Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

A regular NewAgeIslam.com columnist, Arshad Alam is a Delhi-based academic, political commentator and writer.

Please read below the articles written by him for NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Arshad Alam

Since 1993, there has been a madrasa modernisation policy, primarily designed for Azad madrasas. The idea was to convince them to teach modern subjects in lieu of state grants for books and additional teachers. But the policy treated madrasas as homogeneous, so grants were also cornered by state-funded madrasas. Also, a majority of the grants to Azad madrasas have been utilised to hire part-time untrained teachers, which defeats the purpose of introducing quality education in these institutions. To top it all, madrasas affiliated to Deobandis and Ahl-e-Hadis completely refused to take part in this initiative. It was due to this stiff opposition of the Ulema that the previous government dropped the idea of having an all-India madrasa board through which reforms could be implemented. In a move that can only be called a travesty of justice, the previous government also exempted madrasas from the provisions of the right to education act. So while everyone else has a fundamental right to education in this country Muslim children studying in madrasas have become casualties of a perverted form of secularism......

Interfaith Dialogue

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

It is therefore imperative to create conditions within society for the acceptance of diversity as a positive value. This means that we should relook at what our educational system does in terms of inculcating diversity and pluralism. We could also think in terms of fostering and showcasing the value of diversity within the civic spaces which we inhabit. What this means is that I need not have to travel to Jama Masjid to experience the life world of Muslims; this experience should be available to me in my own locality. And this can only be possible if my locality was religiously diverse.....

Islamic Culture

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

Historical sites associated with important personalities in early Islamic history have made way for public lavatories and luxury hotels. Mecca today is all set to become a consumer’s paradise; in this consumer city, Muslims will be able to consume the Hajj the same way they consume burger with coke. In short, there is no room for reflection, an interior dialogue with one self which was the sole point of this pilgrimage, rather it is being replaced by an air conditioned Hajj where you could look down at the Kaaba from your suite in one of the many hotels which would eventually dominate the skyline and eventually engulf (and perhaps eclipse) the House of God.. .....

Islam and Politics

All that we hear about this country is underwritten by violence: between Shias and Sunnis, Deobandis and Barelvis, Muhajirs and so called ‘original’ Pakistanis. Of late, visible violence against women has increased and so has the attacks against religious minorities like Christians. So it was refreshing to read that Bilawal Bhutto plans to organize Basant festival in Sindh…..

Islam, Women and Feminism

Arshad Alam for New Age Islam

The recent trial court judgment admonishing a Muslim man and punishing a maulvi for polygamy should be welcomed by one and all. The court rightly observes that polygamy in Islam is not a license to keep four wives at a time but rather should be seen as an institution which makes sense in extraordinary circumstances such as if done for the welfare of destitute women.

The War Within Islam

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

What we are witnessing today is that only one of the myriad interpretations is gaining currency within the Muslim world, an interpretation which is very close to the Wahhabi idea of Islam. This creeping Wahhabisation of Islam, and its uncritical acceptance even by the followers of Sufi mediated Islam is worrisome, to say the least. In the long run it might lead to total surrender of popular Islam to a more scripturalist, literalist and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam which will become increasingly disconnected with the local mores and customs of Indian subcontinent. We must recognize that we are not particularly enamored by certain aspects of the Shariah. For example, we do not advocate that hands should be cut of for petty thefts. Similarly we do not say that adulterers should be stoned to death. If the custodians of the dargah and their advocates are so fond of Shariah, would they also advocate its application in criminal law? If not, then why are they selective in their application of Shariah? Is it that they remember about Shariah only when the questions of women’s rights and access comes into the picture?

Islamic Society

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

Every time there is some demand of modernizing madrasas, Muslim religious leaders start making a hue and cry about it. The cry of Islam in danger starts reeking from the pulpits and big seminaries and their representatives see to it that any effort of reform is blocked. Making madrasas an issue of Muslim identity can only hurt the Muslim community educationally. Realizing this, a section of Muslims themselves have started demanding changes in curriculum of the madrasa so that it can be made more in tune with the times. Alas, their efforts have bore no fruit as these reform minded Muslims are not considered a viable vote bank for successive governments who have pandered to the reactionary demands of the conservative Ulama. There is an educational hunger among Muslims now and given a choice, a Muslim parent would send his children to a school rather than a madrasa. But it is the religious leadership of the community which is blocking any development of the Muslims. Ironically enough, this leadership has the backing of the state which erroneously believes the Ulama are the representatives of the Muslim community.

The National Council of Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), in a report submitted to the government argued that there was an urgent need to reform madrasa education in this country. It has also suggested ways to implement reform in a phased manner and as a first step has suggested the creation of an All India Madrasa Board to implement reforms. That report must be gathering dust in some office of the government of India. Rather than creating a new committee to look into madrasa modernization, the government of the day would do much better to look into the report submitted by one of its own departments (NCMEI)….      

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

It is no longer shocking to hear the news of desecration of local shrines by radical Islamists in the Malian town of Timbuktu It is part of a general trend within radical Islam and has shown its ugly face from time to time in the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas and blowing up of shrines and Sufi divines in Pakistan. And let us not forget that the most audacious and frightening of such assaults started with the Wahhabis taking over control of Saudi Arabia and trying to dismantle the mausoleum of Prophet Muhammad in which they could only partly succeed....

Islamic Sharia Laws

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

The Delhi High Court judgment did provide the opportunity for the Muslims to do some serious introspection, but as always, the Muslim leadership, both religious and political has sought to legitimize and welcome a judgment which would be anathema in any modern country.

In what can be termed nothing but shameful, the AIMPLB has welcomed the judgment, taking refuge in the Muslim personal law and the Constitution of India. It merits only some common sense to realize that even Muslim countries like Turkey, Tunisia and Syria have changed their laws to suit the emerging norm of modern living. Indonesia and Pakistan, both Muslim countries, perhaps have more gender just laws as compared to Indian Muslims.

What stops the AIMPLB to even start thinking along these lines is unfathomable, to say the least. Sticking to fundamentalism, they are potentially jeopardizing the health and life of many Muslim girls whose custodians they claim themselves to be….

The War Within Islam

Arshad Alam, NewAgeIslam.com

Sudais is also not known for being tolerant towards other faiths; his vitriol against the Jews is well known to be repeated here. Moreover, Saudis and thus Sudais represent a particular version of Islam called Wahabism which is truly a minority viewpoint within the overall Islamic weltenschhaung. Thus to call him the imam of all Muslims is patently incorrect and misleading. Sudais, however, himself had no problem as to whose imam he was. In India, he met the representatives of the Deoband and the Ahl e Hadees. Both these Islamic interpretative communities have been at loggerheads over what is termed as ‘correct’ interpretations of Islam. The Deobandis have termed the Ahl e Hadees as ghair muqallid which means that they are outside the fold of Islamic jurisprudential system. The Ahl e Hadees on the other hand have campaigned against the Deobandis arguing that they are no better than the grave worshippers and in fact have graves within the seminary itself. Some of these tirades have been done through the Arabic press with the express intention of gaining Wahabism’s favour and consequently a share in the petro-dollar charity of the Saudi state. The Wahabi state, initially, through the good offices of Ali Mian Nadwi, veered towards the Deobandis but later on found greater merit in the argument of Ahl e Hadees. -- Arshad Alam

Islam and Politics

Arshad Alam, NewAgeIslam.com

A whole range of self appointed guardians of Muslims were at the forefront of a campaign to turn Jamia into a minority institution. Some of these stalwarts include the current custodian of Munger Khanqah, the beleaguered and besieged Arshad Madani of whatever is left of the Jamiat Ulama e Hind, retired bureaucrats tangentially connected to Muslim education, out of job Muslim politicians and an alumni network of Jamia who think that Muslims are best served by organizing occasional educational seminars in places like Jeddah. In the best feudal tradition of Muslim politics, none of these players even for a moment thought that the minority issue was a contested one within the teaching community of Jamia. Thus the move to turn Jamia into a minority institution is first and foremost an undemocratic one as it has not been thoroughly debated neither have its implications been discussed within the teaching or the student community. -- Arshad Alam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War Within Islam

Arshad Alam, NewAgeIslam.com

Let me add a caveat here. I am not arguing that Vastanwi will or would have brought some kind of a revolutionary change in the seminary. The politics of Deoband -- its being antithetical to lived Islamic traditions and therefore anti-pluralism--will continue irrespective of Vastanwi or anyone else. Yet there are three important reasons why I think Vastanwi should be allowed to continue as the rector of Deoband. The first is that even piecemeal reformist change within the institution is welcome and Vastanwi had the potential as well as the experience to do that. The second is that he symbolizes a wider Muslim discontent over the fact that a large number of important Muslim institutions have been monopolized by few prominent Muslim families and individuals. The third and related reason is that Vastanwi comes from the Islamic periphery and by his mere presence makes Muslim politics more inclusive. His presence is a signal that the fate of Indian Muslims need not be tied to the fate of feudal and decrepit UP Muslim elite.     

 Signals are that Vastanwi would not give up without a fight. It is great news that a section of students and teachers have rallied behind him. If this is a sign of internal churning within Muslims for meaningful change, then it is most welcome. Muslims in the Arab world have had enough of their dictators. It is time Indian Muslims in general and Deoband students in particular start articulating a similar demand and start smashing the living idols within their community. -- Arshad Alam for NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

Kolkata: Madrasas across the country may be under the scanner for imparting Islamic fundamentalist teachings and accused of being factories of narrow orthodoxy, but in West Bengal, there are at least two where Hindu students outnumber Muslims. Located about 110 km from Kolkata, the Orgram Chatuspalli High Madrasa in Burdwan district and Kasba MM High Madrasa in Uttar Dinajpur district are known for their academic excellence and secular credentials. While at Orgram, 64 per cent — 555 of the 883 students — are Hindus, at Kasba, 647 of 1,069 students, or 60 per cent, are Hindus. -- Shiv Sahay Singh

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There are some pre-requisites for the policy of equivalence to succeed. First of all there has to be an all India madrasa Board. All madrasas, including the independent ones, have to be compulsorily part of this board. This Board should adopt a common curriculum for all madrasas, which would include modern subjects and English. Sufficient numbers of trained teachers for this purpose should be provided for the Board. -- Arshad Alam

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

The so-called Indian Mujahideen wants to gain Muslim sympathy by stating again and again that it is fighting against the RSS and Bajrang Dal. However, in equating RSS with the Hindus, it becomes the most ardent supporter of its avowed enemy, writes Arshad Alam.