The hard truth that we fail to realize is that Mauritius is like an elephant that carves its own path. Its intrinsic virtues, the demographic dividend that it derives from its own merits, the size, and the momentum due to its own mass, make its economic growth unstoppable.
It has grown for the past 56 years and continues to grow, by virtue of its strong democracy, sound educational, technological advancement and the financial sector laid down after independence. The volume of educated people in the country is so large, that, a small percentage of them reaches excellence locally and globally as well.
However, many show their curiosity and inquisitiveness about the status of Muslims in Mauritius and their future in the emerging country. The disturbing questions that come to my mind often were, are the Muslims ready to be a part of the country’s growth, educationally and socially? Can Muslims walk shoulder to shoulder in nation-building with pride and confidence, and reap the benefits as equals? Have the Islamic Scholars and our Imams, the community, and the political leadership listened to the proposed demands or vision with a serious concern for their own future generation? Did Islamic Scholars ever realize their responsibility to shape the future of their children and grandchildren?
If we were indifferent and if we remained secluded and insulated from the surroundings and happenings in the country, the future of the Muslim community without educational, social and economical power, is darker than what it is today. Even God does not help those who do not help themselves and strategize their long-term vision for the future of their community in changing times.
The Muslim community must recognize that democracy also brings with it the rule of the majority and majoritarianism. When there is competition for survival, the majority behaves like a big brother, and the minority faces the consequences. The post-independence growth of the country did not penetrate all the Muslim population as much as it should have been, thus, keeping a large segment of the Muslims backward educationally, economically, and of course socially.
A visionary, unified religious and political leadership is largely absent, and Muslim Ulema always stayed divided into their schools of thought and divided the community too into sects and schools of thought (mazhab). Modernization, encouraging technical secular education, promoting higher education, education of women, opening the doors of Mosques to women, and building strong relationships with other communities were not their priority. The Muslim religious leadership was often emotionally charged and overly indulged in promoting their own beliefs, and sects, building their own mosques that also divided the community. A majority of the charity goes into building Masjids and few Madrasas and little goes into supporting the education of the poor, the education of women, and reducing failure rates in ZEP schools in Muslim poverty-stricken areas.
Thus, the divided community, indifferent to the changing times, and industrial and technological growth of the country, staying secluded from the main population, created a conducive situation for a section of majoritarianism supremacists to carry forward their dual agenda to not only keep Muslims distracted but keep them backward educationally and socially, pushing them into more seclusion, and promoting hatred and polarization by the majority community.
Controversies that distracted and kept the entire Muslim community wastefully occupied for decades were related to the claims on some mosques. When the whole Mauritius will be impacted by Technocrats, CEOs., Lawyers, doctors, Managers and High professionals, don’t we, Muslims should walk shoulder to shoulder and equally benefit from the growth of the nation.
It is with nothing but through education and education alone that can take out the community from the abyss it is right now. Muslims have waited for fifty-six years long years for both religious and political leaders to lead the community to the path of education, rationality, and progress. Our political leaders and religious leaders have both failed us on this front. Today when the number of students in every community is flooding the colleges and universities, Muslims are declining in population in educational Institutions.
We witness to their decreasing number of students in universities, colleges, and professional programs. I have been writing about the indifference of the Muslim Scholars and the Imams to the importance of worldly education and their reluctance to give space in their Friday sermons to modern higher education and women’s education. The reason for banking on Imams to change the community is justified as they are the ones who are blessed to have access to address the community every Friday.
The entire Muslim population silently listens to them during their sermons at Friday prayers. The tragedy is that, with the exception of few, they have neither been informed nor are they trained to speak on the contemporary issues of the community, give a vision, speak on education, the alarming need for professional education to women, the responsibility of the rich to educate the poor, role of Mosque managements to use mosque as an active community center, and so on. Our Scholars and the Imams also are called to serve this country. They have a prophetic role in this nation. We expect that they utilize their respective platforms, their voices, their congregations so that they can help build a prosperous and unified nation.
Unless the Leaders of all Schools of thought come to a common platform and make it their mission to chalk out a comprehensive strategy to make Muslims a highly educated progressive community in the new Mauritius, the community will not progress. We need a paradigm shift. Unless a ‘new thinking’ and a new approach is forged, the feeling of being marginalised will continue and will only worsen in the future with disastrous consequences for the Muslim community. So, the community is compelled to take an honest step in the right spirit and wake the community up from the deep slumber now, so as to participate in the construction of the new Mauritius.
Bashir Nuckchady
