Opinion Not in my country
If I have stayed away from commenting in this column on the horror of a Professors hand being chopped off in Kerala by Muslim fanatics it was not out of fear of brickbats and abuse....
If I have stayed away from commenting in this column on the horror of a Professors hand being chopped off in Kerala by Muslim fanatics it was not out of fear of brickbats and abuse. Those of jihadi disposition seem to spend half their time trawling the worldwide web in search of anyone they consider an enemy of Islam. I am an enemy of all religious fanaticism and make an easy target. My contempt for fanatics is of such a high order that I consider it my dharma not to be silenced by their violent tactics. Not even in those bad old Khalistani times when on account of my disdain for the cause I got death threats. I learned then that I had to look out for myself. When I sought the help of Home Minister,Buta Singh,he said I would be a more visible target with policemen hovering about.
So it has not been fear that has kept me from commenting on the awfulness of the Kerala incident but the hope that for once someone more secular and liberal than I would comment on this repugnant crime. Alas,the only newspaper that investigated it was this one. A few Sundays ago there was an excellent article on the Indian Popular Front. When I read it,I realised that it was as nasty a gathering of fanatics as ever. But,the most interesting detail in the article related to this jihadi organisations links with the CPM in Kerala. As someone who watches the jihad carefully,I found this information particularly rivetting because it fits in with a worldwide trend. There is a bizarre camaraderie between Godless Marxists and violently religious Islamists. When burqas are banned in European countries or minarets prevented from being built,the first people to make a noise are usually Marxists. But,for the CPM in Kerala to have associated with an organisation that chops peoples hands off is truly beyond belief.
It does not end there either. Now we have the story of the lady Professor from West Bengal who has been banned from teaching in the Aliah University because she refuses to wear a burqa. Sirin Middya was intimidated and threatened by a fanatical students union and neither the University authorities nor the Marxist government came to her aid. Is this what Bengals Marxist government believes is secularism? If it is,then the CPM is worse than the worst religious fanatics.
It is time for the rest of us to speak up. Time to say loudly: not in my country,not in my name. India is not an Islamic Republic and hopefully will never be,so anyone enforcing half-understood Shariat laws should be sent straight to jail. The Vice Chancellor of the Aliah University and the leaders of the Islamist students union should be first on that list. It might not be a bad idea to pack the Education Minister of West Bengal off as well and certainly the leaders of the Indian Popular Front. After the Professors hand was chopped off,some of them dared to appear on television to state that they did not approve of violence of this kind. It is simply not good enough to say this.
The picture that this newspaper carried of the rally that the Front organised is evidence,if any is needed,that they are running a militant jihadi organisation. All the women in the picture were veiled and all the men in some kind of military uniform. What is going on? What has the Chief Minister of Kerala been doing?
Are our political leaders blind? Do they not see what this kind of militant Islamism has done to our next door neighbours? Have they not noticed that the jihadis are so dangerous an enemy that the United States has been forced into its longest war ever? With Afghanistan in turmoil and Pakistan and Bangladesh becoming increasingly Jihadi in their thinking is it not clear that we cannot allow even jihad-lite organisations in India?
Of all the fanatical religious movements that have come and gone in this country,there is not the faintest shadow of a doubt that the Jihad is the most dangerous. If jihadi organisations are allowed to spread their poisonous propaganda in University campuses it is only a matter of time before the situation becomes as uncontrollable as it has in Pakistan. So those who do not want India to descend into some kind of hellish religious cauldron need to speak up. We need to speak up loudly enough for the Prime Minister to hear that we will not allow him or anyone else to turn India into a breeding ground for the Taliban. We cannot allow the jihad in India because its ideology is the antithesis of the idea of India. Clear?
Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleens
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