The Muslim clergy in the country, reports say, are now mobilizing against terrorists from the
community. It is a welcome change, considering the Deoband school which is considered to provide the ideological underpinning to the extremist Wahabi brand of Islam, is at the forefront of the new movement. But then, there are other clergymen opposing them. Their argument: terrorism is not something which only the Muslims should be ashamed about. True, but those intellectuals who parrot the arguments of these clergy forget that all these new-fangled arguments are just a way to cover the extremist intentions of some Muslims at least. Leftist intellectuals have already bought into those arguments, and allowed Islamic extremism some amount of respect, in a trade off for votes.What is disturbing this time around, is the extremists and their intellectual backers are back at a time when there is a serious introspection within the community. Remember, these are the same people who opposed some films saying they were against Islam, when in truth they wanted to suppress a film showing a Muslim girl falling in love and marrying a Hindu boy. If it would have been the other way round, they wouldn't have minded. So much for their secularism! It is time we called the bluff of these wolves in sheep's clothing.
I have nothing against the Muslim community; many of my friends are from the community. What I am against is the competitive appeasement politics that is allowing these preachers of
violence to thrive under a garb of secular respectability.The earlier such idiots are put behind the bars, their intellectual backers exposed, and the moderates in the community given a chance to reasser themselves, the better for humanity and India!
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