Is liberal Muslim an oxymoron?

When I saw the cover story of the Frontline magazine dated 10 March 2023, my impulsive response was a snigger. The magazine sought to feature liberal Muslims. “Is there such a species as liberal Muslims?” That was my spontaneous thought. No sooner had that thought arisen in my mind than it was suppressed by a self-rebuke. “Has the present right wing propaganda made you a bigot too?” My consciousness rebuked me. That was a moment of epiphany for me. A revelation that my thinking had been distorted by the country’s leading discourse which is about the irredeemable bigotry of Muslims.

In the very first article, Hilal Ahmed, a professor in a Delhi institution of higher learning, defines a liberal Muslim as an individual who adheres to certain liberal egalitarian values without giving up her cultural and/or religious identity as a Muslim. A liberal, in general, is an individual who is not dogmatic in her religious, social and political views, in the definition of historian Irfan Habib, in the next article. A liberal is not only tolerant of others’ views but also respects those views.

Will we find very many liberal Muslims in the world by those definitions? I did wonder as I decided to read all the articles of Frontline’s cover story. The answer given by the Muslim writers (all related articles in this issue are written by Muslim writers) is interesting: it is difficult to be a liberal Muslim today. No wonder, why my impulse found the topic irresistibly tickling.

The blame is not placed conveniently on the Hindutva forces in India that make life harder than ever for the Indian Muslims. The writers take a hard look at their own religion too.

Hilal Ahmed questions the very relevance of the liberal Muslim in today’s India where the political framework fabricated by BJP has made all Muslims necessarily enemies of the country. A liberal traitor is an absurd notion indeed. If your place is Pakistan ya Kabristan, what does your liberalism mean at all?

Moreover, the majoritarian community tends to view liberalism among Muslims as a kind of communal conspiracy to establish Muslim supremacy over Hindus. The Muslim by nature is incapable of liberalism and if you come across a liberal Muslim he must be up to some political trick. That is the majoritarian understanding.

Another thought-provoking fact mentioned by Ahmed is that even if some liberal Muslims are accepted as authentic, they won’t get political patronage because any benevolent reference to Muslims in today’s India will adversely affect the Hindu majoritarian sentiments. If you want to survive politically in India today, you have to hate the Muslims – liberal or whatever.

Irfan Habib also underscores the simple truth that a liberal Muslim in India today is caught ‘on a knife’s edge’ [the title of his article]. A liberal Muslim is trapped between two inimical forces: his own community and the Hindutva forces.

Activist Zakia Soman also points a finger at her own community which makes it almost impossible for any member to swim against the common tide and live on their own terms. A liberal Muslim is not generally accepted within the community, she says. And the rise of Hindutva has made the situation worse. Your community won’t support you and your state won’t support you if you are a liberal. How is a liberal Muslim going to survive?

Zakia Soman’s article ends on a note of optimism. Sixty percent of Indians do not vote for Hindutva, she says. The majority are not right wing. It is a minority of people who have distorted the country’s mindset. There is hope yet.

A liberal Muslim need not be an oxymoron