Reflections on Communal Riots

Everywhere, and across the world, Muslims are divided into rival camps, allied with different powers and fighting against each other. In our country, Muslims are allied with rival political parties and they fight with each other, especially during the elections. In this way, they weaken and help destroy themselves at the same time as they get busy competing with each other in distributing relief when communal riots break out. One major cause for communal riots in India is electoral politics. Just before and during the elections, Muslims begin to ally with different political parties. This is a major factor for infighting among Muslims, with rival Muslim factions vying to defeat each other. After the elections are over, defeated candidates make every effort to make the winners ineffective and to recover their lost ground. One of the things that defeated candidates sometimes do to win is instigating inter-communal riots. If seen in this light, the relief efforts undertaken by Muslim leaders in the wake of riots reflect what the Quran (2:85) says: Yet, here you are, slaying one another and driving some of your own people from their homelands, aiding one another against them, committing sin and aggression; but if they came to you as captives, you would ransom them. What is the use of Muslim leaders distributing relief to the victims of communal riots when their sordid role in electoral battles—their allying with rival political parties and stoking internecine rivalries and thereby weakening Muslims—leaves Muslims even more vulnerable? Far from being in accordance with the divine will, these cosmetic measures are simply a cheap means to establish these self-appointed leaders’ claims to Muslim leadership. God’s reward is for obeying His commandments, and not for such political gimmicks of self-styled leaders. Today, the biggest problem for Muslims is not communal riots or the conspiracies of others. Rather, it is their not being able to understand what