Thread by @SatyshivS

Indian Muslims protesting against @EmmanuelMacron because he has spoken against Islamic terror after #Francebeheading & expects Muslims living in France to respect the secular French constitution raises a very important question.

What comes first to them - Religion or Nation

This is not the first time, Indian Muslims have shown solidarity with Muslims in other nations. They have been very vocal about Muslim causes around the world & opposed even #CAA that had nothing to do with them.

A thread on Ummah, Caliphate, Khilafat movement & Indian Muslims

Ummah means community. It is distinguished from shaʻb, which means a nation. Today It is a synonym for Ummat al-Islām, meaning the Islamic community and it is commonly used to mean the collective community of Muslim people across countries.

A caliphate (khilāfah) is an Islamic state under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (khalīfah), a person considered a politico-religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of the entire Muslim community (ummah).

During the medieval period, the Arab world saw three major caliphates -

Rashidun Caliphate (632–661)
Umayyad Caliphate (661–750)
Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258).

In 1258, the Mongol Empire sacked Baghdad, ending the Abbasid Caliphate.

In 1261 Mamluks in Egypt re-established the Abbasid Caliphate in Cairo. It lacked political power but continued to claim authority in religious matters.

In 1517, Ottomans conquered Egypt & claimed Caliphal authority by having control over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

This was the first caliphate outside the Arab world and overall fourth and last major caliphate. It lasted for nearly 400 years till their defeat in World War I, which led to a partition of the ottoman empire by victorious British and French.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president of the Turkish Republic adopted a modern constitution, abolished the caliphate, and expelled the last Caliph, Abdul Mejid, from Turkey.

Almost all Muslim rulers including those in India acknowledged the authority of the Caliph as the supreme Islamic leader and accepted him as their spiritual and political sovereign. To show their allegiance to him, his name was recited in the khutbah and even inscribed on coins.

It was the tradition that every sultan used to seek a certificate of recognition from the caliph on his accession to the throne and send expensive gifts as a tribute.

However, after the humiliation of Mamluks, respect for Caliphs was diminished greatly.

Mughal rulers accepted Caliphs only as spiritual sovereign & not as a political master. They did not require Caliph’s certificate to justify their rule & got khutba recited in their own names. However, they continued the practice of sending expensive gifts as a tribute.

The Khilafat movement was a pan-Muslim campaign launched by Indian Muslims to restore the caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate. Two brothers from Rampur, Mohammad Ali & Maulana Shaukat Ali with several prominent Muslims established the All India Khilafat Committee, based in Lucknow.

Some of these people were

Sheikh Shaukat Ali Siddiqui
Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari
Raees-Ul-Muhajireen
Barrister Jan Muhammad Junejo
Hasrat Mohani
Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Dr. Hakim Ajmal Khan
Mohmmad Akram Khan
Manruzzaman Islamabadi
Mujibur Rahman Khan

Their Khilafat Manifesto, called upon the British to protect the caliphate and for Indian Muslims to unite & hold the British accountable for this purpose. Around the same time, these leaders also founded the Jamia Millia Islamia to promote education & unity for Indian Muslims.

In 1920, Gandhi forged an alliance between Khilafat leaders & Congress as he saw it as an opportunity to forge stronger Hindu-Muslim ties & secure Muslims’ support for the freedom struggle in return for Hindu support for the Khilafat movement.

Indian Muslims had by & large stayed away from armed as well as unarmed freedom struggle movements with individual exceptions like Ashfaqulla Khan who had to often endure jibes from their co-religionists.

I know it is politically incorrect to say this but facts are facts.

One needs to make a distinction between 'normal' & 'outliers' to understand such inconvenient facts

Example - A large number of prisoners in cellular jail were from Punjab & Bengal, Muslim majority provinces. Yet we see only 1 Muslim name out of 100 names engraved on the walls.

Gandhi managed to persuade his Hindu followers to join Muslims in their #KhilafatMovement, a pan-Islamist, fundamentalist mission that sought restoration of an Islamic system of governance & Sharia law in a foreign land & was indifferent to the cause of Indian independence.

Khilafat movement played a key role in shaping the destiny of modern India as it led to the idea of Pakistan with rise of Muslim league. Shaukat Ali became a close political ally of and campaigner for Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Ali brothers are regarded as founding-fathers of Pakistan.

Khilafat committee rejected the famous Motilal Nehru Report that had proposed for the joint electorates with reservation of seats for minorities in the legislatures and instead demanded separate electorates for Muslims.

The Hindu Muslim unity & Muslim participation in freedom struggle that Gandhi sought to achieve by supporting Khilafat movement remained elusive.

Muslim leadership instead focused on securing a separate nation for Muslims when it seemed clear that British departure was imminent.

Muslim League got overwhelming support in 1946 elections that was a referendum for partition of India by winning almost all Muslim majority seats even with #MaulanaAbulKalamAzad campaigning for congress.

Another inconvenient truth about Indian Muslims

https://twitter.com/SatyshivS/status/1056178311875854337?s=20

Maulana was not giving any Ganga Jamuni Tahzeeb logic to fellow Muslims. His appeal was on the ground of a weakened position for Muslims in remaining India & denting their chance of establishing Islamic rule one day. A must-read article by @tufailelif

firstpost.com/india/global-i…

Another Gem from #MaulanaAbulKalamAzad

"If a thorn gets stuck in a Turk's sole in the battlefield of war, then I swear by the God of Islam, no Muslim of India can be a Muslim until he feels that prick in his heart instead of sole because the Millat-e-Islam is a single body."

With such history, support among Indian Muslims for global Muslim causes like Palestine & opposition to Israel & West is not surprising at all. Even in recent incidents of terror attacks in France, Indian Muslims are more vocal about their opposition to French than the attackers.

The idea of modern secularism was born in France & French constitution guarantees absolute FOE to leftist, atheist organizations like Charlie Hebdo who offend every religion equally and have been sued at least dozen times by Christian institutions for their cartoons.

Almost every Muslim majority country discriminates against other faiths, sanctioned by its law.

Even educated, prosperous democracies like Malaysia have several sections (3,111,160) in their constitution that recognize Islam as state religion & discriminate based on religion.

Another inconvenient fact is that the MµsIim community often seeks special concessions, sometimes even Sharia law in secular, modern democracies rather than respecting local law & culture. French law & response was not against Islam. It was FOR its core values, equality & FOE.

With a record of Islamic atrocities over centuries, a partition based on the popular demand of MµsIims themselves, one would have expected Indian MµsIims to be more sensitive towards the nation that still gives them equal rights + special privileges.

https://twitter.com/SatyshivS/status/1049257103003594757?s=20

But alas, we only see false victimhood and absolutely no remorse for the painful chapters of shared history. Our modern historians (rather distortians) have only worsened the situation by whitewashing history.

https://twitter.com/SatyshivS/status/1049255384928542720?s=20

In this brilliant rebuttal, @Aabhas24 urges Indian MusIims to start a “Not In my Name” campaign.

When will we see the similar crowds denouncing lsIamic terror as we see in funerals of terrorists & protest marches against modern democracies?

theprint.in/opinion/muslim…