MARGINALIZING MUSLIMS Who the fuck are you S Thayaparan in defence of Dr Lim Teck Ghee

By syed1145@gmail.com

I had firmly decided not to write any more articles or say anything publicly or appear on TV for quite some time, firstly because I had already expressed my views on several issues, and secondly because some people had started accusing me of seeking popularity or cheap publicity. I regard publicity or popularity seeking as a form of vulgarity, and I never seek it. What I was doing was to put forward certain ideas which I thought were in the national interest, though it is quite possible that some of my views were wrong. But since I was misunderstood by many people, some of whom even started abusing me and launching personal attacks, I thought that the time had come for me to become silent. For this reason I said and wrote nothing for two months, and I would have continued my silence in the future too for a long time but for an event which happened recently.

We talk to our close friends for pleasure. We talk to our opponents to settle differences.Diplomacy is “handling of international relations” and “statesmanship,” says the dictionary. We do not resolve the differences by refusing to discuss them.For those who viscerally hate the Muslims, there will always be reasons, however obscure, to justify their resentment The Roman Emperors used to say that if you cannot give the people bread give them circuses. Much of our media seems to say, if you cannot give the people bread give them raw  sex is the opium of the Malaysians  masses, doled out by the media to the gullible public.Is not the  media behaving largely like Marie Antoinette who said that if the people do not have bread let them eat cakes.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today attributed the occurrence of incidents deemed insulting to Islam to the poor race and religion relations brought about by MCA,MIC and DAP

Hindu  leader Narendra Modi  and all his supporters who killed more than 2000 innocent Muslims are still free. Who is going to punish them ? Some one has to rise and destroy these fanatics. If these people become example of victory than we are looking for a big war in near future which will destroy whole earth.

People like Pastor Terry Jones, who called for the burning of the Quran.  a group of Islamophobic Americans gather to throw hateful slurs at a mosque event in California.  the absolute disrespect of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and his blasphemous film which he called “The innocence of muslims”.  the bigotry and  the sympathy of the people of Texas in ABC news experiment “What would you do?” when Muslims are discriminated.  a Hispanic woman pushing a Muslim man onto an oncoming train, killing him, just because he was Muslim. And the worst of late, the genocide of the Muslim Rohingya people by the so called “Buddhist” Burmese

It has happened. I guess it had to. Perhaps, it happened a few months or a few years ago. Perhaps, it was always there, but swept under the carpet. Society’s dirty secret is finally out — everybody knows about it but nobody talks about it. Ten days ago, I received a call from a Muslim friend. She sounded a little concerned. Her anxiety had to do with her nephew’s admission into one of Mumbai’s better colleges. His marks were good, his conduct exemplary. He had been a prefect at school and participated in several extracurricular activities. I asked what the hitch was. She sounded almost embarrassed as she said, “Well, we are Muslims and that seems to be the problem in a lot of colleges.”

I was shocked. “Are you sure that’s what it is?’ I said, not prepared to believe it was the situation in some of the ‘progressive’ South Mumbai educational institutions. My friend went on to narrate how her nephew had been subjected to blatant discrimination during interviews and told upfront that it was his surname that came in the way. She apologized again for the ‘trouble’ she was putting me through. She added, “If the boy was not as bright, I would have told him to forget it, and do something else. But he is keen to study science and make a mark for himself — he has always been a good student. If he doesn’t get into a recognized college, his career is as good as over.”

I made a couple of calls to friendly neighbourhood college principals and asked whether they were really screening students on the basis of religion. One of them denied it; the other sheepishly admitted that such a directive was in place, but on an informal level. “We don’t want trouble,’’ the principal added virtuously. When i asked him to specify what sort of trouble a young man like my friend’s nephew could possibly cause, the principal replied, “These days, you never know. How can you trust these people?” What do you mean by ‘these people’? I persisted. The principal whispered, “Leave it. Don’t make me spell it out. In any case, we don’t have a vacancy.” I called up another college. The person was enthusiastic and polite, saying their list was still open and the student I was recommending, definitely qualified etc. Then i was asked for the name. As soon as i mentioned it, his voice changed. ‘Let me crosscheck with the clerk. I think I made a mistake. So sorry, admissions were closed yesterday.” Finally, I spoke to a lady who heard me out and said, “Send the boy to me tomorrow morning. I’ll see what I can do.” This story has a happy ending — the boy got in.

But that’s because his aunt was in a position to make a few calls on his behalf. There are thousands like him in Mumbai and across India, who are up against an invisible wall, unable to move forward, determined not to look backwards, but stymied all the way. When I met the young man and his family, they had tears of gratitude in their eyes. The point is: I didn’t do them a favour. And neither did the college. He was entitled to receive the same access and treatment on the basis of merit alone. Any college should have held its doors open for him. Especially as the colleges he had applied to were in Mumbai and not some backward town in the back of beyond.  I felt intensely sad, as I accepted a box of mithai from his emotional relatives. It was as if they had crossed an impossible hurdle when it was just a routine matter of showing your marksheet, paying the fees and getting in. Will this boy ever forget the humiliation? Can his family forget the frustrating days when college after college turned them away on some pretext or the other? Perhaps this experience will toughen the lad and make him excel. Perhaps not. It is the ‘not’ that is worrying. Nearly every known privilege that a non-Muslim counterpart can and does take for granted, is denied to him in what was once a liberal, cosmopolitan city with great colleges and outstanding leaders in every field. Today, those temples of education are practicing a nasty version of religious profiling which is going to lead to major problems if it goes unchecked.

There is no getting away from the current polarization. I used to kid myself that some of my Muslim friends were being ‘paranoid’ when they talked about ‘the problem’ (as we had dubbed it). That ‘problem’ pretty much covered everything — from getting a job to finding accommodation. At the time (post- 26/11), we believed it was a passing phase that would disappear once everything ‘settled down’. Except that nobody quite knew what was meant to settle down or whether it would ever happen. But we consoled ourselves, saying sensitivities at the time were running high — people were angry and afraid. More than that, people were confused. Two years down the line, there are no alibis, no screens to hide behind.  Positions have obviously hardened to such a degree that now city colleges have begun to follow their own quota system and turn down eligible students because they are Muslims. We are a few weeks away from the anniversary of one of the most devastating and tragic events that ripped the city apart. No, we cannot and must not forget what happened. That awful attack was the work of hardcore terrorists. What we are doing may be much worse — we are killing the spirit of innocents. The latter crime may have far more lethal repercussions!

“Our lives begin to end
the minute we become silent
about things that matter.”
Martin Luther King

I would like to begin my article with the words of a great man – Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The person who has always inspired me in my life at one stage or the other. People cease to exist but what they do in a lifetime and the words they speak , last for ever in the ether’s of time.

So… What have we done with this one lifetime we have had? By asking what have we done? I do not mean – Have you changed the world? Have you been a prophet? Or have you been a revolutionary. I mean have you made a positive change to at least one persons life in your entire lifetime … even if it is to your very self? For every drop is a major contributor to the ocean which shall one day rain upon the parched earth from the clouds and make her breathe life in her womb. My aim is to awaken you to your true power, to enable and encourage my young friends to realize that we CAN emerge from whatever struggles and tragedies life has put us through as winners, and by winners I do not only mean professionally but as individuals who will live their life in abundance in every possible sphere.I hope to uplift, and to inspire more powerful ways to think and be by bringing simple stories and excerpts of people who have inspired me always .

When I first read about Helen Keller as a young teenager I could not read without goose bumps and shedding tears. Tears because I was immensely moved, motivated and ashamed. Yes you read right… I was ashamed. I was ashamed of my self and all my extremely petty complaints in life. Her life story moved me deep inside at a level I could not understand at the age of 14. However it was enough to make a shift in my life towards appreciating all the wonderful things I had in my life despite the illness which was slowly gnawing at the roots of all the enjoyable years of my teenage. An illness which made me spend every month 8-10 days being admitted in hospital until the age of 18.

Any way, my sad whining’s apart, coming back to Ms. Helen Kellar. How could a woman born in the late 18th century almost a hundred years or more before my time could have such a profound impression on the life of a young girl in India? What power did she have within her to keep reaching out to people years into time. What she could do with her life at that time in the past despite her tragic physical challenges  is truly remarkable and fascinating. At age two, she contracted an illness that left her blind, deaf, unable to speak, and was considered backwards of intelligence. She lived in a dark and hopeless world of her own, until age 7, when she was placed in the care of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Through being taught letters spelt out in her hand, she came to realize the correlation between those words and their meaning. What I learnt from this part of Helen’s life is if you truly want something it comes to you no matter what . In Helen’s case it came in form of her teacher Anne Sullivan.

I had read somewhere ‘When the student is ready the guru appears!’ Miss Keller was always to call “The most important day I can remember in my life,” Anne Mansfield Sullivan came to Tuscumbia to be her teacher. Anne Sullivan, a 20-year-old graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind, who had regained useful sight through a series of operations, had come to the Kellers through the sympathetic interest of Alexander Graham Bell. I can confidently say from my personal experiences in life that no matter what you are never alone. Even if you feel you have no one and that everything is pointless, well you are sadly mistaken for within you is a power to summon to yourself help, guidance and love – as they say just “ask and thou shalt receive!” The universe will always send you what you need as long as you really know deep inside that what is it that you really want. Whether it is in form of a teacher or guidance or friend or just signs, it “will” come to you.

How Miss Sullivan turned the near savage child into a responsible human being and succeeded in awakening her marvelous mind is familiar to millions, most notably through William Gibson’s play and film, The Miracle Worker, Miss Keller’s autobiography of her early years, The Story of My Life, and Joseph Lash’s Helen and Teacher. Imagine doing somthing so powerful that it continues to change, motivate and transform peoples lives through centuries. Work done through the power of love and through soul motivation always outlives our earthly lives. Helen with the help of Anne Sulllivan her teacher and guide, using her dogged persistence, she went on to bring forth her intellectual and emotional abilities, being an avid learner, and despite the social obstacles of her time, became the first deaf/blind person to graduate from college.

As an adult, she travelled the world, campaigned for civil rights, world peace, human dignity and women’s rights, and authored many books and essays. She became a prominent figure in her lifetime, whose accomplishments attracted awe, respect, admiration and inspiration. Born in 1880 ,Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, at Arcan Ridge, a few weeks short of her 88th birthday. Her ashes were placed next to her beloved companions, Anne Sullivan Macy and Polly Thomson, in the St. Joseph’s Chapel of Washington Cathedral.

If in that time and that era a woman could over come all hurdles in her life and if a woman (Anne sullivan) could be the force who despite all challenges enabled this child to become timeless well so can we. We have so many things to be thankful for. So many things that we take for granted like eyesight or hearing or medicine or electricity n many other wonders of our modern times. Helen Kellar said in her famous words, “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars,or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit”. She was right, for we can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.

So with this tribute to my dearest Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan I would like to sign off by saying that look within you. You can be your own Helen or you can be Anne Sullivan. In both ways you can make a difference in your life and have a positive influence upon the life of others for eons to come . You can leave your stamp on time or you can choose to diminish with time,well… my friends, the choice is yours. Be the change you want to see. In his eulogy, Senator Lister Hill of Alabama expressed the feelings of the whole world when he said of Helen Keller, “She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names not born to die. Her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith.”