25/11/2013

A Sigh of Relief in Muzaffar Nagar

November 18 was very important for some victims of violence in Muzaffarnagar, when more than eight hundred fifty people belonging to 72 families were given permanent shelter. This work of giving consolation and solace to these families was carried out by the Jamiat Ulema of Maulana Syed Arshad Madani. Hindi and English newspapers gave no special importance to such a big event; however Urdu dailies published this news with the photographs and much fanfare, under bold headlines.  This Jamiat is working very well in this field. Apart from helping the families implicated in false cases of terrorism, it has been fighting cases for them, for which it deserves praise of the community. In the prevailing situation it is not usual to provide permanent housing for at least eight to nine hundred people out of 25 thousand victims of Muzaffarnagar. Maulana Arshad Madani and his colleagues definitely deserve appreciation for the work - but before congratulating the Maulana, we need to ask a question on one more aspect of this situation. Can this kind of effort help even a bit in solving the basic problem? And after all what kind of massage is it conveying?

One objective of riots
Yes, this is the main issue, which must be considered with farsightedness, not only by Jamiat Ulama but by the whole community leadership also. The first question in this context is why these systematic and planned anti-Muslim riots are being enacted? The answer is that, apart from other objectives, the aim of the rioters is to evict the rural Muslim populations from their aboriginal lands and to capture them. This fact was pinpointed at the time when the same Jamiat had devised the same solution to the problem of Bodoland Muslim riot victims in Assam. Bodoland rioters also want the Muslims to leave the land and go somewhere else, and the work of building separate shelters for Muslims was surely helpful in achieving the objectives of the wrongdoers. Now with this move at Muzaffarnagar, the massage is being conveyed that the rioters will thus keep killing and destroying properties, and Muslim organisations will thus keep rehabilitating the victims, and in this way the country's rural Muslim populations will be rendered to refugees in their own country. That is, planners of the riots are happy that their arrows are targeting in the right direction. Muslim leadership itself is proving helpful to them. What a nicer and easier thing would be for them.

Critical aspect of the situation

The most serious aspect of the situation is that our own government administration is at work in this criminal conspiracy. In Muzaffarnagar, the rioters have done their part of work, now the bureaucrats are doing the remaining work. They want that the people who have went out of riot-affected areas do not go back there in any case, voluntarily surrender their properties, evacuate the refugee camps also and get settled elsewhere after accepting the amount of five lakh. These government officials have prepared a document for affidavit and are getting it signed by the victims, forcefully. This affidavit is the masterpiece of government’s oppression and excesses, and of the murder of law and justice. (See The Indian Express, 19 November). That is, the case of Muzaffarnagar is not as easy and simple as is being understood. For this Muslim leadership will have to work by sacrificing their personal desires and sectorial ambitions, keeping faith only in God and the Day of Judgment as there is no other choice . This work needs unity and concord. Do help the victims, build housings for them, but only as temporary relief; the real problem is their rehabilitation to their ancestral and original lands.
25/11/2013 khabar-O-Nazar by Parwaaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by:Miss Khalida Hussain

No comments:

Post a Comment