In May 2014, Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government of BJP secured India’s biggest election victory since 1984. He is a controversial figure for Muslims as his 13-year tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat state saw the worst communal riots in which hundreds of Muslims were killed.
Modi has also been a lifelong member of the RSS.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent outfit of male only Hindu nationalists, has long wanted India’s religious minorities to call themselves Hindu. Members of the Bajrang Dal, a militant RSS affiliate, claimed this month to have “reconverted” 200 Muslims in Uttar Pradesh to Hinduism. Senior RSS ideologues hailed this “homecoming”. These multiple reports of ‘forcible conversions’ of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism, achieved apparently through methods ranging from offers of free food and education to outright threats of violence. The RSS, whose members fill 19 positions in Modi’s cabinet, is also seeking to Hindu-ize India’s Christian-majority northeastern states.
A senior minister in the Modi’s cabinet claimed recently that ”there are two kinds of Indians: children of Lord Rama (Hindus) and bastards (Muslims and Christians)”. Though she was forced to disavow her comments, Modi criticised her mostly for distracting from his focus on development. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has advocated that the Bhagavad Gita, the favourite text of upper-caste Hindus, should be declared the “national scripture” of India.
Rajnath Singh, the home minister, claimed recently that Werner Heisenberg (Nobel Prize winner in Physics) had derived his uncertainty principle from the ancient Vedas. Leaders of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party now routinely propose revisions in modern science as well as history. According to some, bodily emanations of the holy cow — from milk to urine — can cure corruption as well as dysentery.
RSS as an organization believes in converting people from Hinduism to Hinduvta. It believes that Hinduism is a thought system perfect from its very origins, that all the problems of modernity and history were foreseen by Hindu sages 2,000 years ago, that all modern scientific achievement was prefigured in Hindu thought, that Indians of all faiths are “culturally Hindu”, that India’s four-fifths Hindu majority is under threat from minorities, and that all Hindus should fall in line with a singular interpretation of Hindu tradition controlled by a central authority. That body would be the RSS.
These views are just beginning to unfold from a very rich and corrupt ruling elite. Out of the 541 Lok sabha winners, 442 are Crorepatis – 237 belong to BJP. Also out of these 541 winners, 186 have criminal cases and 112 have ‘serious’ criminal cases against them including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, disturbing communal harmony, kidnapping, and crimes against women.
The ‘uninterrupted’ Indian democracy has miserably failed in protecting the rights of its minorities. In the run-up to this year’s elections in India, tensions escalated between Hindu and Muslim communities. This led to a 30 percent increase in incidents of communal violence as compared to 2012. The central government’s Ministry of Home Affairs reported 823 incidents of communal violence in 2013, in which 133 people died and over 2,000 were injured. One of the worst such incidents involved mass violence in September 2013 in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, events in which at least 60 people died. These incidents of violence against minorities are a direct outcome of the basic flaws within the Democratic system. As this system is based on the idea of attaining maximum financial benefit out of its population. The majority areas and majority population gets special attention and benefits from the ruling class, as re-election after every 4 or 5 years produces undue emphasis upon majority and neglect of the minorities. Hence rulers favor the majority province over the minority province and majority population over minorities. For it is the votes of majority that gets them re-elected, so they put out all resources for development of majority areas and for the progress of majority population.
Although this situation of injustice and oppression is not limited to minorities, rather it spreads all over the society due to the tyranny of man-made system of Capitalism and democracy. However the minorities who face the brunt of this oppressive system are specially highlighted by the western media and human rights organization, while accusing the Islamic mindset and Islam for the crimes against minorities. In this process of Islam bashing, they forget however, that the system being implemented in Pakistan is not that of Islam, but is the secular capitalist system with its values of equalities, freedoms and social justice; which have failed to protect either minorities or majority not only in Pakistan but worldwide.
The Islamic system of Khilafah is free of all these faults, as the Islamic ruling system is a unique system of unity ordained by Allah. It is not a federal, democratic, republican, monarchic or dictatorial system at all. It has no similarity to any man-made ideology. The Islamic state considers people under its authority as citizens, whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims. All have their rights guaranteed by Islam. There is no concept of ‘ethnic minority’ as people are not discriminated against at all for their color, race or religion. While the Khalifah has no fear of impeachment or vote of no confidence as long as he is ruling by Islam. The law making power belongs to Allah only. Khalifah or the members of Ummah Council have no legislating powers as Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:
إن الحکم إلا للہ
“Verily, Ruling is only for Allah”
(Yusuf: 40)
Since man doesn’t legislate in the Islamic system, hence it is not up to the Khalifah or the majority of the representatives to abrogate or suspend the rights of citizens, no matter which political group, ethnicity, religion or gender he belongs to. Hence the rights of the non-Muslim citizens are set in stone and nobody can change them. It was for this reason that the Christian citizens of the Khilafah fought alongside Muslim armies against the Crusaders as they were happy and satisfied under Muslim just rule. Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire held a protected status and continued to practice their own religion, as did Christians. Yitzhak Sarfati, born in Germany, became the Chief Rabbi of Edirne and wrote a letter inviting European Jews to settle in the Ottoman Empire, in which he asked: “Is it not better for you to live under Muslims than under Christians?”. Sultan Beyazid issued a formal invitation to the Jews expelled from Catholic Spain and Portugal, leading to a wave of Jewish immigration. According to Michael Walzer (renowned political philosopher from Harvard):
”The established religion of the [Ottoman] empire was Islam, but three other religious communities—Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Jewish were permitted to form autonomous organizations. These three were equal among themselves, without regard to their relative numerical strength. They were subject to the same restrictions vis-à-vis Muslims—with regard to dress, proselytizing, and intermarriage, for example and were allowed the same legal control over their own members.”
The Prophet Muahammad (saww) said: “Whosoever persecuted a dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen), usurped his right or took work from him beyond his capacity or took something from him with evil intentions, I shall be a complainant against him on the Day of Judgement.”
It is also reported, that Omar (ra) saw an old man begging from the people of Dhimmah so he said: “What is the matter?” The man said: “I have no money and the Jizya is taken from me”. Omar (ra) replied: “We have not treated you fairly. We have eaten your shaybah (old age) and then we take Jizya from you.” Umar then wrote to his governors instructing them not to take Jizya from the elderly.
Therefore, only Khilafah Rashidah can save the lives, properties and honor of religious and ethnic minorities and create harmony and unity as it did for 1300 years in the past. Bukhara was thousands of miles away from the center of Khilafah in Baghdad, but equally flourished and progressed under the glorious rule of Islam.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لاَ تَتَّخِذُوا الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا دِينَكُمْ هُزُوًا وَلَعِبًا مِنْ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَالْكُفَّارَ أَوْلِيَاءَ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنْ كُنتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
“O you who believe! Take not as Awliyaa’ (protectors and helpers) those who take your religion as a mockery and fun from among those who received the Scripture (Jews and Christians) before you, and nor from among the disbelievers; and fear Allah if you indeed are true believers”.
(al-Maa’idah 5:57)
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Arij Owais – Pakistan