By Maulana Arshad Madani
France is a country that ruled over Muslim nations such as Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria for years. Many Muslims have also gone to France to earn their livelihood and have settled there to become lawful citizens of the country.
In addition, in view of international law, many Muslims and people from other religions communities went to France and settled there as many people migrated to Europe and the US due to the hardships they faced in their home countries.
These people, especially in Europe, have more or less the same rights as Europeans and if they don't have them now, they will after some time.
The governments there accepted them and provided them with the same facilities as the Europeans have. Many of the migrated people worked hard in their crafts and gradually achieved great success, which caused jealousy in a section of people that led to a sectarian mindset among them.
This phenomenon is seen more or less everywhere. Some people become jealous when they see that yesterday's strangers or blacks are growing and progressing, and are able to influence the economy of their country. This minority section of jealous people are the ones who are demolishing mosques, setting them on fire and killing innocent worshipers.
It is worth noting that what is happening in France at the moment has two sides to it: One is the stand of the government, where freedom of expression means unlimited freedom of language and pen which is allowed to destroy the honour and dignity of men, women, the elderly and the ancestors. This freedom allows anyone to make cartoons of any of the purest people in the world as he wishes, and based on freedom of speech or expression, he is free from the grip of any law.
Moreover, it is more surprising that a country like India supports the same freedom of speech and expression, without understanding that if this prevails in a country with different religions like in India, it can affect peace and harmony. The government supports unlimited freedom of speech without considering the bad consequences of it, even after some courts in the country have slammed some biased media houses for supporting unlimited freedom of speech targeting a particular religion.
A petition in this regard has been filed in the Supreme Court by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind. It is expected that the court order will be against unlimited freedom of speech, after which the process of hurting the followers of a religion will be legally stopped.
The other side of the coin is knife attacks that are taking place one after the other in France and other countries of the world in which fewer offenders, and more innocent men and women are dying.
Could anyone be allowed to take the law of the land into their of own hands? And could taking the law into their own hands by a few reckless Muslims be good for the millions of Muslims living in the Christian countries of the world?
If after such incidents, the sectarian organisations that are growing in these countries become active against the Muslim minority, what will happen to millions of Muslims and their children living in these countries?
In France, the Muslim population is approximately 5.7 million (about 9 per cent), while the figures are 5 million (about 6 pet cent) in Germany, 4.1 million (about 6.3 per cent) in the UK, .8 million (about 8.1 per cent) in Sweden, .7 million (approximately 8 per cent) in Austria, 2.9 million (about 5 per cent) in Italy, .8 million in (about 5.1 per cent) in the Netherlands (source: Wikipedia, Islam by Country).
Now think again, if few angry Muslims break the law, and the sectarian forces there gain strength and get the patronage of the governments from behind the scenes, what will be the future of the scores Muslims spread all over Europe?
I am not saying that you should not protest against the hateful ideology of a teacher or a company, but breaking the law, causing unrest or killing people do not represent a true picture of Islam in these countries, nor does it make the future of the millions of Muslims living there peacefully secure.
I am saying this because we have been suffering from similar politics in our country for 50 years. In India, Hindus worship cows. But Muslims have been killed after people took law into their own hands alleging cow slaughtering.
If we oppose taking the law into one's own hands here, why will we not oppose it in France? I think that the way Muslims all over the world are protesting against France today, it would have been great had they stood up against unlimited freedom of speech before.
I believe that today, as a result of the international protests, when the President of France is also moving towards taking a U-turn, the Indian government and those in power should also step back from the stand of France, and avoid hurting the sentiments of billions of Muslims.
(The writer is the President of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, New Delhi)
Source: IANS
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