http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/02/03/city/karachi/india-pakistan-bangladesh-what-have-you-been-up-to-all-these-years'/
My comments to the above news story posted there:
<<< Many respected Muslim scholars are making a stand against the false propaganda of depicting secularism as 'be-deen' or 'la Deen', as an opposition to Islam. We have a 1000 year model of secularism here in the Indian subcontinent under Muslim rulers. During those centuries India was the wealthiest nation on earth.
The greatest model of secularism was established by Muhammad (PBUH), the Messenger of Allah, when he signed the Medina Charter.
Islamic secularism, or a practiced religious pluralism, came to it quite naturally. Being the youngest of the Abrahamic religions, Islam is automatically accommodating all the Prophets of the Jews and the Christians. Christian Europe had never even dreamt of secularism until the Arab Muslims came to live there on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Whether a State should be declared secular or not is not a religious issue; it is a constitutional issue. Secularism guarantees freedom of religion to all of the citizens of a state without bias or reasons for making anyone a 2nd class citizen on account of his or her faith. A constitutional secularism protects the citizen's rights of an atheist.
Muslim rulers of India never declared Islam as a "state" religion. >>>
Farida Majid__._,_.___
