Apparently this topic has generated enough interest to my lurking visitors that they're coming out of their dark, shadowy corners one by one to express their opinions.
I'm not trying to defend Shah Rukh or justify his actions or words. God knows I've done enough justification in my own dealings, I don't need to take up others' as well. But I think there's something unhealthy with the way the muslims in India and Pakistan have approached this issue.
I remember a case where one of our senior actresses had spouted a serious insult on television towards the Prophet's wife, Siti Khadijah. Malaysian muslims were in an uproar and the station was slammed with emails and angry comments.
A lot of us wrote in, including yours truly, and wanted her to be banned from appearing on that station in the future. She was clearly heard saying the words, a clip of it was even uploaded on youtube so viewers who missed the program could watch it.
But we didn't burn her effigies or her posters or magazines that carry her pictures. We didn't take to the street to protest her appearances in other shows or channels. After she gave a public apology, the Malaysian muslims sort of just leave her alone. Nobody harasses her with all manners of demeaning articles. She's an actress, not an Islamic scholar. If she's erred and has apologised, what more could we want? Her head on a platter broadcasted to the entire nation?
Maybe the muslims in India and Pakistan, in their adulation of Shah Rukh, have probably forgotten that he's risen to fame through his acting career. His antics in movie songs with his leading ladies are really steamy... but apparently that's okay. I cringe everytime he gives his opinion of what Islam is, and what his view on God is... but it seems no one there raises an eyebrow. Or what about when he acts as a Hindu character, Christian character, Sikh character... and proceeds to 'pray' at all the respective places of worship in several scenes of his movies? In RNBDJ, he even gave a show of prostration in front of the Golden Temple! But I didn't hear any uproar from the muslim communities in India and Pakistan over it. Which makes this explosive reaction towards a misprint of his interview rather incomprehensible to me. And I want to laugh when I read that they want to annul his marriage... now? After all these years?
This is completely my opinion on the matter. If you don't agree, you can comment and give your opinion. But if you're going to be anal and hysterical all over my post, I'll delete your comment. Your heated argument is not as important as you think it is, you know. The world will go on as selfishly as it has for thousands of years even if none of us knew your existence.
I've loved Shah Rukh since I caught him in KKHH. When I read up on him, I found out that his wife is a Hindu and that he's married her in a Hindu traditional wedding. Later I read that he's married her in an Islamic wedding as well (you have to understand that I come from a country where marriages between muslims and non-muslims are forbidden, and with good reasons too). But I sort of ignored that and continued to be obsessed with him. Then, I had the misfortune of watching Guddu and I was so appalled that I left his fandom.
Fast forward 8 years, and I'm older and wise enough to understand that life does not function the way I want it to. The world is messy because humans are messy. We know we should do certain things but we don't because we can't be bothered. We know certain things have to be approached in certain ways, but we blatantly ignore it because it's too fussy. We know certain laws are in place because it's good for the general population, but we break them coz it's more fun that way. We know certain things are taboo because it has been forbidden, but we do it anyway coz it makes us feel good. We justify a lot of things because the alternative is simply something we can't live with. We want, we need, we desire... and all else can take a backseat because it should happen to someone else. Not us.
Shah Rukh is the product of his environment, as much as he is the product of his own good sense. Were he to be born in Malaysia, he would have been a different person. Even if he were to be a successful actor here, his life would have been different. The person he is now, I have to say this with complete sincerity, would not have existed.
There're quite a few muslim actors in India, but the only one who has ever spoken publicly and very affectionately of Islam is Shah Rukh. Others just sort of sweep it under the carpet. It's just a 'thing' they're born with that they can't do anything about. He's the only actor who has professed to reading books on Islam because he wants to understand his religion better. The change from the angry son who raged at God for taking away his beloved mother from him to a willing and eager student of Islam is breathtaking. It should be appreciated, not chided.
In the course of his discourse about Islam-related matters, he may have said things he shouldn't because that was his understanding at the time. It's like a pupil who, in his eagerness to show how he has improved, gives answers that may not be exactly what the teacher wants. But are you a 'teacher'? Do you know more about Islam than he does? If you are as ignorant as the next person, who are you to sit infront of your TV monitor and judge him every time he speaks?
I remember the case of a Badwi who pissed in a mosque. When the Prophet's companions wanted to turn the guy out, he said to let the guy finish pissing first, and then proceeded to turn the unfortunate incident into an opportunity to teach his companions how to clean up the mess. If this incident were to happen in India or Pakistan during the current political climate, what would have happened? Would the guy be lynched by an angry mob and his castrated penis burnt as example for those who dare to piss in our places of worship? You want one of your own to respect the Prophet, but you seem to have no frigging clue of the spirit in which the Prophet had conveyed Islam to us.
Regarding his marriage to a Hindu, I'm not saying it's right. In fact, from my POV, it's not. But see, you can't punish an individual due to a fault in the system. India has placed a regulation allowing marriages between muslims and non-muslims to take place. I don't need to tell you this, but Shah Rukh is not the only actor who has married someone not of his faith. If the officials were to succeed in annulling his marriage and make his children illegitimate, they would then have to go one by one through the whole crowd to annul everyone else's, including the senior couples in the industry. And that's only in Bollywood. What about the ones outside the industry? This is a case that can't be won simply because of the sheer number of the people who have the potential to be involved. Shah Rukh may be too dignified to drag others' names into the muck just to state his case, but the names are there for the taking just the same.
This is the way I've approached the matter about Shah Rukh and Islam. Whenever he says something that makes me cringe, I continually remind myself that this is his INDIVIDUAL opinion. It is not an admonition, nor is it a call for other muslims to do/say/think the same. It is certainly not a fatwa. And there're plenty of times when he's gonna say the wrong things, not because he wants to be insulting, but because he's simply made a mistake or because he understands certain things differently than I do. Or in fact, maybe because the approach in the mazhab he follows is different than mine. I was told there's a mazhab that allows the keeping of dogs in the household. I don't follow that mazhab, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go to the followers of that mazhab and tell them what they're doing is wrong.
And people, no matter how BIG Shah Rukh is over there... please bear in mind that he is an actor. Not a leader of the people. Not an Islamic scholar. And certainly not a spiritual adviser. He is probably the most brilliant public figure I've ever known, but he is not perfect. He does not have a 100% success rate in everything he does. Please allow him his apologies when he's made a mistake. He has already apologised over a mistake that he has NOT committed. It was a typing error by the magazine, and as such should NOT be laid at his door. I want him, as I'm sure we all do, alive and active for a very long time. And he's already so guarded in his interviews nowadays. Do you want him to shut up completely?
I read how much people in Pakistan love him, but I also heard that there'll be some sort of demonstration in Pakistan over this matter. It's the same thing in India. They love him, and yet there're all sorts of effigy-burning activities going on there as well. Naturally, as an outsider... I'm confused. These people need to know that their publicity stunts also did a lot of damage to their image, not just giving them their coveted 15-minutes of fame. Shah Rukh maybe Indian by birth, but he is also ours. We have the right to love him too and be angry whenever he's unjustly subjected by his own people to violent treatments that he does not deserve over a mistake that he did not do.
I can't control a raging mob who's bent on defending a cause that does not need defending. All I can say is, don't try to mask your ignorance and inadequacy with violence. Islam shines through our knowledge and taqwa, not through the flares of our unadulterated anger. Shah Rukh has also given a new interview that touched on topics of controversies, and as a person who experiences the other side of the spectrum on a daily basis, the things he said are always as phenomenally logical as only he can say them.
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