You go to any Muslim majority area in India. You will find the majority of the Muslim children and youth who are un educated , unemployed, drug users, quarrelsome ,eve teasers , users of abusive language, law breakers, and a headache to the parents and police. It may be possible that my observation is wrong. When I spoke to some such youth, they told me that “they do not have interest in going to school because their parents are poor and could not provide sufficient food and can not bear their education expenses. This forces us to be what we are. parents quarrel over less income every day, which affects our psychology”.If what is told by them is right, We, as members of this community, have to seriously think about whether We intellectuals, religious persons, and rich persons in the society are in some way or the other responsible for this situation or not. Wishing and lecturing are easy, but we have to solve these problems practically. To lead a respectable life, we need education or skill. Both are absent; poverty, quarrels, and desperation are common. None of us can escape from our responsibility to the community. Undoubtedly, population growth among Muslims is on par with the other communities, but we are not providing quality education in this competitive world. This must be our priority. We have got innumerable problems, but we do not maintain priorities.
Our teachers in Government primary and middle schools are not as competitive and knowledgeable as those in private schools because they do not read newspapers and other books. In higher studies, Muslims in 2010 were 2.5%but in 2019, it is 5.55 %, and in teaching faculty from 2.95 to 5.55 %. 77.63 % have taken admission in meritless schools and colleges. Our progress in education is slow compared to other communities. our next priority should be our participation in Government jobs. To better serve the community and the country, we need more clerks, supervisors, and class 2 officers because every issue and policy starts with these officials and the files start moving from this level. Senior officers and politicians make decisions on the suggestion of these officials. I do not deny the importance of the senior officers, but the role of these junior officials is more important. Given this, we must prepare our children for these jobs in the Government.
Likewise, we must have more constables and sub Inspectors. The other priority should be to induce our retired officers to serve the community by joining the political parties and the community organizations with a service motive. What we see today is these retired officers fade away after retirement. They expect that the community should respect them the way they were treated while in service, forgetting that they never interacted with the common Muslims. After retirement, they must forget that they were senior officers for at least two years and mingle with the common Muslims and serve them to get recognition. It is only then that they will be recognized and respected. These officers are better positioned to serve the community because of their knowledge and experience while in service.
The Muslim organizations must identify them and encourage them to serve the community in other communities. Political power is significant in solving community problems. To achieve this, we must induce our retired and talented officers to join the political parties so that they, because of their knowledge and experience, become the eyes and ears of the politicians and become a part of the framing of policies. We must also remember that we become politically relevant and powerful only when we increase the percentage of voting from 40 % to 90 % by inducing every Muslim to go out and vote. We must attempt to form a group of advocates who can serve the community by charging reasonable fees, releasing innocent prisoners, and undertrials from the prisons. For this, we must encourage the talented children of rich people to get a legal education. Rich, because they may not have the desire to make more money. Their motive should be to serve the community instead of making more money. Unfortunately, we have not succeeded in this attempt so far. The other priority is unity among the Muslims. My observation and experience of the last thirty years are that unity based on religion is impossible because of the various conflicting maslaks and infighting. Unity is possible only in education, employment, political power, health, and housing. This is the need of every Muslim.
We must understand that non-Muslims do not read and understand Islam and Muslims by reading Quran and Hadis but by observing the behavior, dealings, and character of Muslims in everyday life. In this respect, our auto-rickshaw drivers, business people, advocates, teachers, laborers, etc., play a significant role. Our Ulemas can transmit these ideas, and our Ulemas’ opinions can be transmitted to common Muslims during their Friday sermons and other lectures. Unfortunately, most of them do not read newspapers, magazines, and modern books. If we arm our ulemas with knowledge and awareness, we can easily achieve our goals.
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