The recent wave of protests by muslims and strong condemnation by leaders of various religious groups against dereogatory remarks by Yati Narsinghanand, a controversial priest based in Ghaziabad who has been now booked for hate speech after he allegedly made objectionable remarks against Prophet Muhammad SAW is a wake up call for government of India to take strict measures against persons who disturb communal harmony through hate speeches.
The repeated incidents of hate speeches which can be better termed as thought crimes occurring in our country has on the one side deteriorated our secular image in the international community while the minorities living here are losing faith in the country’s government and judiciary to act as guardian of their religious rights. Moreover the deregatory remarks against the greatest person of the world Prophet Muhammad SAW considered as blessing for the whole world in the Holy Quran is itself the biggest intellectual dishonesty of our era. We as a nation have to make collective efforts to prevent such incidents from happenning again and again as it causes pain to world’s 1.3 billion muslims and members of other religious communities.
Moreover if such incidents do happen deliberately to provoke muslims , muslims must react intellectuallly and peacefully to this without taking law into their hands. We must react hate speech with sound and intelligent speech, hate newspaper article with sound and intelligent newspaper article, hate book with sound and intelligent book. Muslims can only do this peacefully and intellectually. They have no right to respond a speech with a sword as said by India’s great islamic scholar Maulana Wahidudin Khan that “Respond blasphemous speech with a speech only”. Muslims have however right to peaceful protest also to pressurise government to bring culprits to justice in order to maintain communal harmony in the country. They can also turn to judiciary to put their claims before the court.
Our government has also responsibility and role to play. Today’s era is the era of knowlege, technology, science, research, logic, religion, rationality, peace, human rights, international relations etc. No nation can move forward if it is not moving forward in such fields. However for every nation to develop in such fields needs communal harmony internally and peace with other nations of the world. Hate speeches can not only create law and disorder problem in the country where such crimes are committed , they have the potential to severe the country’s ties with other nations. This can led to diplomatic isolation of the country at the global level thus impacting severely both its image and development. Hence harsh steps are needed from the government to act against persons who use deregatory words against other religions and prophets. We know that our country has good relations with most of the muslim countries especially Gulf nations so to avoid the severity of these relations India has to ensure the safety and respect for its muslim minority which is significant in population.
Moreover efforts are also being made at global forums like United Nations and Organization Of Muslim Countries by muslim nations to combat islamophbia and islamophobes. United Nations has declared 15th March as international day to fight islamophbia. Western nations are also repeatedly issuing reports on religious freedom in various countries. Such a diplomatic challenge can be met positively if India can treat its minority in a good manner giving them full opportunities and religious freedom. At the same time the culture of hate speeches has to be stopped by promoting religious harmony in the nation and acting stringly against those who try to disturb this harmony. Let’s hope that the government takes this issue seriously and acts sooner.
Author :Farooq Ahmad Lone can be reached at [email protected].