It is time for Muslims in India to expose and isolate reactionary maulanas/muftis, who have done much harm to their community. They should follow Turkey’s example

The Justice Sachar Committee report of 2006 on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in the country stated that most Indian Muslims are backward and poor, and probably the same is the condition of most Pakistanis and Bangladeshi Muslims. In this writer’s opinion, it is the maulanas/muftis, who are mainly responsible for this sad plight of Muslims.

In Islam, religion (ibadat) is a matter between an individual and Allah. But maulanas became intermediaries between the two, which is totally unislamic. There were no maulanas at the time of the Prophet or his Companions. They came into existence much later due to certain vested interests.

Today, the truth is that it is most of these Muslim clerics, who have put feudal shackles and fetters on the mindsets of most Muslims, which have kept them backward.

This writer viewed videos on YouTube, which showed how Rafia Naz, a 21-year-old Muslim girl from Ranchi, Jharkhand, who teaches yoga, was threatened and terrorised by some maulanas. One maulana even brought a mob to her house to threaten her to give up teaching yoga.

Another maulana, Nadeemuddin, said on a television show that in Islam, a woman cannot teach men. But where is this written in the Quran? By that logic then, no woman can be a Professor or a teacher in a co-ed university, college or any other institution. No woman in a company can teach business practices to men. Where in the Quran is yoga forbidden?

In 1985, the Supreme Court of India delivered the well-known Shah Bano judgement, granting maintenance to divorced Muslim women. Against this progressive and humanitarian verdict, the Indian maulanas organised agitations all over the country, proclaiming that it was against the Sharia’h. Consequently, the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, fearing losing the Muslim vote-bank, pushed through a Bill in Parliament that annulled the verdict.

In some videos, this writer saw some maulanas justifying the barbaric practice of nikah halala, triple talaq and nikah mut’ah (temporary marriage). This reveals their feudal backward reactionary mindsets.

In India, after Independence, the Muslim vote-bank became very important in most places to win the elections. Since the maulanas had a grip over the minds of most Muslims (who had feudal mindsets, like most Hindus), our crafty and the so-called “secular” politicians developed a nexus with such maulanas to secure the Muslim votes.

Hence, these “secular” politicians secretly gave various benefits to these maulanas, and in return, they got them Muslim votes. This unholy alliance between our “secular” politicians and maulanas not only resulted in mutual

benefit to both, but also ensured that most Muslims remain poor and backward, as the Justice Sachar Committee report stated.

It is time now for Muslims (particularly the youth) to realise this and expose and isolate these reactionary maulanas/muftis, who have done much harm to the Muslim community. These maulanas are nothing but unislamic malignant excrescences and warts on the Muslim community and the greatest obstacle to their progress.

In Turkey, the feudal minded Sultan and Khalifa, hand-in-glove with the maulanas, kept the Turkish people poor and backward so much so that the country came to be known as “The Sick Man of Europe” and was kicked around by the European powers. The Sultan even agreed to the partition of Turkey (like India’s partition of 1947) by the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, as demanded by European powers.

The great Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal realised this and refused to accept the partition of Turkey. Consequently, he staged a revolt in 1920, which deposed the Sultan and Khalifa, post which, he set about modernising Turkey and abolished sharia’h, burqa and madarsas, which were responsible for people’s backwardness and poverty.

Indian Muslims should follow Turkey’s example if they wish to improve their lives. They must get rid of these reactionary maulanas/muftis and feudal and backward laws and practices like sharia’h, burqa and madarsas among others and modernise rapidly.

(The writer is former Judge, Supreme Court of India)