Today is our Focus: ELITE MUSLIMS MUST NOT DEMAND JOB QUOTAS
ELITE MUSLIMS MUST NOT DEMAND JOB QUOTAS
At a recent convention sponsored by some Muslim organizations, a demand was made for 15% job reservations for religious minorities-10% for Muslims and 5% for other minorities. Those Muslim leaders who have been demanding this for quite some time were all in attendance But what lent credibility to the event was the presence of a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who not only presided over the convention but also endorsed the demand for reservation for religious minorities.
The Constitution of India provides special provisions for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes of citizens, respective of their religious denomination. It is in pursuance of this provision that the Mandal Commission report providing for 27% reservation for the socially and educationally backward communities of all religious denominations including Muslims was implemented.
According to a study, Muslim communities that constituted the population covered by the Mandal Commission report was a little over one-third of the total. Since 1990 many more Muslim communities have been identified and notified by State Governments as socially and educationally backward, and have been included as beneficiaries of reservation under the Mandal report.
The Constitution allows the State to make special provisions for women and children, but it specifically prohibits taking special measures on the basis of religion. That explains why Muslim communities who are beneficiaries of the Mandal report have not been included on the basis of their religious affiliation, but on the basis of their social and educational backwardness.
Most of these communities are professional artisan communities who continued to labour under social and educational backwardness even after embracing Islam, as the Muslim elite and clergy labeled them as ajlaf (ignoble) and arzal (contemptible) In fact, some Muslim jurists went to the extent of fabricating Prophetic narrations describing certain professions like ‘weaving, tailoring, and hair cutting as ‘despicable’ and issued fatwas, declaring weavers, barbers and tailors to be not equal to those Muslims who pursue ‘respectable’ professions.
Maulana Abdul Hamid Naumani, a senior Jamiatul Ulema leader, has dealt with this issue in detail in his book Masla-t Kufw Aur Ishaate Islam (The Problem of Social Equality and Preaching of Islam) He has copiously quoted Ziauddin Barn who advised the rulers ‘to ensure that Muslims belonging to lower castes are denied access to education so that they never pose a threat to the political supremacy of the Muslim elite’
Maulana Naumanı makes particular mention of Imam Abu Yusuf and Ibn Najim who not only held certain legitimate professions as lowly, but opined that even a change of profession could not remove the stain of lowliness from the person born into such a group. Maulana Naumanı has severely criticised Deobandi and Barelvi ulema, particularly the likes of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi for having pursued the Ashraf-Ajlaf theory in derogation of the principle of equality established by Islam.
The supreme Court has laid down in the Mandal case. ‘What qualifies for reservation is the backwardness which is the result of identified past discrimination and which is comparable to that of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.’ The socially backward Muslim communities who were historically subjected to discrimination pass this Constitutional test and are justifiably entitled to affirmative benefits.
But the soi-disant Muslim leaders who all belong to the elite classes are demanding something that is totally incompatible with the Constitution.
Do they really hope that their demand can be met with? Or, are they expressing their frustration with a system that offers new opportunities to those they have held in contempt for long?
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