Only in Secular India

Irfan Hussain (penname: Mazdak) is a columnist for the Pakistani English daily, The Dawn. His latest column is a protest against the Malaysian fatwa against yoga (yoga being unIslamic and all).

Mazdak variously notes:

Already viewed as a backward community by much of the world, Muslims risk withdrawing from the rest of mankind at a time when globalisation is breaking down barriers at a frenzied pace....

Millions in the Islamic world have convinced themselves that their current weakness has been caused by the West. If they examine the causes for their backwardness more closely, they will discover that they lie much closer to home than they would like to admit....

It will end if and when Muslims decide that enough is enough, and that they do not want to live in the sixth century.

However, these are unremarkable observations, there are plenty of Muslims writers who pen similar lines.

The following is the real stinger, something which is politically incorrect to note in India, the land of the "oppressed Muslims". In listing the ways Muslims regress to the sixth century, Mazdak includes this item:

In India, Muslim ulema have won the right to dominate women as a religious right. This exemption was granted to them by a secular Congress Party.

Keep this in mind as you are treated to the howling of the so-called secular brigade. The above is their creation. They are out in force defending the current Indian government against charges of being inept at handling terrorism by spouting off that this government - consisting of the Congress and Marxists - is a secular government. Protesting the above marks you immediately as a Hindu fundamentalist.

(hat-tip R.P.)