Non-Violence and Peace-Building in Islam

This approach has been decried in the Hadith as asabiyyah, a form of tribal prejudice, which, in Islam, is utterly false and condemnable. The other way to look at the question of riots is the Islamic way. The Islamic way is based on certain principles, and not on communal basis. When we analyze the Bhiwandi riots from the Islamic perspective, the first question that arises is: What was the issue or complaint which so angered Muslims that they took to angry demonstrations against the Shiv Sena and its leader? Muslims said that the issue that had so incensed them was that, so they alleged, the Shiv Sena leader had demanded a ban on the Quran and insulted the Prophet. But facts revealed that this allegation was entirely false. The Shiv Sena leader did not say this at all. The Shiv Sena leader was at that time in Mumbai. Yet, prior to the riots, no Muslim group went to meet him to find out if the allegations that Muslims were making against him were true nor not. No Muslim even bothered to contact him on the telephone in this regard. The so-called Muslim leaders, who stir into action in the aftermath of riots, did nothing at all to investigate these allegations before the riots broke out. The only thing that happened was that a Mumbai-based Muslim paper copied a report that had been published in a Bangalore-based Urdu paper that is known for its cheap reporting and sensationalism. It had only to be published in an Urdu paper that Muslims began making a huge hue and cry about it and began reprinting it in Urdu papers elsewhere, too. And so, in a few days the situation became so heated and tense that it was almost inevitable that riots would break out. Mr. Thackeray’s Interview After the riots, a representative of the Link magazine interviewed the Shiv Sena leader, Mr. Thackeray. The interview was published in the 3rd June 1984 issue of the magazine. Here are some excerpts from the interview: