ME AND MAULANA: A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION OF WAHIDUDDIN KHAN - John M. Butt

Many people accused him of indulging in appeasement, that he was always critical of Muslims’ attitude and paid little attention to bigoted sentiments of others. But surely, should we not all start with our own house and fight our own demons? Where has the idea of aggressive politics lead us? Can we really complain about Islamophobia seeing the atrocities being committed by Islamist zealots not only in the Middle East but also in the streets of Paris, Nice, and Berlin? This reminds me of an interesting contrast drawn by the esteemed Orientalist Bernard Lewis in his book What went wrong? According to Lewis, the decline of the Muslim world and the rise of Christian Europe cultivated two types of responses in Muslim society. One response was to admit one’s shortcomings and do self-reflection. The other response was reactionary and retaliatory; it failed to admit any short-comings and looked instead for scapegoats to blame for its sudden fall from grace. Sometimes, the scapegoats were the Jews, sometimes Christians, and sometimes — in fact, most of the time — they were people within Muslim societies (individuals like Maulana Wahiduddin Khan who encouraged introspection and reform). According to Lewis, the first group posed the question, “What went wrong?”, while the latter group asked, “Who did this to us?” It is quite clear to which group Maulana Wahiduddin Khan belonged. It is becoming increasingly evident that there is no global conspiracy against Islam and Muslims. People who seek conspiracies in everything are bound to find them everywhere. Such is the predicament of a conspiracyseeking mindset.