The phenomenon of ex-Muslims in India

Duty is now on shoulders of BJP-driven civilisational stalwarts to bring these Muslims back to the folds of Hinduism

The recent wave of inclusivity and freedom of speech, instead of liberating people from narrow interpretations of religious thoughts and scriptures, has turned them into a misguided and directionless species.

It has now become a fashion to criticise Islam, and it is better if done through Muslims. In India, a particular class of Muslims has emerged lately, called the ex-Muslims. In Pakistan, we had a share of ex-Muslims hiding either under the socialist umbrella or communist framework. Whatever suits them. People do reserve the right to leave their birth religion. That should hardly be a problem. The issue arises when the so-called liberates, while switching sides, make every effort to demean, disparage and disqualify their ancestral religion.

Bashing Muslims, it seems, has become mainstream. I am not surprised when many open-minded Muslims in India and Pakistan lay blame on Hamas for rubbing Israel on the wrong side, thus opening the war corridor, which is now up to the Jews to either make it a complete macabre of death or spare a few Gazans the pain of starvation, murder and annihilation. The right side of history for many Muslims is the side loaded with military power and economic clout.

The Indian ex-Muslims join the league of the triple Khans of the Indian cinema. A common observation is that no Muslim in India can imagine progress, integration and getting mainstreamed unless they set aside their Islamic credential and adopt a hotchpotch of religious values largely dominated by Hindu ethos. The pictures of all three Khans lowering their head in reverence to Hindu deities outpace their shots in performing any Islamic ritual. The question is: what motivates this lopsided reverence? The compulsion to set aside Islam emanates from the shrinking space for Muslims in India in both the professional and academic domains. Unless a transformation is undertaken and a new skin is worn that exudes Hindu culture, the chances of success get slimmer.

According to the latest India’s annual Periodic Labour Force Survey, job opportunities for religious minority groups such as Muslims, Christians and Sikhs have declined in the last five years. Among these minorities, workers belonging to the Muslim community experienced the greatest decline between 2018-19 and 2022-23. According to Santosh Mehrotra, a visiting professor at the University of Bath, “The labour force participation rate of Muslims has barely seen any increase over these years, which makes it even more concerning.”

On the eve of the Ram Mandir inauguration, many Pakistani Muslims, who have long abandoned their country and are living abroad and have embraced Indianisation, either personally visited the mandir to pay their homage or kept their social media space busy with Jai Shri Ram salutations. Their reverence for Ram exceeded those of Hindus. On the other hand, the Indian Muslims, vying for social integration, were swimming haplessly into this new sea of civilisational awakening the BJP has undertaken through their massive elimination of Muslim footprints in India. They were more eager to reach Ayodhya than the Hindus. It reminded one of the Muslim Nawabs who sold their loyalties to the British Raj against an assurance that they would not be dethroned. In the process, the Muslim Nawabs, the Mirs and the Jafars helped the British fortify their exploitative and discriminatory rule in India.

According to a conservative estimate, the Archaeological Survey of India has identified 30,000 mosques built on mandirs during different Muslim rule in the sub-continent. All these places are set for retrieval. The project, however, does not stop at that. The Ghar Wapsi project has become so entrenched in the Hindu psyche in the last ten years of BJP rule that one of the favourite penchants of Hindus nowadays is calling every Pakistani Muslim either Bharat ki Beti or Baharat ka Baita. They insist that all Muslims living in Pakistan and India were originally Hindus who, under the pressure of the Mughals, converted. The duty is now on the shoulders of BJP-driven civilisational stalwarts to bring these Muslims back to the folds of Hinduism.

The absurdity does not end at that. The loyalty of ex-Muslims to Baharat — unless they consider the Hindus the victims of Mughal rule, the victims of Jinnah’s decision to dissect the Akhand Baharat and the victims of the Quran “that teaches Hindu hatred” (don’t know from where they have brought this) — remain underperformed. Many Muslim speakers from India who routinely appear on Pakistani YouTube channels not only try to disrespect Islam but also delve into their favourite sacrilegious practice of attempting the character assassination of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This all is being done in an organised fashion. In Pakistani parlance, it is part of India’s fifth-generation warfare methodology.

A new wave of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment is brewing. The last time this wave broke out, it began relentless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, not to forget the Arab Spring that further diminished whatever democracy was left in the Middle East. Will Pakistan be its next target?

Pakistan is in the middle of a severe regression where its youth is utterly disgruntled, looking towards India and wondering what made their ancestors make the partition decision. This youth is equally upset with Pakistan’s theocratic governance model that pardons a sodomiser cleric but incarcerates and kills those who dare teach or manifest the progressive part of Islam.

The phenomenon of ex-Muslims is India’s fifth-generation warfare potent tool to disregard Islam, disregard the partition and disregard the utility of Muslims in the modern world. Is Pakistan awakened to this reality? Or our priority is to build more missiles, bombs and tanks? India has long left defence as its confrontation tool against Pakistan. India is using cultural and social media content against urban Pakistanis. While its hands are full with the disgruntled Baloch and Pashtun separatists in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2024.

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