IM, ISI, RSS, and R&AW

With the exception of ISI, all other groups mentioned above are India based.

R&AW is the CIA of India. It obtains and analyses information about foreign governments, corporations and persons, Indian and non-Indians and advises the policymakers. It was established in 1968 and since then it is run by professionals who are mostly drawn from India’s top caste, Brahmins.

Inter-Service Intelligence or ISI established in 1948 is R&AW’s counterpart in Pakistan. It specializes in the collection, analysis, and assessment of external intelligence, either military or non-military. Its top leadership is drawn from three main military services

The Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) was established in 1925 to unite Hindus under the leadership of Brahmins. It propagated the idea that India is for Hindus only and minorities and all those who are not part of the Hindu caste system must remain subservient to Hindus. It carried out acts of violence against minorities, especially against Muslims since its inception. Over the years, it has formed militant groups who engage in attacks on minorities.  It was banned immediately after independence, but now has become a formidable force in Indian politics.

Indian Mujahideen (IM) came to limelight in 2008. Its aim is to create Islamic Caliphate in South Asia. Experts believe that the organization was composed of lower cadres of the former Student Islamic Movement of India, a youth group, established in 1977 by Jamat-e-Islami, India. The organization is banned in India, the UK, the US, and other places.

The Hindu-Muslim politics of India and Pakistan is the story of these four major outfits. It’s a story that is buried under secrecy as no one really knows the true and inner dimensions of these groups unless leaks by former members reveal their inner functioning.

The two intelligence groups have created and supported groups in both countries to fulfill their mission and vision. They have their own politicians, public officials, journalists, celebrities and people belonging to all sectors of society serving their organizational goals. The other two have a relationship with them in matters that are useful for intelligence gatherings.

A public incident like that of the following illustrates the modus operandi of intelligence organizations and groups that work for them

Some time ago, an Indian Police officer K.V. Unnikrishnan, who was the station chief of India's R$AW between 1985-1987 was trapped by the CIA to reveal that India was providing training to Tamil freedom-seeking groups and arming them to create a Tamil State in Sri Lanka. Unnikrishnan was later arrested by the Intelligence Bureau. He was stripped of his IPS status and sent to Tihar Jail for one year for revealing the state secrets.

The revelation substantiated the suspicion that people already had that intelligence agencies were manipulating groups and individuals in the two countries to run their operation and serve their purposes.

Pakistan’s intelligence agency is primarily concerned about the stability of the country. India’s intelligence is not only concerned about the security of the country, but also about the supremacy of Hindu upper castes in India’s organizational and political structure. R&AW is not known for allowing minorities to be on its sensitive positions. Brahmans are the ones who are preferred on top and crucial positions.

RSS wants to create a Hindu state and it sincerely believes that it can. For almost 90 years, it has worked hard towards that goal. Its members are found in all branches of the government as well as in the army and organizations like R&AW and military intelligence include many RSS members.

IM aims to create an Islamic caliphate without having any sense of the demography of the country in which it is located.  Those who are often accused of being part of IM cannot carry out an intelligent discussion about Islam and its political structure. Apart from the rhetoric often used to incite mass sympathy, they offer nothing. In fact, their understanding of Islam’s basics would make a first grader in any Islamic school wonder if he was learning the same religion.

In reality, it has become an organization of unknown faces whose names appear only during terror-related blasts. No one really knows if RSS, ISI or R&AW manipulates individuals who later are dubbed as Indian Mujahideen. No one really knows if details attributed to individuals accused of being part of IM were coerced or concocted by the authorities. Everything is possible when the authorities have absolute secrecy about everything they want to discuss in public.

It serves R&AW and RSS to have an outfit, identified as an Indian Muslim, that can develop possible links with ISI. Access to individuals who have ISI connections provides a connection to ISI modus operandi in India and elsewhere. For intelligence agencies, the loss of human lives in either place is just a game of manipulation of their resources.

If IM was a real group with a cadre, like the RSS, the R&AW and RSS would have had no difficulty in tracing its activities. It should not surprise anyone that the Intelligence Bureau of India, (IB) had its mole implanted its moles in a highly disciplined organization such as the Jamat Islamic Hind during the 70s? According to IB sources, the devices were placed in the Jamat headquarters to listen to the proceeding of its Shura Council. Needless to say that the devices were placed by someone considered reliable in the Jamat. Intelligence agencies are expert in such activities.

The argument that RSS and R&AW are unaware of IM activities and membership does not make much sense. It is possible that R&AW or RSS has access to individuals in the Muslim community or other communities who could be dubbed as IM once they carried out the plan they were recruited for. Otherwise, how does one get information that is later translated into terror alerts?

Trapping individuals with a criminal record or illegal activities as possible intelligence assets and recruits is a known intelligence tactic. Intelligence agents also lookout for individuals with low IQ who could easily be manipulated into believing in their ability to change things for their group or community. Intelligence agencies are also known to use religious scriptures to motivate such individuals to commit acts of violence. 

In the case of RSS and R&AW, such tactics offer good tactics in the pursuit of their ultimate goals. RSS could always use the fear of IM and its activities to rally Hindu masses against an enemy that is out to destroy their religion and culture and R&AW can also use IM to justify its continued involvement in Pakistan.

Intelligence gathering is a very sophisticated process and an agent uses all possible, legal and illegal means to achieve the ends. The veil of secrecy makes it almost impossible for an average or even expert to precisely know the details.

The details become known only when someone blows the whistle or some other competing group traps the other agent and uses the information as political leverage.

Sometimes intelligence groups misinform the people deliberately and sometimes they cook information to get more information. Sometimes they run psychological operations to create fear in the hearts of people.

By and large a great majority of Muslims have taken a principled stand against terrorism. They believe that violence against innocent people and civilians is neither justified nor sanctioned under any interpretations of Islam. This community understands the spirit and meaning of jihad that cannot be randomly declared by anyone claiming to be a Muslim. So if anyone uses Islam to promote acts of terrorism, the community gets suspicious of that individual and group. The doubt, always lingers in the mind of many if this individual or group was working for someone else to project Islam and Muslims as a danger to the nation or a particular community.

India’s intelligence groups have not given the impression to the Indians that they are objective in matters pertaining to minorities. The absence of Muslims in the intelligence services is conspicuous and the agenda of RSS is known. Even though some Muslim leaders have toyed with the idea of outreach to RSS and its multifaceted outfits, yet the community is not convinced that a hungry lion can be trusted with the life of a goat. The RSS offers a real threat to minorities and Muslims in particular. One has to look at the literature of RSS in vernaculars that is widely distributed in India’s rural areas.

In the coming months before the next general election, it is possible that IM becomes more visible. But who knows who would be manipulating it from behind. What is certain is that neither Islam nor Muslims would be behind those individuals who might act in the name of the IM or similar outfits to serve the interests of someone else.

Blame it all on Muslim Indian masses.

Recently I wrote an article on the psychology of rapists and murderers during Hindu-Muslim riots in India. I held the hateful philosophy and propaganda of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) responsible for this behavior on the part of the so-called Hindu rioters. People act in this brutal way because they have been fed the ideas that their victims deserve rape and murder. However, I also appreciated those among Hindus who do not show this type of hatred and show kindness and humanity in their behavior.

Some of the responses that came from intelligent and educated Muslims were surprising. Many of them held the Muslims responsible for this behavior of rioters. They implied that if Muslims are being killed, raped, maimed and destroyed, it is due to their own attitude and behavior. How could they hold responsible for a nine-year girl gang-raped by the mob for the crime committed against her? How could they point their fingers at the 70-old-man who was dragged from his bed and stabbed to death and say that he deserved that?  Yet they blamed Muslims for this behavior on the part of RSS rioters. This is exactly what and how the RSS and Hindutva parties argue. “Muslims are responsible for what they are getting it.”

Not very long Muslims in Bosnia suffered the onslaught of fascist forces even though they were very educated and well-integrated in the society. They were described modern, yet when the fascist forces took their guns out, none was spared. Women were gang-raped and genocide became the norm.

The argument that Muslim poverty or illiteracy is responsible for violence against them is as absurd as anything can be.

No Muslim girl would ever wish to be gang-raped and no Muslim elder would ever desire to be stabbed to death. Those who hold Muslim masses responsible for this violent behavior on the part of RSS goons are unkind to Muslims and seem to entertain a grudge against their own people.  They fail to comprehend the weaknesses of their argument and consequently, they point their fingers at the masses with whom not many are willing to identify. Moreover, they also deny the existence of fascist forces that unfortunately have tried to usurp the dignity of a great majority of Indians in the name of their ideology of racial superiority. They are oblivious to the presence of people who have their specific agenda to destroy everything that their opponents hold dear.

Muslim masses cannot be blamed for the conditions they live in. The often-quoted verse of the Quran, “Allah does not change the condition of a people unless they change themselves,” is relevant to understand the plight of Muslims. Muslims did not choose on their own conditions in which they have been forced to live. They could have changed their conditions if given the opportunity. But, they were pushed to live in these conditions with ideas that have been promoted since long by a special group of people that identify itself as religious scholars or clergy, an obscurantist destructive force that mesmerizes the masses with its stagnation and retrogression.  One must make a distinction between scholars and pseudo-scholars. A true scholar cannot promote stagnation and the status quo.

Majority of Muslims in India are poor, illiterate, uneducated and mostly deprived of basic rights that other Indians enjoy. They live in ghettos, slums, and dirty enclaves. Unhygienic conditions are present in their homes and localities. They lack discipline and organization and a sense of identity. A vast majority of them earn less than $2.00 a day.

But, somehow, they have been convinced that it is the will of Allah to let them live conditions they live.  They have been told that poverty is the essence of their faith. We were not born with this idea. We are taught this idea by none than those clerics who claim to have the knowledge of our deen. Don’t blame Muslim masses for the faults of clergy that has often betrayed the masses and misinterpreted the faith.

It was this clergy that opposed the Muslim entry into modern education. It is this clergy that described the proponents of modern education heretics.  It is this clergy that erected walls of traditions to perpetuate the illiteracy among girls. It is this clergy that bifurcated knowledge and took a stand against science and technology. It is this clergy that opposed everything that human beings invented on the basis of divine laws embedded in everything. When the microphones were invented, it called it a satanic invention. When television was introduced, it took a stand against it. When cameras were invented, it spoke against it. At every turn of human progress, it took a stand that betrayed common sense. It is this clergy that under the pretext of serving God issued decrees that child marriages were justified and that Muslims do not have to seek this world as their reward was in the hereafter. It is this clergy that gave them short cuts for everything without even explaining their religion. It is this clergy that pushed Muslims into a world of customs and traditions that has no relevance in faith.

This clergy were brutal in the propagation of its ideas. It divided the community into sectarian and factional lines, concocted lies about God and his messenger and justified the killing of fellow Muslims in the name of God.  It did not allow the masses to grow on their own on the basis of their understanding of divine guidance. Anyone who opposed their ideas was declared heretic and was immediately consigned to hellfire.

The irony is that Islam does not justify the institution of the clergy. Yet it forced its entry and institutionalized itself by quoting the Prophet that scholars or clerics are the heirs of the Prophets.

If you have to blame anyone, blame this clergy for its most repressive and retrogressive role in the community. However, one must understand that not all clerics and members of the clergy promoted these ideas. There were exceptions.
Muslim masses do not have the education or training to verify everything that the clergy tell them. They follow leaders like sheep because this is how the leaders have told them, God, wants them to behave.

If this clergy communicate and broadcast the real message of Islam, the message of progress, equality, peace, cleanliness, love, kindness, and education for all and economic and financial excellence, rather than focusing on divisions and myths, it might have inspired people to a brighter future.  Instead, it taught the masses, not only to be stagnant but also to be content with its stagnation.  The clergy asked the masses to follow the scholars of their sects who lived a thousand years ago without empowering them with a Quranic world view, that is the essence of Muslim identity.

There were scholars who challenged the status quo and who wanted Muslims to be liberated from the shackles of outdated ideas of that clergy, yet they could not bring about changes as they were either declared non-scholars, or deviants or elevated to a position of reverence and celebrations. As long as the Muslim clergy remain in the forefront in providing leadership to Muslim masses at every level, things are less likely to change. They are in the forefront for the last 1,000 years and the results are well known to us.

Muslims with modern education, by and large, lack a clarity of their own vision of faith and they ultimately rely on the opinions of the clergy to take a position on almost every issue including the extent a girl can be exposed to modern education. On every issue such as the collection of zakat, usage of zakat, or amount of resources spent on sacrificing animals or even doing relief work, the educated Muslim class is dependent on the clergy either to approve or sanction their work. This class has lacked the ability to provide alternative leadership.

But the moment you start questioning the role of this clergy in the downfall of the Muslim community in India or elsewhere, you would be blamed as either atheists or ignorant of religion or an agent of any external entity or just a trouble maker. The clergy has elevated itself to a position of untouchability. No one can question and criticize it, a position that Brahminism imposed on Hinduism in its five-thousand-year-old history of repression in the name of knowledge and dharma.

If we really want to see a change, we have to work to create a group of people who are educated in modern sciences with a grasp of the Quranic world view and the prophetic methodologies of change. We have to create institutions that would usher Muslims in the new era with forward-thinking, relying on the divine message of the unity of humanity.

We cannot simply say that Muslim masses are responsible for their plight. They are innocents who have been exploited in the name of God, the Prophet, and religion by a class of people who claim that they are holier than all. The Quran is meant to liberate the masses from all shackles, but the clergy have chained them with ideas that deny easy access to the understanding of the Quran.

It is in this situation of vulnerability that the fascist forces us to play their game of hate and revenge propagating myths and misunderstanding against Islam and Muslims. Regardless how educated and modern we become, the fascist forces would not change their perspectives because the evil they perpetuate creates around them a thick wall of darkness that does not allow even a small ray of light to penetrate. 

So our task is to recognize these forces of darkness while simultaneously working for change. But the change that we are seeking would not come because the major obstacle of change lies in a world view that is dictated by the clergy that believes in the supremacy of its arrogance and egoism. It is a time to critically examine the practices of our so-called clergy in presenting the divine religion to the masses.

Who Owns Allah?

"The usage of the word Allah is not an integral part of the faith in Christianity. The usage of the word will cause confusion in the community," decided a Malaysian court. Only Muslims can use Allah. It's a ridiculous decision and it goes against the Quran and the teachings of Islam. The Quran introduces Allah as Lord of the Universe describes the Prophet, mercy to humankind, and declared itself guidance to humanity. Nowhere does it say that Allah is for Muslims only, or the Quran for the followers of Islam only or the Prophet was sent to Muslims only. 
Islam did not invent the word, Allah. It was in vogue in pre-Islamic Arabia. The Quran makes references to the polytheists who used the word of Allah. One of the cousins of Prophet's wife Khadeeja, used the word Allah when speaking to Prophet immediately after he had received the first revelation.
In the Middle East, Arabic-speaking Christians use the word, Allah. 
Allah is not monopolized by Muslims. Allah is neither Muslim nor Christian, now Jewish. He is Allah, the creator of the universe and everything that exists in the universe including Christians and Jews. To say that only Muslims or Malays can use this word is an offense to Islam.
What are Muslim scholars doing? Why they don't speak up at this nonsense.  Let us hope that a higher court in Malaysia turns this decision down.

Who is benefiting from her ongoing Saga?

Prophet Muhammad said: "The seeking of knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim." (Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith #74) He also said: “One who treads a path in search of knowledge has his path to Paradise made easy by God…” (Riyadh us-Saleheen, hadith #245)
He further said: "A servant of God will remain standing on the Day of Judgment until he is questioned about his (time on earth) and how he used it; about his knowledge and how he utilized it; about his wealth and from where he acquired it and in what (activities) he spent it; and about his body and how he used it." (Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith #148)
The Prophet also said: "Knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure out of which nothing is spent in the cause of God." (Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith #108)
He also said: "God, His angels and all those in the Heavens and on Earth, even ants in their hills and fish in the water, call down blessings on those who instruct others in beneficial knowledge." (Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith #422)
Then he said: "Acquire knowledge and impart it to the people." (Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith #107)
In Sunan Abdu Dawood, one reads the Prophet explains, "If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge, God will cause him to travel on one of the roads of paradise. The angels will lower their wings in their great pleasure with one who seeks knowledge. The inhabitants of the heavens and the earth and (even) the fish in the deep waters will ask forgiveness for the learned man. The superiority of the learned over the devout is like that of the moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets leave (no monetary inheritance), they leave only knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion. (Hadith #1631)

The statement that seeks knowledge, even if you have to travel to China is often attributed to the Prophet, but these are the words of Imam Ali, the fourth Caliph of Muslims.

Read these sayings of the prophet again and again. Repeat them to yourself and to others and notice something very simple that can be summarized in the following words.

“Knowledge is indivisible and regardless of one’s gender and age, it is obligatory upon everyone.”

Throughout our Islamic history, we have tried to define and redefine knowledge in our image, an image conditioned by our politics, culture, gender, ethnicity, society, economics and personal interests. We are the ones who have bifurcated it into worldly and religious sciences. We are the ones who have closed its doors whomsoever we wanted out. We are the ones who have tried to limit its acquisition whomever we wanted to exclude and we are the ones who have often tried to contaminate the purity of education with our biases and absurdities. We often presented our viewpoints like that of God because we claimed that we are created in His image.
The Prophet did not do it. His message is simple and direct.

But most of us failed to recognize that it was not the intent of God and the Prophet to limit the access of education to girls and women. It was not their intent to deprive those born in a state of bondage of knowledge. It was not their intent to dictate to others what to study and what not study as long as one understands the responsibilities that come with the knowledge.

Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and those who are like them and have behaved like them throughout human history, have argued that they have the knowledge and authority to overrule God and the Prophet and set the limits on nature and type of education girls, women, children, and even men should acquire.

A 10-year-old child, in her innocence, stood up against this idea based on her common sense not fully aware of the true dimensions of the divine directions of education. The logic was simple. How could God be unjust to His own creation by giving one more access to education than to another of His creation on the basis of one's gender? She was critical of them. She condemned their tactics as she saw them playing it in her small village. She even called them terrorists and unjust zealots.

The mighty Taliban was upset. How could a 10-year-old child question their understanding of religion and culture? After all, this is not the role of a woman or children in their religious society. They are meant to be quiet and subservient. 
They were angry and they forgot in this anger the basic Islamic principle. They did not return to the divine to seek guidance by taking account of their own attitudes.
Rather than reviewing their own attitudes or trying to educate their perspectives to the child, they became furious. Thus, she became their target. Finally, they assaulted her and tried to kill her. This is how they had learned to deal with their opponents. Shoot those who oppose you and you would be blessed by the one in whose name you kill. But the one who gives life and death saved her. She got injured and even though she was in danger of losing her life, He inspired physicians, mostly non-Muslims, to save her.

There were several countries in the world including those with Muslim majority who could have offered medical help to her including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, or India, but Britain took the lead to offer her the treatment. Since then, she is being projected by the so-called western media as a symbol of resistance and an icon for women's education. This gesture of Britain is seen as a symbol of white supremacy over uneducated Muslims. 
The Muslim media could also have taken up her case, but it preferred not only to ignore her but to cast doubt on her story. Some even suggested that she was not attacked and she faked her injury. Among those who questioned her integrity were those Muslim theologians who have spent their lives teaching their followers the Quranic message that says: "don't assume things."

The so-called western campaign to project her as a role model for girls regardless of their religion and ethnicity has angered many pious Muslims. After all, not many 10-year-old kids question the authority of a coercive group in a small village in a remote area of the world. How could a child's question a religious practice in a culture where even adults are not allowed to speak in front of a religious elder?
The projection of a girl in a position of prominence does not sit well with them. A woman should spend her time in the home getting ready to produce children and then rear and nurture them. She is not supposed to talk about education or to offer a leadership role. Children are not the teachers of their adults, so they are upset. 
Religion is the prerogative of men only. A woman's voice in public is unacceptable in their understanding of Islam. Since they are the defenders of Islam and its gatekeepers, how could they let her be used or abused by the West to make a mockery of genuine Islamic teachings?

They see in her rise a conspiracy on the part of the West to exploit her situation to serve their agenda secular against Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Muslim world. They suspect that the West is using her to impose upon the Muslim world its educational values, devoid of morality. They also see in her projection a well-conceived plot to strip the Muslim world of its religious identity.

Ironically, none of those, especially the ones living in the West, would agree with what the Taliban have done or have been doing. Even the most anti-Western among them have serious issues with the thinking and logic of Taliban in implementing a version of Islam that is contaminated with male-chauvinism, tribal jingoism, and feudal parochialism. Even many religious scholars are in doubt of the Taliban understanding of Islam. Many clean shaved clerics of Azhar or short, bearded religious scholars of the Americas would be treated as criminals and sinful in a Taliban run state for improperly trimming their beard. They fully understand that if they land in a Taliban run Islamic Afghanistan, they would immediately be taken into prison or given some lashes. Only a few US Muslim religious leaders can escape this wrath of the Taliban's Islamic will. Yet, these clerics and leaders have chosen to be silent on these issues.

The critics of the 16-year-old girl tend to ignore the fact that the girl they are accusing of playing in the hands of the West is echoing the ideas of their Prophet on education to the world in an atmosphere of understanding and recognition. Their logic is interesting. "Don't speak the truth if it serves the political interests of others." In other words, the truth has no value of its own and cannot stand on its own strength. She is quoting the Quran. They do not like it. After all the Quran is their monopoly. How could she or her secular father quote or use the Quran in their arguments? Her dress does not fall outside the parameters of Islamic norms. But they are still not convinced because the two inches of her hair closer to her forehead are still exposed to a male eye. Her language is soft and her style is decent, but it does not matter. She is not talking about revenge, even against those who tried to kill her and they think she cannot decide on her own whom to forgive and whom to declare an enemy. She is repeating what every sensible Muslim has repeated and would like to repeat about education, but they argue that being a woman, she has no validity to do so.

Seemingly, they can’t rejoice the rise of one of their daughters and sisters to a position of dignity in front of a world audience in a climate that is filled with admiration towards her? To them, as soon as a girl reaches the age of puberty, she is a source of test for men regardless of their age. They are so much obsessed with the sexuality of women in their own context that they are not willing to treat others as their own daughters and sisters.

Let us come to other issues in raising her case. The critics argue that the west is exploiting her situation. Even if the West is exploiting her, so what? The message she is delivering is worth repeating from every channel. She is not questioning Islam or challenging the Quran or the Prophet. She is simply following what every Muslim should have followed.

How many of those people who are critical of her were raising their voices in support of education for all when they were about her age? How many of them took the bullets for their stand? How many of them persisted in their mission even after being hit by a bullet? How many of them were seen as a symbol of hope by adults and non-Muslims when they were in their teens.

The argument that the West is hypocritical in its policies towards the Muslim world needs to be analyzed on its own merit. The West has double stand standards towards its own values. Yes, the West has used its drones to kill innocent people, yet it has played politics and havoc with the lives of the people, and yes it is not honest when it deals with Islam in general. But the same analysis can easily be applied to those countries that claim to be Muslims. 
Let us also remember, that many others, including the citizens of the Western world, have also suffered at the hands of its brutal policies. The US destroyed its own economy in indulging itself in wars that were not necessary. The tug of war between Republicans and Democrats is ruining the economy of the country. The foreign policies of the West are problematic even to its own declared principles. But those policies need to be challenged on the basis of their absurdities and not on the basis of how the 16-year-old girl is being projected.  If the critics look beyond their myopic perspectives, they would discover a new image of Islam emerging in the words of this girl, an image that none of them was able to create as most of them were busy and are still busy in infighting and destroying each other.

Modern Challenges to the Spirit of Hajj

There was a time when people would spend months and months preparing themselves financially and spiritually to live the real meaning of Hajj. However, nowadays Hajj is offered as a holiday package.
Many Hajj agencies all over the world offer value packages with super programs, deluxe programs, and short executive program. These programs offer the best and closest accommodation in Makkah and Madinah, best available food and best possible position in the House of Allah.
Depending on how much you pay, you can get the finest place in Makkah and Madinah. If you happen to be the guest of royalty, then probably, no one can ever compete with your placement in the two mosques. When the Prophet performed his only Hajj, the only a provision that he had with him was worthy of no more than four dirhams as narrated in several books of ahadith.
Hajj was meant to teach the pilgrims endurance and perseverance for higher causes, yet it has been turned into an exercise inconvenience. Hajj was meant to express the utmost humility in the presence of the rest of humanity by declaring that "Here I am, Here I am, I will not make anyone Allah's partner. Allah is the one who is in control of everything and He alone is the one who is the source of all blessings and praise." Yet, today, Hajj, for many has become, a badge, a symbol of spiritual arrogance.
Hajj is an institution that is supposed to reassure the people that ethnic, cultural, linguistic, geographical, wealth-based, race and color differences that humans have imposed upon themselves have no reality in the presence of God. All are one and the purpose of all is to follow the divine guidance to create universal humanity to the well being of everyone. Hajj is meant to be a pledge to live the example of Hajj beyond the Hajj. It is an occasion to create a personality without a dimension and space.
Yet, through social engineering and manipulation of resources, Hajj is rapidly adapting social elements that distinguish the rich from the poor, the very institution that it is supposed to demolish. Divisions among pilgrims on the basis of their ethnicity and money are visible throughout the Hajj journey.
While the pilgrims coming from poorer regions of the world may find accommodation miles away from the Haram, those who are rich can find accommodation within the vicinity of the Kaaba.
The Qur'an describes Kaaba as a center of guidance to humanity:{Indeed, the first House [of worship] established for mankind was that at Makkah - blessed and a guidance for the worlds.} (Aal `Imran 3:96)
The place was not only a place for bringing together all the people, but it is a center for promoting peace. (Al-Baqarah 2:145). It was a place that was meant to help humanity realize its universality rather than divisions (Al-Ma'idah 5:97)
For this great purpose of helping humanity realize its dream of removing all the differences and divisions among themselves, the institution Hajj come up with a clear example of making us understand and observe that unity of humanity is possible. For this the Qur'an asked Prophet Ibrahim to invite people to Hajj, so that they may witness the beauty and magnificence of the guidance of Allah.
Hajj is like a united nation in its real sense without five elitist powers. With no hidden agenda and security council privileges, each nation and community comes to Makkah with the single purpose of serving God and reiterating their covenant with Him.
Hajj provides the opportunity for everyone to witness the common bonds among people regardless of their differences. Hajj promotes the idea of the dignity of human beings, male or female, young or old and rich and poor.
Hajj also creates space for intellectual ideas among people so that they could all remain focused on their main agenda of serving humanity through following the guidance of God.
It is this spirit of Hajj that was prevalent at the time of the Prophet and his trusted companions. It is this spirit of Hajj that is now being challenged by the modern business-dominated society and hierarchy of rich and poor culture.
However, among all this razzmatazz, still, there are people who come to the Hajj to take the inspiration to transform themselves for a better future both for them and for others. They are the ones who do not care about big hotels or better facilities. They are the ones who spend their days and nights in Mina, Arafat, Muzdalfah, Makkah, and Madinah.
Here they remember the covenant that Allah made with Prophet Abraham, the builder of Kaaba. Prophet Abraham was told by God, Almighty:

{Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people.} (Al-Baqarah 2:124).

Encouraged by this honor, the Prophet asked:

{"And of my descendants?" [ Allah ] said, "My covenant does not include the wrongdoers."} (Al-Baqarah 2:124)

In these simple words thus were described the real intent and purpose of the Hajj and all other faith-based institutions. The dignity and honor do not come with buying this or that package. It comes through dedication and commitment to the divine values and living up to them.
Someday, the Hajj will be restored to its original intent by those unknown and unrecognized faces who come from all over the world quietly without any fanfare and who spend every moment of their presence in the noble sanctuaries and the pilgrimage path with the determination to follow their real leaders: Prophets Ibrahim, Isma`il and Muhammad (peace and blessings are upon them) in every aspect of this great institution.
The re-enactment of acts performed during the Hajj is attributed to Prophets Ibrahim and Isma`il and Mother Hagar. They are primarily meant for the purpose of reminding humanity that in order to bring people together, God's guidance is received, acknowledged, accepted and followed by a small group of people who may not be present physically seeing the fruits of their efforts. Prophet Ibrahim created that nucleus for perpetual change in human behavior and for that he was honored by God who declared him as an Imam (role model) for humanity.

Who promotes hatred, revenge, rape, and anger against Muslims in India?

While the mob under the leadership of Hindus belonging to RSS and BJP were moving towards the house of young nine-year-old Azra, the entire family of 10 was trying to locate a safe place in their own home to save it from those who were also its neighbors.  They found kitchen a safe place to hide, but the mob broke open the door and killed members of the family between the ages of 7 and 70. Azra was attacked. Her stomach was slashed with a sickle and her hand chopped. Those who attacked here were all Hindus.

Now she is in Delhi’s prestigious All India Medical Institute and the doctors are keen that she stays in the hospital until she fully recovers. The Majority of the doctors who are dedicated to saving her are Hindus.

This incident took place in September in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. But incidents like these fill the pages of human history. In every community, there are people who are the saviors and there are those who are killers. We are neither born as saviors nor as killers. What makes us what we are and how we behave? Who whispers in our consciousness that we must kill or we must save a human life? Why those who are generally perceived as decent people in society, all of a sudden, act in a manner that betrays their humanity and why others act in a manner totally different than theirs.

One can blame whoever one wants to blame, but someone has to take the responsibility of creating a climate where these brutal acts are played out. We have to admit that there are people and groups who thrive on hatred, anger, and revenge. They attack everyone who is not like them and give a message to their followers that the life of the other is not worth respecting. Thus, at any opportunity they get, they do the unthinkable because they are convinced in their mind that the other has no right to live.

In India, the Rashtriya Swayam Sangh (RSS), the Hindu Vishwa Parishad (HVP), the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena (SS), the Bajrang Dal (BD) and other outfits associated with these organizations have created a climate of hate on the basis of their biased and distorted narratives of history and society. Contrary to historical facts, they have convinced their followers that the past Muslim rulers of India were brutal to their Hindu community, who encouraged forcible conversion, destruction of temples, raping of women, and the humiliation of non-Muslims in general. They have propagated a false narrative of history that tells the zealots that a Muslim emperor by the name of Aurangzeb used to kill hundreds of Brahmin a day to please his God or Muslim rulers turned most Hindu places of worship into mosques. They have falsely relayed the message that Muslims were responsible for the division of the country and that Muslims desecrate Hindu traditions by slaughtering cows, a symbol of their faith. In fact, cow slaughtering is banned in India except in West Bengal and Kerala. Thus, they have erroneously concluded that the Muslim community in India is an enemy and deserves the same that was done to Hindus by Muslim rulers in the past. They have created hatred and anger against Muslims and they have prepared their followers to commit the most brutal unthinkable acts against people who are projected an enemy". It is this false propaganda the forces of hatred use against Muslims to rally their supporters."

Many of India’s textbooks taught at private and public schools contain these messages. In places of worship, the message is repeated and in political rallies, the sentiments against Muslims are provoked. Obviously, anger and hatred explode at the smallest possible opportunity. 

Not a single day passes without Muslims being told by these groups that they are anti-national and anti-Hindu and they deserve to be uprooted. It’s this climate of hatred that prepares mobs to commit mass rape and mass murder and other brutal unthinkable crimes. It is this climate that created Gujarat massacres and Muzaffarabad killings.

Unfortunately, this brutality and savagery is on the rise. The information that is being circulated by the RSS sponsored or inspired group is all over and not only the Muslim community but the faith of Islam has been demonized. That explains the reason behind the nomination of Narendra Modi for the post of prime minister by the RSS political front BJP, a man who presided the state that witnessed the worst acts of violence against Muslims in independent India. His candidacy is a slap on the face of the nation and an effort to legitimize hatred, anger, and revenge.

But then there are Hindus who do not identify with this philosophy of hatred. They have raised their voices but they lack mass appeal to their message. RSS has penetrated India’s rural areas and its members occupy important positions in India’s army, police, national guards, bureaucracy, educational academy, financial institutions, and relief agencies. It wants to consolidate its power in Delhi and it is willing to do anything about that, even if it means instigating mobs to chop as many heads and hands as it can. The danger is real and not imaginary. Indians, including Muslims, must be prepared to face this danger. What should the Muslim strategy stop the onslaught of RSS is the topic of another article that I intend to pen next?