A GESTURE MUSLIMS MUST MAKE. AND NOW

Please voluntarily reduce the decibel level of loudspeakers of Mosques for Azaan, and ban their use for Salaam [before Azaan], Khutba, Sermons, Saheri wake-up call, etc

Do this not as an act of cowardice or subjugation, but one of decency, as the founder of Islam would have done, out of courtesy and as a needless extravaganza. Chances are that public pressure will build upon Temple managements to reciprocate and similarly abjure needless sound. Certainly, you will earn the goodwill of the thinking majority

Please totally stop slaughtering animals for Eid-al-Duha in shared and mixed residential areas and ensure that the blood doesn’t flow in open drainage, nor the waste/remains lie in the open for the vultures and dogs to scatter around. Under no circumstances even think of the cow progeny. Better still, avoid the large animals altogether.

JUST THINK: What if, in the wake of 2019 elections, an ordinance is brought to appease the majority and Muslims are forced to follow the above acts as dicta’t, on the pain of imprisonment?

Were not some of these once considered unenforceable: Saluting the Flag, Singing Vande Mataram, Invalidating Triple Talaq, Shutting slaughter houses during Pariyushan, Ban on beef trade…?

Remember that the far-sighted had pleaded for a negotiated settlement of the Babri Masjid dispute long before its demolition. We have now lost that mosque, hundreds of others, and thousands of precious lives, limbs, homes and other valuables. And the Hindu right wing has gained hugely through that campaign, the mosque is nowhere in the sight, and the community’s stock has fallen several notches all round.

See the writing on the Wall. And act before you are forced to act. Wise people pre-empt humiliation, and avoid empty bravado, bragging and unrealistic hopes.

Yes, we are in a minority, yes the government is discriminatory, yes the majority is aggressive these days. So? What better alternative course of action do you foresee?

Let’s put up resistance on defensible and positive actions that actually advance our progress, or constitute our basic tenet, not superficial practices that are not essential to our life. I do not find any mandate in Islam for doing the above, nor a prohibition against giving them up.

Let’s not allow the hate-mongers to divert our scarce resources on minor issues, and let’s focus them on our constructive and tangible development.

THINK WISELY.