Right or Left

Public perceptions:
I have a problem with Islamophobes. My problem is that people are unable to distinguish between religion and its people. A wrongful ideology must be condemned. But not its people. A cult and leaders propagating it should be banned and abolished. But its victims must be shown understanding. There is a bigger reason. Not all people who follow a religion are its victims. For many, religion comprises a small part of their daily life, their thoughts, their decisions. Condemning these people for being born a certain way is similar to condemning someone who smokes: The fact that he smokes does not define him completely. There are many other facets to him. Facets that are worth exploring, beneficial to the society and the world. There must be a worthy effort made in separating opinions about an ideology from its people, especially those who inherited the ideology by birth.

Feeding the ideology:
I saw an interesting show on NDTV 24-7 yesterday: Witness this time around presented an extraordinary documentary of how UP leftist politics has brutally exploited the sentiments of an impoverished Muslim community in the state with politicians like Mulayam Singh and Mayawati. Muslim Personal Law, funding the setting up of new madrasas and Urdu schools, providing jobs for 4000 Urdu teachers, protesting Saddam Hussein's hanging and pension scheme for madrasa teachers is just some of the few issues on which the Muslim sentiment and the vote is bought. Unfortunately, none of the issues talk about betterment of women, increasing employment and literacy levels, building schools for children that will provide them an education fit to find a job. The documentary also talked about the increasing number of Urdu language papers in the region: the frontline stories they ran, believe me, could put Ekta Kapoor's writers to shame. in one, a bloodied Muslim man was shown with a background of flames, damaged cars and buildings...clearly a bomb explosion. The cover story was of a Muslim brother who suffered in the Ahmedabad bomb blasts - and look at the irony, on top of that, to blame it on the Indian Mujahideen! The "real culprits", the paper claimed, were the usual suspects: The America-Israel duo. Now, here's a compelling melodrama: garish images -> intrigue -> sympathy for the victim -> anger at making the victim the culprit -> conspiracy -> rage and destruction (raging bull sees RED). It's really sad, and I don't seem to have more energy to dig deeper into it.

Solution
But one must also understand the vastness of a religion with a billion+ followers in multiple countries. It cannot be wished away in a whisp of wind, in an argument or even in an all-out war. One MUST look for more practical solutions. The moderate Muslim leadership must step up. Leadership beyond the clergy level must make its voice felt. The educated and working women, the doctors, cricketers, actors, and the local leaders: let's start talking about development in a common voice. Let's stop with the ridiculing and the appeasing, the victimizing and the demonizing, and really just tackle the problem at hand.