Islam and Many Ayodhyas of the World

Ninth September 2019 has been inscribed in Indian history as a golden day for law abiding Indians… whether Hindu or Muslims. It was especially tough for Indian Muslims for abiding a non-Shariat verdict on Ramjanmabhumi, pertaining to their villainous act of erecting a mosque on fully or partially destroyed temples…wherever that might be. In India, thousands of temples were destroyed by the cruel Muslim rulers. Among these, the three having deep roots in Hindu psyche are Ramjanmabhumi Ayodhya, Kashi Vishwanath and Krishnajanmabhumi at Mathura. Besides these three, there were several temples of repute that were vandalised by the Muslim rulers with impunity and looted. Some among these include Rudra Mahalaya in Patan Gujrat, Bhojshala Saraswati Temple in Dhar dist & Vijay temple (converted to Bijamandal mosque) at Vidisha (MP), Adinath Shiv temple (converted to Adina mosque) at Pandua (WB), Bhadrakali temple (converted to Jama Masjid) in Ahmedabad Gujrat and a group of many Hindu & Jain temples (converted to Qutub minar) in Delhi. There are numerous such examples.

Islam had an inborn hatred against idol worships right from its birth. They have a tradition of part-destructions of temples right in their heartland of origin in the Arabs. The very Mecca (Becca) is the symbol of their hatred which were built over the destroyed Quabah temples of the Arabian tribes. They used to practice largely polytheism and worshipped the many forms of Sun Gods and the alike for generations before Mohamed was born in Hashemite clan of the tribe. Mohammed acclaimed himself as head of Islam (Adams & Abraham) and disfigured, desecrated and evicted all idols from the shrines to preach his own version of religion. The newly formed Islam had made ‘jihad’ as a force to annihilate anyone opposing Islam. When they spread eastward, the Parsis following Zoroastrian as religion, were made to vanquish. All most all Zoroastrian shrines were destroyed or converted into mosques like those at Bukhara, Istakhr, Tarikhaneh and so on in erstwhile Iran. Similarly, almost all Buddhist monasteries in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and some other parts of China were desecrated and converted in to mosques. Clear Buddhist architectures can be seen in these converted mosques placed below.

Places of worships of all religions & faiths have suffered in the hands of intolerant and bigoted Islam… Christians being one of the worst. Tens of thousands of churches in Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Greece, Hungary…were vandalised and converted to mosques. Even in USA, contrary to the common belief, the Muslims have converted numerous churches in to mosques. Thus, wherever Muslims are in sizable numbers or ruling, they find it convenient to vandalise/damage/destroy the religious places of other religions to convert it in to mosques. However, when it comes to correct their wrong-doings, it becomes at matter of ‘Islam in danger’ for them. No Islamic organisation or court of law can ever be expected to do justice in this regard…the world famous Hagia Sophia Cathedral built almost 1500 yrs back in Turkey has been eclipsed under the darkness of Islam after being desecrated and converted in to a mosque. The recent Islamic court verdict of Turkey had no shame in declaring the erstwhile Christian Cathedral, presently observed as a museum, reconverted in to a mosque. Ayodhya possibly is the first such exception where wrongdoing of Islam has been corrected after centuries of legal battle. However, there are numerous cases like Ayodhya that bear testimony to the Islamic injustice and vandalism the world over…some of which are evident in India itself, in the forms of Kashi-Vishwanath & Krishna-Janmabhumi temples. Will it take another legal battle of centuries? God only knows.

It has been a long-standing question and debate as to why the Muslims have religious intolerance, hate and bigotry inherent in them against other religions and faiths. Islamic bigotry is nothing new, it has been right from the days of Mohammed, the founder of Islam. Here we will not talk of their bigotry against the human beings of other religions & faith but try to see why is their hate & intolerance against the places of worship of the other religions. Islamic teachings mention that their prophet, Mohamed believed that God did not live in idols. He, therefore started breaking the idols. This is considered so very absurd. Tomorrow if an influential person ‘X’ with large followings (maybe just like Mohammed of those years) believes that God does not live in the mosques be it Mecca, Medina or anywhere else, should he start breaking millions of mushroomed mosques? This is what the Muslims have done forcibly the world over, destroying the millions of temples and churches? Could such instances of mindlessness or lunacy be justified? In destroying the temples having idols neither Mohamed was justified nor Mr ‘X’ could be right. As long as a person believes in some or other form of God, no one has the right to challenge him or her in the matter of faith.

There has been yet another longstanding question in the minds of millions…as to why Muslims worship in the same temples/churches after desecrating, vandalising it…just like Mecca or Medina. There has been no clear answer or explanations either by Mohamed himself or his followers. It is no secret that after vandalising the Mecca (Kabah) temple of the Quraysh tribes in which the new converts had earlier worshipped, there were strong resentments among them. There was risk of open revolt against Mohammed. The tribesmen believed that there were supernatural powers inside those temples where they worshipped earlier. Hence, by allowing to offer prayers in those very temples (without the idols though), did possibly pacify most of the new converts. Mohamed also possibly realised that his newly founded Islam although forced upon most of the converts, did not have the charm of supernatural feel at least in the initial months/years. Hence, permitting worships in those temples (converted to mosques), were to his own advantage to prevent strong resentments/revolts.

What is the way out for these converted mosques? How should the sensitive issue be handled? In this context both verdicts of Indian and Turkey Supreme Courts could be perceived differently. Supreme Court of India contends that the court monitored ASI excavation did reveal of an ancient temple of Ramjanmabhumi which was partially destroyed by the Muslim rulers to build the Babri tomb, an illegal structure. Since Lord Ram being an incarnation of the Lord Vishnu, He is of deep spiritual connect to the Hindu community. Hence, the holy land belonged to them on which they could build the rightful Ram temple. This court verdict may be correlated in any other context too, wherever a religious monuments of supreme faith (आस्था) & relevance (such as Lord Brahma, Vishnu & Mahesh or their re-incarnations) were in question. Two such monuments belong to India itself…’Kashi-Vishwanath’ being the sacred place of Lord Shiva and ‘Krishna-Janmabhumi’ being the birth place of Lord Krishna, another re-incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This logic may be applied in any part of the world.

Now let us take up the case of Hagia Sophia. It is a 4th century Christian Cathedral later renovated in the mid-6th century, by the Byzantine emperor, Justinian the First. This land fell to the attack of Muslim Ottoman king Mehmet in 1453 CE. He vandalised it, destroyed the holy cross, the relics & statue of Jesus and most of the Biblical inscriptions. He got a few Islamic inscriptions written instead and converted it in to a mosque. In 1913 the Turkey Cabinet under Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, realised it was unjust on the Christians. They issued a fiat to convert it in to a museum. Question though remained. If trying to redress injustice, why it was not handed over back to the Christians? Whatever be the motive, both ccommunities accepted it. However, after Mr Erdogan came to power 16 yrs back, he asked started his campaign for it to be declared a mosque and filed a court case. The verdict by Islamic court of Turkey pronounced unjustly “Hagia Sophia was the property of the Ottoman leader who captured the city in 1453 and turned the already 900-year-old Byzantine church into a mosque”. So, it will hereafter remain a mosque.

The Islamic court verdict of Turkey on Hagia Sophia Cathedral first converted to a mosque and then to a museum, raises numerous questions. It contends that the religio-spiritual propriety of the Christian monuments is of little importance but whoever holds the physical right over it, has the supreme rights to convert it to their choice. If we apply it in Indian context, the Govt of India has the sovereign right to most of the mosques that stand on public land. Hence, they may have a right to convert it to any monument they desire. In future if Saudi Arabia is captured, the new ruler will have right to convert the Mecca & Medina to any other religious monument he so desires. Then the world should have no say. It means the rule of force or physical occupation is supreme in Islam. It defies the rule of humanity.