THE Mumbai attacks have opened a season of rare confabulations among Indian Muslims, but these cannot be described as introspective. Let me explain why. Every other day there are invitations on the mobile phone or email by Muslim groups or individuals to join their discussions. I haven`t been to one yet, but their cogitations have so far produced band-aid to cover a deep gash.

And TV channels are deriving easy pleasure from the fulminations. A few channels showed a typical scoop in motion at the expense of the image of Indian Muslims. For example, they repeatedly telecast sound bites of a mullah in Mumbai who seemed so outraged because the terrorists were Muslims that he refused to have them buried in the community`s cemetery.

Having thus declared this witless cleric as a model Indian Muslim, the channels didn`t feel the need to inform us what then became of the bodies of the gunmen. Their titillation over, the anchors couldn`t care less if by showing an ignorant man`s rant they had applauded the travesty of a civil society. They should know that no Constitution, other than perhaps the Taliban`s, endorses the abuse of dead bodies. The henna-haired mullah needs to be made aware of this.

In this moment of national grief let`s not turn sorrow into vaudeville of jingoists. It`s not patriotic to deny terrorists a quiet burial, and the din over it most certainly doesn`t solve the problem at hand - of isolating and arresting the growth of mindless killers. Bury those boys somewhere in unmarked graves and let them rest there so that we can move on to more urgent firefighting. Don`t provoke silly comments and pass them on as patriotic.

The other symbolic gesture that Delhi`s Muslim “leaders” have reportedly agreed to is to wear a black armband on Eidul Azha to mark their anguish at the carnage in Mumbai. Nothing could be more cosmetic, meaningless and distractive than to make the token observation.

This is a bizarre world of assertive commerce. The first thing that TV channels were keen to bring into the frame even though the terror attacks were on in full cry was to worry about the Bombay Stock Exchange and when it would open. Let`s assume that was a justified pursuit. The prompt reopening of the Leopold café, the first to bear the brunt of the killing spree, was in fact truly heart warming. It reflected the owner`s grit and a practical mind. Then the TV discussions turned to which movies would be released and when. And movies were released. There were weddings, the usual partying and intermittent lighting of candles at the Gateway of India.

Everybody has been trying to carry on with life after the outrage. There is no other way. Why should the Muslims, therefore, not celebrate life, more so on Eid? What is the purpose behind the black armbands idea? Are Muslims required to grieve more than the rest of the country, or do they need to display their grief more? Everyone else is going to watch movies without any black armbands. The idea to wear them to Eid prayers thus looks silly, and yet again is rooted in tokenism. But what worries me even more is that there is no secular or even religious voice in sight from any direction to tell these men and women that they do not really need to display their anguish with meaningless gestures, that suspecting their Indianess was as good or bad as suspecting their own bona fides.

I think Indian Muslim leaders need to accept that the act of terrorism perpetrated in Mumbai, and from which they are trying to dissociate themselves by wearing black armbands, is as much their responsibility as it is of the state that allows them to nurture exclusivist and supremacist ideas in their seminaries. The mullahs viciously targeted the beacon of secular poetry, Yas Yagana Changezi, for chiding them thus

Sab tere siwa kaafir, aakhir iska matlab kya!

Sar phira de insaa`n ka, aisa khabt-i-mazhab kya!!

(All others except you are kaafirs, does it at all make any sense?

Why are you so obsessed with your religion, or is it just pretence?)

Timothy McVeigh, who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City, was an alienated member of American society. Can the mullahs deny that Indian McVeighs are lurking in the shadows of alienation for a variety of reasons that foments satanic ideas of revenge and harm? If they are not in denial then they should recognise that helping isolate the lurking Mcveighs is far more urgent than demonstrating their sympathy with the Indian state.

At one of their meetings, so I am told, Muslim intellectuals and priests alike came up with fanciful stories that ranged from the role of the Israeli intelligence to that of Hindu extremists in the devastation of Mumbai`s high-profile Colaba district. Of the bizarre ideas thrown up by these cynics not all should be dismissed without a moment`s pause, or even a probe, as it would be cavalier to ignore such questions, even if they seem predictable.

One question that caught my eye pertains to the timing. Whoever planned the attacks knowingly or otherwise timed them to coincide with crucial Indian elections in which an upsurge in jingoism, as has happened, would inevitably boost rightwing zealots. In fact, we can take it as a given that the results due on Monday of the state polls in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh could decide the next steps in the escalation or tempering of hostilities with Pakistan. If the Congress is unable to win even one of the three states from the BJP, there is a real possibility that it would sustain the hardline rhetoric, if not resort to military manoeuvres, against Pakistan to brace for general elections expected by April.

Whether it is Al Qaeda that is involved, as Ms Condoleeza Rice and the Israelis have hinted could be the case, or the Lashkar-i-Taiba is the key player in the attacks as Indian thrust seems to suggest, or whether both of them are involved, it does not absolve Indian Muslims of their responsibility to prepare for a big battle within their ranks against fanatical tendencies that breed terrorism.

To that extent the Indian state is equally culpable for having surrendered the community`s fate and identity to an association of self-serving clerics. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has proved to be the undoing of the 150 million strong community, as it has kept them tethered to mediaeval notions of religion, a fertile ground for breeding violence. The clerics earned brownie points demanding the ban on Salman Rushdie`s otherwise unreadable book.

They also got the government to overturn a law that empowered Muslim women at par with other Indian women in matters of divorce. Even today there are pockets in northern India where Muslim clerics are holding off a global anti-polio campaign. The other place the polio campaign has met with resistance is the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions where the Taliban hold sway. If these clerics share a common mindset how can they help fight terrorism, which is an adjunct of fanaticism? But why blame the mullahs alone? They have a pact of mutual support with all the political parties, including the BJP. Who can forget the clarion call by the group called Muslims for Vajpayee that came out in support of the former prime minister in the last elections?

The attack in Mumbai might resemble the 9/11 plot, or even look like an aborted sea-based attack on Israel, but it also has shades of the Oklahoma bomber. In other words, it is at least partly home-grown. Let us not get away by pointing, as some Muslim leaders have done, to the recent discovery of neo-fascist Hindu groups for the Mumbai atrocity. These groups may have indulged in false flag attacks by pretending to be Muslims elsewhere. But the Mumbai terrorists were too spectacular to be blamed on nascent fascists who are under probe. To deny any role of Indian Muslim extremists, as facilitators if not as plotters, in the Mumbai tragedy would be opportunism with an eye on the next elections.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com