Dear Vikram,
I was thrilled to hear from you today. I hope this letter finds you in good spirits. I’m glad you reached out to me in times like this where one finds it not only necessary to access information but also to find its sources. After some research, I was able to gather the below information about the now-infamous Tablighi Jamaat event.
In India, nearly one-third of the positive COVID-19 cases are related to this religious gathering at the Markaz in New Delhi’s densely-populated Nizamuddin West neighborhood. The Markaz comprises a mosque and dormitories that can accommodate 5,000 people. Tablighi Jamaat is an orthodox Islamic missionary movement estimated to have between 12 to 80 million followers across the world. The root of the movement is to encourage Muslims to practice Islam the way it is believed to have been practised at the time of the Prophet Mohammed, particularly in matters of ritual, dress and personal behavior.
On the contrary to the widespread publicity they have received from the media over the last two weeks, the movement itself avoids the eyes of the media like a plague. Their idea of revolution is that of extreme piousness. They believe Muslims will remain weak as long as they do not strictly adhere to their prescribed tenets of Islam and six sifats of the jamaat. They are apolitical and peaceful as described by many western experts who have scrutinised the movement. We peak with idiocy when we begin to question the nature of this movement. The need for me to stress on these is so to dissolve the unilateral rhetoric that has been spread by the right-wing of the country. It is with much disappointment that I must acknowledge that no other country has let the virus become communal. I will refrain from commenting on the right and wrong of what the missionary preaches. Rather, we ought to focus on how we have let every incident in our country end with a communal divide.
Every religion has multiple movements that practice and influence others of their orthodox-conservative interpretation of their respective religion and each of them are allowed to do so freely abiding by the laws of the country. So why is this any different? Ironically we have elected Hindu godmens to parliament and as heads of states, so as a country we should ideally be the last ones to have opinions on conservative religious movements.
We have a community of people who seem to jump right into the bandwagon of hate as they are triggered with the slightest association with anything “Muslim”. Do not mistake this as ignorance towards facts that claim that the Markaz was a hotspot of COVID-19 cases, it definitely was. It is unfortunate that it was and I only feel sorry for those infected by the virus. The negligence of the leaders of the Jamaat should be criticized but to spread hatred against a whole community that is already prejudiced in many other issues says a lot about where our country is heading. A Time magazine report claimed tweets with #CoronaJihad appeared nearly 300,000 times and was potentially seen by 165 million people since March 28.
A central government minister called the Markaz gathering a “Talibani crime”. To be a Muslim in this country is nothing short of a nightmare even in a pandemic. The mainstream media did not fail to call out the “carelessness” of the attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event but stayed ignorant towards how our country’s governance delayed the prevention.
I hope you can pass on the love to people irrespective of their religion and any other societal divide. It breaks my heart to read stories every day of people who face discrimination from those who refuse to be inclusive of others. I will write to you soon.
Lots of Love,
Keerat