Why Indian Muslims are different

In last post I made following point,

"Indian Muslims despite the recent tensions are not very enthusiastic to join new version of caliphate"

this post will elaborate on this.

I think the above point is true to a large extent, however this does not make my and other nationalist Hindus concern about Islamism misplaced and there are reasons for it, the reasons are idea and identity.

Humans are rationalizing animal, however bad the rationalizing may be , it plays an important part , the other part played by instincts ofcourse.
Therefore any human civilization , society or culture will follow some idea and perish or blossom according to it.

Closely related to it is concept of identity.Now problem with modern India is that Indians despite all claims of reasons are not clear about what is the underlying idea or identity behind our civilization.

Secularism at best is a fuzzy and in Indian context mostly redundant concept devoid of any positive force (and for the last time, secularism doesn't mean tolerance and respect for others) , at worst it is just an attempt to foist atheism by dishonest atheists.

This means that any well educated and interested Indian has limited options . One is for those who have no interest in faith / history/spirituality , to accept this bromide of secularism and live happily ever after .

The other who are connected with past, will look for the ideas themselves and will cling to most simple idea, for Muslims the idea is Islam , for me it is Hinduism.

Now both religions have shortcomings and strong points. Since I am not an expert in either of them, so I will not write a critique of them.However one feature of Islam (and any other Abrahimic religion) is that everything that could be explained about this world and any other world is explained is quran. What is more, prophet is the final authority and no one can argue against his words. Which means that what is left reinterpretation of the sacred book, this is counter to progress , which means evolution of new ideas and scrutiny of old ones
To use a cliche change is the only constant.

The absolute determinism of Abrahimic religions makes assimilation of new ideas difficult , even impossible.A case in point, Sufi sect evolved after Islam had vanquished older Persian civilization and confronted Indian civilization, unfortunately with rise of wahabism , the mystic element of Islam is declining. Here I will say, that Islam itself was influenced by Christianity and Judaism and even Greek philosophy. However whatever is there remains immutable.

Indian Muslims are different from other Muslims of central - Asia and Arabia in that they are influenced by Indic traditions. However if the search for identity is through simplest route , then it will inevitably lead to identity solely based on quran, which is counter to Indic traditions.

I find it highly ironic when people say Osama is not a real Muslim. I would agree if it was said a majority of group which identify itself as Muslim are not necessarily represented by Osama.
However it is naive to say Osama doesn't follow what is prescribed in quern. Quran has its share of violence (as is Bible or Hindu Shastras for that matter) . The difference between me and Osama is that as a Hindus I am not obliged to follow whatever is laid down in the scriptures (which are frequently inconsistent), I am free to use my mind and to explore other ideas. However this option is not available in Abrahimic faiths, which ask for total submission.

Can Islamic civilization evolve ? There are two ways , one is Christian way of catholic - protestant schism /Renaissance, this way however will result in believer- atheist conflict i.e. what is happening in US or Europe.
The second is to be more inclusive but this means redefinition of Muslim.

On a related note libertarian of secular right had written about how Indian Muslim can lead other Muslims, I am not entirely comfortable with this idea because it brings old chestnut of Ummah versus Nation to the fore. However, Indian Muslims by introducing inclusiveness can bring a decisive change in Islamic civilizations.

Note : It is not my contention that Hinduism is perfect or necessarily better (although I will like to think so, being human.) , what I am saying is it is more adaptable. The trade -off ofcourse is that lot of chaff gets in with the grain.What it needs is a suitable filter, and the only suitable filter that I can think is "to think", this ofcourse is what written in some shastra that I have somewhere read about. This will mean that bluff of secularists , who while praising Hinduism maintain that Hinduism is largely irrelevant or take exception to any discussion involving Hindu philosophy or symbols, in effect ensuring that it remain a piece of antiquity (family loom if you like) or a broken clock. Just like a family loom be kept in a secure place and to be shown to important guests with proud. Someday to be disposed to Raddi Walah at reasonable rates.