New Age Islam

Urdu Section

21 Sep 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Islamic Awakening Conference: Will It Awaken the Muslim World?

The following response to the recently held so-called Islam Awakening Conference in Tehran in an Indian Urdu newspaper editorial shows the unquestioning manner in which Muslim intelligentsia, if the journalists running Urdu newspapers can be described as such, are willing to treat anything done in the name of Islam. Someone has to merely target America and the West and invoke the name of Islam to get their overwhelming support. The following editorial in India’s largest circulated Urdu newspaper, Rashtriya Sahara, is a prime example of this phenomenon. No questions are asked in this editorial, for instance, if Iran can be legitimately called an Islamic state. How many of Indian Urdu journalists would want to live under the repressive Mullah regime that is running Iran. They do not tire abusing India’s democratic government or the West day in and day out, without realising ever and certainly never mentioning, even if they do realise it in their saner moments, that there is no so-called Islamic government anywhere in the world, whether Sunni or Shia, where they can do the same. Indeed, they couldn’t even run a newspaper itself. Not to speak of publishing independent newspapers abusing the rulers, you cannot go to Saudi Arabia, for instance, even with a copy of the Holy Quran with a translation that has not been specifically approved by the Saudi kingdom’s high priests. This is not at all to justify American or Western actions in Libya or Iraq or elsewhere. Their foreign policy, of course, leaves much to be desired, as pages ofNew Age Islam keep documenting everyday. But one wishes educated Muslims were a little self-critical and introspective too. This would bring a much-needed balance in their approach and encourage the community too to be more level-headed. Islam teaches us balance. Extremism of any kind is anathema to it. We are taught not to become extremists even in the matter of saying prayers. Let us always try to look within while criticising others. – Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamUrduSection_1.aspx?ArticleID=5528