FROM MAULANA'S DESK

FROM MAULANA’S DESK 1. The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims 2012, Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Jordan. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, born in 1925, in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, is an Islamic spiritual scholar who is well-versed in both classical Islamic learning and modern disciplines. The mission of his life has been the establishment of worldwide peace. He has received the Padma Bhushan, the Demiurgus Peace International Award and Sayyidina Imam Al Hassan Peace award for promoting peace in Muslim societies. He has been called ’Islam’s spiritual ambassador to the world’ and is recognised as one of its most influential Muslims1. His books have been translated into sixteen languages and are part of university curricula in six countries. He is the founder of the Centre for Peace and Spirituality based in New Delhi. S OME time ago, I met a Muslim who lives in America. In conversation, he mentioned that these days the image of Islam has become so negative in America that he hesitates to tell anyone he is a Muslim. ‘If anyone asks me my religion,’ he explained, ‘I say that my religion is Humanism. If I tell them that I believe in Islam, they will at once say, “Then you must be a terrorist!” The man accused the media of creating this image of Islam. But I replied, ‘No. This image has been created by Muslims themselves. It is a fact that Muslims are engaged in violent movements in various places in the name of Islam, which the media reports. Because Muslims spearhead these violent movements in the name of Islam, the media also attributes them to Islam. How can the media call them by some other name?’ The man responded by saying that just a few Muslims were engaged in such violent movements. Hence, he protested, it was wrong to create a negative image about all Muslims. My answer was, ‘It is true that relatively few Muslims are engaged in such movements. But, ANTI-ISLAM IN THE NAME OF ISLAM