Tarek Fatah

I am one of Salman Rushdie's many Midnight's Children: we were snatched from the cradle of a great civilization and made permanent refugees, sent in search of an oasis that turned out to be a mirage. ~ Tarek Fatah

Tarek Fatah (20 November 1949 – 24 April 2023) was a Pakistani-Canadian journalist and author.

Quotes

• I am an Indian born in Pakistan, a Punjabi born in Islam; an immigrant in Canada with a Muslim consciousness, grounded in a Marxist youth. I am one of Salman Rushdie's many Midnight's Children: we were snatched from the cradle of a great civilization and made permanent refugees, sent in search of an oasis that turned out to be a mirage.
  • Rouche, Elizabeth (24 April 2016). "Who is Tarek Fatah?". Live Mint. [1]

• It wasn't us Muslims
  who built Babri Mosque
  over Ram's Temple;
  
  It was those wicked Hindus
  who built the Ram Temple
  under the Babri Mosque.
  • Twitter Aug 9 2020

• Manufacturer’s Warranty. ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES made by the manufacturer will be considered void if any unauthorized third-party add-ons are installed on top of the basic operating system of Islam. Such add-ons are causing a worldwide system failure. The manufacturer is warning the general public to be wary of unscrupulous vendors who are marketing bootlegged versions of the product to unsuspecting customers. Users are hereby warned that the manufacturer does not guarantee the proper functioning of Islam if these add-ons are installed over the basic operating system. The manufacturer also cautions all users that there has been no new version of Islam since the last upgrade in 632 CE. Speculation that the manufacturer plans to release a new Service Pack are without foundation.
  • Tarek Fatah, Chasing a Mirage (2008)

• Pakistan is a living testament to the bankrupt idea of an Islamic State.
  • Tarek Fatah, Chasing a Mirage (2008)

• The question is this: Why is it that when the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished, hundreds of thousands of Muslims worldwide took to the streets to protest, but when Saudi authorities plan to demolish the home of our beloved Prophet, not a whisper is heard?
  • Tarek Fatah - Chasing a Mirage, The Tragic lllusion of an Islamic State (2008, J. Wiley & Sons Canada)

• "India is the only major civilizational country where you are systematically taught to hate your heritage and glorify the invaders who came to destroy it. And this absurdity is called 'secularism'."
  • X Jan 16, 2020

Interview

Tarek Fatah: Breaking Down Jihadi Terror . Interview with Manish Pant- Mar 22, 2015, Interview [2]

• Any use of Islam to develop supremacist ideas, which are political in nature and subjugate people who are not from that philosophy, is fascism. Fascism involves whipping up people under a certain order by employing non-state actors to implement policies of supremacy, whether it is the concept of Aryan supremacy in Germany or Italian Blackshirts. Islamofascism is a new form of fascism where the religion is implemented and used as a political tool to implement the goals of a worldwide caliphate, in which the Muslims will rule supreme and non-Muslims will either have to submit by paying a tax or convert or die. The Muslim Brotherhood, Jamat-i-Islami, Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, SIMI, Taliban, Al Qaeda or ISIS, they are all different shades of the same animal; a worldwide Islamofascist ideology.

• The US has been reduced to from Ronald Regan right down to the joker sitting there who lectured India about religious tolerance and then went to Saudi Arabia to kiss the king’s hand! How stupid can you be! You are going to the world’s most intolerant country by cutting short your visit to India. And the joke is, when Michelle asked, “Oh Barack, why aren’t we going to Agra?” he said, “Let me show you a living 17th century king!” The US doesn’t know what it is doing, and it won’t act unless that makes money for someone.

• In fact, India and Israel are probably better equipped about these problems then the US will ever be. You have a 13% Muslim population just as Israel has 20% Muslim population. Only Israel and India can figure out what is happening. But Saudi money is so prevalent in the West that everyone thinks that Iran is the problem and not Pakistan.

• Islam doesn’t need a reform. It is nobody’s business! All it needs is people to step down and say that no public laws can come from a divine text. I don’t care if you believe like most Christians that snakes can talk or the Muslims believe that horses can fly or Hindus that chariots can roam in the sky. But the day that you start making laws based on those myths then I have a problem. So we are looking at a nation state in which our laws should be governed by the International Charter of Human Rights of 1948. If it runs counter to that law, that country shouldn’t be a member of the UN or be able to trade with anyone. The embargoes placed on Iran should be placed on Saudi Arabia. Iran has not invaded any country. It’s mischief is very trivial compared to the mischief of Pakistan. Iran doesn’t have people in Philippines hijacking planes. Pakistan is there at the Thailand-Malaysia border. It is involved in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Turkey, the US and UK, and yet is a US ally.

• Sindh has been destroyed by the Urdu speaking people who arrived from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and took over its capital where Sindhi is not spoken anymore.

• But that is not my concern. My concern is that slowly the Arabisation of Indian Muslims is taking place, and of all the places in Kerala. But what is very fortunate is that Arabic will not be accepted by any self-respecting Malayalam speaking Muslim. Even the radicalisation of the Tamil Muslims is part of the same phenomenon. But then there is not one Muslim community in India. The Kashmiri Muslims are a completely separate issue than the Uttar Pradesh Muslims, who are very different from Kerala’s Muslims, who in turn are completely different from West Bengal’s Muslims. Therefore, in some ways you can’t say there is a Muslim community. That definition should not be used. As there are multiple Indian Muslims, so this label is ridiculous. Like when I use it, I associate it more with the Uttar Pradesh Muslims. Your president was a Tamil Muslim completely at odds with the clerical elite.

• I don’t think it is a controversy. It is a non-issue that stems out of several backgrounds. Too many temples have been destroyed for anyone to cry about a mosque. It was a reaction to a pent up emotion that can blow up anytime. You can’t expect people to forget 700 years of subjugation overnight and expect a rational reaction when no one has as yet admitted that they or their forefathers were wrong. Even now every history book I read tries to justify that the Islamic rule wasn’t so bad after all. There is no major admission that there was apartheid for 700 years. There was a law that allowed you to spit into the mouth of an untouchable, even if he were a Muslim. And even Indian Muslims used to pay jizya to Arabs.

• And so Daliah Mogahed was introduced as [Obama's] speech writer. And he goes where, to Cairo, and insists that Muslim Brotherhood members should sit in the front row and that the US is a great country because women can wear hijab! He reduced the entire United States of America to one issue: not the First Amendment, not its constitution, not its Seventh Fleet, not the aircraft that the Wright Brothers invented, not the motorcar of Detroit! He reduced it to a hijaab, in a country where women are fighting to take it off because his speechwriter or advisor was a Muslim Brotherhood woman. The former US ambassador to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Rashad Hussain, is a Muslim Brotherhood supporter. Saudi educated Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin, is another Mulim Brotherhood member.