NEW DELHI: In a strongly worded letter to New Delhi’s daily Pioneer, a reader Syed Hamid Hussain Khizer exposed the Hindu Medias hypocrisy and doublespeak on certain communities. AS long as any (non) event, however innocuous and trivial, smacks of Muslims or Islam, the entire print media pounces upon hawks-like, to swoop a scoop out of it. So much so, the drivel and drool of Harun Riaz and Shams Ul-Islam (letters, The Pioneer, June 27) and the babble gabble of Archana Jasdeep Singh, Naja Khare and Fariyal Shah (letters, July 3) is elevated to the converted status of box letters and described in the formers case as a Trail-blazing letter. Naturally, since these missiles had everything that pumps the Hindu adrenalin up-to further galvanize Hindu fundamentalism that has already gone berserk in the guise of the BJP, VHP, Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal spearheaded by the RSS.
To the contrary, any views expressed to offset the baseless charges against Islam are only put to the editor’s sword and only a stingless comment is published at all. And if the lists provided by the progressive Muslims, described by Syed Shaba bud din as courtiers and carpet baggers, so much the better for the print media, Otherwise why should the print media be so over whelming in favor of Salman Rushdies disparaging account of the Prophet and his revered family in his profane Satanic Verses? Or why should the media choose to take up cudgels on behalf of Prof Mushirul Hassan call for listing the ban on the book? All in the name of freedom of expression ? Then, why are books like Dr. Amededkars Riddles of Hinduism, Aubrey Mennen’s Nine Hours to Rama or Elaine Arones Samraj or Vibhuri Narain Rays Shahar Mein Curfew still banned?
Can one see the logic behind it? Or how come non-events like the marriage of Ameena and Fatima to two foreign nationals are viewed so gingerly, as if the country’s prestige has shifted from Bofors for his issue, and has been lowered beyond retrieval? These marriages were legal both according to Shari at and medical jurisprudence. A female crossing the age of puberty is biologically prepared for marriage. As simple as that A few years ago, the same print media had praised a foreign nine-year old mother (her husband was barely 12) and had described it as a maryil. But the same media looked at these two marriages with the sole purpose of attributing these, like all other minus points prevalent among Muslims, to the inherent shortcomings in Islam.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 24, 1992
