Such fanatics are thankfully still just a few. However a less radical but much more widespread manifestation of the minority mentality is Muslims’ insulating themselves from the rest of society and shoving themselves into residential, cultural and even intellectual ghettos. No one is sure if Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajid, the two boys killed by Delhi Police and blamed for perpetrating serial blasts, were indeed guilty of terrorism. But they were surely guilty of living in Batla House — a teeming locality of tens of thousands in south Delhi where you would be hard put to find a single non- Muslim. Such ghettos exist in virtually every city, town or village with large or even average Muslim populations, and create a very physical dimension for the country’s communal divide.
Even until a couple of decades ago, many Muslim households — especially children — used to celebrate at least larger Indian festivals like Holi and Diwali with as much zest as anybody else. Today, Muslims’ cultural ghettoisation means that children who burst firecrackers on Diwali or play with colours on Holi are frowned upon or castigated by their elders [many of whom must have enjoyed the same celebrations in their own childhood]. Intellectually too, a number of Muslim families have turned away from mainstream education,
Preferring to send their children to madrassas and Urdu/ Arabic schools instead. Indeed, there are those who believe that reading and memorising the Quran by heart is all there is to education in this world.
http://newageislam.com/obama%E2%80%99s-lesson-for-indian-muslims--/islam-and-pluralism/d/998
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6:03 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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