It is a fact that both Islam (during middle ages) and West (during modern era) has committed horrible genocides. In the process of colonializing or spreading the religion, millions (if not billions) have lost their lives.

But there is a subtle difference between the two which makes the west more acceptable and the malice towards the west has diminished.

Lets start with Islam in India. The barbaric foreign Islamic invaders slaughtered millions in India. The holocaust in India is many times bigger than the Holocaust in Germany. No historian speaks about the great slaughter happened in India.

To add insult to injury, the Muslim invaders demolished thousands of temples. The prominent are the ones at Ajodhya, Mathura and Varanasi. But apart from these, thousands of temples were demolished all over India. Tipu Sultan demolished thousands in South India as an example.

Lets come to west. I will give few examples.

  1. During Hitler’s reign, millions lost their life during the holocaust. Several decades later German Chancellor Adenaur not only aplogized before the Israelis Parliament (Kenesset), Germany also paid reparations. All in all, as of 2007 Germany had paid 25 billion euros in reparations to the Israeli state and individual Israeli Holocaust survivors.
  2. France had committed atrocities in Rwanda. In May 2021, the French President Emmanuel Macron, apologized to Rwanda with folded hands seeing forgiveness.
  3. The Indians can never forget Jallianwala Bagh incident. However, when the British PM Tony Blair had visited India, he expressed his condolences to the people killed in the incident and accepted the mistake of British nation.
  4. Not only that UK has always helped India in recent past. As recent as few days back, Modiji was invited to attend the G7 summit by no other than UK PM (Boris Johnson). Attending the G7 summit is a big prestige for India.

Let me come to Islam

  1. Have you ever heard of any Muslim saying that what was done by Aurangzeb wrong?
  2. Did the Muslims willingly handover the Ajodhya to Hindus? The Supreme Court (SC) had to intervene and during the arguments at SC it was clear beyond doubts that a temple stood at Ajodhya.
  3. In the case of Mathura, it is clear to naked eyes than Gyanvapi Majid is built of a temple, Muslims are however are not relenting.
  4. Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453, and converted the holiest church of Eastern Orthodox faith to a mosque. The founder of Modern Turkey Ataturk, realized the mistake and converted it to Museum. But as late as this year, the Hagia Sofia is a mosque again. Isn’t such action purely unempathetic?
  5. Does any Islamic school like Deobandi (or any one for that matter) apologize for the atrocities carried in the name of Islam?

Either, the west has realized on their own that they have done some wrong deeds OR they feel that apologizing is best to heal the wounds and establish relations which will be beneficial in trade and other avenues. If it is the first, then it indicates the west has conscience and if it is later, it indicates that west has intelligence (and empathy). History cannot be changed, but steps can be taken to correct the wrong. British PM cannot revert what happened in Jallianwala, but by accepting that it was wrong, he made an attempt to heal the wounds.

Islam and Muslims still trying to hold on to the medieval mindset clearly indicates that they neither have conscience not they have brains(or empathy). Stupid people are never empathetic.

This is what Islam needs to learn from west or else Islam will be in danger of being surrounded by many enemies. And that’s what is happening now.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.