Violence in Muslim communities must be tackled

Muslims must speak up as loudly about these violent acts as they do about other crimes, writes Shelina Janmohamed

Mourners throw flower petals on an ambulance carrying the body of Mumtaz Qadri to his funeral in Rawalpindi Faisal Mahmood / Reuters

Muslims must speak up as loudly about these violent acts as they do about other crimes

In a small village outside New Delhi, 52-year-old Mohamed Akhlaq and his son were beaten by a local Hindu mob incensed by rumours that Akhlaq, an India Muslim, was storing beef. He was killed and his son suffered serious injuries.

Now, a year later, one of the men arrested for the crime has died in prison of a fever. His funeral was attended by a BJP minister. The casket was draped with the Indian flag, a hint he was seen as a hero.

Such stories of “cow vigilantism” are on the increase. The term is used to describe attacks by small extremist groups seeking to defend the sanctity of the cow, which Hindus consider sacred and therefore refuse to eat.

But horrific deaths like that of Akhlaq highlight that the simple fact of being Muslim in India is to live under a growing target. Muslims around the world will recognise this fear.

But there’s also a deeper lesson that some Muslim communities need to take note of. It is imperative to speak up about the open and growing hatred of Muslims. But it is also imperative that we speak up equally loudly and categorically denounce similar acts being perpetrated by a small number of Muslims on other Muslims.

When a former police body-guard called Mumtaz Qadri killed Pakistani minister Salman Taseer in 2011 because Taseer opposed blasphemy laws, Qadri was arrested, tried and hanged. And yet in some circles, Qadri was hailed by as a hero, rather than a murderer, and earlier this year after he was executed, thousands attended his funeral.

In Afghanistan last year, a 27-year-old called Farkhanda Malikzada was killed by a mob after a local mullah falsely accused her of burning the Quran. She was accused after objecting to the mullah’s practice of selling charms at a local shrine. Her brutal death was recorded on mobile phones and shared.

This week, five people were gunned down in Karachi as women gathered to mourn the death of the granddaughter of the Prophet.

A British Muslim man, Naiyyar Mehdi Zaidi, and his two brothers, attempted to protect the women who had gathered inside from terrorists who saw no issue with murdering innocent civilians, their fellow Muslim sisters. Why? Because they were Shia.

Too often, Muslims point out that Islam elevates the status of women, yet here were women gathered to talk about one of the great women of Islam, and engage in a study circle that turned into a bloodbath – and the condemnation was not sufficiently fulsome.

These are not one-offs. We must join the dots and acknowledge that attacks on women or minorities in Muslim communities are regular. A handful of hatemongers are responsible. The deeper problem is the attitudes that pervade more general discourse.

In some circles, Muslim women are told that they should not be in mosques, that they should not voice their opinions and that it is un-Islamic to do so. Elsewhere, there are open declarations that some Muslims are not really Muslims, and these can be found among both scholars and laity. Or some will say that our children cannot marry their children because they are not “really” Muslim. I’ve heard such things with my own ears from Muslims who claim they’re liberal, inclusive and accept diversity.

Yet I see deeply embedded racist, misogynistic and sectarian attitudes all around me which go unchallenged.

You may never have heard that as a woman you “deserved” to be attacked, or that as a particular kind of Muslim you are not a real Muslim. These attitudes are sometimes expressed. And sometimes such attitudes are wilful.

But I’m willing to believe that it may simply be that these Muslims enjoy privileges and are fortunate never to have experienced the penalties of gender, race or sectarianism. Such discrimination is always toxic and often fatal. When we hear such diminution of women or minorities as not being real Muslims it must be challenged head on.

Shelina Janmohamed is the author of Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World and Love in a Headscarf