Yeh Hum Naheen

Brilliant. (For non-Hindi speakers: Yeh Hum Naheen = This is not who we are.)

How a Pakistani protest song is redefining Islam as anti-terrorist

Also: http://www.yehhumnaheen.org

Hat tip to Salil Tripathi for telling me about this song.

It is great to see educated Muslim people standing up to fundamentalist Islamists. Wish someone had done this 10 years ago in India (against rising Hindutva / RSS rhetoric). In the last 10-15 years Advani, with his Rath Yatras, has changed the way India deals with its Hindu-Muslim tensions. If I say this to many Hindus in India now ...they will say..."yes..he changed it. But that's for the good. Enough of dealing with the pandering to the Muslims!" Well... I agree that the Congress has, in many instances, pandered to the Muslims over many decades. But that does not justify a rise in violence against the Muslims (and the reciprocal increase in violence by Islamic fundamentalism driven terrorists in the cities and towns of India.) The Hindutva movement has made the Hindu-Muslim divide in the country worse than it ever was since the 1940s (partition.) Godhra and the general mindset in Gujarat (and also in the mindset of many Hindus in the rest of the country) does not balance out any ills some people in the Muslim community may have committed against the country.

Also, in criticizing and fighting fundamentalists in the Muslim world (jehadis in Kashmir, attackers on the Parliament, or the perpetrator of the Bombay blasts, Jaipur blasts, etc.), we should not become like them - full of hatred for an entire community (instead of certain people who claim to represent that community) and stooping to even justifying violence as a means of dealing with it! Reminds of the Nietzche quote:

"He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee."

Anyways, it is good that civilized people in Pakistan have taken a step to distance themselves from the fundamentalists that claim to represent them and their religion. More power to them....