Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal, Pune It's not easy being a rationalist in Pune these days. It’s even more difficult, perhaps, to be one striving for a more ‘liberal’ Islam at a time the community sees itself under a threat. Professor Shamsuddin Tamboli, the president of Pune’s Muslim Satyashodkak Mandal (MSM), is used to the criticism and threats. He was under one such firestorm recently for his criticism of the ‘fatwa’ issued against Iranian director Majid Majidi, composer A R Rahman and others involved in the making of a film on Prophet Mohammad. In a press release on September 14, the MSM called the fatwa a “Talibani” act. Tamboli, who calls himself a follower of both the late MSM founder Hamid Dalwai and Narendra Dabholkar, says the threats don’t matter. “Dalwai dared take out a rally of divorced Muslim women to the Vidhan Sabha long back in 1966 and demanded uniform civil code,” he says. Since Dalwai’s death in 1977, seven years after he founded the MSM, around 200 progressive Muslims associated with the movement are taking his message across Maharashtra. At the helm is Tamboli. One of the times he got death threats “of a serious nature”, he remembers, is when he wrote a series of articles on “liberal Islam” in a regional newspaper during Ramzan. Speaking of the attacks he faced for his stand on the fatwa against Majidi and Rahman, Tamboli says he told one of his critics, “If you are a supporter of Raza Academy and Mufti Muhammad Akhtar, who issued the fatwa, then you are an IS supporter. Who are you to oppose the film? There is a Censor board to take care of this.” He adds, “We believe Islam is liberal, spreads peace, humanity. There is a need to understand Islam in the modern context. So we conduct activities like blood donation camps on Bakr Id.” According to Tamboli, they want Muslims to understand the true meaning of “qurbani (sacrifice)” in the festival. It is “sacrifice for society”. “So we appeal to Muslims to celebrate Bakr Id in the real sense by donating blood to save someone’s life,” says MSM secretary Prof Azaruddin Patel. The first such blood donation camp on Eid was inaugurated by Dabholkar. Tamboli calls him an “inspiration”. The anti-superstition activist, belonging to the Maharashtra Andhashradhha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS), was shot in Pune while on morning walk on August 20, 2013. The MSM has also been fighting for the rights of Muslim women, including campaigning against triple talaq and polygamy. “There has to be a law to prevent such practices. So we want changes in the Muslim Personal Law Board,” says activist Rubina Patel of Nagpur. Above all, Tamboli says, the MSM believes in Constitution, secularism. “We do not encourage madrasa education, which takes a Muslim away from the mainstream. We talk against the burqa. We condemn terrorism and unconstitutional fatwas. Even during the controversy over International Yoga Day, while some Muslim outfits said ‘Islam khatre mein hai (Islam is in danger)’, we said yoga is not un-Islamic and is good for health.” Ironically, Tamboli says, the MSM finds itself in the crosshairs on both sides. “On the one hand, due to our views, some Islamic groups call us Hindutvawadi. On the other, our efforts to bring communal harmony are hurt by Hindu extremist forces. In Belgaum, Karnataka, the local unit of Shri Ram Sene opposed my lecture on Shivaji Maharaj in February 2013. I could deliver my speech only under heavy police security.” Dabholkar’s work gets a push According to Narendra Dabholkar’s outfit Maharashtra Andhashradhha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS), their numbers have been only growing since he was killed in a mysterious attack in August 2013. “The number of MANS branches has increased from 220 to 310 in the last two years. Our website has got over 1.25 lakh hits in the same period. Hundreds of youths have joined us voluntarily,” says Avinash Patil, who heads the MANS now. A few months after the killing, an anti-superstition legislation was passed by the state. “About 160 cases have been registered in the state under this Act so far,” points out Patil.
