Letters to the Editor

This refers to the article by Maqbool Ahmed Siraj on poor representation in central services(Islamic Voice, July 2004). I would not care if there are no Muslims in central services. Do you think a Muslim officer in IAS or IPS or IFS will be of any help to Muslims. Certainly not. They are afraid to attend Jumma prayers lest they are branded as fundamentalists. Even if they attend Idd prayers, they run to their car to get away and not meet people. I advise young men to avoid government service, but instead look at many other chances and opportunities which are not financially better than IAS or IPS, but they can help the community without worrying who is watching them.

The American assault on Najaf is an extremely dangerous move. The objective is to remove militants inside the Imam Ali mosque, that contains the tomb of the fourth Caliph Ali. This cousin of the holy Prophet (Pbuh), married his beloved daughter Fatima, Imam Hussain was his son. In his own right, he is deeply revered for his spirituality and his mysticism. Shias consider him as the light of Allah. Sufis in India have looked upon Ali as the first mystic. Imam Ali has a very strong emotional bonding with all Muslims. Any damage to his tomb may have far reaching consequences, not just for Iraq, but for the entire Muslim world, the West and even India. Is the assault on Iraq worth the terrible risk involved? God forbid, if anything happens to the tomb, the divide between the West and the Muslim world may become unbreachable. Democracy and Western values in the Arab world may become impossible. The Muslim world may even be pushed back by a 100 years in terms of modernity and scientific temperament.

I am a long-time subscriber of Islamic Voice (when it was Rs. 5). The publication has been improving each year and there is lot of sensible and useful matter for all levels of readers. In the August 2004 issue, the story about the police commissioner’s remarks about Urdu Times and Javed Akhtar showed poor research as it was one-sided without presenting the other perspective of the issue. I am neither sympathising with Javed Akhtar nor Urdu Times or either the police commissioner of Mumbai. Your editorial on Gujarat was good and showed hope for the future. However, the word you intended to use probably was immunity used perhaps three times. “Impunity” was what the rioters and the Gujarat government showed.

I congratulate you for accepting brickbats with dignity, but please do not hurt us by printing cheap mail from the types of Akash Chaudhry ( Islamic Voice, July 2004). Islam does not need certificates from his types. Let him reserve his mail and opinions for birds of the same feather. We as Muslims want to live in peace, we do not want others to praise us or criticise us. We are fine on our own, very proud of our faith and extremely lucky to be born a momin. Do not stir us from our tranquility by printing rubbish.

People from a particular community are hounding precious space in Islamic Voice through their letters disrespecting Islam. I just want to ask them if raping women and girls is approved by Hinduism, is cutting and burning people a part of Hinduism? We Muslims want peace. SIMI was banned because they had plans, but the VHP successfully executed their own plans. The accused of the Godhra train carnage are held in POTA, but Gujarat carnage accused were never put to justice.

I want to congratulate the Islamic Voice team on the success of this publication. It has done really well and in particular supported secularism and equality. Dr Zakir Naik’s columns are real eye-openers, he is indeed a top scholar. Muslims are the best nation, Allah the Almighty gave us the divine law to conduct our day - to - day affairs including even in very private matters such as answering the nature’s call. No other religion has guided mankind in such details. Akash Chaudhry in the July 2004 issue has mentioned that Muslims have made this earth a bad place to live. He should know that we were the only thriving religion and civilisation when the rest of the world was under dark. Europe lived under bear and dog skin and did not bathe for months together.

I can only say that this person is sadly informed and his opinion hardly matters. As you can see, that a vast majority of people in India and the West are not patient or reasonable in their rhetoric against Muslims.