting situations in a plural society as various faiths and religions have varying practices and ideologies. Hindus worship idols, Muslims are opposed to idolatory; Christians sell and eat pork, Muslims hate pork; Dalits breed and rear pigs, Muslims will not touch anything with a bargepole that has connection with pigs; Jains are strictly vegetarian, Muslims and Christians are non-vegetarians. On all such issues, confrontationist postures must be avoided. Mediation and conflict resolution exercise must be taken up by the people of understanding. Agents provocateurs take advantage of such sensitivities. It is quite possible that some may throw a piece of prohibited meat in a mosque or a temple may be stoned by some miscreants. Community must condemn all such acts but should avoid getting exacted over such trivialities. Such acts should be brought to the notice of police and action must be sought.
Elections
Elections are part of the electoral democracy. There is no alternative. While they ensure governance, they also sharpen caste and community feelings and with regard to Muslims they could as well provoke communal feelings. Some steps are suggested.
1- Do not allow religion to be an issue.
2- Choose winnable candidate of a secular party as your choice.
3- Closely scrutinize the manifestos of the party and credentials of the candidates beforehand.
4- Floating of a Muslim party is detrimental to the larger cause of minority existence. By winning a few seats here and there they are likely to jeopardize the minority interests in larger number of constituencies.
5- Approach the manifesto-making panels of political parties before polls and get community issues addressed by suitable measures.n Readers can send their response to maqbool_siraj@yahoo.com and editor@islamicvoice.com
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December 2008 |