The situation would be funny if it were not dangerous. In Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, during an Eid Milad-un Nabi procession, some Muslims installed a banner reading “I Love Muhammad”. A group of Hindus objected. This led to a near-riot not only in Kanpur, but in a few other places. Police arrested a few men – whether the placard erectors or rioters is not clear. You and I can hazard a guess as to which way the Yogi wind blows in UP.
All over Northern India, and many parts of Europe, you find shaven-headed and face-and-body- painted men and women in disorderly formations singing, hopping and clapping hands while chanting Hare Rama , Hare Krishna. They disturb vehicular traffic and pedestrians. Some onlookers murmur, but none revolts. In the streets of Northern India, you can watch (‘photos’) of Hindu god Krishna romancing a previously married Radha. The illegitimacy of the love affair is glossed over with piety. A new multi-language soap opera on Krtishna’s life projects Radha’s husband as a hapless nincompoop while the audience laughs at him. Hindu moral police seem amused as well.
Jai Krishna, Jai Rama (jai means victory) are words of greeting among devout Hindus as if both these man-gods are still at war. In the Army, ‘photos’ of Gods are not put up in offices, but men may greet their seniors with ‘Jai Ramji Ki.” No factory or office in Tamil Nadu is complete without a ‘Group Photo’ of several gods posing with their weapons in hand, particularly the elephant-headed Ganesha (with only a sweet ball in hand) presiding at the top of the table. .
In 1992 and 1993 in Bombay, while on my way to buy beef for our dogs, I used to notice dozens of paper fliers printed with the images of god Ganesha (a favourite in Bombay) strung up on a wire tied all around a police chowki in a Muslim village near Bhandup. The ‘chowki‘ was newly installed there to protect the villagers from Bal Thackeray’s goons.
I say to all my friends: If you love someone, god, prophet, man or woman, say it aloud. Publish your love. It’s your right, even in NAMO’s India, where young Hindu youths are encouraged by by their leaders to hate their neighbours. You can only hope that the Supreme Court would uphold that right. Not that the courts have always sided with the right to free speech or supported true intellectual development of the citizens when unsustainable traditions and ancient religious rules came in the way of progress.
Personally, I have no love lost for Prophet Muhammad. Of all the religious leaders who have profoundly shaped human history, Muhammad’s influence has been the most far-reaching — and, in my view, arguably the most violent, even when you take into view the genocides perpetuated by Christian and Jewish religious doctrines. His campaigns left a trail of wars, destruction of art and culture, suppression of women’s rights and a system of rules that sanctioned conquest, enslavement, and perpetuation of cruelty and iniquity. by pronouncing in the name of God that killers have the right to the wealth of the killed (a part of it reserved for god and the prophet), and blocking the inquisitive minds of adults and children alike.
Never forget that Benjamin Netanyahu takes the name of his god Jehovah for his success in carrying out the genocide of innocent civilians, women and their children and hunting them out even in hospitals and shelters. He believes that his god is letting him take revenge on the injustices meted out to his race in the United States, Europe and white-ruled South Africa. In comparison, from the period of Islamic Conquest and defeat of the Bazantine (East Roman) empire, Palestinians who let the Jewish population of their state live in peace and under government protection by paying a tax (Jizya) while Muslims paid annual Zakat.
So I say, Bro, go ahead and exercise your right to speak your mind and announce your love for your prophet, godman, cricketer or movie actor. If you don’t mind, please stand away from my eyes and ears when you display or scream your love for Mohammad, Rama, Krishna, Hanuman, Saibaba, Sadguru, Gurudev, Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Recep Erdogan, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, never to omit Benjamin Netanyahu.
