Extremism in every form is bad and it does not really take rocket science to understand this simple truth. There are examples galore all over of the destruction that extremism has begotten. These days more often than not we come across people performing dastardly acts of terrorism but somehow these acts are not being seen through the lens of violence and destruction rather are identified with religion and with one particular religion i.e. Islam.
I too am a Muslim by faith and I must admit that this kind of targeting and selective condemnation on the basis of religion does hurt me a lot. But what do I do to retaliate, speak back, argue had been very consistent questions that cloud my mind. More often than not I found out that I like to reason back and not be reactive. But that is my story, the rest have similar stories and different stories to tell. One thing that runs as a common thread among all of us concerned or to be precise to all of us here in India being members of the Islamic faith is the lament that we are being labelled wrongly, it hurts all of us.
However all said and done there is another side to the story as well there are extreme reactions from within us as well, starting from a social media comment to getting agitated at things that would not probably make a mighty difference but it does create a sense of antagonism among people of other faith. One may not mean a single word they say and all of the extreme things say may have been outlet of the constant frustration they face but it is a fact that it does present a picture which is not very appropriate. Whenever there are debates on practices in Islam people react violently on social media and don’t use the voice of reason, be it the triple talaq or the issue of polygamy. If someone who is a Muslim uses reason to explain such issues s/he is immediately dismissed as “kafir” (non-believer) and democracy is blamed for all kinds of ills. The very reason we get tired of explaining and distancing ourselves when something like ISIS pops up in the global discourse. Our daily reactions on comparatively mundane issues are being observed and that is how people form opinions. Even learned scholars end up in some extreme or the other when it comes to issuing a statement on a religious issue.
The idea of the multicultural and multi-religious India is imbibed in the Indian Constitution but we need to imbibe that in individual lives more and it is easiest for us Muslims because none other than our Prophet (SAW) lived such a life of tolerance and peace alongside people who did not follow Islam. As long as we behave in intolerant manner to every single piece of provocative information we are complicit in stereotyping ourselves for all the wrong reasons. The idea is now to get our own act right because one cannot fight a battle of stereotyping when our own behaviour is not positive. We need to believe in ourselves like true “Ummat-e-Muhammadiya” (people of Mohammad SAW) that if any battle against any prejudice has ever been won in this world that is through love and tolerance.
