League of the fatwas

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Like the first IPL semi-final, Kings 11 Punjab's fight for a final berth at the Wankhade stadium also turned out to be a battle lost mid-way. The interest in this cricket match was losing fast towards the end of their low scoring innings.

On the same windy evening, a sea of men in whites at Ram lila maidan in the national capital, were too waging a battle against a hidden enemy - terrorism. These whites, not from the longer form of the gentleman's game but in skullcaps, kurta pyjamas and carrying flags also went live . Their live appeal on a niche regional urdu channel to the misguided men, the elements of terror, was to behave more like gentlemen. But I doubt that even on the day of a one sided yet colourful T-20 semi-final, not many would have cared much for an all white anti-terrorism rally!

The T-20 match on the weekend would have kept even the terror group leaders busy playing the cheerleaders for Dhoni's dhurandar's or Yuvraj's yudhveer's .Thus missing out on this appeal - of a fatwa on terrorism.

Flipping channels to overcome the dull one-sided T-20 match, switched me on to this very unusual transmission. Among the last few hazy looking regional channels on the cable , I found faith trying to raise a unified slogan. This live telecast was different and not anywhere close to the colour of T-20. A huge minority committee gathering listening to a grand fatwa being issued by leaders of Jamaat-e-ulema-e-Hind and the Deoband Madrassa . Switching over from the glamorous T-20 to a fatwa reading session was a good change but least effective.

Arrival of the grand Mufti of Deoband at the podium to read out a fatwa and the fact that Islam stands for peace wasen't well taken by many of us away from the rally. To the insult of such a great ocassion in the history of Indian Muslims, I kept counting the number of national news microphones on the Mufti's dais . It's actually the impatience to change channels that always influences my materialistic judgements . Just a couple odd mikes on the stage raged my pre-assumption that this gathering and their agenda is just not far reaching.

A question of whether or not an al-Qaida would succumb to an elderly Maulana's slogan against terror is secondary. Muslims not very close to Deoband and such rallies soon switched channels even before the fatwa was being read out. The Deoband Mufti had just finished the introductory part of his speech thanking Almighty for the occasion and I was itching to catch the second innings of the T-20.

Somewhat in disgust over the losing seriousness of fatwas and also the temptation of catching a glimpse of the cheerleaders, such long developmental speeches by religious leaders are unfortunately "depressing" for most of us today. A huge public rally like this one in the capital won't really prove to be the beginning of a perfect second innings for the seriously damaged image of Islam till the average Indian Muslim pays attention to it.

Just two days after ignoring the rally telecast on a regional channel, what caught my attention was news of the rally making rounds in the national media. Not listening to the fatwa first hand and rather following its interpretations and analysis by more modern experts of Islam is a regret. Any fight against terror is not complete till slogans shouted by an ordinary lower middle class Muslim in a maidaan on a windy evening are not answered by the more modern and developed ones sitting back in the comfort of their drawing rooms.

The second T-20 semi final resulted to be one of the biggest drags of the IPL. Still I eagerly followed both the innings, ignoring the rally and the fact that the image of Islam too needs beginning of a new innings.