RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is blowing hot and cold. Sometime back he said that without Muslims Hindutva is incomplete and they are not (true) Hindus who ask Muslims to leave Bharat. Recently he has said that it is a fact which must be acknowledged that Islam was brought to India by invaders.
In fact, Islam, which means submission and surrender to Almighty God, is the fundamental reality of the universe. Everything in the cosmos has been created, maintained and promoted by God alone. The whole creation has submitted to the Will of God and the principles which He has devised. Therefore, the whole creation submits to Him and everything is Muslim and Islam is the religion of the whole creation.
Man is the only creature who has been bestowed with the freedom of choice to either submit to the commands of the Almighty or to reject it. In this lies the greatness of man and in this is inherent his elevated status among all created things and souls.
All messengers of the Almighty have brought and propagated the message of Islam to human beings to willingly and consciously accept the overlordship of the Almighty. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was the last messenger, the last ring in the great golden chain of the messengers of the Almighty. His message had reached the shores of India during his lifetime itself. At least two mosques, one in Kerala and the other in Gujarat bear witness to this fact.
The Almighty Allah declares in the Holy Qur’ān, “There is no compulsion in religion.” It also says that truth has been distinguished from falsehood, and it is for every individual to either accept it or reject it, using his free will.
Historians accept the fact that Islam enriched India in multiple ways. Its greatest contribution was the concept of One God and one humanity. It united the hundreds of mutually fighting states in India. It developed a great civilization and provided an honourable status to India among the countries of the world. Islam elevated the downtrodden and suppressed sections who were suffering and being humiliated under the yoke of dominant and oppressive so-called high castes of the land. Muslim sufis and saints disseminated the message of mutual love, respect and cooperation. This encouraged the oppressed majority of India to accept Islam in lakhs and crores. Islam broke the shackles of crores of India’s suppressed and dehumanised people and gave them an honourable status in the society. No sane person can deny this historical fact.
When there was a wave of conversions to Islam in Tamil Nadu in the early 1980s, the renowned scholar Khushwant Singh commented, “The recent conversions to Islam in Tamil Nadu have proved that Islam was not spread with sword.” At that time Mr. Karunanidhi, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, observed that if those people, who have been denied respect and human dignity, get these in some other religion, no body has a right to object to this.
It would be in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution of India and universally accepted human rights principles, that people who used their right ‘to profess, practise and preach the religion of their choice’, should be respected and not denigrated as converted under threats. Neither there had been any compulsion nor hearts can be changed through intimidation and oppression.