Caste and Islam

by Rishi Fri Jan 25, 2013 4:36 pm

Recently, Akbar Ali, a low caste Muslim of the village was murderously assaulted by the upper caste Muslims. The only crime that Akbar had committed, it seems, was to file a case of concealing facts in the recent mukhiya elections, against one Sarfaraz Khan, who eventually won the elections. One might look at it as the democratic right of Akbar Ali to do so, but in Allahpur, this assertion of democracy left him with broken limbs after being brutally assaulted. As it happens in most of such cases, the police took an awful lot of time to even register a case against the perpetrators of the violence. Allahpur is not unknown to such expression of caste violence and this was not the first time that this was happening. Low caste Muslims have been facing severe discrimination since many years: in the mosque where they are not allowed to pray in the first line, at the madrasa where their children hear abusive language and in the fields where they are asked to do begar</I>. In what would make a Muslim purist painful, the low caste Muslims of the village now have their own separate mosque and madrasa. Moreover, they are no longer willing to pay heed to the diktats of the upper castes and are asserting their dignity by refusing a number of enforced norms refusing to remove footwear when passing through the upper caste area and even insisting on using a car (hired of course) for special occasions like marriage, etc. This deepening of democratic consciousness is most welcome but what is troublesome is the refusal of Muslim leadership, both religious and secular, that caste structures exist in our society and that something should be done about it.

http://www.newageislam.com/islamic-society/arshad-alalm-for-new-age-islam/allahpur--why-the-silence?/d/9829

by rawemotions Sat Jan 26, 2013 6:49 pm

Islam in India is organized into following castes. Ashrafs, Ajlafs, Pasmanandas.

The Ajlafs and Pasmanandas are native converts. Ashrafs trace their lineage to Mohammed, and thus claim superiority, while claiming that Muslims as a whole are superior to other religions.

Almost every single Islamic institution is headed by an Ashraf. Allegedly, Ashraf's force Wahabi/Salafist ideology on Muslims, and want the native converts to stop identifying themselves on linguistic lines and want them to embrace urdu.

Caste and Islam

Caste and Islam

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