Introduction
Chapter Five
A Need To Face The Truth
- by Shri Ram Swarup
The article "Hideaway Communalism" (Indian Express, February 5, 1989), is unusual. It discusses a question which has been a taboo and speaks on it with a frankness rare among Indian intellectuals.
Similarly, in his articles "The Tip of An Iceberg" and "In the Name of Religion" (February 9, May 21) Sita Ram Goel brings to the subject unequalled research and discusses it in a larger historical perspective.
In the history of Islam, iconoclasm and razing other peoples’ temples are not aberrations - stray acts of zealous but misguided rulers - but are central to the faith. They derive their justification and validity from the Quranic Revelation and the Prophet’s Sunna or practice. It is another matter though that these could not always be implemented in their full theological rigour due to many unfavourable circumstances - an exigency for which Islamic theology makes ample provisions.
Author - Shri Ram Swarup
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