Save Bharat -2 | Patriotic Indians should not allow intolerance to take root.

A series of essays will be written about restoring Dharma in our motherland India, intolerance towards different opinions is growing and needs to be checked to save democracy and our individual and collective rights. Since 1999, I have posted about 1600 pieces at my blog http://MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com 

The article, “A Muslim Lady Shows Mirror to All Intolerant Rants (Link appended below)” is a beautiful expression of the Doctor lady's personal experience.  I welcome pieces that share both sides of the issue of seeding intolerance in India. We owe it to the next generation to leave behind a nation where we set the example of learning to respect the otherness of others and accept the God given uniqueness of each one of the 1.25 Billion of us. 

My personal experience is similar – I have never felt any different than other Indians, nor felt any abnormal discrimination against me, I was one of all and will always remain so. However, the evil of discrimination exists; shame on us if we don't speak up. We simply cannot deny that, and we have to tell the truth.  

A few among us are mistaken – India is not an intolerant country, her people reflect her values.  A handful of Indians are intolerant and those attitudes have been let loose since Modi came into power, it may be merely a coincidence but there is a strong correlation.  

Those who care about India, have the patriotic duty to point out such intolerance's, hoping to wake every one up and restore dharma.  Don’t you want India to remain an exemplary nation in the world?  Do you appreciate men and women with blinders who would rather not see the problems?

What Amir Khan, Girish Karnad, Sanjiv Bhatt, Teesta Setalvad, Arundhati Roy and a host of other Patriotic Indians have said was the right thing, to express their concerns about the trends in intolerance; they care about India and want the best for India and not let her go down the spiral of intolerance. If it were not for them and others like them, we will see dictatorships emerging in India and swallowing every one's freedom. 

Look at how much we laugh at nations like Saudi Arabia, that is not our model to emulate,  we don’t need to be like them, they are not a government of the people for the people, but we are.  Even here in the US,  intolerance is taking root, but will go away after the primaries and certainly after the elections.  As Americans we have not elected extremists in the last thirty years, Trump, Carson and Cruz are the bubbles that will burst one of these days or will lose to Clinton or Sanders. I will continue to speak out against men and women who will stain the name of my motherland and my homeland.   

I was in Dallas for Thanksgiving. The minute I landed, Fox News called in to respond to Pastor Jeffress’ ugly comments, in those few minutes; I have condemned the Pastor’s bigotry against Muslims, Hindus and others equally. Mind you, I have not condemned the Pastor, I have followed one of the greatest teachings of the world - condemn the sin and not the sinner, for the sinner is redeemable. One of the Muslim guys asked me, why didn’t I just focus on defending Islam? My response was,  we are all in this together, if you allow or justify bias towards Blacks for instance, you are actually allowing bias towards your own self in the long haul.

I told him, my religion teaches me to be just towards every human being, and the Prophet had said clearly, if you are unjust towards any one, I will stand up against you in their defense.  I hope all of us will stand up for each other for creating a better society for all. He agreed and his next task to become a good human being is to defend Hinduism, if someone comments negatively. I have another Muslim who is defending Judaism as a repentance for his bias against Jews.

Good societies are formed when good people stand up for everyone.  If you are a Hindu, would you defend a Muslim, Christian, Sikh or the other who to whom injustice has been done?  As a Jain, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and a Buddhist have you ever defended the innocent other? If you have, please share and keep it up, it is good for the soul. Prejudice, ill-will, bias and hatred harms you more than it harms the other.

We have to encourage inclusiveness and discourage divisiveness. Ultimately, we are responsible for creating a cohesive world, for us and our next generation.  We cannot run from the responsibility because others don’t do it.  

Here are two videos in that reference:

Pastor Jeffress attacks all religions (video included): http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2015/11/dallas-pastor-robert-jeffress.html

Speaking at the Rally on the steps of Lincoln Memorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I-cjFMth-E

A Muslim Lady Shows Mirror to All Intolerance Rants https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DallasIndians/conversations/messages/7846

Dr. Mike Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer, news maker and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, politics, human rights, India, Israel-Palestine and foreign policy. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com