September 6, 2011
Lucknow, September 06: After 2006 Mumbai blasts, the US embassy conducted an informal survey of Muslim contacts from Lucknow and some other cities to assess the ‘communal tension’ in the Hindi belt of north India, particularly Uttar Pradesh.
All India Minorities Front General secretary Mohammad Yunus Siddiqui urged Indians not to allow SIPDIS terrorism to disrupt “communal harmony” and urged stronger security measures to “foil attacks against the people”.
Lucknow, September 06: After 2006 Mumbai blasts, the US embassy conducted an informal survey of Muslim contacts from Lucknow and some other cities to assess the ‘communal tension’ in the Hindi belt of north India, particularly Uttar Pradesh.
The survey found that Muslims were uneasy over the silence of their leaders and feared a backlash from Hindu extremist organisations. According to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, Charge d’Affaires of US embassy, Geoffrey Pyatt on July 13, 2006, wrote, “We conducted an informal survey of Muslim contacts from Lucknow and other cities. Respondents included several Maulvis (both Sunni and Shia), Urdu language journalists, political and community leaders, scholars and academics. Their responses revealed a remarkable unanimity on “Islamic terrorism”.
All expressed disdain for what they characterized as the “weak response” of India’s Muslim leadership to the Mumbai attacks, accusing such leaders of taking a “head in the sand” approach and denying stark realities. Pyatt also wrote that a leading Barelvi community leader and journalist questioned why the media, especially the Muslim and Urdu media, has not been more condemnatory of those supporting terrorism. A Lucknow Shia and Urdu newspaper editor expressed shock that Muslim leaders in UP have largely remained silent about the Mumbai attack.
A Shia Lucknow Maulvi compared terrorism to a deadly disease that requires strong medicine to overcome and pointed out that it will persist as long as the majority of India’s Muslims remain silent. A leading Islamic scholar based in Delhi noted that the principal target of the terrorist attacks is the Indian people rather than the government of India (GoI), as they are aimed at destroying “the unity and harmony among Hindus and Muslims all over the country.” In this light, he emphasized, GoI action will be insufficient, as the Indian people will have to “maintain vigilance” to prevent the social mosaic from unraveling.
Pyatt further elaborated that “most of our contacts expect the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) and its rival Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to stoop to any level to win, including fanning communal outbreaks. The state’s police force have been suborned and corrupted by the SP and we doubt that it would be able to maintain security if communal rioting gets out of hand.”
The BJP has begun to stage “anti-terrorism” rallies at various locations in the Hindi belt, including communal flash points with large Muslim populations. Analysing response of Muslim populace on Muslim organisations, Pyatt wrote “the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind (JuH), the political wing of the Deobandi sect, is well-entrenched and powerful throughout north India’s Hindi belt. On July 13, its president Maulana Arshad Madani decried the Mumbai bombings as “barbaric acts calculated to disturb communal harmony,” called on the government to capture and prosecute the perpetrators and organized relief for the Mumbai victims.
There were no similar statements from other prominent Muslim organizations or leaders, especially Wahhabi organizations such as the Jamaat Islami (JI). Less prominent Muslim organizations came forward, with generally any statements, including the Muslim Political Council of India, whose president, Tasleem Rehmani rhetorically urged the GoI to declare all victims of the bombings as “martyrs to national integrity.” All India Minorities Front General secretary Mohammad Yunus Siddiqui urged Indians not to allow SIPDIS terrorism to disrupt “communal harmony” and urged stronger security measures to “foil attacks against the people”.
–Agencies