Volume 8 Surah 9 - Enjoy Islam

Al-Tawbah (The Repentance) | THE BASIS OF INTER-COMMUNAL RELATIONSrecognize each other. They were vulnerable to any disease and many of themsoon died.... 19Hostility UnabatedSuch were the facts of history when the idolaters overpowered the Muslims. Theyrespected no provision of any treaty, nor any obligation of honour. The question tobe asked here is whether this was an isolated episode of ancient history, typical onlyof the Tartars at that particular period of time?The answer is certainly a negative one. In modern history we find examples ofsimilarly ghastly atrocities. What the Indian idolaters did at the time of the partitionof India is by no means less hideous or appalling than what the Tartars of old did.Eight million Muslims decided to migrate to Pakistan when they were in fear of theirlives as a result of the barbaric attacks launched against those Muslims who decidedto stay in India. Only three million of them managed to reach the Pakistani borders.The other five million were killed on the way. They were attacked by well organizedHindu militia. These were well known to the Indian government, and indeed werecontrolled by some highly placed officials in the Indian government itself. Those fivemillion Muslims were slaughtered like sheep. Their bodies were left along the roadsafter many of them were disfigured in a way which was no less horrendous thanwhat the Tartars of old did in Baghdad.The most horrible single incident was that involving the train which carried noless than 50,000 Muslim employees from different parts of India on their way toPakistan. It was agreed at the time when the partition agreement was made that anygovernment official who wanted to migrate to Pakistan would be allowed to do so.The train carried all those thousands of employees. It had to travel through a tunnelat the Khaybar Pass close to the borders, but when the train came out of the tunnel, itcarried no living soul. Its cargo was nothing other than the dead bodies of all itspassengers, having been torn to pieces. What happened was that those same Hindumilitia stopped the train inside the tunnel and killed all its passengers. The train wasallowed to proceed only when this most ghastly massacre was over. God certainlytells the truth as He says: “Should they prevail over you, they will respect neitheragreement made with you, nor obligation of honour towards you?” (Verse 8) Suchmassacres continue to be committed in a variety of ways.We then ask what have Communist Russia and China done to their Muslimpopulations? Within a quarter of a century they exterminated 26 million of them,with an average of one million a year. The policy of exterminating the Muslims is still19 Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wal-Nihāyah, Beirut, 1996, Vol. 13, pp. 199-203.65