American Muslim

(Stopping) the Spread of Hate

Asalaam Alaikum (May peace be with you),

I get many emails a day and inevitably, there are a few forwards thrown in for good measure. One brother I know tends to send me a lot of Islam-related chain emails. Sometimes the content is pertinent and sometimes it's just frivolous.

But, a few hours ago, he forwarded something that really caught my eye ... and bothered me. The email subject line was "FW: Indians burning the Qur'an" and contained a picture of that heinous act and the following subject matter:

"We are still crazy about Indian CULTURE, MOVIES, DRESSES, TRADE, etc. NON-MUSLIMS BURNING THE HOLY QURAN… NOW THEY GET HEATWAVE 45 DEGREES. PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO AS MANY MUSLIMS AS YOU CAN IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES SO THAT IT MAY REACHES THE MEDIA WHICH WILL - FOR SURE COVER IT AS WELL AS IT DESERVES, AND THE MUSLIMS & OTHER RELIGIONS, ALL OVER THE WORLD MAY KNOW & DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. THIS IS AN EXCLUSIVE PICTURE AND IT'S THE ONLY PROOFOF THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN DONE BY THE NON-MUSLIMS."
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As you can imagine, I was bothered by this email and its wording for a number of reasons, most importantly being this notion that the picture was representative of all Indians or even all Non-Muslim Indians. So, I emailed the original sender and this is the conversation we've had so far on the issue. What do you think?

Shyam: Asalaam Alaikum. I vehemently disagree with forwarding photos and emails of this kind. The picture and email vaguely talk about "Indians" and "Non-Muslims" burning the Qur'an. The people in the picture are probably members of the RSS, Bhajrang Dal, BJP or Shiv Sena - all Hindu extremist groups. Although Hinduism is the dominant religion in India, Hindu nationalists are not. As such, categorizing the people in the picture as representing India is a big problem and ultimately, what good does it do? Further hate between the two groups? Create more fitna (division or trial)?

Brother M: Point well taken but how do you get such info to people without promoting unwanted hate alongside?

Shyam: I don't know if we need to get this info across, at all. I mean don't we already know that there are many Hindutva nationalists who are anti-Islam? We know of the Babri Masjid fiasco and the horrors of Gujarat in 2002. What good does this picture do?