Written by Muhammad Azimul Haque

Extremist Muslim Vs. Extrimist Hindu

Gujarat’s encounter specialist and suspended super cop D.G, Vanzara who is in Ahmedabad jail alleged involved in many fake encounters of Muslims including Mumbai based ishrat Jahan, once again opened pandora box by writing some anti-Muslim poems in his books recently.

Former Director General of Police S S Khandwawala launched poetry books written by suspended cop D G Vanzara in a function organised by Sabarmati Central Jail. Shabir Khandwawala is also known as the stooge of Narendra Modi. Vanzara, an undertrial prisoner in the Sohrabuddin police encounter case, is lodged in the jail since 2007. In the above incident he murdered a Muslim youth by labeling him as a terrorist. The state of Gujarat is infamous for another reason, which is violent riots which happened a decade ago, in which police and government did nothing to save lives of thousands of Muslims who were murdered in day sight.

Vanzara’s take on jihadis in his book is likely to create controversy, sources said. It reads:

“Wahabeeo ni aulado ne,

Nirday thai ne maro;

Chagdi nakho jehadioney,

Sindhu par bhagavo.

Jinnah chhe ek maha jehadi,

Tena geet na gao;

Masali nakho mavalio ne,

Sindhu par bhagavo.”

(Kill the children of the Wahabis mercilessly and crush the jihadis; *Jinnah is a jihadi, don’t sing his songs; crush these anti-social elements and send them across the Sindhu).

Another incident which comes to my mind is recent unease between Muslims and Hindus in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. First incident started when some people found beef 1 in a Hindu temple, which is highly offensive for an adherent of Hindu faith, quite the same as pork is for Muslims and Jews. Moreover Muslims and Jews consider pork as unclean, but Hinduism considers Cow as sacred and worthy of worship. The event caused serious tension amongst Hindus and Muslims in the area. But later police investigation revealed that it was a Hindu instead whose name is Shiva Kumar planted the beef in the temple, intentions of which are known to God only! Around the same time some students of Osmania University, the premiere university in the state started organizing a festival called ‘beef festival’ 2. This was taken head on by right wing Hindu organizations who started burning cars, injured five people and stabbed one. This was again not done by Muslims, rather by Hindus who were either ‘Leftists’ or ‘Dalit’ which refers to lower caste un-touchable Hindus as per Hinduism.

Only sorrow can be expressed when religion which was created as a means of simplifying our lives and giving it an order, when there was none available turns into source of anarchy. Muslims from the Indian state of Kashmir have the notorious act of Hindu persecution associated with them. A few decades ago, they chased away Hindus from the Kashmir valley accusing them of being agents of Indian establishment and demanded separation from the Indian state. Till date Kashmiri Hindus live outside their homeland and live like refugees in their own country!

When I read Hindu scriptures, I find the saying from Srimad Bhagvatam very appealing which says “Like the Bee, gathering honey from different flowers, the wise man accepts the essence of different scriptures and see only the good in all” 3 How easily can our problems be solved if Hindus and Muslims agree on the above verse! I have a verse to quote for Muslims who might be interested to learn morals from Quran, “Surely, the Believers, and the Jews, and the Christians and the Sabians — whichever party from among these truly believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good deeds — shall have their reward with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.”4

When we are moving towards more liberal laws which requires us not to mention our name in marriage forms and when we as a nation are thinking of space missions to moon and mars, can we let ourselves engrossed in victim hood mentality?

Only pity can be felt at such misguided and ill-educated people who because of their ego centrism and arrogance have made religion of God as source of division and hate. As a believer in God and in all divinely revealed religions, I believe that it’s not only a responsibility of religious people to mend the differences and build bridges but rather they should take it as a prime job. Else, extremists will make it difficult for successive generations. We need to pray that those who rule us, those who police us and those who lead us be of sound mind and constructive thinking. So that they possess love of God instead of love of worldly gains, and they in turn love us with love of God. So that religion if at all it helps in their conscience building, works towards a cohesive society, rather than a divided and polarized society. May Lord fill hearts of our rulers, police and religious people with eternal love. Aameen! Tathastu!

*Jinnah refers to founding father of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah

1)      http://www.siasat.com/english/news/mischief-monger-who-planted-beef-temple-arrested

2)      http://news.in.msn.com/exclusives/it/article.aspx?cp-documentid=6029225

3)      Srimad Bhagavatam 11:3

4)      Holy Quran, Chapter 2: verse63]