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Muslim staffers
at Capitol Hill offering Friday prayers at the prayer hall inside
the Capitol Building
(Photo: ummid.com) |
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Muslims in India don’t vote effectively, so are the Muslims in
United States
One of the many reasons behind the
sufferings of the Muslims in India is cited as their lack of
interest in the electioneering process. Elections after
elections it is witnessed that
»
‘Indian
Americans catching up in US politics too’ |
In the recent
elections in US another Indian-American, Nikki Haley, formerly
Nikki Randhawa, daughter of Sikh immigrants from India made
history when she was elected to the coveted position of governor
of the state of South Carolina on Republican ticket. She was in a
neck and neck hot race against a White American in the deeply
conservative and racist state of South Carolina. But she prevailed
over her White american rival. Nikki Haley is the first ever
colored woman to get elected to rule any state in the United
States of America. Her struggle against racist bigotry came to the
surface when in the election campaign she was publicly accused of
adultery. However, one looks at it this is a truly remarakble
achievement by an an Indian-American in his/her adopted homeland
where her parents with the difficult and foreign name Randhawa
arrived from India and settled down in the super conservative
state of South Carloina, the headquartrer of the bigoted racists
in America.
Just two years ago, another bright Indian-American, Bobby Jindal
was elected governor on Republican ticket in the deeply
segregationist state of Louisiana that is the headquarters of Ku
Klux Klan for several decades. Jindal too struggled against the
White supremacists and was targeted with epithets calling him
Brown Boy. Prior to becoming governor of Louisiana Jindal was
elected a Congressman from Louisiana.
These successes of Indian-Americans are in the most difficult
arena in America, namely that of national American politics and
getting elected to public office where one needs the support of a
large number of non-Asian Americans. Also both of these high level
successes of Indian-Americans have occurred in racist southern
states not liberal northern or western states. In most other
fields eg faculties of prestigious ivy league universities, top
American corporations, businessmen with their own busimness,
Wallstreet financing houses, national TV channels like CNN,
prestigious government agencies etal, a large number of Indians
have already made their mark reaching top positions.
However, almost all of these successful Indian-Americans are
non-Muslim. That brings up the obvious question; Why are
Indian-Americans successful but Indian-American-Muslims are not?
After all, all of us come from the same middleclass Indian stock.
Most Muslim-Indian immigrants to US have had social upbringing and
education in India very similar to that of non-Muslims. Even
though Muslims are only 10% of Indian-Americans yet their share of
succeses is so small that it is hard to write about. This is not
an easy question to answer but let us make an effort.
If we sample the various e-mail lists of Indian-American Muslims
and if that is a window on the minds of educated Indian-American-
Muslims, then that gives us a sad clue. A lot of people on these
lists seem preoccupied with the following: Complaining against the
world and saying that the world is against them; Going to the
other extreme and decrying every element of Muslimness as a
barrier against progress and must be shed in order to make
progress; indulging in self-congratulation or mutual
congratulation for insiginificant and miniscule happenings;
talking extensively about the centuries old past and the golry of
the ancient past; seeing everything about Indian Muslims through
the lens of the Urduwala Muslims and their ethos that has been in
decline for a long time; bringing in Islam into most discussions
and idolizing maulanas extensively. It is rare to find people on
Indian-Muslim lists who are willing to analyze situations, listen
to the analyses of others and try to see through it; rather than
try to browbeat those with whom they disagree.
In contrast when you participate in an e-mail list of non-Muslim
Indian-Americans you find a very different perspective. People
take positions and often discussion becomes heated and fiesty, but
the perspective most often is one of analysis and trying to see
the point of view of others and then agree or disagree. Yes you do
find nuts and bigots on those forums too.
Now look at the Indian-Muslim organizations in America. In most
events they organize you find only Muslims and at that mostly
Urduwala Muslims. If one finds any Hindu-Indians there, they are
usually those who are not from the mainstream of Indian
organizations, where one finds a lot of non-north Indian Hindus.
The speakers who these organizations invite are rarely from
mainstream Indian-American organizations. It appears that we
Indian Muslims are willing to accept only those Hindus in our fold
who agree 100% with us and our grievances and our Urduwala
culture. We fail to understand that we are not living in the north
India of 1857, when Muslim and Urduwala culture was the mainstream
in north India.
Another problem I notice with several who write opinions is that
they pooh pooh diversity on the part of Indian Muslims in America.
They rarely admire the successes of Hindu or Christian
Indian-Americans and think that these are the result of them
having adapted the "immoral lifestyles and behaviour patterns of
White Americans". Without even looking into the factors that have
helped non-Muslim Indian Americans succeed, they assume that:
firstly, the American social life is 100% debauch; and secondly,
to interface with White Americans one has to drink liquor, dance
and lie half-naked on the beach.
Please do not misuderstand me. I am not asking any Indian Muslim
to celebrate Diwali or holi or attend kirtans in temples or read
Gita or Ramayana, or say that Hinduism is as good as Islam. Far
from that, I believe that Muslims should observe the Islam of
Quran as faithfully as they can. But attending a Diwali Mela or
non-religious fun events in Holi or Christmas are another matter.
Regrettably some Indian Muslims misunderstand diversity with
adapting a "everything goes" lifestyle that may include accepting
same sex-marriages and the fringe gay-lesbian culture in America
as normal.
I was very surprised that almost no Indian-Muslim forum or
organization or news-forum congratulated either Nikki Haley or
Bobby Jindal on their bright achievements. Their succeses were not
even acknowledged while at the same time much print space was
devoted to the not- so- good doings of some obscure Muslims in
some remote corner of earth.
In fact when I applauded the successes of Nikki Haley and Bobby
Jindal in America in some forums I was told promptly that there is
no reason for Indian Muslims to feel happy here. Why should the
successes of non-Muslim Indians not be a source of joy for Indian
Muslims?: What about our Indian-ness? If we can not assimilate
among Indians how will we assimilate among Americans, in our
adopted homeland? And hence what are the prospects for our
community's success in America?
Secondly, some people opined that the successes of both of these
folks were because they converted to Christianity. In a country
where 90% people are Christians, where is the shortage of
chritians to run for public office, and where is the need to have
more people become Christians? Surely Nikki and Bobby have
something else going for them that made White Americans cross the
color barrier prejudice and elect them for the high position of
governor. I regret to say that in this respect the judgements of
these Indian Muslims are identical to those of BJP oriented
Hindu-Americans who also decried the successes of Nikki and Bobby
and called them not worth mentioning.
It is worth noting that in the last few elections in America,
better thaan 90% Indian-American Muslims voted for the Democratic
party; while Indian-Americans divided themselves among the
Democratic and Republican parties, while a majority voted for the
Democrats.
What it finally comes down to is the limited and tunnel vision,
unwillingness to look at non-Muslim Indians and Americans without
preconceived notions of a large segment of educated Indian Muslims
who are living in America for more than a quarter century and many
of whom are also American citizens. And their ongoing mindset that
their welfare does not require them to interface closely with
people other than Muslims. For them events like the successes of
Nikki Haley and Bobby Jondal are very irrelevant because they have
no such aspirations. Their level of contentment is nothing more
than middleclass physical existence, and they see nothing of value
in intergfacing with non-Muslim Indians and Americans. Or they are
so smug and think that Americans and Indian-Americans should
accept them on their terms, with their cloaks of Desi Muslim (or
Urduwala Muslim) intact.
The writer is a
community activist in Washington DC.(kaleemkawaja@gmail.com)
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