Auri 🍉 retweeted
Regardless of attempts to delegitimise Sharjeel Imam, his influence and relevance within mainstream Muslim socio-political discourse has grown and will continue to grow.
"Imam rejects any difference between liberals and Hindutvadis. In his essentialist worldview, all Hindus are the same "
1/5 Sharjeel Imam has given an interview detailing his Islamist manifesto. Surprisingly, no storm has been kicked up over pronouncements that are so unapologetically anti-liberal, anti-secular, anti-democracy, anti-Constitution—in a word, anti-national.
2/5 He openly calls the Constitution fascist, labels secularism a trap, and denounces democracy as a contrivance to deny Muslims their political rights.
3/5 The piece is a litany of indictments against the liberal class. Imam rejects any difference between liberals and Hindutvadis. In his essentialist worldview, all Hindus are the same, unanimous in denying Muslims political power they claim as a divine right.
4/5 Inadvertently, Sharjeel has recognised something that liberals have been fighting shy of acknowledging: that Hindutva’s idea of India is anchored in the same “overarching nationalist framework”— that Muslims are Indians above all else.
5/5 For more, read this Opinion article by Ibn Khaldun Bharati, who looks at Islam from an Indian perspective:
Sharjeel Imam’s Islamist manifesto will be forgotten. The silence of liberals will not
theprint.in/opinion/sharjeel…
Auri 🍉 retweeted
Whatever Sharjeel Imam has remarked about the Indian constitution, power structure, and democracy is objectively true and beyond dispute.
Hindutva liberals/left like you are the sons, daughters, wives, husbands, and relatives of Hindutva radicals/right. You eat, love, make babies with each other. In all these years, did your segment boycott them? No.
Your civilisational aim of India as a sarvarna Hindu majoritarian country remains the same. All you differ is whether should you throw 1 bone or 2 bones at minorities, dalits and adivasis.
Does your criticism stop the brutal persecution of Muslims in India? Their digital and on-ground demonisation? Could it avert anti-Muslim policies?
Leave everything, could it provide water (a basic necessity) for certain Bengali Muslims denied water by a local BJP representative because Muslims do not vote for them?
Then what good is your nominal criticism of the Sanghis (your own wives, husbands, parents and children)?
And you want the oppressed to keep singing the praises of the Indian constitution, which cannot even secure them basic water supply because an elected representative is angry?
You'd say that 'the Sanghis misuse power'... so why are they able to misuse it despite having the almighty constitution?
At the end of the day:
All roads lead to Sharjeel.
When a Muslim expresses ideas that are narrow, bigoted, radical, extremist, secessionist and fascist etc. we should calmly nod our heads and say "hmm interesting, let's engage with this "political thinker"; but when a Hindu nationalist expresses the same ideas we should promptly say "chal phut sanghi kahinka"!
Wah re hypocrisy!
