Dharma Deen Alliance: Exploring Hindu-Muslim Unity

Guest blogger Ravi resides in Chicago and is a co-founder and blogger for Dharma Deen Alliance. He has also written articles for other magazines such as Clamor and Hinduism Today.

When it comes to South Asia we’re given a continual stream of news stories about communalism and sectarian violence or tension between Hindus and Muslims. Mobs in Gujarat attacking each other, violence in Mumbai, and a slew of rhetoric from both sides that seek to inflame tensions. This focus on intolerance from mainstream news sources also further miseducates the public and contributes to increasing divisions.

What if, instead of always providing undeserving exposure to nationalists, terrorists, and hate mongers wrapped in fanaticism, we focused on cooperation between these two communities that are supposedly hostile to each other? What if you read about practitioners who follow the real tenets of Islam and Hinduism by aiding each other and living in peace? Does that sound too far-fetched or hard to imagine?

Read the story of Hindus in Gujarat who helped reconstruct a Sufi shrine? Heard of the Muslims in Kerala who allow their mosque to serve as a temporary mandir to Hindus traveling on pilgrimage? How about the Hindus who helped Muslims break fast by sharing their food after their homes were destroyed in flood-hit Bihar? Maybe you didn’t know that Muslim artists in Kashmir helped renovate a decaying temple or that there are communities where Hindus and Muslims celebrate Eid and Navratri together.

This is where the idea of Dharma Deen Alliance came from: a website that to aims to restore some balance to all the negativity surrounding Hindu-Muslim relations. Why should all the fanatics and people uneducated on their religions’ canon monopolize all the publicity? Dharma Deen is a blog run by both a Muslim and a Hindu seeker. Not only will we present news stories on interfaith unity, we’ll discuss in depth the tenets, concepts, and laws of our respective spiritual paths. And unlike the extremists whose intention is to foster division, we’ll back up our call for harmony by directly quoting our scriptures, our prophets and avatars, and the saints who were steeped in both traditions.

Visit us on the web for weekly posts or subscribe by email to our blog @ www.dharmadeen.com.

Extra: Check out this video on Malerkotla, a shining example of communal harmony.