By Murtaza Shibli for TwoCircles.net,
Maulana Arshad Madni is the President of one faction of Jamiatul-Ulama-e-Hind. He teaches Hadith at the famous Muslim seminary Deoband and operates several educational and charitable Muslim organisations in India. This interview was conducted at the central office of the Jamiatul Ulama-e-Hind office, New Delhi.
How do you see the ‘Aman ki Asha’, the peace initiative that was started by the Times of India and daily Jang, the two leading media houses of India and Pakistan?
This is a very good and important initiative. From humanitarian perspective, we all like and cherish peace. Islam places a lot of stress on peace and therefore, from religious perspective also, establishing peace is a very commendable endeavour.
Pakistan is our neighbour and we would like to live in mutual peace and tranquillity.
What could be the basis for the permanent peace between the two countries?
Both the countries should address the issues that create tension and discord and mutually come out with their solutions so that we can live like brothers. Media has a very important and positive role to play in this. We think that ‘Aman ki Asha’ is a very important step in this direction and first of its kind to have been started by the two leading media groups from the two countries.
How are the Indian Muslims coping?
The Indian Muslims are very courageous and steadfast and moving forward. When the country was partitioned in 1948, we were worried about our existence. Now we are fighting for our rights and we are hopeful that we shall be able to attain our rights. However, God forbid if the country is taken over by the communalist groups who want to turn the country into a Hindu state and erase its secular character, then there could be serious problems for us.
What can happen in such a situation?
Inshallah, such a time shall never come. We will not let that happen. Now the Hindu communalist groups and their supporters have lost power.
Muslims are being blamed as being terrorists on almost daily basis. How do you view this?
It is important to contexualise the situation. The big powers are crushing the Third World countries to the extent that the people are not even allowed to protest. Then the victims have no option but to turn into suicide machines to kill themselves and others.
Look at what is happening in Afghanistan. Apart from nuclear weapons, every other bomb has been tested on the people and land of Afghanistan, one of poorest countries on earth. What has not happened in Iraq? We must examine the pretexts on which people living thousands of miles away come and bomb other people. If the big powers will not brutalise the weak, there would be peace. The whole world has seen how Iraq was targeted on the basis of fabrication and propaganda that has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
First, the Muslims are killed and brutalised and then they are described as terrorists. This is not fair.
The Indian Muslims are also accused of being terrorists?
We have a big lobby of communalists that tries to subvert our country’s secular identity and character. All the terrorism that takes place here is conducted by this lobby. They have always tried to divide Hindus and Muslims overlooking the fact that we have been living together for centuries and from the same stock. In every ethnic or geographic group, there are Hindus and Muslims that signifies our close ties. However, these communalist groups are sowing hatred.
But many Muslims have been arrested for terrorist offences?
We openly say that the Muslims are not bomb makers or bombers. Hundreds of Muslims have been wrongly arrested and incarcerated. Whenever their cases went to the court, they have been set free. Muslims have been wronged and incarcerated in jails. We are fighting dozens of their cases and we are hopeful that inshallah all of them will be released.
In contrast you will see scores of Hindu extremists died while making bombs and many others have now been apprehended for causing terror.
What you are saying is that all the Muslims who have been arrested were apprehended on false premises?
Yes.
Many people think that because Indian Muslims are economically and educationally backward, there is a chance that some of them may be tempted to take terrorism route?
There is no doubt that the Muslims are under developed which has many reasons. However, I don’t think this will pull them towards terrorism. It is a fact that Muslims have not received their due or encouragement from the government, but now Muslims are becoming more aware and they are forging ahead in education as well.
The biggest cause of the Muslim under development is the anti-Muslim pogroms. The government is now enacting a law against it.
If these anti-Muslim pogroms continue unchecked, perhaps some Indian Muslims might be inspired from what is happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I don’t think the Indian Muslims will follow that route. The main reason for that is that those who victimise Muslims are not usually from the government. Our governments are usually secular in character. It is a certain group of Hindu communalists that wants to sink this country into an abyss of hatred and division. Therefore, whenever the Indian Muslims will rise up and fight, they will fight this group of communalists and their supporters and not against the country.
You conducted an anti-terrorism conference last year?
The main thing that came out of our conference was that the Muslims are not terrorists. It is the anti-Muslim and communalist lobby that portrays Muslims as terrorists.
But there are Muslims out there who not only believe killing non-Muslims is right but also encourage it?
Such people are not aware of the meaning of Islam. Islam never justifies killing someone on the basis of them being non Muslims.
What is Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Hind doing to challenge such ideology?
Where ever we go in the world, we talk to people in the Islamic spirit explaining that the Islam always teaches mutual existence, respect and tolerance based on peace and justice. Terrorism, killings and wanton destruction is not part of Islamic teachings.
Do you think that the inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue can mitigate some of the misunderstandings?
This is very important that we must understand each other’s traditions and culture. For the Muslims, it is also important that they must not only apprise others about the true Islamic faith and tradition, but also challenge those Muslims who claim that we should fight non Muslims without any reason and that the non-Muslims have no right to exist. The Muslims must not only respect other faiths and traditions, but also portray their faith in correct light and understanding.
There are many who blame madrasas for being responsible for economic and educational backwardness of Muslims in India?
This is not correct. The Muslims who study in the Madrasas is less than 4 percent of the Muslim population. We need them to run more than 300,000 mosques in the country, as we need imams who can read the Qur’an and understand the basics of the Muslim faith correctly.
We encourage the rest of the Muslim population which is more than 96 percent to achieve best of the worldly education to become better professionals, better human beings and better Muslims. We do not stop people from attaining education. In fact we encourage people to construct schools and give their children a better education. We have ourselves built schools and Industrial technical institutes where we not only give admissions to Muslims, but Sikhs and Hindus also.
Madrasas are the guardians of Muslim tradition and culture. They encourage Muslims to be good human beings and encourage them for social action.
But would you agree that the syllabus of Deoband and its allied Madrasas that is being taught for the last 150 years needs to be revised?
We teach the Qur’an and the Hadith and this is our syllabus. You said 150 years, we are saying for the last 1400 years. The history of Islamic education and sciences is 1400 years old, not 150 years and we cannot pretend to endorse a hoax of modernising it. Islam is the Qur’an and the Hadith. It is what the Prophet Mohammad (saw) interpreted. This has not changed for the last 1400 years and even won’t change in the future.
Our syllabus is ilm-al aqeeda which is fixed till the Day of Judgement. Anyone who believes in it is a true believer and those who don’t believe in it are outside of the faith.
Do you think the students that come out of these madrasas are able to face the challenges of the outside world?
Each student will not possess the same qualities; therefore, to expect everyone to face every challenge in a uniform way is not realistic. However, we have produced ulema and students in every age who have faced many tough challenges in order to serve Muslims and Islam.
Based on narrow interpretations of Islam, Muslims are also accused of constraining the education of their womenfolk?
Islam is not against women’s education. We support educational needs of our women, but strongly believe that this has to be in consonance with our religious, cultural and family traditions. We are not against their higher education either, but we do not support free mixing environments. They should have their own separate educational institutions which should be as good as men’s education institutes or even better. In our country, both Hindus and Muslims believe in the traditions of our forefathers and I don’t think we should follow the Western traditions blindly.
How do you see the Indian Muslims in the next decade?
I see a very good future for us here in India. I say this to the Muslims that there is no reason for hopelessness. Muslims are alhumdullilah surging ahead albeit slowly, but making good inroads in every sphere of life including education. I believe that the situation of Muslims in our country is much better than in the past and inshallah it will improve further.