On Thursday (November 4), ‘The Print’ columnist Zainab Sikander became the subject of social media backlash after she claimed that Muslims have always celebrated Diwali.
In a tweet, Zainab took potshots at ‘Sanghis’ and alleged that they need proof of the fact that Muslims celebrate the Hindu festival. She claimed, “Muslims always celebrated Diwali. Now, we just have to put up pictures to prove it to the Sanghis. Happy Diwali.”
While the ‘journalist’ tried to target and insult Hindus, she actually got slammed by her co-religionists for performing ‘Shirk’ (the sin of idolatry).
Islamists shame journalist for bringing disrepute to Islam
The Islamists on Twitter were not happy to see a Muslim woman celebrating Diwali, and slammed Sikander for trying to please the Hindus by participating in their festival. One Shaikh Tabinda made it clear that her act of lighting diyas was not a representation of the Muslim community. She stated, “No, we never celebrated Diwali. So stop speaking for us. We don’t wanna prove anything to anyone.”
Another person underlined how Diwali is ‘haram’ (forbidden)in Islam. He emphasised, “People like you must be celebrating, we believe in Allah and His Messenger, it is haram to adopt the festival and character of other religion. I hope you understand, May Allah guides you Aameen!!”
Ammara Faiz labelled Hindus as ‘Sanghis’ and claimed that Muslims did not need to prove anything to anyone. She said, “We don’t have to celebrate anything nor do we have to prove anything to Sanghis and their ilks.”
Another handle named B Rahat quoted verses of the Quran and the diktat of complete submission in his religion. He quoted, “The Religion before Allah is Islam (submission to His Will): Nor did the People of the Book dissent therefrom except through envy of each other, after knowledge had come to them. But if any deny the Signs of Allah, Allah is swift in calling to account.(3:19)”
One Salman said, “Instead of demeaning her we need to accept the hard fact that there are actually many Muslims (even practising) who celebrate Diwali by burning crackers not from the religious point of view but from a cultural point of view (which is wrong as well). I’m not saying it is allowed to celebrate but we have to introspect and try to bring them closer to deen.
Salman insinuated that Sikander is a Muslim who has ‘strayed’ from her religion and is doing things a good Muslim should not do.
He added, “Many people don’t even consider it a sin. We have to worry about them how can we acquaint them with it that it’s a major sin.” Zainab Sikander had earlier courted controversy by asking Charlie Hebdo to mock the holocaust (or Jews) or Mother Mary or LGBTQ community through their cartoons.
Islamists do not spare even their own
It is notable here that Zainab Sikander is an Islamist herself who often peddles anti-Hindu narratives masked as political opinions. In an earlier article, she had justified the Islamic verses that call for the murder of Kaafirs (non-Muslims). She had even tried to whitewash the murder of Charlie Hebdo staffers in the hand of Islamists by claiming the cartoons were offensive, just as pornographic content and drug abuse is offensive to some.
However, it is quite amusing to see that even the Islamist Zainab was not given a free pass by fellow Islamists. Radical Islam demands complete submission and any pretence of ‘moderation’ even to mask the inherent radical mindset, is not tolerated by the Islamist community.
While Zainab’s Islamist brethren called her out for pretending to be not one of them, she does deserve some level of credit for not deleting the tweet and not trying to hide the replies to cover up for the Islamists. Previously, another Islamist Shehla Rashid, who often claimed to be a brave revolutionary, had deactivated her Facebook profile to prevent people from seeing the vile abuses and rape threats thrown at her by other Islamists.
