The bigoted bombers

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!'

I was remembering this famous poem by Robert Browning as my flight landed in Heathrow Airport on 31 May this year. I suppose I just made it into London in May to qualify for "the swallows." This was my first visit to the West after 9/11. Having heard horror stories I stepped into immigration with trepidation expecting to be escorted to an interrogation chamber. Imagine my surprise when the immigration officer barely looked at my passport and just stamped it most casually. There was no Customs and I was out of the airport in five minutes with a lurking suspicion that something was amiss. Was 9/11 totally forgotten?

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My brief stay in England was extremely pleasant as London was looking cleaner, less crowded and friendlier. On my way into London I passed through Edgware Road where I had an apartment for fifteen years. The location of the apartment was halfway between Edgware Road and Marble Arch tube stations. If I had to take the Central Line, I would go to Marble Arch and for the Circle Line, to Edgware Road. Since my student days I have visited London on an average twice a year. Also having spent a good part of a decade in London in my student days I have always considered London to be my second home and I resolved to resume my frequent visits to this world metropolis. After a brief stay I went on to Montreal expecting the worst at the airport. If anything my exit through the Customs and Immigration was faster than in London and I found everybody extremely friendly. I suppose after seven seven I can say goodbye to all that chummy treatment both in London and Montreal.

The Islamic fundamentalist bigots have done it again. On 07/07, well-coordinated bombings took place in the London Underground near King's Cross, Edgware Road and Aldgate Tube Stations and a bus explosion in the Tavistock Square. All these were very familiar haunts for me. Let us briefly chronicle the more well-known acts of terrorism in the recent past. One of the earliest was the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in October 1981 which was followed by a spate of terrorist attacks in the '90's. WTC in New York (1993), the US Military was attacked in Riyadh (1995) and Dhahran (1996) in Saudi Arabia. In 1997, 58 foreign tourists were killed in Luxor, on August 7, 1998, American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were bombed, killing 263 people and injuring more than 5,000. USS Battleship Cole was bombed in October 2000. Then followed the catastrophe of 9/11, followed by the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Madrid incident in 3/11 2004, which killed over 200 people.

The London episode of seven - seven appears to be quite different. The Western nations have taken this very seriously and the wrath on the Muslims is likely to be even more severe. It may be recalled that one month after 9/11 the OIC stated: 'The conference strongly condemned the brutal terror attacks that befell the United States, caused huge losses in human lives from various nationalities and wreaked the tremendous destruction and damage in New York and Washington...' But after seven seven, within hours seeing the seriousness of the situation the OIC Secretary-General sent a message to Tony Blair expressing his 'utmost indignation and outrage' and condemning 'in the strongest terms these horrendous acts.' He expressed his solidarity with Blair and the British people 'in their resolve to fight terrorism and uttered his confidence that the solidarity of the civilized world would overcome the scourge of terrorism.' Others who gave prompt statements included The Muslim World League, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, Prime Ministers of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, etc.

Have the Muslims gained even an iota from all these acts of bigotry and senseless violence? What is the genesis of the bigotry? For this let us turn to the verdict on Islamic fundamentalism by Justice Munir and Justice Kayani in 1953 from the Punjab:

'…the Musalman of today lives in the past and yearns for the return of the glory that was Islam. He finds himself standing on the crossroads, wrapped in the mantle of the past and with the dead weight of centuries on his back, frustrated and bewildered and hesitant to turn one corner or the other. The freshness and the simplicity of the faith, which gave determination to his mind and spring to his muscle is now denied to him. He has neither the means nor the ability to conquer and there are no countries to conquer. Little does he understand that the forces, which are pitted against him, are entirely different from those against which early Islam had to fight, and that on the clues given by his own ancestors, human mind has achieved results which he cannot understand. He therefore finds himself in a state of helplessness, waiting for some one to come and help him out of this morass of uncertainty and confusion. And he will go on waiting like this without anything happening. Nothing but a bold reorientation of Islam to separate the vital from the lifeless can preserve it as a World Idea and convert the Musalman into a citizen of the present and the future world from the archaic incongruity that he is today.' All credit to Justices Munir and Kayani for such a succinct summary of the state of the Muslims written as far back as 1953. The situation is very much similar, but the confrontation worse.

Two themes inspire the so-called Islamic fundamentalists -- the ideal of the Islamic state and the use of jihad as a weapon for its realization. More than any others, three personalities shaped the ideology -- Hasan al-Banna (1906-49) who founded the al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin, or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt; Sayyid Qutb (1906-66) who succeeded him as its leader on al-Banna's assassination in 1949; and Maulana Abul-A'la Maududi (1903-70) who founded the Jamaat-e-Islami in Lahore on August 26, 1941. Maududi's work was translated into Arabic in the 1950's and had a considerable impact on the philosophy of the Muslim brotherhood. It is generally accepted that Maulana Maududi influenced both Al-Banna and Qutb though his influence was more on the latter. Both Islamic state and jihad are both the most misunderstood terms by Muslims. It is very convenient to quote the Holy Quran out of context to justify both of them. A more rational study of the Quran surely gives a much more liberal meaning to these concepts.

About Madrassahs. Undoubtedly some madrassahs worldwide are the breeding grounds for Islamic extremists which has been quite well-articulated. Now for my personal experience.

As per my family tradition all my life I have contributed generously to orphanages, madrassahs and mosques. Being involved in the construction business whenever I have got a contract I have tried to enhance the beauty of the local mosque or make some extensions. At the end of my life I am getting a lurking feeling that my life-long penchant for promoting orphanages and madrassahs verges on futility, as I feel my charity has been misdirected.

To do some on-the-spot investigation I visited a madrassah in Mymensingh which I patronize. It was a Friday and we reached Mymensingh just in time for the prayers. After the prayers Zamir cornered the Imam and enquired from him why he had made an addition to the mandatory Arabic Khutba (sermon) before the Juma prayers. The addition was a derogatory sentence against Qadianis, Christians and Jews. I have never seen a more embarrassed and shamefaced-looking Imam. He was merrily distorting Islam in the comforting knowledge that no one in the congregation either understood Arabic or knew the Khutba.

After the prayers we were taken to the Hifz Khana (for memorizing the Quran) where eighty to ninety children between the ages of ten and twelve were memorizing the Holy Quran. We were told that learning the Quran by heart takes the children about two years. Their daily schedule is severe and grueling with anything up to twelve hours being spent in memorizing work commencing from four in the morning. The spectacle was pitiable.

In going round the madrassah we also gathered that their curriculum is totally focused on religious instruction. There is no vocational training, scientific or liberal arts education. I think it will be fair to say that this Mymensingh madrassah cum orphanage is a fairly good representative of thousands of such schools littered all over Bangladesh. Millions of alumni from these institutions who go forth in life are incapable of earning a living other than being Imams of mosques or furthering Islamic education. They are likely to be the breeding grounds of extremists who, having been treated quite harshly in their childhood enter life harboring a grudge against one and all.

Let us give the last word to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad whose statement on the bigoted maulanas who give the fatwa (an edict). Azad recalled: 'Throughout the thirteen centuries of Islam the pen of the jurists has been an unsheathed sword and the blood of thousands of truthful persons stains their verdicts (fatwa). From whichever angle you study the history of Islam, countless examples will illustrate how whenever a ruler came to the point of shedding blood, the pen of a mufti and the sword of a general rendered him equal service. This was not confined to the Sufis and nobles, for those ulama who were close to the seers of the mysteries of truth and reality also had to suffer misfortunes from the hands of the jurists and in the end obtained deliverance in giving their lives.'

K Z Islam is Managing Director, Nirman.