Satanic Verses

I haven’t read Satanic Verses. I wouldn’t mind reading it. Maybe even love to; only if I could get my hands on it somehow. It seems to be a bigger taboo then sex in our society. It is not to be mentioned; lest you wish to be labeled a “kafir” and infidel and be stoned to death by the “beards”; self proclaimed guardians of our collective faith. If you’re flying it in from outside the country its best you keep it under covers. If the custom official steals at a glance at it God knows what sort of a reaction might come about. Maybe even imprisonment, though I am not quite sure. But as irrational as we all are, it won’t come as a surprise. We as a nation are very emotionally leaned, in matters as diverse as religion to science to society. Although somehow everything somehow comes down to faith at long last.

First it was the “cartoons” published in some Danish newspaper. Undoubted they disrespected Mohammad (pbuh), and Islam. That was never the issue. Half or more of the country never knew who or what had actually happened. The other half were never quite sure what it means. Or what they are to do. But somehow everyone felt a responsibility to make noise and already weaken the crumbling economy. To go out, take it to the streets for a purpose they are vaguely aware of. Burns tires, vandalize public property. Disrupt daily life. In other words perform their duties as “Muslims”. No hell with the shopkeeper who has to close down, not risking damage to his shop, a business day lost, a day worth’s earning lost. No that’s not our “Muslims” duty. That’s not his problem. His duty to his faith and his people is to vandalize and scream for the sake of a principles not his own. For the sake of an idea he is not aware of; But just because his neighbor or his friend or his local mullah said so.

Again in the case of Salman Rushdie, it’s the same story again. No one is really aware of him. No one really knows he’s the author of various books. No one really read Satanic Verses or any other for them selves. No one has really made their own judgment on the person, his work and for the sake of argument his “character”. But we are quick to condone the knighthood. We are quick to support whatever our “community” is saying. There is no individual thought. The individual thought gives way to a collective conscience.

Not to mention the politicians and our “over efficient” parliament who were quick to pass resolutions calling for an apology and boycotting this and boycotting. And at the end of the day went to their big mansions riding in their big foreign made cars dressed in imported cloth and sit and drink in their plush drawing rooms.

And where in all this is, as we like to say in this country, the common man. He is confused. He does not know what is right. what is wrong. What he does know is what his mullah, or his friend is telling him. Too scared maybe to form a judgment of his own on the worth of the person or the situation, he jumps on the bandwagon of collective thought. He forms a cog in the massive machine that’s put into action. The huge machine starts rolling down the hill, collecting mass and momentum. No one dares stand in the way. There is no write or wrong. Only which side has the more mass. Which side has the machine?

We are all inculcated with the concept of the collective Muslim community. We are part of a worldwide “Ummah”. We have a responsibility towards it. And we form part of that machine. We are cogs in a collective thought, a conscience.
Mobilized by our “beards” we never look back. Never question the right or wrong. Never judge for our selves. Never form an opinion. Let alone voice it.
Sad.