Aman Rehman, the eight year old son of a scooter mechanic from Dehradun, is hoping to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Aman makes animation films and so far has made over a thousand. He is now teaching those skills to adults and is hoping to get listed under the “Young Achiever” category of Guinness Book.
Khushboo Mirza is another young achiever who was associated with the successful Chandrayan-1 project for ISRO. When asked if her being a Muslim girl is an hindrance, she replied:
“I am just like any other Muslim girl who follows Islam and its traditions, fasts in the month of Ramzan and celebrate Eid. My religion never came in the way of my profession. I am very proud that I am an Indian Muslim.”
Kudos to young Aman and Khushboo and may their tribe increase!
It is a widely held misconception that Indian Muslim prefer sending their children to madrasas. This falsehood is usually used to promote another insinuation that madrasas are breeding ground of terrorism. In reality only about 4% of Indian Muslim students go to madrasas. Most madrasas are residential and a majority of students are from the poorest of the poor families that can’t afford to bear expenses of their wards on their own. Most of these madrasas are community supported and very few actually get any foreign contributions.
Now as far as their actual purpose is concerned Indians still are observant to one particular religion or the other. And they would need some religious figure to preside over ceremonies from birth to marriage to death. Even though in Islam clergy has not been especially ordained to preside over such events it just is convenient. Many of them go on to become imams of mosques and lead prayers while getting a pittance as a salary. However they have a moral authority which is respected by most of their congregation.
Instead of ignoring them as uneducated medieval relics we need to engage these people because by engaging them we will have the ears of the entire Indian Muslim community. Javed Akhtars and Shahrukh Khans definitely have a role to play but the role of these imams is no less important.
As far as the charge of breeding terrorism is concerned, that is another post but I am yet to Terrorism 101 listed in madrasa curriculum in India.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Mohib,
Thanks for the frank perspective which is unfortunately missing from your role models you want Muslims should have. We all witness Maolanas interacting with sworn enemies of Muslims but seldom see the reverse of this which includes the likes of Mr Javed Akhtar and Mr Shah Rukh Khan. If a single of these ‘celebrities’ practice Islam and do not invoke the Qur’an selectively, people at large will also have a fair view of Islam and Muslims. If these people think that the Maolanas have the same role as a politician in a set up like India or a religious hegemone like the Vatican, they are sadly at fault. We all invest hardly any ressources and expect them to be as ideal as prophets. And when it comes to following the prophets, we excuse ourselves.
For those who knowingly insist that Islam means terrorism, they will never understand that Madarsas are not the breeding fields of the malaise. A colleague while telling that there is a lot of ‘petro dollar’ being received in India for madarsas and in turn terrorism, was asked as to how one can get any among to start a medical college or engineering college, he had no clue. He was simply repeating a lie just because he thought that the falsehood will stick. Still I am in search of a Arab Shaikh who must be smoking Diharms and Dinars so that I catch hold of him to start an educational institution in turn building India, my efforts are fruitless.
Naqqaad:
Actually it is impossible for Saudi Arab to fund madrasas in India as most of them do not adhere to the fundamentalist Wahhabi/Salafi interpretation of Islam. These teachers and students in these madrasas would rather eat one time than take money from a government diametrically opposite to their theological point of view. Contrary to public opinion, Deobandi madrasas do not follow the Wahhabi ideology but belong to the Hanafi school of thought.
It is a complete myth that madarsas are a breeding ground for terrorism. It is essentially scholastic theology that is taught there, and most of the children there are innocent namazis.
A lot of myths about Muslims and madarsas need to be dispelled.
infact ‘wahabism’ is the main root of all troubles and in India , Indian muslims should try to grow their own identity which is more ’sufism’ based. ’sufi’ stream dsnt believe in rituals and dogmas but believe that every individual has a direct link to the creator and may not necessarily go through any mediator. It also accepts people of different background and cultures without insisting on any ‘conversion’ . ’sufism’ is the only way of Indian muslims and ’sufi’ , ‘peer’ , ’sant’ , names like ‘Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’ and ‘Amir Khusro’ should be trusted to guide the muslim society in India rather than those mullas who hold allegiances to the main ‘axis of evil’ in saudi. Thats the only way muslims in India can manage to be identified in a separate & positive light rather than with those hardliners which are destroying humanity in places like afganistan.