Note: Those who have read previous posts may find it a bit reptitive though it was written in a different context and to a different audience.Let me start out by saying that I am from a minority religion too, an Indian citizen,describe myself as a hindu in my passport, grew up immersed in Hindu mythology and discovered my religion later . enjoy sufi and islamic devotional music and have had friends in all religions and any other denominations that you can think of all my life and see no conflict in any of these identities. In fact these are not conflicts at all since I am an Indian, just as you are at the very core of your being. A proud one at that.
Yet the muslim community in India today finds itself, between a rock and a hard place.
This is because of the rabble and its rousers in each family,society,community or nation.
Mouthing ideological platitudes as we have been, since the hypocrisy of Indian politics institutionalized itself thanks to the congress culture and its lack of inner democracy which pervades the consciousness or the DNA of the politics of our country.
.This is a leadership failure at all levels, the family, society. community and national. And much as i dread to say this - it must be said that the leadership in the Muslim community - social, political,religious have all failed muslims miserably. And I am perhaps preaching to the choir here a bit, as your are obviously progressively minded people who visit or contribute to this site.
I have also no reason to believe that most of the Indian muslim bretheren are any different from me since they grew up where I did and were also part of my cultural consciousness.
The leadership at all fronts has failed. One significant domain of leadership that I have deliberately not discussed so far is the personal leadership domain.
And this is the only domain where each one of us can be the change instead of demanding the change and guaranteeing failure by the nature of the exercise.
The first step to change is recognizing the problem.
The second is accepting it - i.e. getting out of denial mode.
A large majority of us fail at the first step, a larger part of the remainder fail at the second step.
The third step is contemplation - a few of us are able to do this dispassionately rising above our conditioning.
The rest is easy once you have come this far, the popular myth of finding it hard to find the motivation just ceases to hold water when one has come this far.
A wise man perhaps Einstein observed - The significant problems of today cannot be solved using the thinking that created it - i'd go further and say that trying to solve the significant problems of the day by the existing thinking (i say thinking, not wisdom) is the definition of lunacy.
These are universal laws of life and could be defied only at ones own peril - one could be unhappy about gravitation and jump out of the nearest window in defiance - the results need no explanation.
So how is this relevant to the current situation?
Let us walk together and map it onto this current impasse and its deadly results.
I believe that all muslims that are rational in their thinking will agree that the muslim community today finds itself generally stereotyped in the worst possible manner. This stereotyping stymies the progressive forces and the very key to the deadlock. While raving and ranting about it is an option but the fact is that some muslims have made large contributions to the formation of this stereotype globally. This venom within would need to be indentified and antidotes be made a part of personal lives of those of us who care.
Let me also say that every individual,society and community generally craves and strives for what we can loosely call success.
It is a universal desire and so the laws of success are universal.
Again let me risk being a bit preachy - but let the faint of heart and spirit stop at this point, as they may not be able to stomach what follows as it involves personal change, that we never want to bring about unless forced by self interest.
I think we are at such a point in time now.
The origins, goals and motivations of this outrage in Mumbai are quite evident now.
If there is any doubt in any mind on this planet on the fruit of ignorance, hatred and spiritual bankruptcy are, they need their head examined.
That said, the outcome of one's life is clearly a sum total of choices we make at every step in our lives. This however is not so obvious to those who covet visible success or its spoils without having the stomach or susbtance for what that takes.
For every terrorist or wastrel who justifies his acts in pursuit of vengeance is just a weakling who wishes to take the easy way out, trying to bargain a price for what he covets.
That is the essential difference between the Salaskars',Karakres', Kamptes', Gajendra Singhs', Karambir Kangs' and Sandeep Unnikrishans' and the countless others who shall remain nameless and faceless in our consciousness on one hand and the Azam Amir Kasavs' and his ilk of the world.
In our need to look compassionate and socially responsible we seem to try to defy these natural laws of life. In our eagerness to be liked we seem to be over-eager to hand out fishes and loaves to those and create a mentality of covetousness and create a belief that it is indeed righteous to to be so.
What could be further from the truth about the forces of life.
It is a delinquency in our roles as leaders, as we lead our siblings,children, colleagues,societies or indeed nations, if we lead ourselves or others to believe otherwise.
Sympathy is a substance liable to abuse like any other and in fact is the most rampantly absued
of all opiates.
So let us purge ourselves of the guilt that is distributed so liberally by all and sundry who pose as the wronged most often, when all they are doing is venting greed devoid of any intelligence -cognitive, emotional or spiritual- at all.
Compassion, Humility and empathy are great virtues that all of must possess and pusrsue in greater measure, as we pursue greater success and make progress but let no one use this as an arm to twist behind our backs and hold entire nations and world to ransom.
Let us not reward incompetent and stunted leaders with negotiated settlements to buy peace but lead them to paths that teach these essential and if that means not sparing the rod so be it.
Let us not be delinquent in our responsibility towards the ones that we lead and those who choose to be in our care by letting our knees buckle and take easy ways out at any step or take cover under the fuselage of superficial debates that will now erupt and be fuelled by these men-of-words-and-little-else who lead us today in all domains.
It is here the progressive islam proponents can choose to carry the can forward.
The temptation to let the "others" change first is rather inviting and we succumb to it often,
Let me repeat - The significant problems of today cannot be solved using the thinking that created it .
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