SPIRIT OF ISLAM FEBRUARY 2018

45 Spirit of Islam Issue 62 February 2018 from this is: Do not exaggerate or get agitated about a small thing, because that could easily lead to a riot. Just ignore these issues and everything will be fine. Let me cite another example. A temple and a mosque stood in the vicinity of each other. One day, Bhajans (religious hymns) were being broadcast through the temple’s loudspeaker. A group of Muslims went to the temple and demanded that they turn it off. The Hindus refused, and then the agitated Muslims destroyed the loudspeaker. And after this, matters escalated into a riot. Now, this happened because these Muslims reacted angrily to a small thing. Why should they have got agitated like that? No one was stopping them from praying in the mosque. They could have continued doing just that, isn’t it? And then there would have been no riot. So, the point is that avoiding getting agitated about petty issues and avoiding confrontation are the solution to communal riots. On many occasions there seems to be a contradiction between what is said to be Shariah law and the law of the land. What do you feel about this? In this regard, Islamic teachings are very clear. Some people may talk of enforcing Shariah in India, but this is totally irrelevant since India is a secular country. With regard to the Indian context, the Islamic position is that Muslims should focus on their faith, their worship, their character-building as per Islamic teachings but the law of the land must be in accordance with the country’s Constitution. That means that Muslims have to follow the country’s Constitution. Muslims should not raise the question of enforcing Shariah law in the country. It has no relevance. Shariah law may apply to countries where Muslims are a majority, but not in a country like India. Many Indians suspect Indian Muslims of being pro-Pakistan. Do you think this is true? This suspicion is unfounded. Soon after the Partition, many Indian Muslims migrated to Pakistan. But who migrates there now? No one! So, the Indian Muslims have joined their fate with India’s. If there are one or two people who think otherwise, you shouldn’t use that to form a general impression of the Indian Muslims as a whole. In your experience what is the actual problem of Muslims? The root of the problem is that while Muslims have religious education, they lack secular education. To understand this, you have to go back