Since Independence, more so since 1992, when the Hi­ndu lunatic frin­ge demolished the Ba­bri Masjid at Ayodhya, Indian society has been deeply divided on the basis of belief and religion. We like to claim that for all our diversity we are a ‘Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb’, alluding to the two mighty rivers of North India and their confluence, but since 1992, we have not been a united society and neither have we remained a united people. We love to blame the British for dividing us to rule us, but it is now more than six decades since the British left and if anything, today, we are more divided than we were under them. Our own politicians have divided and ruled over us in a much more efficient manner than the British ever managed to do.

But today, I don’t intend to flog the dead horse of India’s mythical unity. A ‘mosque’ or the opposition to its being built, has managed to divide the society in a nation that was so far known as the melting pot. A proposal by a Sufi sect of Islam to build an Islamic Centre in the Big Apple, a couple of blocks away from the site where once the World Trade Centre’s Twin Towers stood, has deeply divided the society in the US. Ever since the proposal was submitted, wild allegations have been made by all and sundry about the blasphemy of building a mosque that miraculously moved two city blocks and is now going to be built on Ground Zero. That accusation was enough to start a huge and nationwide uproar against the blasphemy. The far right got into the fray and launched a malignant attack on the proposal and took the opportunity to vent their spleen against all Muslims. But what was tragic was how civil society reacted; two blocks away was too close for comfort. The ‘No Mosque’ movement rapidly degenerated into an attack on Islam in general. Fossils like Newt Gingrich got active and termed the move as an attempt to build a Mosque commemorating the victory of Islam over the United States.

The Zionists who have captured the Anti Defamation League (ADL), an organisation which was established to fight ‘Unjust and Unfair Discrimination’, and the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation jumped into the fray and demonised the intentions of the Cordoba Initiative, the organisation that proposed to build the Islamic Centre, an organisation which espouses as its objective ‘improving Muslim-West relationship’. While criticising the move to build an Islamic Centre, which they conveniently branded a mosque, the ADL conveniently forgot that they were unjust and unfairly discriminating against all Muslims. They were accusing all Muslims of being radicals and terrorists. They were also alleging that all Muslims were guilty for the 9/11 attacks.

The intentions of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the head of the Cordoba Initiative, an adherent of Sufi Islam were questioned and the Republican candidate for New York governor alleged a sinister nexus between him and the radical fringe attempting to take over Islam. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Amidst the din created by the bigots, President Barack Obama spoke in a voice of sanity and reason. He said that as Americans, Muslims had a fundamental right to be able to decide where they wanted to worship.

This was enough for the gloves to come off. The Muslimness of President Barack Husain Obama, a barb aimed at him throughout his campaign and ever since his victory became strident. Could Christian America trust a president whose middle name was ‘Husain’? The attack against the president was so vicious that he was forced to withdraw his very honest and truthful opinion and rescinded his earlier statement.

Ever since Sonia Gandhi took the helm of the Indian National Congress and was successful in cobbling together a ruling coalition led by her Congress party, the Sangh Parivaar has been hounding her about her Italian, Christian origins, to such an extent that they have successfully gagged her from speaking out against the atrocities committed by the Sangh Parivaar’s goon squads in Kandhmahal against the Christian tribals. Now in a similar manner, the right wing bigots in the US have cornered Obama and have made his Muslim parentage into a political issue. Henceforth President Barack Husain Obama will think twice before he makes any statement that could be attributed to his ‘Muslim blood’.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the US administration, troubled by the scenes of rejoicing in certain Islamic nations over the tragedy that had befallen the US and its people, sent out its senators and congressmen worldwide to find out why the US was hated so much. I met one of the senior senators who was visiting India. I asked him if he had found an answer, he said ‘yes’ the world was jealous of the American way of life and so they rejoiced in America’s sorrow. The ‘No Mosque’ bigotry and venom that has surfaced in American society has provided the lunatic fringe in Islam with a tool to fan anti-American ambers and has exploded the myth about the US being a melting pot. The United State’s secular credentials are now questionable.

“Hum Mandir Wahin Banayenge” and “No Mosque” are two slogans that have successfully divided the people in two nations.