Secularism

I have a very strong suspicion of "secular" people. I employ the quotes to emphasize that I am suspicious of them because I don't believe they are really secular. Most times they find it easier to beat upon certain relegions more than other ones. But, it has always been hard for me to be able to define my position, and I think the following excerpt from an editorial by Vir Sanghvi hits large parts of the nail's head. I would add more, but that I believe that is because I have a very strong sense of history. However, that is for another day with a longer evening closed out by a well-lit fireplace. Meanwhile, on to the excerpt (you can read the full piece at www.epaper.hindustantimes.com) :

All of us who espouse the secular cause follow — to some degree — a double standard when it comes to comparing Muslim anger to Hindu outrage. I first noticed this during The Satanic Verses controversy when perfect liberals — men who railed against Hindu fundamentalism day after day — suddenly abandoned their liberal values and began supporting a ban on the book on the grounds that minority sentiments were at stake.

We see this now on a regular basis. All of us are outraged when the VHP or the Shiv Sena objects to Husain’s portrayals of Hindu goddesses and argue that, as an artist, he has perfect right to paint what he likes. But would we take the same position if his paintings offended Muslims?

The sad truth is that we are much more mindful of offending the sentiments of Muslims than we are of Hindus, Sikhs or Christians.

We claim we do this because we know that Muslims are a minority. But the real reason is because we know that Muslims tend to protest more loudly than Hindus; because these protests can be unreason able; and because so few liberal Muslims stand up to the extremists in their community. When the VHP goes on the rampage, it is liberal Hindus who issue the loudest condemnation. When the lunatic fringe of the Muslim community gets agitated about the length of Sania Mirza’s skirt or about a cartoon in a European paper, few moderate Muslim voices are heard.

In the process, it has become easy for Hindu zealots to caricature the entire Muslim community as comprising fanatics, fundamentalists and lunatics. As the joke goes: Islamic is a peaceful religion and if you don’t accept that, they start sending you death threats.

I have waited many years for liberal Muslims to break this conspiracy of silence. And while I do hear some voices, these are people on the fringes of their community. Muslim liberals are still as shamefully silent as they were when students at Jamia assaulted the gentle and scholarly Mushirul Hassan for saying that while he found The Satanic Verses deeply offensive, he did not believe in the principle of banning books.

The time has now come, I think, for us to stop waiting for moderate Muslims to speak up. Liberal Hindus must end the double standard of the secular mindset and speak out as loudly against Muslim fundamentalism as they do against Hindu extremism.

If we do not do that, we discredit the whole concept of secularism. More important, we admit that our liberalism is not an absolute value but a convenient stick to beat Hindu extremists with while making shameful and unnecessary compromises with minority intolerance.