- Ponmala
Animal sacrifices have been offered to gods from time immemorial. Human sacrifices too were not that uncommon in primitive times. In fact, clandestine human sacrifices do happen rarely even today. We had recently a case of human sacrifice in Madhya Pradesh committed in an uncanny effort to find a hidden treasure. About a quarter of a century ago we had the case of a father attempting to offer his 4-year-old daughter as human sacrifice in a hilltop temple in Gauhati, Assam, to propitiate the presiding deity who had apparently demanded it of him. We also had an alleged case of human sacrifice some three years back in Kerala. Today, the law considers them all as cases of murder.
Of all creatures, man alone is capable of conceiving a God who is the creator, conservator, provider and ruler of all creation. But the idea man has of God has evolved over time from a God who had to be propitiated with animal or human sacrifices to a God who is a loving father.
About the creation of man the Bible says: “Then the Lord took some soil from the ground and formed a man out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live” (Genesis 2: 7). The account given in the Quran about the creation of man is almost identical. It says: “Truly, I am going to create man from clay. So, when I have fashioned and breathed into him my spirit…” (Quran 38: 71). Both the versions make it clear that (1) unlike the life in other living things, the life in man is God’s own breath of life; (2) the life that God breathed into man, is divine and eternal; (3) for this reason, murdering man is equivalent to snuffing out the life God has breathed into man; (4) man is the visible image of the invisible God (“So God created human beings , making them to be like him” (Gen 1:27); and (5), A jihadi who dies as a suicide bomber is committing the gravest of sins: In himself and others he is extinguishing the life that Allah had breathed into Adam, who had passed it over as inheritance to all of humanity.
Those who die for their faith or ideology are extolled as martyrs. Thus, we have Christian martyrs, communist martyrs, and so on. We often hear of mass murders committed by deranged people, especially in America, before they take their own lives. But only in Islam do we hear of suicide bombers doing the same, taking it as obedience to a divine call, the divine call Abraham received to offer his son as sacrifice. They do it believing they will attain the glory of heaven by killing oneself and others for the greater glory of Allah. In fact, they too are deranged people like the mass shooters, victims of a mental illness caused by religious radicalisation. It was heartening to hear Owaisi, a Muslim MP from Hyderabad, declare categorically that the death of jihadist suicide bombers is nothing but an act of suicide; it cannot be considered as martyrdom.
We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that a quarter of the world’s population is Muslims, and that there are among them a small portion of radicals who are the breeding ground for jihadist suicide bombers. Up until now, recruits for jihadi terrorism came from the lower strata of Muslim societies. But with 10 doctors becoming likely part of a terrorist module run by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed and one of them blowing himself up in Delhi, killing fifteen people and injuring a dozen others, the picture has changed alarmingly. People who are by profession lifesavers have chosen to be lifetakers.
If for one would prefer to believe that Modi’s BJP government has driven even highly educated and well-off Muslims into jihadist terrorism by doing all they can to discredit, marginalise and disenfranchise their community. The feeling has spread among Indian Muslims that they are facing an existential threat, and that is making it easy for Pakistani radical groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed to promote Islamic terrorism in India. This group of 10 doctors had planned 10 terrorist attacks in four selected cities. Had they fully succeeded in their intent, what a havoc it would have caused! Unthinkable are the horrors that professionals working in various other fields could visit upon the nation if lured into jihadist terrorism!
Let us not lose sight of the fact that India has 200 million Muslims. If cornered or pushed to a wall, radicalising a few thousand of them into jihadist terrorism will be easy work for Pakistani terror outfits. That can turn India into a hotbed of Islamic terrorism, destroying the peace and keeping the nation on edge all the time. More Muslim leaders like Owaisi should come forward to make their fellowmen understand that killing in the name of faith is unislamic and a grave sin against Allah, the giver of life. Parallelly, Modi’s government should desist from taking steps that make Muslims feel insecure and hunted down.
