Being A Muslim In His Ownland
By Zamhasari Jamil
Being a Muslim in his ownland have a special mark. M Yusuf Khan, an Indian Muslim who served Indian Air Force talks to The Pioneer, Friday, 23 December 2005. Full story is included here entitled:
The malady of misinterpretation
The problem with Islam today is that everyone else seems to know Quran better than Muslims themselves, says M Yusuf Khan. How do you feel to be a Muslim in India? Were you discriminated against, while you served in the Indian Air Force? Do you believe Muslims can get justice from the judiciary in this country? How did you feel when Gujarat was burning? Will you join the BJP if offered an election ticket? These and some more questions were posed to me by a journalist not from across the border, but a home-grown one. Adding insult to the injury was her patronising remark: "I understand, sometimes it is difficult to tell the truth." It was clear that she had certain presumptions and would believe what fits into that ambit.
The dialogue took me back to 1971 when the war appeared imminent in the wake of the developments in what was then East Pakistan. We were in war readiness when a very dear friend and a colleague from the south, who continues to be a good friend, said to me: "How will you feel fighting a country that shares your religious faith?" I was obviously shocked and even hurt by the question.
But soon I realised that he did not mean to doubt my loyalty. It was a pure case of naïve curiosity overtaking his sense of political correctness, a phrase that was rarely used those days. He had not meant any offence but realised that his question had the potential of damaging our friendship, and he literally bit his tongue off for the indiscretion he had committed.
I decided not be offended by the poser, since I knew the intention. In a way, his question had already been answered way back, when I was waiting to join the IAF, by Maulana Aslam, a faculty of Madrasa Diniya, Ghazipur, and a frequent visitor to our household. He had said that, according to the teachings of Islam, it was your religious duty to fight for your country regardless of what faith the aggressor espoused. My interviewer looked surprised at my discloser and made notes.
The other embarrassing episode occurred at the IAF Selection Board, Dehra Dun, while appearing at the interview. We were going through the round of informal introductions. As soon as I mentioned my name, an aspirant, Kriplani, from Lucknow blurted out: "Do they take Muslims in the Air Force?" Before I could gather my wits, all other candidates, almost a dozen of them, pounced on him. Do I have to say that not a single one of them was a Muslim? Poor Kriplani was red in the face and kept reassuring that he meant no offence.
I believed him, as many of my Muslim well-wishers too had expressed similar views before the interview. They were sure that I was wasting my time, as I would never be selected because of my religion. Kriplani and I both got selected; the former, however, could not make the grade as a pilot and became a navigator. I passed out as a fighter pilot and I did fight the 1971 war. So much for the prejudices.
Events like Gujarat or Godhra are extremely tragic and deserve to be condemned and abhorred. My feeling about such riots is no different from that of any rational human being. Who started it and who finished is totally irrelevant. The killing and arson cannot be justified under any pretext. Did not some one in authority say that riots can be stopped within 24 hours, if the administration wants? I believe him and that is why I feel so sad to see places like Mau burning under a communal frenzy for days before even a semblance of normalcy is restored. These riots are a blot on a civilised nation. And, if their genesis lies in the history and geography, so be it. We cannot carry the baggage of past prejudices forever, to the detriment of our future.
Coming back to the judiciary, it is preposterous to insinuate that the judicial system holds bias against a community. The higher courts have time and again shown that they practice and believe in fair play, unlike the impression people carry about law and order enforcement department, etc. It was just a few years ago that a ban was sought on the Quran in Kolkata High Court. The court was quick to dismiss the mischievous case with the promptness it deserved.
"The trouble with Islam is," and I am not quoting the book by Ms Irshad Manji, a Canada-based writer and a non-conformist but a retired Muslim Air Vice Marshal of the IAF, "That everyone else seems to know Islam better than Muslims themselves." Mr Praveen Togadia seems to know Islam better than any scholar of Islam, who may have spent his lifetime studying theology. Likewise, Mr Arun Shourie considers himself an authority on the subject by reading translated versions of Quran and quoting selected verses to confuse those unfamiliar with text preceding or following them.
No doubt, there is a small number of people who cannot differentiate between teachings of Islam and the deeds of its confused and, therefore, condemnable followers. But that is another story. To answer the first question of the journalist, without thinking I had said, "I feel privileged to be an Indian Muslim." Since then I have given sufficient thought to the question, and I find my answer remains the same. [The Pioneer, Friday, 23 December 2005]
Being a Muslim in his ownland have a special mark. M Yusuf Khan, an Indian Muslim who served Indian Air Force talks to The Pioneer, Friday, 23 December 2005. Full story is included here entitled:
The malady of misinterpretation
The problem with Islam today is that everyone else seems to know Quran better than Muslims themselves, says M Yusuf Khan. How do you feel to be a Muslim in India? Were you discriminated against, while you served in the Indian Air Force? Do you believe Muslims can get justice from the judiciary in this country? How did you feel when Gujarat was burning? Will you join the BJP if offered an election ticket? These and some more questions were posed to me by a journalist not from across the border, but a home-grown one. Adding insult to the injury was her patronising remark: "I understand, sometimes it is difficult to tell the truth." It was clear that she had certain presumptions and would believe what fits into that ambit.
The dialogue took me back to 1971 when the war appeared imminent in the wake of the developments in what was then East Pakistan. We were in war readiness when a very dear friend and a colleague from the south, who continues to be a good friend, said to me: "How will you feel fighting a country that shares your religious faith?" I was obviously shocked and even hurt by the question.
But soon I realised that he did not mean to doubt my loyalty. It was a pure case of naïve curiosity overtaking his sense of political correctness, a phrase that was rarely used those days. He had not meant any offence but realised that his question had the potential of damaging our friendship, and he literally bit his tongue off for the indiscretion he had committed.
I decided not be offended by the poser, since I knew the intention. In a way, his question had already been answered way back, when I was waiting to join the IAF, by Maulana Aslam, a faculty of Madrasa Diniya, Ghazipur, and a frequent visitor to our household. He had said that, according to the teachings of Islam, it was your religious duty to fight for your country regardless of what faith the aggressor espoused. My interviewer looked surprised at my discloser and made notes.
The other embarrassing episode occurred at the IAF Selection Board, Dehra Dun, while appearing at the interview. We were going through the round of informal introductions. As soon as I mentioned my name, an aspirant, Kriplani, from Lucknow blurted out: "Do they take Muslims in the Air Force?" Before I could gather my wits, all other candidates, almost a dozen of them, pounced on him. Do I have to say that not a single one of them was a Muslim? Poor Kriplani was red in the face and kept reassuring that he meant no offence.
I believed him, as many of my Muslim well-wishers too had expressed similar views before the interview. They were sure that I was wasting my time, as I would never be selected because of my religion. Kriplani and I both got selected; the former, however, could not make the grade as a pilot and became a navigator. I passed out as a fighter pilot and I did fight the 1971 war. So much for the prejudices.
Events like Gujarat or Godhra are extremely tragic and deserve to be condemned and abhorred. My feeling about such riots is no different from that of any rational human being. Who started it and who finished is totally irrelevant. The killing and arson cannot be justified under any pretext. Did not some one in authority say that riots can be stopped within 24 hours, if the administration wants? I believe him and that is why I feel so sad to see places like Mau burning under a communal frenzy for days before even a semblance of normalcy is restored. These riots are a blot on a civilised nation. And, if their genesis lies in the history and geography, so be it. We cannot carry the baggage of past prejudices forever, to the detriment of our future.
Coming back to the judiciary, it is preposterous to insinuate that the judicial system holds bias against a community. The higher courts have time and again shown that they practice and believe in fair play, unlike the impression people carry about law and order enforcement department, etc. It was just a few years ago that a ban was sought on the Quran in Kolkata High Court. The court was quick to dismiss the mischievous case with the promptness it deserved.
"The trouble with Islam is," and I am not quoting the book by Ms Irshad Manji, a Canada-based writer and a non-conformist but a retired Muslim Air Vice Marshal of the IAF, "That everyone else seems to know Islam better than Muslims themselves." Mr Praveen Togadia seems to know Islam better than any scholar of Islam, who may have spent his lifetime studying theology. Likewise, Mr Arun Shourie considers himself an authority on the subject by reading translated versions of Quran and quoting selected verses to confuse those unfamiliar with text preceding or following them.
No doubt, there is a small number of people who cannot differentiate between teachings of Islam and the deeds of its confused and, therefore, condemnable followers. But that is another story. To answer the first question of the journalist, without thinking I had said, "I feel privileged to be an Indian Muslim." Since then I have given sufficient thought to the question, and I find my answer remains the same. [The Pioneer, Friday, 23 December 2005]
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