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whenever I hear about Muslim persecution of Hindus in South Asia, I get really uncomfortable & sad. I'm very sorry to hear about the destruction of temples & the like..
I learned a bit about it growing up, but it wasn't taught to me as persecution.
I learned a bit about it growing up, but it wasn't taught to me as persecution.
I find it difficult to think about the enormity of polytheistic persecution at the hands of monotheistic groups (i.e. Muslims). it's such a key part of how I learned about Islam growing up (positively construed, obviously), but I don't really know what to do with that anymore
even when I learned about instances of persecution (e.g. Mahmud of Ghazni plundering the Somnath temple), it was somehow very positively construed. and now that I'm an adult, I am keenly aware of the amount of undocumented sexual violence that armies bring with them.
I know Muslims aren't perfect etc etc, but it's hard for me to think of my earliest religious role models and try to understand how they can embody such positive traits of piety while taking that same piety to be symbolized by plundering & destruction of religious spaces
it makes me approach the Holy Quran with suspicion & bewilderment. I find it difficult to read the scripture w/out reading passages against polytheists in the light of those teachers, just like how I read about charity & remember the same unbelievably charitable teachers
I suppose this is all obvious to irreligious groups, or even to non-Muslims who aren't Pakistani (or raised the way I was), but the deep sectarian, political, and religious rifts between Muslims and Hindus was so prominent in how I learned Islam. I don't know how to explain it.
anyway I guess I'm just posting this because (a) I know it doesn't signify much, but if anybody who was affected by the persecution or feels it deeply reads this: I'm sorry on behalf of my ancestors; and (b) I am hoping other SA Muslims who relate can "help" me.
