The other religion....

Woooooo…the flame colored malpuas stare at you from the mesh on the vessel tempting you to no end. Before you decide to order a portion, the aroma of kebabs and biryani from the adjacent shop makes you all insatiablely hungry again… The quawalli blaring from a loudspeaker fitted just above a green satin banner with an inscription in jazzy gold Urdu text hanging over a travel agency shop on the other side of the street completely in sync with the festive atmosphere...well, this isn’t a narration from Khaled Hosseini's forthcoming novel but a picturesque scene on our very own Mohammed Ali Rd when its time to break roja a day before Eid and the feast that continues till dawn… The holy month of roja, the five times namaaz's and the feast thereafter really fascinates me…actually the glutton in me is more fascinated by the evening feasts!!
It’s sometimes difficult to digest the fact that a few people of this same community could be party to the recent heinous terrorists attacks across the country. What prompts a mind to kill innocent wives and children? How can a well educated mind be brainwashed to engineer such dangerous crimes!!
Its no rocket science…a human mind can be best brainwashed when its low and vulnerable and the people who are instrumental in making them vulnerable are none other than “we” the society as a whole. Youth from lower middle class families who are unemployed and illiterate are made to believe that its their faith and religious origins that is responsible for their plight.
For me, the SIMI, Laskhar E Toiba or the Indian Mujahideen is in the same league as the Bajrang Dal or VHP….
The motive of all the above mentioned organizations is quite simple; direct vulnerable minds to fulfill their insane ideas for personal gains and use the poor and illiterate as puppets.
The whole idea of putting up this article is to request everyone around to be more receptive towards this beautiful and culturally rich community and without viewing them with a needle of suspicion and holding hands and investigating and solving problems like terrorists attacks in a more rational and scientific way.
Also, not many of us are aware that studies have shown about 60% of the worlds Muslim population, religiously contributes 2.4% of their annual wealth to charity. Is it sheer coincidence that the navratri week and the Eid festivities fall on the same dates this year or is it a divine intervention trying to convey a message…..your guess is as good as mine!!!