Enough ink has been wasted on the ageing, reactionary, regressive male Muslim leadership claiming to speak for the community. These small, petty men, with small, petty constituencies to defend, not only ensure that the practice of Islam in India remains medieval so that Egypt and Bangladesh in comparison appear modern and progressive. They go further. They foster and fan unnecessary controversies which produce suspicions and doubts in the mind of the majority community about the patriotism of Muslims in India as a whole. The Vande Mataram name-calling, currently raging, is a telling example of such a monumental blunder.
Consider the trap the BJP, a famously bankrupt party desperately thrashing around for an issue, laid for them. Would they or would they not sing the national song? An enlightened and sagacious leadership would have issued a one-line statement saying they'd abide by the advice of the government. Since the government had publicly announced that the singing was optional, the matter would have ended there. Instead, these publicity-hungry leaders walked straight into the trap, denounced the song, gave lengthy interviews on why the song was un-Islamic. Instead of letting the BJP and Congress slug it out, they intervened, thereby creating a new Hindu-Muslim "issue" which could easily have been side-stepped.
I urge Muslims to topple their leadership. They are a menace to the community. I don't usually support coups, but in this case I am prepared to make an exception.
