| Current affairs | |
| 02 Aug 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| Deoband’s Maulana Vastanvi: Our Make-believe Reformist | |
By Zia Haq
July 31, 2011
In reporting the recent events at India's best-known Muslim seminary, the English-language press — from the New York Times to Indian dailies — pro-Ved its proclivity for misrepresenting Muslims yet again. Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi — the Darul Uloom's top administrator, sacked because he was quoted speaking favourably of a chief minister blamed for anti-Muslim riots — was made out to be all that Muslims are generally thought incapable of being: educated, liberal and "modernist".
Vastanvi's portrayal had, what I call, the typical ‘zoo effect'. It's the wonder-struck effect overwhelming us at a circus. As the animals perform, we marvel at what the tamed beasts can accomplish.
Vastanvi's views about Muslims doing fine in Gujarat, where eight years ago they faced a pogrom, were more about the community's resilience rather than unabashed praise of the state's demagogic chief minister, Narendra Modi.
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4:22 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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