Sunday 6 July 2014

The need for tolerance

In Pakistan Ahmadis and Shias are often being killed,dargahs bombed. human rights activists and journalists, etc brutally murdered. 

Ahmadis believe that after Prophet Mohammed there was a Prophet Ghulam Ahmad in the 19th Century. Are they breaking anyone's head or cutting off anyone's limbs by saying this ? Those who believe that Mohammed was the last prophet are entitled to do so, and they may also say that Ahmadis are not Muslims ( just as Ahmadis may the same about them). But what right have they to kill Ahmadis, burn their mosques, and beat up their children ? This is just hooliganism.

Similarly, when the Shias do not accept the first three Khalifas (Abu Bakr, Omar and Usman) as genuine, and regard them as usurpers, are they breaking anyone's head or cutting off anyone's limbs ? Then what right has anyone to kill them or burn their mosques or beat up their children ? This is simply hooliganism. Many Muslims of Wahabi thinking believe that going to dargahs is butparasti ( worship of idols), since dargahs have graves of Sufi saints, and such persons believe that going to dargahs is worship of graves, which is idol worship prohibited by Islam.

Such people need not go to dargahs if they do not wish to, but why should they prevent others from doing so, and why should dargahs be bombed ? This is just hooliganism. In fact 80% Muslims not only in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh go to dargahs, and Hindus also go there.

We need tolerance if our country is to survive and prosper, otherwise it will become another Jurassic Park like Pakistan, where 1000 girls are stoned to death every year for alleged adultery, blasphemy laws,abduction, forcible conversion, etc are used to persecute non-Muslims, health workers who give polio drops to children and vaccinate them are killed, human rights activists, journalists, etc are brutally murdered.


In a subcontinent of such diversity as ours only tolerance and secularism can keep us together and take our country forward towards prosperity














4 comments:

  1. Islam in itself contains 73 sects, of which only one will enter paradise on the Day of Judgment.

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  3. Dear Justice Katju,
    I am 19 years old . Reading your blog posts in your VOICE are always enlightening . They speak the truth and are always an eye opener . Thank you for coming back and writing at a higher frequency .

    Kind Regards
    Anshuman Pandey

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  4. The genesis itself of Islam and what its founder left for his fans !Therein lies the problem of what we see today. These people will kill the other for another 10000 years and still will not see light. For they refuse to look beyond . They rubbish all great thinking and philosophies. While all roads lead to Rome in Islam there is only one path and imagine how catastrophic it can be if all converge on one road.

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