Why Islam is indulged?
Reader comment on item: Debating PBS's "Muhammad" Documentary

Submitted by KIRAN (India), Dec 20, 2002 at 10:23

I think the primary reason for indulging of Islam is the fear of the muslim mob.It happened quite often in India that anyone seen to be critiquing Islam is subjected to mob violence. just consider the following incidents in India:

1)Mushirul Hassan a communist and a known Hindutva basher was forced to apologise for saying that "Satanic Verses" should not be banned. He had to keep away from the university for two weeks due to protests from Muslim students and when he turned up he was beaten with hockey sticks. He had to resign from the post. I still see him writing articles in main stream press against Hindutvawith full freedom but he no longer writes much about Islamic fundemntalism of which he was a victim.

2)Asghar ali engineer was dragged from an airplane and beaten by muslim youth for speakingfor the rights of Bohra Muslims in India. Asghar a known leftist still writes comfortably against Hindutva but not on Muslim fundamentalism.

3)Dom Moraes is another well known person who speaks out viciously against Hindutva. IN Mumbai a few years ago ,his car ,in which he was rushing his pregnant wife to hospital for delivery was blocked by muslim namazis who spilled over to streets.He pleaded them to let him go but they smashed his car windows in return with the pregnant women inside.I dont see him writing against Muslim fundamentalism in India

4)T.J.S.George who writes for Indian express wrote in a sunday article about the hostility west has for Islam. He mentioned the fact that in Dante's "Inferno" a special place in hell was reserved for Mohommed and he was critical of it. But nevertheless the Indian express office in Bangalore was ransacked and George had to go underground for a week, and guess what the Indian express, the brave upholder of "secularism" did? It apologised to the Muslim mob. Imagine a victim apologising to the culprit.

I think there is a similiar problem in west with authors getting terrorist threats often for speaking up against Islamic fundamentalism.

Kiran

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.