Kashmir Must Rise Above Sectarian Divides

Sectarian rifts, fuelled by outside manipulation and internal neglect, threaten Kashmir’s tradition of harmony. Reclaiming unity is both a religious obligation and a survival strategy.

- Habib Bilal

For generations, Kashmir was known as Paradise on Earth. Its snow-fed rivers and apple orchards were celebrated in poetry, but so was its tradition of harmony.

Muslims in the valley lived alongside Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists, carrying forward an ethic of tolerance that became a part of their shared identity.

What made that coexistence possible was not politics or convenience, but a deeper truth: Muslims themselves had learned to live with one another in unity.

That unity is now under strain.

Sectarianism, once alien to life in Kashmir, is creeping in through social media, outside manipulation, and political opportunism.

The result is troubling: suspicions between Shias and Sunnis, and between Barelvi, Deobandi, and Salafi traditions, have begun to overshadow the bonds of brotherhood.

These rifts may appear minor, but in a region already fragile from decades of conflict, they threaten to corrode the very foundations of society.

The irony is that sectarianism has no basis in Islam. The Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad rejected it unequivocally. “Surely this religion of yours is one, and I am your Lord, so fear Me alone,” says the Qur’an (AL-Mu’minun 52-53). In another verse, it warns, “Do not be like those who split into sects after clear proofs had come to them” (Ale-Imran, 3:105).

These commands are meant to protect the Muslim community from the exact divisions we now see in Kashmir.