Lessons from Christchurch for unity

"The mass killing in New Zealand’s Al Noor mosque triggered an instant response from a Queensland senator, in Australia: Fraser Anning not only justified, but valourised the 28-year-old fellow Australian killer, Brenton Harrison Tarrant. In a statement published on an official letterhead, Anning averred that the growing fear in Australia and New Zealand of increasing Muslim presence was bound to result in such an act. He condemned New Zealand’s immigration policy...

Ironically, Australia and New Zealand are known for their usurpation of land rights and harsh treatment of the aboriginal people, the Maoris. Civilised nations the world over have a history of snatching the rights of the First Peoples in their quest for new lands and conquests. But history is usually forgotten and recalled only when an incident such as Christchurch uncovers the dirt that lies beneath the veneer of modernity.
We learn that human depravity has seeped into some minds everywhere in the world. In India, it showed up in Nuh which saw the lynching of Rakbar Khan, in Alwar with the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq, in Rajsamund which saw the lynching of Afrazul, in Ballabhgarh which saw the killing of Junaid, and, in Kathua which saw the rape and murder of eight-year-old Asefa. Our beloved country is being infected with this malaise: It incubates in the hearts of Muslim haters whose mission is to make Bharat “swachh” by obliterating their existence. Political leaders who valorise them now have a new mentor — senator Fraser Anning.
Are we letting this depravity become the new normal? In his commentary and explication of the Qur'an, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad wrote about all the religions. He said that Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam all enjoin their adherents to eschew every act of violence and follow the Sirat al-Mustaqim — the straight path of love and compassion for all beings created by God.

I believe in Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru who saw Hindus and Muslims as integral to the idea of India. This is best expressed in the 1923 address of Maulana Azad, the youngest Congress president, where he said that if an angel were to descend from heaven and declare that India will get swaraj within 24 hours, provided she relinquishes Hindu-Muslim unity, “I will relinquish swaraj rather than give up Hindu Muslim unity. Delay in attainment of swaraj will be a loss to India but if our unity is lost it will be a loss to entire humankind”. Those were days when such words could be spoken from public platforms without the fear of lynching or assassination. They need to be invoked across the board now by secular, democratic liberal peoples and parties.

India has 180 million Muslims who cannot be swept away by a spate of violence. Globally, 1.5 billion Muslims, most of whom live in 50 Muslim-majority countries, cannot be destroyed by random killings. There is solace in what prophets, philosophers, sufis, have instructed in every text, every language, and every religion. Gandhi said, “There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seemed invincible, but in the end they always fall”. These words keep me alive." - writes Syeda Hameed, who was a member of the Indian Planning Commission.

You can read her entire article by clicking here: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/lessons-from-new-zealand-christchurch-terror-attack-india-secular-5646184/