Opinion: D. C. Nath (President, Patriot’s Forum) – Islam—A Religion Of Peace—How Long This Myth Will Continue?

President of Patriots Forum, D.C. Nath was superannuated in January, 1995, as the Special Director, Intelligence Bureau, D.C. Nath (IPS-1960) was associated with the International Institute of Security and Safety Management (IISSM), headquartered in New Delhi, for over 14 years, first as the Executive President & CEO and then as the President & Director General, between February, 1997 and March, 2011. The author of a highly acclaimed book, Intelligence Imperatives for India, Mr. Nath earned high plaudits from all around for two of his very significant presentations on: “Revisiting the Future of India” (2005, London) and “Lessons from India for the War On Terrorism” (2007, USA). He is the only one in the field, combining the experiences of a police officer with specialization in intelligence and strategic analysis and an industrial security expert par excellence. More Bio on D. C. Nath…

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Religion of peace is not a harmless platitude << News analysis file 1

OPINION>>>>

January 19, 2015

Dear Friends,

Subject: Islam—A Religion Of Peace—How Long This Myth Will Continue?

We have had in our column many learned discourses on Islam from non-Islamic commentators as well as from established Islamic scholars from around the globe. The latest to draw attention was the Egyptian President’s advice to clergies. The thrust in all these has been the need for a fresh look at this religion (?) from within, has been felt imperative, especially how some sections from this religion are behaving after the declaration of Islamic Caliphate by the ISIS, reviving the dream of what Caliphate-ism the Muslim powers had enjoyed in the past.

Interestingly, no such voice has been raised whatsoever from any part or corner of India. On the contrary, some sections of the Muslims in India has been quite supportive of the brutal action against non-Muslims by some extremists among the Muslims in different parts of the world.

Friends, it will make a very refreshing reading a piece in the noted Journal “Spectator” of January 17, 2015. While it deserves close and careful reading of this entire frankspeak piece, we take this occasion to bring before you only some of the rather interesting observations made in it:

· In France, Britain, Germany, America and nearly every other country in the world, it remains government policy to say that any and all attacks carried out in the name of Mohammed have ‘nothing to do with Islam’.

· All these leaders are wrong. In private, they and their senior advisers often concede that they are telling a lie. The most sympathetic explanation is that they are telling a ‘noble lie’, provoked by a fear that we — the general public — are a lynch mob in waiting. ‘Noble’ or not, this lie is a mistake.

a. First, because the general public do not rely on politicians for their information and can perfectly well read articles and books about Islam for themselves.

b. Secondly, because the lie helps no one understand the threat we face.

c. Thirdly, because it takes any heat off Muslims to deal with the bad traditions in their own religion. And

d. fourthly, because unless mainstream politicians address these matters then one day perhaps the public will overtake their politicians to a truly alarming extent.

· Today our political class fuels both cause and nascent effect. Because the truth is there for all to see. To claim that people who punish people by killing them for blaspheming Islam while shouting ‘Allah is greatest’ has ‘nothing to do with Islam’ is madness. Because the violence of the Islamists is, truthfully, only to do with Islam: the worst version of Islam, certainly, but Islam nonetheless.

· I say this not because I hate Islam, nor do I have any special animus against Muslims, but simply because this is the verifiable truth based on the texts. Until we accept that we will never defeat the violence, we risk encouraging whole populations to take against all of Islam and abandon all those Muslims who are trying desperately to modernise, reform and de-literalise their faith. And — most importantly — we will give up our own traditions of free speech and historical inquiry and allow one religion to have an unbelievable advantage in the free marketplace of ideas.

· We have spent 15 years pretending things about Islam, a complex religion with competing interpretations. It is true that most Muslims live their lives peacefully. But a sizeable portion (around 15 per cent and more in most surveys) follow a far more radical version. The remainder are sitting on a religion which is, in many of its current forms, a deeply unstable component. That has always been a problem for reformist Muslims. But the results of ongoing mass immigration to the West at the same time as a worldwide return to Islamic literalism means that this is now a problem for all of us. To stand even a chance of dealing with it, we are going to have to wake up to it and acknowledge it for what it is.

Friends, the concluding remark is very appropriate: “This is now a problem for all of us. To stand even a chance of dealing with it, we are going to have to wake up to it and acknowledge it for what it is.” We really need to wake up, think and plan as a nation as also as a community. We can make a start at group level and then move up at an institutional level and like that. But, do this we must.

Vandemataram,

Your sevak,

D.C. Nath

(Former Spl. Director, IB)

(President, Patriots’ Forum)

Source: Patriot Forum