Understanding the Muslim Malaise
Author: Rashid Shaz
This book is about a devastating tragedy that befell the Muslims in post-’47 India. In the pages that follow one gets acquainted with a revolutionary Ummah which, in its ideo- logical wilderness, shuns its idealism and is eventually swal- lowed up by a seemingly neutral ideology of secularism. This conversion of Muslim Indians, from Islam to secularism, though in itself a clear case apostasy, has otherwise gone unnoticed. This little book focuses on this painful and heart- rending phenomenon.This book is intended only as a frank and honest exposi- tion of the problem. Those who flick through its pages for any latest facts and figures about Indian Muslims will certainly be disappointed as I have purposely avoided the trappings of modern sociological tools. I believe that statistical tables or sociologically obtained facts and figures are, in most cases, misleading when applied to such multidimensional issues. At their best, they can bring forth only a camera-like picture of the social scene conveniently ignoring or, rather, being insensitive to, the beneath the surface realities that a camera is not made to capture. Instead, I have tried to focus around the basic question as to what is the real cause of our decline?
During the last fifty years we Muslims have perfected the art of living in death. For us death is a continuous and a never- ending phenomenon. Such is the magnitude of our sufferings that even a death is not available to put an end to our miserable existence. Trapped in a blind ally we feel that our fate is sealed. An ostrich-like attitude then occurs to us as the only alternative. Afraid of yet an uncertain future, most of us find solace in clinging to this deathlike existence putting all our already bellied hopes in a Cruiso-like approach that one day some unseen hands would come to our rescue. The purpose of this book is, precisely, to expose this fallacyThe book does not focus on a possible solution, nor is it intended as a future work-plan. I sincerely feel that the solution to our problems lies in our ability to pose the problem in its bare nudity. And this is no easy task. If this small book is successful in giving a true exposition of the problem and if our readers get convinced that these questions do exist, I believe the book has achieved its objective and we have made some progress towards finding a solution.