My dear sir,

I am fascinated by the following sentence in the Editorial of your previous issue: "when our history was at its zenith and when we enjoyed the Golden Age wherein the pious elders perfected the process of thinking, leaves almost no role for us in any future scheme of things." Could you kindly, at least to educate me (a non sectarian Muslim living in the west), elaborate when was the "Golden age" of Islam you refer to?
As far as I can recall from the "History of Islam," following the death of the Prophet, we assassinated our three "righteous elected leaders," we allowed Muawyyia bin Abu Suffian to establish a hereditary kingdom and participated in the senseless murder of the grandson (and his companions) of the Prophet, and we consented to allow Yazid bin Muawyyia (practically a Christian) to legislate "cursing of the Prophet and his household" from the pulpit for more than 50 years until Umer bin Abdul Aziz stopped such nonsense. We also brought in Abbassid kings to perpetuate non-Islamic codes of "wine and women," and after the fall of Baghdad empire became subservient to the west. We are still on that self destructive path.
So, when was that "Golden age" of Islam?
In my opinion, rather than indulging in non-deserving self praise, it is time for self examination of both of our "self-destructive" nature and our religious tendency towards violence. You will be doing both India and your religion a favour if you could take us back to the belief of the peaceful saints and philosophers, and show the humanity at large that we have the strength and willingness to cleanse ourselves and our religion.

Best regards

Akhtar Ali Khan