Islam & Humanism

Submitted by Hari Iyer (United States), Jan 14, 2005 at 00:49

Dear Mr Pipes,

Found this nice letter in the "Daily Pioneer" a newspaper in India which is not part of the PC crowd. I would suggest that you go through some of the articles in the Pioneer to get some perspective that demonstrates the agony that non-muslims face in native non-muslim terrritories.

The link is:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/editor.asp

Here is a copy of the letter calling an Islamic bluff:

Islam and humanism
Mr M Yusuf Khan, in his article, "Threat of identity?" (December 24), did not address the main issue raised by Mr Prafull Goradia in his article on Muslim separatism. It is well known that Muslim League's demand for a separate homeland for Indian ummah was fulfilled when the country was partitioned in 1947. There are similar demands for separation from Muslims in the Kashmir valley, Russia, Thailand, Philippines, and various parts of Africa. In fact, this is perhaps the greatest threat that non-Muslim nations face today. Mr Khan tries to trivialise the issue of separatism by pointing to the fact Hindus and Muslims in various parts of the country more or less follow a similar dress code. The commonality in dressing patterns was true of the pre-Independence times as well, but that did not prevent the creation of Pakistan on religious ground. Also, if it was similarity in apparel that bound Muslims with their non-Muslim counterparts, the Sikhs living in Afghanistan would never have been driven out during the Taliban regime. Does Mr Khan know that Sikhs in that country were actually asked to wear patches of yellow cloth that would indicate their status of zimmis and thus separate them from the momins? In this context I would like to quote MRA Baig who wrote the following 30 years ago. He said, "In the final analysis, neither the Quran nor Mohammad advocated humanism or even coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims, and that Islam with all its apparatus, was conceived and devised as the religion to end all religions. This is scarcely calculated to make its adherents popular in India or in any country in which Muslims are in a minority. This also explains why no country in which Muslims are in a majority can have a secular constitution and why no practising Muslim can be humanist." (page 11, The Muslim Dilemma in India by MRA Baig, Vikas Publishing House. Delhi, 1974).
KR Phanda
Janakpuri, New Delhi

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