Of mosques and Muslims

Non-Arab and non-South Asian Muslims (basically vast numbers of Muslims) visiting India should prepare themselves for a fair degree of ill treatment and discrimination from Indian Muslims, especially when visiting mosques. Upon coming into the mosque to perform our prayers we were instantly viewed with suspicion and often rude (shouting) questioning either from security guards or the 'elders'. Many times we were subjected to this treatment - Mumbai and Delhi are especially rude, and at Agra too. Like a true Bollywood spectacle, this rude treatment drew crowds (about to go to pray themselves) who do nothing to stop the disrespect we endured but rather just observing the commotion with great interest: "What is this bunch of Chinese-looking kuffars doing in our mosque?", if you allow me to speculate in anger). There seem to be an insanely high level of ignorance among these Muslims we met at the mosques who can't seem to brain that Islam is not an Indian religion, and the devotees are not just Indians or sometimes Arab.

The worst experience was when we were told to leave by a security guard in a mosque at Mangaldas bazaar-Crawford Market area in Mumbai. Nothing can describe the hurt and anger we felt at that time. They simply didn't believe or trust us. We were in shock and felt quite depressed for several hours after that. After all, in temples and gurdwaras we were welcomed by the Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. In our own places of worship, we received only shameful behaviour which contradicts the Islamic ethic which places a high importance on treating guests fairly and with generosity.

To console ourselves, we tried to explore reasons why mosques in India are so xenophobic, and why this didn't occur to us in temples. Perhaps we are trying to make us feel better or just to calm our nerves - we don't know. We needed to talk to each other and probably learn from this.

These are questions that we had: Why does it occur in mosques where it should be open and inviting? Why have the Indian Muslims created "the Other" out of us despite a sense of internationalist brotherhood that is often stressed in Islam? Could it be their decades of social and economic marginalisation? Could it be the constant demonisation in the media? Could it be a lingering Sinophobia that is the remnant of Sino-Indian war decades ago (currently as I read the news, the jingoism of the Indian media in trumpeting war against Pakistan is just disgusting and irresponsible - after all the war will be fought by poor people and not wealthy newsroom staff)? But if I am any judge, I think the xenophobic attitude among these Indian Muslims that we've met in the mosques is primarily a symptom of the widespread ignorance about Islam itself. With Indian iiliteracy at criminal levels what can one expect? I will not be surprised if many received little or no Islamic education, or any education at all. As a result, Islam is reduced into a matter of strict traditions and rituals - not a philosophical way of life that is open to debate or questioning. Islam for too many people is a folk Indian religion consists of things that are familiar and indigenous - to illustrate rather crudely, if you come to the mosque not in your kurta you are instantly judged as a deviant infidel.

Whatever reasons that had given rise to this behaviour at Indian mosques, what we know is that they are a shameful and unworthy inheritors of a once tolerant, cosmopolitan, intellectual Muslim India.