MUSLIM POLITICS
Comments on SIMI's Khilafat Campaign
Varsha Bhosle in the Sunday Observer
On October 7, tucked away from the front pages, a small PTI news item reported a symposium held at the Haj House in Mumbai and organised by the Students Islamic Movement of India to call for establishment of Khilafat. The symposium was but a prelude to a 10-day nationwide campaign to be launched on November 28, and was attended by delegates from Burma, Palestine and
Iran, In his address, the organiser of the campaign, Mohammed Adil Khot, urged Muslims worldwide to strive for the creation of Khilafat as, without it, Islam is incomplete (and) decried the evils of nationalism which had manifested in world wars, massacre of innocents in Chechnya and Bosnia, and attacks on mosques such as the Al-Aqsa. The President of the symposium, Maulana Mujibullah Nadvi, director of Jamiat-ur-Rashid of Azamgarh, UP, said that nationalism gave rise to Fascism on the basis of caste, colour, race and nationality – and became a rallying point for the exploitation of weak nations. As the PTI mentions deputies from Iran at SIM's symposium, I wonder if the reporter got a bead on every foreigner present More urgent is the question whether the police monitored a meeting calling for, in effect, the rejection of the authority of the State and the Constitution - the same attended by aliens. The concept of Khilafat urges all Muslims to unite into a single. Nation devoid of geographical boundaries and regional loyalties. In other words, an Indian Muslim must identify more with a Pakistani Muslim than with his own Hindu neighbour. And if he must respect a temporal government, it should be one such as Saudi Arabia's: the Muslim ethos must always supersede an Indian ethos. The SIM campaign scheduled for next month is going to add fuel to the already volatile affairs of India.
There is another aspect to Khilafat. Its ultimate aim is the Islamization of the world. For, like Christianity, and unlike Hinduism, Islam is a proselytising religion.
The gentlemen of SIM: are doing exactly what is expected of and predicted about them. They are precisely what secularists have been saying they aren't: anti-nationalists to the core and with allegiance elsewhere.
They have simply endorsed what the RSS has been saying all along. But what does one make of the conspiracy of silence among the otherwise clamorous secularists and hawk-eyed editors who cry foul the minute any: Hindutvawadi group even sneezes?. A certain Indian daily is secretly being funded by a certain tremendously rich sultan. To safeguard Islam in a foreign land, some smuggle in men with guns and RDX, and others sneak in those with pens. I can't say which modus operandi is deadlier.
G.M. Sharma in the Organiser
The anti-nationalist poison being spewed by the Muslim fundamentalism surfaced during the Millat Jagriti Abhiyan (community awareness campaign) ran from November 27 to December 8 by the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Posters and wall-paintings proclaimed that Nationalism poses a threat to Islam, that nationalist movements are anti-Islam and anti-caliphate (the ideal Islamic rule). These posters and writings were the talk of the town in Mumbai and Nagpur where they were displayed prominently at Muslim majority localities. "Nation worship, the biggest idol among all. Existence of Nationalism, a death threat to Islam", says one poster that calls upon the community to "crush the idol", which it claims, is the "first step towards re-establishment of caliphate"
"That Muslims are not happy in a democracy they should struggle for the setting up of caliphate - the ideal of Islamism. Today, whatever problems Muslims are facing is mainly because of the fact that they have moved away from their roots. More blood has been shed on Nationalism than religion. The future of Muslims in this country is buried in the darkness of abysmal depths. If Muslims are to save themselves from this, there is only one way that is to re-establish Caliphate, says a SIMI declaration. The question is not who agrees with them. It is about who disagrees with them and summons enough courage to protest. Where are the Islamic scholars? Why are the professional 'secularists' silent? What are the.
The Organiser Weekly
(Even if) Caliphate can be set up in Islamic countries, what about those countries that do not have the Muslim majority? Will the latter be won over by waging medieval war? Are Muslims so powerful that they will be able establish caliphate rule all over the world? If caliphate has relevance in only Islamic countries, then what would be the treatment meted out towards minorities in such countries, who are non-Muslims? Will they be converted to Muslim. Community?. Or will they be forced to migrate? Today no country tolerates aliens; in such a contingency where will non-Muslims go?'.
Those Muslims who stay in different countries - where will they be settled in the context of caliphate? Today no country is prepared to accept Bangladeshi, Kurd and Afghan refugees. So, where will Muslims coming in such large numbers be allowed to settled? If they are excited for jihad, who will give them arms? If there is war, will other countries be mere spectators?.
