A way to removing prevailing, perennial Hindu-Muslim tension in India and creating a lasting amity would be if Indian Muslims start respecting their Hindu heritage like the Muslims in Indonesia, the largest Muslim majority country in the world, have done. At the same time, if Hindus in India accept and embrace Muslims as part of them, part of the Indian society.
In the past 1000 years or so, no effort was made by Indian Muslims to feel proud of their Hindu culture and heritage. On the contrary, Indian Muslims were determined to reject anything Hindu as ‘haraam’. This prompted V S Naipaul to say:
“A (Muslim) convert’s worldview alters. His holy places are in Arab lands; his sacred language is Arabic. His idea of history alters. He rejects his own; he becomes, whether he likes it or not, a part of the Arab story. The convert has to turn away from everything that is his. The disturbance to societies is immense, and even after a thousand years can remain unresolved; the turning away has to be done again and again”.
In the independent India, situation has further been aggravated by Nehruvian Hindu secularists, Communist secularists and many regional so-called (Islam leaning) Hindu secular parties. They consciously encouraged strengthening of separate Muslim identity of Indian Muslims. These secularists projected themselves as the messiah of Indian Muslims only for vote-based politics.
In last 70 years, Indian Muslims also felt comfortable in their role of ‘immature Muslim children’ under the custody of those ‘secular Indians’. Indian Muslims could never chart out their own path and many of them even could not escape from the home-grown Islamism and that penetrated India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and other Islamic countries.
If by accepting and respecting Hindu heritage openly, Indonesian Muslims can remain Muslims, what problems do Indian Muslims have in doing so for the interest of peace, harmony and their socio-economic advancement? They should come out of the insular box of Islamism and embrace multiculturalism. If, at the same time, the Hindus can respect Islam as a separate theological entity in a multicultural society, what harm will that do to the Indians? India is large enough to accommodate multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual and multi-religious societies. Indeed, India prides itself to be exactly that. So, why Muslims cannot live amicably side by side in the vast multiplicity of societies in India, when there is mutual respect for one another?
The author, Bhaskar, is a freelance writer.
Free-thinkers 
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” The book would not allow such blasphemous act.
Is Indonesia different? I would love to believe so. For Many Muslims, human civilization started with Islam in Arabia and Muslims have no obligation to respect others… even sometimes their own deviant kins. People had been foolishly indoctrinated to conquer/rule and collect taxes (a metaphor rather in current context) from the docile non-believers. This attitude has prevailed in most Muslim dominated countries and not surprisingly, most of them are no better than failed states with very little to show for science, literature, music and most importantly, respect for democratic values. The change has to come within and not from outside! Are Muslims ready for it? I do not know. As for other communities, they too are becoming very emboldened because they do not want to be subjugated with such draconian Islamic doctrine in their own homes and communities. Can we blame them?
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You are doing an excellent job.
– Mangesh Rege
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Great thought sir, but only those are reading your quotes who agreed with you and those who need to understand the concept of these, they are having only desire to send you to jahannam.
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Brilliant writeup. Totally agree.
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The real point is missed here in the write-up . A serious follower of Islam cannot respect idolatry or people who do not believe in Islam. In order for any place to be peaceful, much of the religion must be rejected. People just need to get over the religious nonsense and start living life using their natural human intelligence and senses of right and wrong. The Muslim-majority countries of the world are least peaceful primarily because Muslims on an average are too religious.
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S. Bain has missed the main thrust of the write-up. The respect that is sought is for the religion – the very essence of faith – not for what that religion does or worship. One religion may worship idols, another nature, yet another a conceived all-powerful God or Yahweh. Different people will have different religions. Regardless of what a religion entails, one should respect the religion; that does not mean submitting to that religion.
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How can a respectable human being respect a religion that treats women as inferior to men? This is just one example; many more examples of injustice, hatred and atrocities are actually found in most religions. I respect human rights, not religious nonsense. Criticizing, discouraging and stopping religious nonsense are not violations of human rights. Being unfair, unjust, hateful and barbaric to human beings are violations of human rights.
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Here is the detailed analysis on Hindu-Muslim issue with the steps that need to be taken : http://ramansaigal.blogspot.in/2016_03_01_archive.html
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