Disclaimer: The article is published in DW, a German Daily. It is not certainly an Indian source.
While Hindu-Muslim tension is rising in India, some Muslims have joined the RSS, a hardline Hindu nationalist organization. They say they want to promote national stability in India and adapt to Hindu traditions.
Mohammad Afzal is an exception among India's Muslims when it comes to the issue of cow-slaughter, which is fully or partially banned in most Indian states.
"Hindus see the cow as their mother, so this is an important part of the culture in India. A national ban can keep the peace," Afzal told DW. "It hurts Hindus, when Muslims slaughter cows," he said, arguing in favor of a national ban.
He also said that the population growth of Muslims in India should be controlled and Muslim boys should be taught not to seduce Hindu girls.
Afzal's views closely reflect those of the RSS, a hardline Hindu volunteer organization with which Indian Prime Minister Modi started his career and which claims to have over 5 million members in India. As the co-founder and national convener of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), a Muslim social organization patronized by the RSS, Afzal fully supports the Hindu-nationalist agenda.
While Hinduism considers the cow a holy animal and therefore prohibits the consumption of beef, Islam does not. This has led to a simmering tension between the two communities, especially after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP Hindu-nationalist party rose to national power in May 2014.
Instances of violence in the name of cow protection have since gone up. And in the majority of cases, the victims were Muslims, who at a population of around 200 million are a 15 percent minority in India. Many of the victims were not involved in cow slaughter, but rather in buffalo trade or were just rumored to have killed or eaten a cow.
While condemning violence against Muslims, Afzal argues that Muslims themselves should take responsibility for staying safe. He said that as minorities, Indian Muslims should "absolutely" adjust to Hindu culture. "My main goal is to protect our community," he said.
In one of the RSS's guiding texts, Muslims are described as one of India's largest internal security threats.
Afzal lives with his wife and three sons in a narrow, four-story house in the heart of Delhi's old city, a predominantly Muslim area. Just around the corner, a man with a beard and skull cap sells beef biryani, a traditional Muslim rice dish with buffalo meat, due to Delhi's cow slaughter ban.
Well-known in the area, Afzal has been a somewhat controversial figure since he joined the BJP in the early 90s. He continued to support the party even after 2002, when thousands of Muslims were killed in Hindu mob-violence in the state of Gujarat where Modi was Chief Minister at the time.
If anything, this made Afzal more convinced that Muslims should work together with the Hindu-nationalists for the betterment of their community.
"The other parties might speak of secularism, but what have they done for us?" he said, quoting statistics showing Muslims' relatively poor socio-economic status in India. In December 2002, MRM was founded in cooperation with the RSS and currently claims 10,000 active members.
Girish Juyal, one of the Hindu co-founders of MRM, said that national unity is more important than Muslim identity. He started out as an RSS worker in Jammu and Kashmir in the 90s
The state, bordering Pakistan and an eternal source of conflict between India and its neighbor, saw a rise in militancy of separatist Muslims at that time.
"In Kashmir I had come to realize that we should promote nationalism amongst the Muslims," he told DW while sipping on a cold coffee in one of central Delhi's upmarket cafés.
"Anything that assumes a different identity, even within the body, is like a cancer. We don't want anyone to identify as a Muslim. We want them to be Indian."
http://m.dw.com/en/indian-muslims-who-support-hindu-nationalism/a-39873638
While Hindu-Muslim tension is rising in India, some Muslims have joined the RSS, a hardline Hindu nationalist organization. They say they want to promote national stability in India and adapt to Hindu traditions.
Mohammad Afzal is an exception among India's Muslims when it comes to the issue of cow-slaughter, which is fully or partially banned in most Indian states.
"Hindus see the cow as their mother, so this is an important part of the culture in India. A national ban can keep the peace," Afzal told DW. "It hurts Hindus, when Muslims slaughter cows," he said, arguing in favor of a national ban.
He also said that the population growth of Muslims in India should be controlled and Muslim boys should be taught not to seduce Hindu girls.
Afzal's views closely reflect those of the RSS, a hardline Hindu volunteer organization with which Indian Prime Minister Modi started his career and which claims to have over 5 million members in India. As the co-founder and national convener of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), a Muslim social organization patronized by the RSS, Afzal fully supports the Hindu-nationalist agenda.
While Hinduism considers the cow a holy animal and therefore prohibits the consumption of beef, Islam does not. This has led to a simmering tension between the two communities, especially after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP Hindu-nationalist party rose to national power in May 2014.
Instances of violence in the name of cow protection have since gone up. And in the majority of cases, the victims were Muslims, who at a population of around 200 million are a 15 percent minority in India. Many of the victims were not involved in cow slaughter, but rather in buffalo trade or were just rumored to have killed or eaten a cow.
While condemning violence against Muslims, Afzal argues that Muslims themselves should take responsibility for staying safe. He said that as minorities, Indian Muslims should "absolutely" adjust to Hindu culture. "My main goal is to protect our community," he said.
In one of the RSS's guiding texts, Muslims are described as one of India's largest internal security threats.
Afzal lives with his wife and three sons in a narrow, four-story house in the heart of Delhi's old city, a predominantly Muslim area. Just around the corner, a man with a beard and skull cap sells beef biryani, a traditional Muslim rice dish with buffalo meat, due to Delhi's cow slaughter ban.
Well-known in the area, Afzal has been a somewhat controversial figure since he joined the BJP in the early 90s. He continued to support the party even after 2002, when thousands of Muslims were killed in Hindu mob-violence in the state of Gujarat where Modi was Chief Minister at the time.
If anything, this made Afzal more convinced that Muslims should work together with the Hindu-nationalists for the betterment of their community.
"The other parties might speak of secularism, but what have they done for us?" he said, quoting statistics showing Muslims' relatively poor socio-economic status in India. In December 2002, MRM was founded in cooperation with the RSS and currently claims 10,000 active members.
Girish Juyal, one of the Hindu co-founders of MRM, said that national unity is more important than Muslim identity. He started out as an RSS worker in Jammu and Kashmir in the 90s
The state, bordering Pakistan and an eternal source of conflict between India and its neighbor, saw a rise in militancy of separatist Muslims at that time.
"In Kashmir I had come to realize that we should promote nationalism amongst the Muslims," he told DW while sipping on a cold coffee in one of central Delhi's upmarket cafés.
"Anything that assumes a different identity, even within the body, is like a cancer. We don't want anyone to identify as a Muslim. We want them to be Indian."
http://m.dw.com/en/indian-muslims-who-support-hindu-nationalism/a-39873638
