The Culture of Perpetual Victimhood: How Muslims Have Policed Their Own Narrative
- MGMMTeam
- Nov 20, 2025
- 3 min read
A Question That Shatters Comfort
Why has the Muslim identity become so tightly bound to grievance? Why does every call for reform ignite fury within instead of reflection? And how did a faith that once celebrated learning and progress allow its followers to sink into a culture of grievance?
These uncomfortable questions surfaced dramatically when former Union Minister Arif Mohammad Khan confronted journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani in a heated The Wire interview. What unfolded wasn’t a mere exchange of words—it was a mirror held up to decades of denial. Khan dared to point out what few within the community ever admit: that the culture of victimhood has been deliberately cultivated and fiercely protected from scrutiny.
This wasn’t an attack from an outsider; it was an act of introspection from within. Yet, instead of sparking debate, it exposed how tightly grievance has been woven into identity—a comfort zone that shields the community from confronting its own contradictions.
A History Written in Grievance
The roots of this mindset stretch back to the colonial era, when sections of Muslim elites discovered that portraying their community as perpetually wronged was politically convenient. It offered sympathy, leverage, and influence. British policies might have fueled division, but it was internal opportunism that turned victimhood into a habit.
After independence, this strategy didn’t die—it evolved. Politicians, clerics, and intellectuals found power in perpetuating fear. Every reform was cast as an “assault on Islam.” Debates about education, gender justice, or modernization were conveniently reframed as threats. Over time, entire generations learned not to introspect, but to react. Grievance became identity. Resentment became unity.
Sectarian Wounds That Never Heal
Behind the loud slogans of unity lies a community deeply fractured. Deobandi vs. Barelvi, Shia vs. Sunni, Ahl-e-Hadith vs. everyone else—each claiming purity while branding others as heretics. Publicly, the community preaches tolerance; privately, it tears itself apart.
This double life has crippled real progress. How can unity be demanded from others when intolerance thrives within? The very idea of brotherhood becomes hollow when believers denounce one another more harshly than their supposed adversaries. Khan’s words struck precisely here—at the hypocrisy that hides behind the façade of collective grievance.
The Self-Appointed Gatekeepers
Over decades, a powerful network of intellectuals, clerics, and activists has learned to weaponize outrage. They control the narrative by framing every critique as an insult, every reform as a conspiracy. Their authority thrives on fear—fear of modernity, of dissent, of internal change.
This ecosystem ensures that genuine reformers are silenced or discredited. The result is stagnation masked as resistance. Education gaps widen, women remain marginalized, and young minds are taught not to question, but to defend a narrative of endless oppression. The real tragedy isn’t external hostility—it’s internal complacency.
Victimhood in the Digital Age
The story has only changed its medium, not its message. On social media, victimhood is broadcast as performance, hashtags replace introspection, and outrage becomes currency. Every event is filtered through the same lens of persecution, while conversations about progress, reform, or innovation fade into the background.
Political actors know how to play this script perfectly. Emotional speeches, selective outrage, and curated narratives keep the community reactive—and thus, controllable. The outrage looks organic but is often orchestrated.
The Reckoning Within
The time has come to ask—what has this culture of perpetual victimhood truly achieved? Decades of outrage have not delivered dignity, power, or progress. Instead, they have produced division, dependence, and decay.
Real empowerment cannot coexist with self-pity. The courage to confront internal flaws—to challenge clerical control, sectarian prejudice, and intellectual stagnation—is the only path forward. The enemy is not the world outside; it is the comfort of grievance that keeps the community chained to the past.
Until Muslims dare to look inward, reform will remain a threat, truth will remain offensive, and victimhood will continue to masquerade as virtue.
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