I believe there should surely be some freedom in the greetings people extend to each other. In my opinion, any greeting that does not hurt the sentiment of the other person is OK.

it is really difficult to function if we have to every time wonder about whether something we say is going to hurt somebody. Rapport amongst the different communities should be such that such things are taken in our stride.

Overall, I find nothing wrong if somebody wears their religion on their sleeves, as long as they do not infringe or cause the infringement of anybody else’s rights.

I do not agree completely with your argument that there are groups that are targeted. That is not the point. The point here is that most of the times it is pointed out that “one” is a “muslim” to drive home a different point of view which is not even needed. Sometimes it is the muslim himself who points out that he is muslim to show a pro-muslim point or sometimes its pointed out the muslim angle to show some anti-muslim point though there is no need to point out that the person in question is muslim or not whatsoever. I object to this act of putting light on someone’s religion which is not required in some cases and thus to avoid controversies. And its mostly about “muslims” in all religion that is put under scanner – pro or anti does not matter. Both parties are to be blamed for this.

@Amit

You totally missed my point. I am not against the utterance of religious words like “allah hafiz” “Jai Shri Krishna”. I am against the trend lately of using it in conversation with somebody from different faith and also while addressing a crowd containing people from different religion. Though there is a need to teach people of torelance, there is a need to have tolerance in one self to stop this growing trend. Though nobody stops you from using your religion for yourself, do not take it for granted that it is okay to use the words in conversation with people of other faith. That’s criminal. And I am against the trend of wearing your religion on your sleeves all the time.

Other thing I hate is bringing allah, ram n other gods in conversation with others. Also, speaking “allah hafiz, jai shri krishna…..etc” to people from other religions. Why this show-off??? Why can’t you keep your religion to yourrselves and respect others religion by eliminating such words from your vocubilary while takling with people from other religion or while giving speech to a crowd with people with mix religion.

Indian, aren’t you being somewhat fundamentalist (or knee-jerk) in your thinking in this context – that everyone needs to stop saying “allah hafiz, jai shri krishna” just because *you* think that’s the best and only way? How is saying those terms harming someone? And how do you know that it’s a show-off?? If people use such terms for wishing each other, that’s their freedom – it’s an expression of wishing someone well. What would you prefer, that everyone used only “hello” and “goodbye” because you think those are the only appropriate ways? If you don’t like using such words, then don’t use them. But let others have the same freedom that you have to decide for themselves which terms they want to use or not.

If there are problems in the society because either people misunderstand and misapply their religious teachings, or because politics and religion are mixed, then there’s a need to educate people about these issues. I’m quite sure that banning the use of terms as you propose is *not* going to remove such problems.

Why is this “muslim” part required in all the conversations. Why is it that whenever there is an injustice or any other thing to non-muslim, it is said a person, an indian, a maharastian, a tamil or like-wise, but when it comes to muslim, no matter what cast, region, he is called muslim n that too never refered as indian only. Why is that???

Do you not see the inherent contradiction in your statement.

When North Indians are targeted in Mumbai for being, well North Indians, then no one asks them whether they are Hindus or Muslims. Ditto for Biharis in Assam. Or Tamils in Karnataka.

Sometime groups are targeted on a linguistic basis, sometimes on a regional basis and sometimes on a religious basis. They respond accordingly, sometimes as Gujaratis, sometimes as Tamils and sometimes as Muslims. Just FYI sometimes they respond as Hindus too.

Also, I think you are taking “keeping religion to yourself” to a bit of extreme.

There is nothing wrong in speaking about the unity of the Muslim Ummah.

However, there is a need for action rather than despondency. Just because the masses are uneducated and there is no proper leader does not mean that this is a situation that needs to perpetuate itself. Intelligent and influential people have to head the Muslim Ummah in India.

Even if we talk of religious leaders, they have to strive to achieve the level of excellence of Ayatollah Seestani, Ayatollah Fadhlullah, Ayatollah Khamenei, or at least Hojatelislam Musawi.

God never changes the situation of a people till they change it themselves.

Why is this “muslim” part required in all the conversations. Why is it that whenever there is an injustice or any other thing to non-muslim, it is said a person, an indian, a maharastian, a tamil or like-wise, but when it comes to muslim, no matter what cast, region, he is called muslim n that too never refered as indian only. Why is that??? Why i dont hear parsis, sikhs, jains, hindus being mentioned as being a identity from themselves but muslims will always try to say they are muslims. Why????? May be its not harmful but why do u discriminate yourselves from other indians…??? Remember, there not everybody but majority do, and now even media have started saying this…..but I have been around for long to notice that it was muslims who started referring themselves as muslims even for mentioning their good achievements. Why i dont hear this “A hindu from mumbai selected for Haward” but I will hear “A muslim from mumbai selected for haward” and that guy himself will be honoured at being called muslim instead of indian…..why???

This may be a small point, but it is this small point which makes one start thinking about difference between religions. May be i am too small for this comment but i have been through this in my own conscience where now I have started taking notice if a person is muslim or not. I am apposed to even calling ourselves like maharastrian, punjabi, gujarati…..but they are basically coz of language which we get to speak if we find fellow from our region, but my differentiating between religion is really unwanted.

Other thing I hate is bringing allah, ram n other gods in conversation with others. Also, speaking “allah hafiz, jai shri krishna…..etc” to people from other religions. Why this show-off??? Why can’t you keep your religion to yourrselves and respect others religion by eliminating such words from your vocubilary while takling with people from other religion or while giving speech to a crowd with people with mix religion. And if you can say words like god, almighty etc which means “The one” and everybody understands and interprets accordingly.

“You cannot expect change in others behaviour without changing yourselves” – I learnt this in class 6th. And its time people step back and introspect and take some lessons from whatever we learnt as a child. I make effort to keep my conversation free of religion, cast and region, etc and its high time everybody do that. Yes, its tough to clear everything but if you make conscious effort to not potray your self on basis of religion, region or whatever time will come when people will start repecting your effort and will start not differentiating your from others. And also make effort to not differentiate others too.

I am indian and I liked to be mentioned as India. I have no other entity. If you show this feeling there will be peace in india, till then people will keep on fighting about religion, region and cast. Time is ripe to get our act clean.

Listen, no point in crying that this discrimination happened or that harassment happened without finding out why its happening….

All your so-called innocent muslims who were harassed in coimbatore blasts…..they might be innocents and it is horrible what they went thro…

but the whole thing started when a police constable was hacked in broad daylight by three muslims who were riding on a scooter….now, what do you really expect the police to do after that? Do you know that al-umma bombed a hospital amidst the riots? of all places a hospital….coz thats where the injured policemen were….

There is a pattern emerging in both coimbatore and gujarat riots…..both were started by muslims….and then they cry when they are given back ten fold.

I am not saying that tit for tat works…..but accept your mistakes when it is commited…instead of harping on victim mentality.

How can you forget that it is taboo to speak of unity and the word “Muslim Ummah” itself is free castigation tool.

So, when somebody narrates a tale of injustices and cruelty perpetrated against them, it should be discarded just because it is not something new. So, muslim should now get used to this harrassment and oppression by media, administration and government on national level because our masses are uneducated and we dont have a leader. Hmmm….