Communalism And Muslims

Have seen some of the posts recently with pictures of Hindu zealots brandishing tridents. Young boys, girls, men and women learning to use guns etc. Those who have forwarded these pictures have done so mostly without any comments. It made me wonder, though. There is no need to wonder. The captions are missing because they know our psychology very well. They know that we will jump to conclusions and the pictures will trigger something in us.

Wanted to ask the friends a question here. Have we contributed – at least to some extent – towards this phenomenon? Nationalism of this genre and exclusivism is not our prerogative. Others may also learn it from us. And apply it, too. We asserted it first. Others followed suit, presumably.

We forgot somewhere along the way that we were ‘salespersons’ and the rest were ‘customers’. We were made to forget by some of our leaders, unfortunately. How come on earth you are deciding to divide the masjid and run away from your potential customers? It has never happened in business. It has happened with Islam and Muslims!

Let us make a new beginning. Let us aim at renewal of relationship. For some higher goals. And to undo some of the mistakes of the past. Let us not stop at the pictures. Let us not form an opinion in haste. Late us take the analysis to the logical end.