An Encounter

“Islam teaches terrorism. Their religious book too says in favor of terrorism and killing”. These were the words that jolted me completely. I was travelling to Bhubaneswar for the first time, by Rajdhani Express.

As I boarded the train I looked around my compartment to see if I had any good company for the journey. On surveying, I found a newly married couple occupying the side seat(completely lost in each other), a young man in the upper birth and an old gentleman. I came to know (from the boy who came to see off the old man) that this gentleman was a retired IPS officer. This automatically incited interest in me for this gentleman due to my fascination and admiration for such highly respectable dignitaries.

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But before I could strike a conversation with him, my eyes caught the glimpse of an interesting article in the newspaper, laid on the side table. I started to enjoy the read but then suddenly I heard something that had the power of tearing off my sensitive ears controlled by the brain.

These were the words uttered by the old man (sitting opposite to my seat) to a boy sitting next to him . Confidently, with no hesitation he continued “Islam is a religion that teaches killing and emphasizes terrorism”. I had no idea that our conversation would start like this but it actually did. I interrupted this gentleman in his discourse. Just to make sure it was not my faulty ears, I asked this gentleman what he actually was saying.

Unaware of my faith, he reiterated his point making sure to sound correct. I was shocked to hear his hatred-filled version of Islam and his confidence with which he expressed the wrong ideals. It was more annoying because it came from the mouth of an educated, senior person assumingly from a respectable background. I could not stop myself from pointing out his wrong perception and misleading knowledge. I put in my point to the best of my ability, protecting my faith from being maligned.  I said “Islam does not teach terrorism. Infact, no religion teaches terrorism, its only the people who create terror in the name of a religion. I am no Muslim scholar but I have read my religious book and I am sure it never favors killing of innocents.”

Listening to my words he was taken aback for few seconds but then continued to give me examples of terror attacks allegedly done by Muslim terrorists. Countering his allegations, I reminded him of the then infamous killing of missionary people by the religious hindu leaders (in Orissa) that created headlines and attracted criticism from all over the world. All I wanted was to prove him that it’s the bad people who do evil in the name of religion and not the religion itself.

He asked me about ‘Jehad’. I told him "it’s a concept taken in the wrong sense. It is actually a war against evil". After all this is what their religious books too talk about. I reminded him of verses from Mahabharata where Krishna said to Arjun that tolerating injustice is a sin and to take up arms against evil is no sin.

Our discussions went on for long. Other companions of our compartment became the viewers of our hot-debated topic. Some even tried to put in their views in between but it was ultimately our match (me and the old man). In the meanwhile, the bearer brought our meals. I helped this gentle man in making his table and later I also gave my lower birth to him to take rest.

The interesting journey came to its end(and so did our discussion), with the train reaching to its final destination. Before leaving, the old man bid goodbye to me and said some words that did manage to please me a bit,” you talk like Mahatma Gandhi,it was nice meeting you”.

I don’t know how to term this meet with the man. I was happy that he was pleased with me(a Muslim) but not sure how much I succeeded to demystify the myths that he had about Muslims. This encounter left me pondering … how can highly educated and respectable people have such wrong perceptions about Islam. Who is actually to blame for this,  the mentality of the individual who holds such an opinion or the Muslims themselves for creating such an image?