What is SIMI?

RENDEZVOUS WITH SIMI

10 Aug 2008, Jyoti Punwani

In my initial days of interaction with the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), I ignored the clear indications of extremism, indulgently attributing them to the over-enthusiasm of youth. If they had their way, they would put everyone in purdah , I was warned. But they were hardly likely to have their way, I laughed.

This was in the mid-'90s.

Some time then, a SIMI member asked me why, since I wrote so much about Muslims, I didn't convert to Islam. I had so many doubts about my own religion, it was hardly likely that I would accept another faith, I replied. "But that's because your religion is so imperfect, sister," came the rejoinder. "Islam is perfect, it has a solution for everything."

The cocky youngster who made this audacious comment laughs embarrassedly now at the memory. He left SIMI soon after it plastered the walls of Mumbai's Muslim areas with the infamous poster, 'Waiting for Ghaznavi' which had as a backdrop the Babri Masjid's domes dripping blood. This was to mark December 6, 2000. Why Ghaznavi, I'd asked him. "These have been printed by the central leadership, I can't understand why," he had replied, obviously ill at ease. But the youngsters hanging around SIMI's office in Kurla weren't ill at ease at all. For them, Ghaznavi was a hero, not just because he broke idols and thereby served Islam, but also because he raided Somnath to liberate the devdasis enslaved there by the priests. Seeing my skepticism, they named certain historians and alleged such 'truths' were never taught to Indians in school.

What about the inflammatory potential of such a poster? That was a stupid question, because this was March 2001 and they'd just successfully inflamed passions in Mumbai over the burning of the Quran in Delhi by the Bajrang Dal. The BJP was in power, and the media had downplayed the incident as a rumour. But SIMI had downloaded a Reuters photograph of the incident from the Internet and published it as a poster. Frantic efforts by community elders and mohalla committees had restrained Muslims across Mumbai, but near SIMI's headquarters, a morcha had been taken out and buses stoned. Then next day, the police had called the morcha participants for questioning. Unable to bear the humiliation of having his name on the police files, a teenager, the first boy in his family to enter college, had committed suicide after his return from the police station.

The futile end to a life full of promise - that's what you achieved by this protest, I told the SIMI youngsters angrily. Of course they were unrepentant. They had diligently performed their duty of alerting their community about the injustices being done to their faith. The 17-year-old had become a shaheed for Islam. How come they never thought of taking out morchas for the other injustices done to their community? Why didn't they join the campaign to get justice for families devastated by the 1992-'93 riots? What about fighting the discrimination their community faced in admission to schools, in jobs?

"Let Muslims in India starve," they finally declared. "That's not our problem. Our duty is to arouse the community whenever Islam is in danger, be it in India, Afghanistan, Bosnia or Chechnya. If we have to come out on the streets for that, we will."

That was the essence of SIMI. They didn't feel they belonged to India, or any one country, but to the global Islamic community. Their lives were ruled not by the Indian Constitution, but by the Quran. The fact that they lived in a country overwhelmingly populated by non-Muslims only strengthened their resolve to convert it into an Islamic State. Living in harmony with the non-Muslim majority, as their community had for centuries, meant abdicating their religious duty as Muslims. If, in working towards an Islamic state, they offended the sensibilities of the majority community or broke a law or two, so be it. The latter were kafirs anyway.

The continuous targeting of Muslims, not just by the BJP, but also by the 'secular' State since 1984, the sell-out of established Muslim politicians, the promising start of SIMI as a religious counter to communism and consumerism - all this made Muslim elders go out of their way to shield SIMI from the consequences of their acts.

The Ghaznavi poster was a turning point. But before that, within SIMI, the disenchantment had begun. Its senior cadre in Mumbai had resigned, publicising SIMI's growing jehadi thrust and ISI influence. Muslims would have completely distanced themselves from the new SIMI - had they found the State committed to curbing the RSS after it banned SIMI. Gujarat 2002, the arrest only of Muslims after every bomb blast, the blackout of the RSS' terrorist acts, and the recent Jammu violence show that has yet to happen.