‘Sorry, you’re Muslim’

- VISUALLY IMPAIRED TECHIE’S HOUSE HUNT HORROR
From "The Telegraph

Mohammed Asif Iqbal, 32, is a braveheart. The visually impaired youth from College Street has battled the odds to make it as an information technology (IT) consultant with a multinational company in Sector V and be hailed as a role model by former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

But there is one battle that even Asif cannot win — that against the growing prejudice against his community in the so-called cultural capital of the country.

When he went house-hunting in Salt Lake this month, he was denied accommodation just because he was a Muslim. Deeply disturbed by the communal profiling and discrimination he faced, Mohammed Asif Iqbal poured his heart out to Metro...

I decided to go house-hunting in Salt Lake along with my wife Sajida Khatoon as commuting every day all the way from my College Street house to my office in Sector V was proving to be cumbersome and tiring.

I was looking for a 1-BHK (bedroom, hall, kitchen) flat where we would stay during the week and come back to the College Street house for the weekend.

The first flat I went to was in AL Block. The landlord was clearly uncomfortable when I broached the topic of renting his flat after introducing myself. After some dilly-dallying he apologetically told me that it would not be possible for him to rent out his flat to me because “I was a Muslim”.

I was shocked. I have spent a considerable part of my life in the US and my work takes me to various parts of the world, but this was the first time I had come across such communal profiling and discrimination.

I still dismissed the entire incident as an aberration and continued my hunt for an apartment in Salt Lake. But everywhere I went I got more of the same. I visited another six to seven places to be turned away by landlords for only one reason: that I am a Muslim.

At one address, a gentleman who also happens to be the personal assistant of a Muslim politician agreed to rent out his flats to me. Negotiations were on when he suddenly called me up one day and apologised that the other tenants in the housing co-operative had objected to my moving in as I was a Muslim.

Whenever somebody refused to let out the flat to me I produced my testimonials and tried to make them understand that all Muslims are not terrorists but nobody was willing to listen.

At one of the places my wife Sajida was in a naqab (veil) and the landlord panicked. He said he had not realised earlier that we were “Mohammedan”.

In the entire episode of being turned away in house after house, the worst part was when people tried to be sympathetic. Some suggested we look for an apartment in a “Muslim colony” where we would feel “comfortable”.

Others tried to clarify that they had Muslim friends but it was their neighbours who would object to our presence in the building.

I am tired.

I strongly condemn this treatement meted out to Iqbal.
However, the Muslim populace of the cuntry have to decide whether they have not brought it on themselves.
They have to decide whether they would like to merge themselves in the general population.
Religion is a very personal affair and when they make it public, inconveniencing the general public, you begin to stick out like a sore thumb.
When you do not control your population under the strength of your personal law and marry and procreate to change population rations, people start to look upon you with distrust.
You look up any newspaper, with 10 to 15% of the population in India, they are responsible for 80% of the crimes.
When your religion supersedes your national obligations and you support people across the border in their terrorist activities, how can you expect the peace-loving people who love India to welcome you with open arms in their houses.
I agree the people who support the terrorists may be one or two percent of their population but one rotten egg is sufficient to create the odour which will want yo make you throw out the lot.
Our Muslims brothers have to decide whether they are going to allow the Maulvis and their Fatwas to run their lives and face this ostracism throughout the non-muslim world.
They have brought it on themselves.
The educated among them have to bring about the change.

Radheshyam