Farooq Ahmad Bakloo
People who are not much mindful of the Muslim umah have almost cultivated the cynical image regarding the Muslims. When these types of people are found every where, their neurons start running, and a reflex action is generating with a bunch of ideas affiliated with Muslims. They know Muslims through the prism of media, serials and Bolly-wood films. This is not in Indian case but at the international level; the Muslims were associated with pessimistic actions and supporters of public disorder. It is the result of the incidents that brought bad name to Islam. When a Muslim was extracted from the aero plane because of gis identity. As muslim the praises the God in Arabic Allah- hu- Akbar, the people start defining Muslim as:
• Somebody taking non-veg food
• Wearing a white kurta
• Long beard
• Uneducated and are against education.
• Marries with four women
• One who has number of children
• One who is against the equality and modernization
• Suppress the women
• Someone with 786 or any other Arabic or Urdu letter displayed on the doors of their houses
• Speaks Urdu in conversation
• Someone who is conservative in behavior
Someone who wears skullcap with a scarf on shoulders wearing the green amulet in the Neck
• One who believes in circumcision of the male baby
• One whose areas are dirty
• One who supports violence
Need To Find The Purpose Of Creation : Mentioned above is the introduction of the Muslims in the optics of those who are not adherent of Islam .Here is the question that who is accountable for this misleading introduction.Surely the way present electric, print social media constructs the Muslims is catastrophic. It is a well-known fact that we ourselves are responsible for this, and due to our ignorance, we have lost our mission and goal. We go very much away from the Teachings of the Noble Quran and the authentic teachings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW). We even do not know even about our own religion correctly, as to why Allah has created us , what the purpose of our creation unless we do not known about our destiny.
Positive Communication: We Muslims have left the critical aspect unattended and this critical aspect concerns communication with the people who have developed the misconceptions about us. Interaction with others about our religion and identity is one of the robust methods to tackle the image of Muslims created by the Media and cinema. As per the general observation of the general people that there are two extremes present in the modern Muslim Community. One extreme of those who are not ready to discuss the religion through the lens of modernization as they don’t give up rigidity in thoughts and beliefs. The second extreme is of those who are not cognizant of the religion; they are fully sunk in the western fashion flood and are infected by the social pandemic of the west. The Noble Quran mentions at number of places that observe things and open your eyes to study the universe. This indicates the noble Quran gives us a clue to study the scientific phenomenon and then ponder, however, we have closed our eyes from these teachings of the Noble Quran, and we read it as a belief. This division of extremes has negatively impacted the massage of Islam very much. The urgency to develop a balanced approach is must to deal with the misconceptions associated with the Muslims.
Come Out From The Thought Of Victimisation : We need to come forward and participate in the maters of development that are beneficial for the entire humanity. The feeling of victimization, which a significant number of Muslims have developed, should be wiped out because this thinking of victimization sometimes prevents the Muslim youth in coming forward. As they think, we are Muslims no one cares about us nothing will happen, we are in the minority; jobs are for the bulk, these type of thoughts push the Muslim Community into rooms of backwardness.
We need to strengthen social institutions to ensure that they take care of matters of caste and religion and contribute immensely for social upliftment of the people.
Understanding The Situation: We need to stop reacting in haste as it has been observed that Muslims are reacting to the situations and issues without even understanding the issues because of the lack of proper knowledge about the issues they are debating. This antagonistic response becomes very terrible sometimes and turns disastrous. We need to evaluate and recognize the situation before arriving at the ultimate and fitting solution while dealing in the affairs of the multicultural society.
Placement : The requirement for the placement actually in the field lies in the implementation of the welfare initiatives as it has been noticed that the intellectuals among the Muslim community lack the support. They are not giving much weightage to the learners as compared to religious preachers. Unfortunately right people are not put at right places. Most of the people take the opinions of the people of other backgrounds. As sometimes fathers take the advice from religious preachers about the education of daughter, but advice should be taken only from those preechers who know all about the rules of education.
Unity: The most annoying thing that is seen in the Muslims is the rigid sect system which has diverted the attention of people from the real teachings of Islam. Every sect defines Islam according to its way of ideology. The different interpretations of Islam by different sects has not sent out the right message about Islam to the people inclined to switch over to Islam from other religion. Hence, the plethora of people across the world sees Islam through the lens of these sects. However, the right way to understand Islam is to learn and understand the holy Quran and the authentic teachings of Noble Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Leadership : The Muslims need guidance that focuses on the sustainable future of the Muslims; and also for the entire humanity.There are leaders, but most of them exploited the sentiments of the community for the puposes of pelf and power. Even in this modern technological world, Muslims are very far away from development in several indicators. Off course development are seen in some countries but the development of elites and their near ones. The public among these countries still lacks the basic amenities of life and are struggling at each and every walk of life. Therefore there is a need for effective leadership that can work for the well-being of their people and the development of humanity.
Focus On Social Domain: Islam is not the religion that addresses only faith; it is the comprehensive code of life in which everything that is relevant to life directly or indirectly is explained. The Muslims are more spending on the issues of religious instructions that are good, but after the religious teachings, Islam fairly concentrates on the social instructions. It is noticed that in this area, we are very much weak and lack the social vision for the community. Hence, there is an urgency to focus on teachings of faith, as we are ourselves concerned with the teachings of faith. We need to strengthen social institutions to ensure that they take care of matters of caste and religion and contribute immensely for social upliftment of the people. Moreover, the ills found in muslims societies have to be addressed immediately to block their spread. Therefore, modern youth should be educated about the negative impact of social evils so that they come forward and split the chain of these evils. Unfortunately, even the Muslim parents at the time of marriage and other social functions don’ respect the Islamic rules and regulations just to show that they are swayed away by the tools of modernity .
Focus On Education: In India, various studies have spelt out the status of education among Muslims as a plethora of government reports have documented it. The masterpiece report was the report of Sachar Committee 2006 that highlighted the extensive problems of Muslim community of India. After that report, many programs were established for the educational upliftment of the community. However, the position was not improved so much in the infrastructural level, but this report was like a fire that initiates the thinking about the importance of education. Resultantly there is a silent positive movement towards education in the community. There is lot of scope for improvement as many parents don’t encourage their daughters to pursue education. One more hurdle noticed and perceived is that highly educated girls don’t find a suitable match in the community, and in most of the cases these types of girls do not marry.
( The author is a research scholar. Views are exclusively his own) [email protected]