Date: 2/8/2003
......BEWARE OF HAJJIS RETURNING TO MULTI-FAITH SOCIETIES
.........Are they returning as the "pills of poison"?
("Where Kosser Sheikh can go, no Christian, Hindu or Sikh dare.")
We refer to the article entitled "The pilgrims' Way" published in the "Telegraph magazine" of the "Daily Telegraph", London, today, Saturday February 8, 2003 (pp. 36-43).
It describes the preparations of a British Muslim female embarking on a journey to Mecca for Hajj.
There is a significant bit on page 43 that reads,
(Quote) "Above the six lane highway leading from Jeddah to Mecca is a sign instructing non-Muslims to turn off. It is the last exit for non-believers.
"Mecca, which has been off-limits to non-Muslims since the time of Mohammed, has always operated as a place for the exchange of peoples and ideas from all over the Muslim world." (Unquote)
This reminds the writer of an ugly incident in his life. In 1967 his ship, sailing from India to Europe, docked at Durban, South Africa, for a couple of days. Like most other passengers, he went sightseeing on shore the very first evening.
On return to the ship he saw a couple sitting sadly in the lounge. He found out that the husband, a White English tea planter working in Assam, had been refused admission into a restaurant because his Brown Assamese wife accompanied him.
All the passengers came to know of it and appreciated the loyalty and courage of that Englishman who forsook the joy of eating out, in order to stay back with his wife.
If the "British" Muslims had the same bond of loyalty with the rest of us, the so-called Infidels, they would have refused to go on Hajj till the ban on the non-Muslims' entry into Mecca was lifted.
If it wouldn't occur to our Muslim neighbours and fellow citizens, is there any harm in pointing out good manners to them? After all, as the same paper wrote on the previous page, "they are living in the 21st. century Britain."
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Not only do the Indian Muslims, but also the British, the American, the Australian, the French and the German MUSLIMS on Hajj at Mecca get the re-affirmation of being separate and different from the rest of us.
Yes, in the old, dark and savage medieval societies it was a good venue to gather all the men to raise regiments of warriors on the spot, and then send them off to conquer one or the other Christian or Pagan land.
The shared and deeply moving experience of gathering in large numbers and the FRENZIED ceremonies such as "stoning the Devil" (What "devil" did he see except the Pagans, the Christians, the Jews and the Hindus around him, who were fighting for the preservation of their civilisations, the protection of their wives and daughters, and for sheer survival?) also meant the strengthening of their spirit of JIHAD against the rest of the world.
There would be NO females at Hajj in those days when they could not be seen in any mosque, and the “Believers” were told of a big "harvest" of virgins as reward in paradise if they got massacred in battle.
But is that All-Muslim and ONLY-Muslim gathering, to the exclusion of all the non Muslims, including the Hindu doctor who saved the life of a dying Hajji and the Christian midwife who helped the Ghazi's, or the Mujahid's, mother at his birth, a desirable thing when they live in the same street in multi-cultural and multi-faith societies in the West?
The “politically correct” Christians and the "softened up" Pagans may not have the courage or guts to point it out to the Muslims living in their immediate neighbourhoods but what kind of ideas of universal love and oneness of humanity do the Hajjis bring back home with them to Europe, America and Hindustan?
Why do they still INSIST on having this practice of "ONLY-MUSLIM" gathering on a “holy” occasion and at a supposedly holy place?
One can think of the bandits planning a bank raid or of the gangsters scheming to abduct a millionaire’s daughter, and in those former days, the need to hatch conspiracies and dark plans to invade yet another infidel country for which there was great scope and the dream of immense wealth and hapless women of the vanquished Hindus to ravish.
When the Hajjis return to their civilised and secular MULTI FAITH societies we should all look at them with SCORN and SUSPICION.
Is there any OTHER religion on earth, which bans anybody from his or her holy place, holy day and celebrations?
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