Page 58 - Non-violence and peace-building

Communal Egos and Inter-Community Conflict

Muslim ruler ever issued a command that when it is
time for the Muslims to pray, non-Muslims cannot
play their trumpets or ring their bells in their places of
worship. This being the case, why did you get so agitated
about this matter? If someone rings a bell, let him do
so. It doesn’t cause any disruption for Muslims in their
prayers. Nor has the Shariah made it incumbent on us
to ensure that bells aren’t rung during our prayer-time.”
The men did not accept my point, however. Although
they had no answer to the evidence that I had cited,
they kept harping on their argument very zealously.

In India, most communal riots are triggered off by
such small incidents. What is the reason for this? When
the Islamic Shariah has not ordered us to stop non-
Muslim processions passing by our mosques with their
music and singing, and when it has not commanded us
to prohibit non-Muslims from ringing bells in front of
our places of worship, why do Muslims want to do so?
The reason for this is entirely communal, not
religious. As a result of the politics of a hundred or
more years, Muslims have turned such things into a
supposed symbol of their communal honour. They have
made them a question of their honour. If a non-Muslim
procession playing music passes by their mosque, they
take it as a personal insult. And if they manage to stop
the procession, they imagine they have boosted their
community’s prestige.

This is an entirely un-Islamic approach. God and His
Prophet certainly do not prescribe this. It is only their
own egos that instigate some Muslims to behave in this

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