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When I was a kid, I was fascinated at the sight of the procession which had hordes of Muslim youths smashing and beating their back with a halter-like chord and as if that wasn’t enough, some even had the guts to use a sharp object like sword! I was left most of the time with shock, astonishment; with my mouth wide open whereas my mind would be anxious to know the reason behind the self inflicted harm to the body.
Equally interesting was the sight of 10-15 people seated in a circle, either in the middle of a crowded street or in the plush air-conditioned house to break their day long fast for which the local jargon was ‘Roja Todhna’ . How strong must have been the preaching of Islam was more evident when I learnt from a Muslim friend in the neighborhood when he disclosed the dirty unkempt person seated next to the street light was a rag picker, the lanky guy with the torn shirt in green was a rickshaw puller, the eight person sitting next to the dwarf little ‘Chintu’ was the richest leather exporter of the city. Just look at the wonders a religion can do ! The richest person and the rickshaw puller eating from the same plate without any hang-ups of the status they hold in the same locality. This gave me few shivers down the spine. This starling fact led me to believe in the existence of a Midas-touch in Islam from such a tender age of mine.
Now that I have grown up, the questions have fared goodbye to me leaving my inquisitive brain to wonder and ponder. But, like always, the hunger in me to know the WWWs(WHYs, WHOs, WHENs,) to say the least, took me to know more about the person,Osama Bin Laden known to be the founder of the dreaded Al Qaeda who practiced Islam, who was infamously known as the mastermind of the attack on theWorld Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
These guys had some better ideas in store which would ensure Islam is seen with suspicion and eyebrows are raised each time someone said “ I am a Muslim”.
On a lighter note, the after effects of 9/11 phenomenon was many-fold for instance, the search engine Google received the highest number of hits for the word ISLAM ( This was meant to keep the FEAR FACTOR miles away from you and to take you to a comfort zone as you read this article)
Unlike the western world which was caught unaware and all their tall claims of being a Super Power had been mocked by the entire world post 9/11, being an Indian I knew India didn’t have immediate threat from Osama Bin Laden. So this permitted me to take a deep breathe giving me enough time to take my journey to know the WWWs !
On the contrary, I was surprised to know that the three Theistic religions namely Jesus (Christians), Prophet Moses (Jews) and Muslims(Islam) teaches you all about love, mercy and peace. Terror in the parlance of these religion meant cruelty demanding bloodshed and misery.
As a matter of fact these so-called terrorist have taken the world by surprise with their terror tactics on a war footing, the million dollar question is who is going to bell the cat?
RSS 
Islam is one faith that swept the pre-Muhammad pagan Arabia of her feet.
Remember the history of Arabs a lot rotates arround i dol worship, gambling, drunkeness, adultery, socery, mudering and burrying of infant girls alive and any kind of evil you can name.
But the coming of Muhammad with the teaching that discouraged all these yet emphaside evey body to worship One GOD and at the same time tackling the social imbalance for instance teaching that the wealthy were equal to the misers in the eyes of GOD was something truely extra ordinary.
Imagine someone telling Bush to sit and eat on the same place with a poor Indian or African.
Islam taught equality of human being and and in otherwords declared human right before the UN, USA was ever thought to come to think of it.
Remember Muhammad was a man who never saw a class room black board like we have.
Yet this very man taught us trade and commerce which we very much study and aquire degrees.
In short Islam is a challenge to humanity because it carries all the basic facets of life. Take more time anf research on it. Thanks for a nice article Mr Bijoy.
As we all know any society is given it’s momentum by it’s leaders.Human society through out history has generally had two types of leadership- the political and the spiritual.The first is based on the principle of might is right and the second on the principle of right is might.Generally the second principle is an ideal for most of us,but few have been successful at it’s actual implementation at national or international levels.It remains an Utopia.
Muhammad is the only man in history who was supremely successful within his own lifetime in proving that right is might.
He started as a helpless orphan amidst a pathetic,ignorant and most abject of nations of the time.Without out ever establishing a standing army,a police force or even a treasury;these he distrusted as standard elements of political power used for oppression and corruption of people.The principles he advocated were so superior that in a couple of dozen years entire Arabia was united under his banner-and the momentum was such that within the next forty years the lowly Arabs had laid low the two political super power of the time- Rome and Persia.
The spritualism of Islam centred around acts like the one you saw - where the richest leather merchant of the town was eating from the same plate as the poorest- had proved it’s strength.
But we all know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.After the defeat of the Romans and about the time of the invasion of the Persia;Muslim leaders forgot the prophets main lesson and started to adopt the ways of the political and Imperial powers they had defeated -lavish palaces;standing armies;state treasuries;police forces;intelligence agencies-the lot.
The seeds for a shift of Islam’s perspective from a spiritual to a political and material force had been laid.Standard instruments for state terrorism -against other nations - as well as own people were back in place.Today in Pakistan we are all to well aware of how rulers manipulate these to their own advantage.
And that brings me to your second observation.The Muslim leaders shift from honoring spiritual to material values was such,that at about the time these standing armies were established a Muslim ruler made use of one to slaughter in a most gruesome manner the entire family -including children -of the very prophet whom they professed to follow.A family whom they had been ordered to ask for God’s blessing in each of their five daily prayers - an order which most surprisingly all Muslims follow even today.
Yet to their credit,when the real facts became known-mainly through the efforts of the captives after the battle as they were paraded through the cities en route to the capital; a tremendous hue and cry arouse which resulted in the decimation of the ruling Ummayaid dynasty which had been the cause for this crime.This was the first example in Muslim history of the power of the people once it is aroused against an unjust tyrant.
Ever since each year you see this intense mourning and grief as an act to commemorate and keep alive the memory of that event.It is thus the most visible event manifesting the split between the spiritual and political aspects of Islam - and has naturally also become it’s most divisive one.
Just to add a little bit more, I would like to tell you that the ”hitting oneself” activity is actually not a part of Islam. It was later introduced by a particular group ”Shia” to remember and honor the martydon of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him). However, lamenting or beating onself is prohibited in Islam.
Secondly, Islam teaches us that all are equal in Islam and it has given much stress to equality all. Particular stress has been given to the rights of slaves, in the words of Prophet (PBUH),
”Take care of your servants, feed them what you eat yourself, clothe them with what you wear yourself...”
All these religions you have mentioned are called Abrahamic religions and according to Muslims, all these prophets are true and our faith is not complete if we do not beleive in any single one of them. They also brought the same message of God to worship one God and goodnes of mankind...
I do appreciate your stance.