Nahid Afrin, based in Assam and Suhana Sayed, based in Bangalore, are today united by grief. They are grieving over what the Mullahs have turned Islam into: an intolerant, insensitive and abusive creed hell bent on giving a bad name to Muslims. The fatwa (see editor's note below) against Nahid Afrin by Ulema in Assam and the online trolls against Suhana by ‘Mangalore Muslims’ is indicative of a larger malaise which has come to characterise Muslim society in India. While Suhana has been very nearly silenced, Nahid needs to be saluted for the courage that she has shown in standing up to those bigoted organizations who claim to speak in the name of Islam and Muslims.

Two fundamental objections have been made against these two girls by reactionary Muslim organizations. They are accused of showing their faces to people who are not related to them by blood thus breaking the code of Purdah in Islam. Secondly they are accused of singing and indulging in music which the conservatives think is not permitted in Islam. Suhana is also accused of singing Hindu devotional hymns, thereby seriously compromising the monotheistic principle of Islam which expressly forbids any eulogy for anyone else other than Allah. Let’s take all these objections one by one.

Much has been said about the institution of Purdah in Islam. Whether it refers to a garment which women above a certain age are supposed to wear in public or whether it refers to a division between public and private spaces is an open question. The conservative sections have argued that Purdah is ordained in Islam and that it practically means that women should not show their bodies in public, more so to strangers. However, there is no consensus on which party part can be shown and which cannot. While some say that it is alright to show the face, others have disapproved of it. It is argued that the face and hair of women have the capacity to ‘tempt’ men and therefore women should keep them covered at all times.

Again, since sexuality and culture are intricately linked, some societies find even the hands of Muslim women too tempting and therefore they are barred from showing their hands in public. There is no end to such ridiculous reading of the scripture. Since Islam gets influenced by different cultural patterns, we see a wide divergence in terms of actual practice of the Purdah. While some intellectuals have argued that Purdah actually refers to physical separation between the public and the private, there are very few takers for such an interpretation. More or less there is a consensus that women should not show their faces in public.

The second objection relates to the appropriateness of music and singing in Islam. There has been a long running debate within Muslim societies whether Islam forbids or permits music and singing. On the whole, the scholarly consensus seems to be that only such kind of singing and music be allowed which is expressly for the glory of Allah. All other kinds of music, especially the ones which are for ‘entertainment’ are considered un-Islamic and therefore prohibited in Islam. Despite such a theological consensus, Muslim society in India has produced many musicians and singers. Their contribution to music is so immense that without their reference, one cannot think of writing a history of Indian music. Almost all of them were also religious and God fearing Muslims and they seemed to have overcome the conservative resistance put on their music and singing.

The problem is that till today, they are not considered good Muslims by the Ulema despite bringing laurels to the country for their musical accomplishments. The scholarly opinion remains the same and unchanged since many centuries. And that’s why citing names of Indian Muslim musicians and singers to defend Suhana and Nahid is not going to help. It is not also enough to say that when Prophet of Islam went to Medina, women sang in his honour. It is also not enough to cite Hadiths where it is stated through Aisha, the Prophet’s wife that women used to come and sing in her house in the presence of the Prophet.

What is required is an attempt to break this scholarly consensus which argues that music and singing is forbidden in Islam. Doing so does not require an exegetical exercise of sifting through the pages of Islamic literature, but to argue boldly and consistently that Islam needs to be one with the fundamental marker of contemporary modernity: that of expanding choice and freedom. It is up to these Mullahs and overtly sensitive Muslims to decide whether they want Islam to become an ossified, irrelevant doctrine or whether they want it to be a flag bearer of inclusivity and freedom.

(Editor's note: Some news reports have pointed out that there was no fatwa against Nahid, only a pamphlet was issued. While the media's motive in playing up a fatwa that never was must be questioned, the problem of growing, the curse of growing Muslim intolerance too must be addressed). 

Arshad Alam is a NewAgeIslam.com columnist and a social and political commentator

This story was first published on New Age Islam.

Two young singers, who happen to be Muslim, have recently come under attack from those claiming to speak on behalf of Islam.

While a controversy rages over pamphlets in Assam, that asked people not to attend 16-year-old reality show singer Nahid Afrin’s performance to avoid the “wrath of Allah”, a few days back it was the turn of 22-year-old Suhana Sayed, who was targeted for singing a Hindu devotional song on a TV show by an organisation that styled itself as “Mangalore Muslims”.

A Mumbai-based organisation, Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy, has released a strong statement, supporting the young singers and condemning “the attempts of certain Muslims who with their blinkered brand of Islam seek to silence the nightingales of Indian Islam”.
Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy describes itself as “a forum of Indian Muslims committed to the values of democracy, secularism, equality and justice as enshrined in the UN’s ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ and the Constitution of India”. These values, it believes, “are fully in consonance with the core teachings of Islam”.

Following is the full text of the statement issued on behalf of the forum by its convener, Javed Anand.

Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy applauds the achievements of two young Muslim women, Nahid Afrin (Assam) and Suhana Sayed (Karnataka), who have wowed music lovers cutting across religions with their outstanding singing talents.

And it condemns the attempts of certain Muslims who with their blinkered brand of Islam seek to silence the nightingales of Indian Islam.

In the latest instance of dissonant discourse, 46 Muslims from Assam, maulvis and madrassa teachers included, have put out a pamphlet seeking to muzzle the 16-year-old Nahid Afrin who was the first runner-up in the 2015 season of a musical TV reality show.

Five days earlier, 22-year-old Suhana Sayed was trolled by an outfit that identified itself as “Mangalore Muslims” after she received a standing ovation at a Kannada reality TV show for her superb rendering of a bhajan in praise of Lord Balaji. The judges even applauded the young hijab-wearing woman as a “symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity.”

The pamphleteers from Assam and the trolls from Mangalore are cultural misfits who seem to have imbibed nothing of India’s composite culture where for centuries Hindus and Muslims have dressed alike, shared the same cuisine, spoken the same language, sung, danced and played music together.

Who hasn’t heard of Bismillah Khan, or Allah Rakha’s jugalbandi with Ravi Shankar? Or Mohammad Rafi singing, Hari Om! Man tadpat Hari darshan ko aaj with lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni and music composed by Naushad?

Suhana who was warned that even “her parents will not go to heaven” because of her sinful act reportedly went “underground”. But the gutsy Nahid is not so easily frightened.

“I was shocked and broken from inside at first, but many Muslim singers gave me inspiration to not quit music, will never do so,” she has told the media.

Bravo, Nahid. Be not afraid, Suhana.

Through the simple act of singing their songs, they project an image of Muslims at peace with the world. In striking contrast, through their pamphleteering and threat of hell-fire, the maulanas of Assam and the “Mangalore Muslims” present before others the unpleasant picture of bigoted Muslims and an intolerant Islam.

Sing on Nahid, sing on Suhana. Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy is proud of you.