ADDRESSING ASAD NOOR, A LIGHT IN THE TUNNEL DARK

ADDRESSING ASAD NOOR, A LIGHT IN THE TUNNEL DARK

Sugata Bose@Asad Noor's Vlog : Many will abuse, many more will praise you for your efforts. Be undaunted by scurrilous remarks, be not over-elated by appreciation either, for the test of character is fortitude in adversity, the hallmark of greatness is detached performance of duty towards the advancement of civilisation, the welfare of humanity, free of sectarian considerations and doing what one believes is best for oneself and the world in the light of illumined thinking based on rational rigour.

You are way ahead of your times in the Islamic world which is en masse regressive even when the very Islamists resort to modern technology to suit their theocratic indulgences and exigencies. Very few moderate Muslims are vocal against what they can clearly perceive as human injustices grounded in religion. Most, perhaps, fear to articulate their opposing views whose price they know may be terrible, and being what they are, in the mould of cowardly, common humanity, they maintain a studied silence out of the instinct of self-preservation which is where you, Asad Noor, stand out in luminous and graceful exception.

I do not know much about you but from what I do gather, I can vouch that you are made of that fibre which is rare among men, that graceful, cultured, high-souled humanity which the best of youth through the ages have possessed and activated to bring about healthful changes in our benighted world where brutes yet undo what the gods among men have achieved. This tussle for forward movement has through the dialectical process gone on for millenia and will yet go on for ages to which you are through your intrepid communications adding fuel so that the engine of historical evolution may run on despite hazardous obstacles in its way.

I can go on writing reams on you and your courageous enterprise where the price tag is too high and few dare to engage in it save the very best who are in the flower of their youth. My love, respect and admiration for someone, 'young in years but ages in civilisation', if I may be permitted to pilfer from the precious literature of the past to praise you, what in historical terms was used in America in 1893 to describe the thirty year old Swami Vivekananda, then attending the Chicago Parliament of Religions. My support remains unflinching for the cause you have made your own, one which is and ought to be the common cause of humanity. May all light and love and strength be yours!

Written by Sugata Bose