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Indian Muslims hold placards during a peace rally to condemn the Mumbai attacks. (Reuters) |
CAIRO — Muslims in India's financial capital, the target of daunting, coordinated attacks last month, are on their toes, fearing a backlash.
"They are going to say that all Muslims do this," Naved Akhtar Mirza, a Muslim who owns a restaurant in Mumbai, told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, December 14.
About 172 people, a least a third of them Muslims, were killed in deadly attacks on several Mumbai targets, including two luxurious hotels and a railway terminus.
Indian commandoes killed nine of the 10 attackers who laid three-day siege on the city.
India blames the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT), an outlawed Pakistani group fighting Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Authorities have hinted the attackers might have received support from local Muslims.
Though no violence has yet been reported, Mumbai Muslims, numbering two million of its estimated 19-million populace, fear being targeted because of their faith.
The turbulent history of their city gives credence to their fears.
Nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the Mumbai's 1992-1993 communal violence sparked by the demolition of a centuries-old mosque at the hands of Hindu zealots in the northern town of Ayodhya.
"I don't think Bombay has been the same since 1993," agrees Nasim Zehra, a Pakistani political analyst and fellow of Harvard University Asia Center, using Mumbai's former name.
Sectarian tension is "always there, underground," she affirmed.
"I hope nothing happens, but we have to be prepared."
Mumbaians Too
Muslims in Mumbai say pointing a finger of accusation at them is unfair.
"I was born in Mumbai, as were my children," insists S.A. Sheif, who owns a small toy store in the shadow of one of Mumbai's mosques.
"My father was born here. I will die here as well."
Sheif laments that many Hindus blame Muslims for actions that has no justification in the Muslim faith.
"Those who do this killing -- no religion teaches us to do this sort of thing."
Since the attacks, Muslims, from Bollywood stars to madrasah students, have marched in cities across the country to condemn terrorism and express their loyalty to India.
The All India Organization of Imams of Mosques (AIOIM) had asked Muslims to wear black bands on their shoulders as a symbol of grief and loyalty to their homeland.
Muslim groups and organizations in Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, have decided not to accept the burial of the attackers in Muslim cemeteries.
G.H. Pasha, who works at a Muslim-owned Mumbai trading house near one of the targeted hotels, hopes the younger generations would free themselves of the prejudices held by their forebears.
"The younger generation realizes we have to work hand in hand if we want to bring the country up," Pasha told the Times.
"Let's hope for a better future."
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