It had been several years since I last visited my birth country, India. I
finally went last month, and I was shocked to see so many changes.
From
information-technology and infrastructure improvements, to the feverish embrace
of capitalism targeting the ever-widening middle class, the visit was indeed a
learning curve. (You will still find cows and goats among the street traffic,
mingling with the ocean of cars, bicycles, humans, and the occasional oxen
cart). But just as noticeable in some Muslim communities is the rising influence
of ultra-orthodox Salafi/Wahhabi ideology, which is extremely
disconcerting.
The Wahhabi-Sufi ideological competition in India is
nothing new. Both are at the opposite ends of the Islamic ideological spectrum,
and both have competed incessantly in India. However, this time I heard about
and witnessed certain communities commanding a new, very visible social norm:
girls and women forced to wear hijab and in some cases even the burka. But the
most infuriating sight I saw was that of little girls, toddlers, wearing the
head scarf.
I learned that much of this growing orthodoxy is a result of
many Muslims working in the Gulf Arab countries, getting indoctrinated in
Wahhabi ideology while there, and then importing it back home in India. This
seems to have been the trend since the late 1980s, and the outcome has been
visibly enforced dress codes of girls and women, and many more bearded
men.
But why should toddlers have to wear hijab? That is an outrage. I
lost count of how many little girls, most of them likely under the age of six,
who were riding on motorbikes with their families and wearing hijab. Recently,
human rights activists raised the same red flag about young girls’ veiling in
Morocco. They argue that it is a violation of fundamental children’s rights, and
undermining their innocence. Hijab is supposed to be a choice at the time of
puberty. It is also more common in Arab culture, compared to South Asian
culture.
WHAT IS the message being conveyed when parents make their
toddlers wear hijab? Is it that men in the community won’t find them attractive
if they cover up? There is a name for that: pedophilia. Or is it an over-zealous
urge to display the family’s religiosity and conformity, which is the core
principle of Wahhabism? One must show his or her religious
convictions.
Let’s not forget that Wahhabism is one of the ideologies
that inspired the birth of the Taliban.
Indoctrination and forced
conformity to their ultra-orthodox interpretation of Islam constitute the heart
of the ideology. These methodologies can occur subtly, as in the case of India,
through the importation of ideology by the migrant workers returning from the
Gulf. Or they can be far more violent and coercive, as in the case of the
so-called “religious police” in Saudi Arabia.
In either case, the spread
of Wahhabism is dangerous, because it is unequivocally coercive, intolerant and
misogynist.
WITNESSING SO many young prepubescent girls wearing hijab in
India has been disheartening. I refer to it as “baby hijab.” Also, seeing so
many more burka-clad women than ever before is a bad sign. All of this indicates
continual indoctrination and expansion of Wahhabism in India, while the more
tolerant and peaceful ideology of Sufism remains silently subjugated, or at a
minimum, complacent.
The Sufi-oriented communities need to improve
efforts and religious education to combat this growing threat of Wahhabism.
Otherwise, they will face Wahhabi intolerance and coercion, especially through
communal peer pressure, to comply and conform to their extremely intolerant
beliefs. Girls and women always pay the harshest price in such
scenarios.
If anyone needs proof of Salafi/Wahhabi intolerance and
ignorance, take a look at what they have done to the world heritage sites and
mausoleums in Timbuktu, Mali, recently. They exhibited the same intolerance and
ignorance that the Taliban did when they destroyed the ancient Buddha statues in
Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
Where the Taliban used heavy weaponry to destroy
the statues, the militants in Mali used pickaxes and hammers to destroy ancient
sites, religious shrines and mausoleums. Are these the kinds of destructive
mentalities that Indian Muslims want to invite into their communities?
Is it not
enough that many migrant workers in the Gulf Arab countries face severe racism
and abuse? Why, then, should they accept the ideology pervading the region?
Clearly, it has not espoused the principles of human rights and tolerance. If
anything, the ideology of Wahhabism has only spread hatred and extremism,
intolerance, misogyny, militancy and violence worldwide. It must be rejected and
combated fervently, or else so many more young girls will be robbed of their
innocence.
The writer is an associate professor at the US Naval War
College in Newport, Rhode Island, the views expressed are her own.
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