Islam and its Volatile Critics:Taslima Nasrin's hunkering down with time for asylum

There is a tendency to view Islam as a whole in terms of some untoward practices ascribed to it. This way the whole body of faith and traditions shrinks to a mere questionable aspect. The most notorious is vaunting of the purdah in Islam. That Islam gives equality to women, that they have share in the property of parents as well as their spouses, that they have choice of suckling milk or not doing it and asking the husband to make provision for it are swept under the carpet by the broom of the so called religious bias against woman. This skewed perception of dubbing Islam by ascribing an attribute has turned it into synecdoche-Islam.

Among the most vehement critics of Islam are the women who ride on the crest of the wave of discontent fermented within the fold. Aayan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, Taslima Nasrin make headlines often for what is not so characteristically the soul of Islam. They are piqued by the variant and at times deviant practices rather than the core values of the faith. Manji’s contention is that the trouble with Islam today is literalism. Muslims take Islamic injunction as literal truth. She is upset that the mosque where she went as a child had a divine who did not allow her questioning spirit to probe while the Christians did. This was the fault of the individual working in the mosque and not of religion. In the same way her father would often beat her mother. This harsh treatment was not justifiable as her mother according to her could not be at fault. Her father would also treat their family servant in Uganda harshly though the flunkey was a native Muslim. The traditions of the prophet show that he treated even slaves with human dignity and awarded them freedom for their good deeds. Manji also thanks god that there is the West. She means to say that if the West were not there she as well as others like her who confronts Islam would be lost. She has overlooked one important fact. The US is also the home of Muslims who follow their religion in letter and spirit despite their different racial and cultural backgrounds. Their tenacity of faith is purely because of devotion and not fanaticism. They are content with the edicts and practices of Islam and are truly religious minded. Her criticism of Islam falls flat in view of the self content US Muslims.

The Somali born Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote the script for a film called Submission. The producer Van Goth was killed for making the film. A semi nude woman is shown wearing a transparent dress with verses from the Quran. There are lash marks on her skin. This in itself is indecent. One may not revere one’s own religion in private life but what if those who revere it see such depiction. Her latest argument is that Muslim immigrants to Holland and other European countries indulge in crime as they lend themselves to be exploited. Hence, multiculturalism is wrong if such immigrants are allowed and pampered. But this then militates against the European principle of secularism. The Dutch tolerated her as long as she was not a threat in election where votes of immigrants matter. Now that she is with the conservative think tank in Washington she has the sobering realization of the owl as against the deliberate shunning of reality of the ostrich.
Taslima Nasrin’s bumpy ride through the turbulent time has reached a milestone. She now realizes swimming against the tide is sapping her energy against the options available to her. “Things had taken such a turn that my security and safety have come under great risk in any part of the world. Islamic fundamentalists would not have allowed me to rest in peace anywhere in the world. My intention is never to hurt anybody’s feelings and if my writings hurt the sentiments of others, it’s better to withdraw such portions. I am withdrawing some lines from the book [Dwikhandita].” This way she could come to confront reality, ala Salman Rushdie. But it does not mean recanting. It also does not touch upon what otherwise she has been speaking out in magazines and newspapers.

In a magazine article she was shocking and cruel when she remarked about the origin of the veiling. “Prophet Mohammed’s wife Ayesha was very beautiful. His friends were often found staring at her with fascination. This clearly upset the Prophet. So the Quran has an Ayat that says, ‘Oh, friends of the Prophet or holy men never go to your friend’s house without an invitation. And if you do go, don’t go and ask anything of their wives.’ It is to resist the greedy eyes of friends, disciples or male guests that the purdah system came into being.” Her insidious write “Let’s Burn the Burqa” carries the innuendo for which Rushdie also faced music. Her exhorting Muslims to burn burqa and disobey the Quran may be music to some people’s ears but what would the pious believers think.

Her flight to Rajasthan was feasible because she adopted what she wanted to burn. She and her relative wore burqa to escape Kolkata. One of the problems with religion today is that it is cross fertilized with the local politics. Nasrin went to a BJP ruled state and sang their tune by saying that MF Hussein was better off while hell was let loose around her. “Nothing happens to MF Hussein who has done so many things, while everybody is after my life.” She also did so many things. She slept over the rape of Sabina and her two daughters from Nandigram. One of the daughters is still missing. Will she write for this parzania?