When Saviours are made Victims

News:

BSP leader Imran Masood said on Saturday in a tweet that was posted in Hindi, “The state is becoming unsafe for daughters under the rule of CM Yogi Adityanath. In Meerut, BDS student Vania Shaikh committed suicide by jumping from the terrace, her classmate molested her publicly and slapped her for protesting.” (Free Press Journal)

Comment:

Reports suggest that India’s 200 million Muslims are subject to planned and targeted threats, assault, sexual violence, and killings. This recent heartbreaking incident of Vania Shaikh, a second-year dental science student who faced abuse and humiliation and ended her life publicly. Her act was not just of desperation, anger and hopelessness, but it was an open declaration of the miserable state of Muslims in India. The nail scratch marks found on the face of accused can be seen on the faces of the people of power who could have protected her. For the Governments Pakistan and India may just be neighbours but for the people of Pakistan, Muslims of India are brothers and sisters they left behind.

Pakistan is a result of people’s demand to live under Islam. The lives lost, sacrificed and snatched away were accepted with heavy hearts. Families divided, properties lost, daughters assaulted and unhealable wounds were borne by the masses. We all have heard the horror stories of women jumping off their roofs or in wells to save their honour. Children were killed in front of their mothers’ eyes. Men died protecting women and children and thought they were protecting the generations of Muslims. But even after the lines were drawn, discrimination continued. Muslims whenever found in vulnerable state were hunted down. In fact, it snowballed into an international movement of blaming Muslims for every wrong, even for their being Muslims.

This makes it clear that fight is not against Muslims but their belief. When they claim that Muslims are a threat to them, they are actually giving words to their inner most fear of the power of Islam. Vania was not the first girl to suffer and she will not be the last if we kept living under this satanic system. Indian journalist Dhirendra K Jha said, “If Hindu Rashtra means assigning second class status to Muslims, then India has practically already become one. Now it’s a question about making it official. Even If they don’t do it, the change has taken place”

In fact, the BJP dream is to diminish the existence of Muslims in India, and they did not shy away from expressing it as well. These are the same very Muslims who they fought alongside to expel the British from the Subcontinent and with whom they have lived together for hundreds of years. The movement started for freedom without having any plan for a separate homeland because Muslims considered the whole Subcontinent as their own home. This idea of separation was initiated and promoted by the British to have better control over the people, and making them each other’s rivals will make it easier for the British to have control over both.

If we only look at the Muslim women who worked for the freedom of the Subcontinent when men were imprisoned, we will find many who just worked for getting rid of the British. Abadi Bano Begum referred to by Gandhi as Bi Amma, despite her poor financial condition, from 1917-1921, donated Rs 10 every month to protest against the British Defense Act, after Sarojini Naidu’s arrest. Bibi Amtus Salaam worked with Gandhi and on February 9, 1947, a report appeared in ‘The Tribune’ stating her 25 days fast of protest as the most notable intervention. Begum Hazrat Mahal, the wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Awadh, refused to accept any favours or allowances from the British. Begum, with the aid of her commander Raja Jailal Singh, battled the British East India Company valiantly. Muhammadi Khanum, with her understanding of literature highlighted The East India Company’s destruction of mosques and temples to make room for highways, which served as the catalyst for the uprising. Syeda FakrulHajiyan Hassan took part in the Indian freedom fight and urged her children to do so too. She herself was a child of Iraqi immigrants and raised her sons to be freedom fighters who later gained notoriety as the “Hyderabad Hassan Brothers.”

These are just few examples of brave Muslim women and their role against British invasion. How can we accept this humiliation and brutality against the daughters of these remarkable women and how can we leave them alone to suffer? What have these 75 years of nationalism done to us? From fighting men and protesting women we have turned into earning and spending machines. Capitalism has turned us into profit-oriented beings and has limited our activities to personal achievements, progress and entertainment. How can we feel when we see our daughters like Vania? Why do not we follow in the footsteps of our mothers and work for something actually significant? We call on our brothers with power and weaponry to get up and prove themselves as true Muslims who only live to obey the commands of Allah (swt). Whatever difficulty they face in this way will ultimately lead them to Jannah that is the dream of every Muslim. Only the establishment of Khilafah will solve the problems of Muslim Ummah.

Until then we have two choices, to suffer and wait for more suffering, or to struggle and be the people who are loved by Allah (swt). The delay and negligence of Muslims with power to help will cause further loss to this Ummah and they will be accountable by Allah (swt).

Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar: Allah's Messenger (saw) said,

«الْمُسْلِمُ أَخُو الْمُسْلِمِ، لاَ يَظْلِمُهُ وَلاَ يُسْلِمُهُ، وَمَنْ كَانَ فِي حَاجَةِ أَخِيهِ كَانَ اللَّهُ فِي حَاجَتِهِ، وَمَنْ فَرَّجَ عَنْ مُسْلِمٍ كُرْبَةً فَرَّجَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ كُرْبَةً مِنْ كُرُبَاتِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ، وَمَنْ سَتَرَ مُسْلِمًا سَتَرَهُ اللَّهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ»‏

“A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, so he should not oppress him, nor should he hand him over to an oppressor. Whoever fulfilled the needs of his brother, Allah will fulfill his needs; whoever brought his (Muslim) brother out of a discomfort, Allah will bring him out of the discomforts of the Day of Resurrection, and whoever screened a Muslim, Allah will screen him on the Day of Resurrection.” (Sahih al-Bukhari)

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Ikhlaq Jehan