Then what is with you
that you do not contend …
for the utterly helpless
among men, women, and children who cry out …
—The Quran, 4:75
In the midst of so bleak and bloody a period of anti-Muslim oppression and disenfranchisement underway in India today, with the sanction of its blatantly Hindu chauvinist government and their unleashing of cadres of zealot youth goons, it is heartening to see officials and human rights groups – in both the Muslim Gulf countries and the U.S. – publically document and decry India’s heinous, calculated politically propagated savagery against Muslims.
The members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) deserve thanks and specific mention for their recent courageous act of designating India a “Country of Particular Concern,” regarding its devolution from democracy to an “ethno-religious” state. India has steadily cultivated a strategic status both politically and diplomatically with the U.S. Yet the Commission upheld the integrity of its mandate by holding India and its leaders to account before the world for their horrific human and civil rights violations against the country’s Muslims.
Also meriting gratitude and mention are the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the government of Kuwait, and, especially Princess Hend Al Qassimi of the United Arab Emirates – all of whom responded by condemning, calling out, or curtailing any such Hindu chauvinist activity incited or condoned by the Indian government or taking place among Indian nationals working within their respective purviews.
This little prod proved significant pressure that compelled Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take notice and respond, which he did by tweeting for Indian unity among its communities, something he has shown no inclination to do in the past.
Yet the $55 billion from Gulf states sent every year in trade with India, coupled with the threat of losing $120 billion more annually from other OIC countries overall, as well as the potential jeopardizing of the status of India’s 8.5 million workers in Gulf countries, got Modi’s attention.
This, however, neither solves nor promises to cut off, the anti-Muslim onslaught underway in India, whose repulsive religious nationalist roots run deep.
For decades, India’s Hindu chauvinist RSS movement has inspired an increasingly bloody persecution of Muslims, violating their persons, religious spaces, and sacred Text, in the form of the printed Quran. That abuse in recent years has grossly mutated into a naked, systematic assault that seeks to delegitimize and disenfranchise India’s Muslim citizens by the RSS’s now ruling political arm, the BJP, under Modi, who has been his entire career notoriously and brutally anti-Muslim.
In December last year, Modi’s government passed the explicitly and brazenly discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Bill to enshrine religion as part of Indian citizenship for the express purpose of revoking the citizenship rights of millions of indigenous Indian Muslims. This led to immediate widespread protests in the country by Muslims and pro-democracy advocates. BJP officials responded by directly inciting roving Hindu chauvinist gangs in New Delhi – with aid and cover of police and during President Trump’s state visit – to savagely attack Muslims, butchering at least 55 in public, savagely beating 500 others, torching 17 mosques, incinerating more than a 1,000 homes and leaving at least 15,000 Indian Muslims homeless (now living in makeshift camps), resulting in $3.6 million of property damage, by conservative estimates.
As the coronavirus pandemic then swept the world – putting especially the Muslim homeless in camps at risk – Hindu chauvinists, including government officials, sensationalist media anchors, and other public figures, found a way to blame even that on Muslims, calling it a #CoronaJihad in its ubiquitous social media messaging, labeling Muslims “human bombs,” and warning Indians not to buy from Muslims, especially food sellers. This ignited more savagery against Muslims, including open lynchings.
In this light, America’s Muslim community commends these voices for speaking out on behalf of the oppressed Muslim women, children, and men of India.
We further call on OIC Muslim member nations to apply all diplomatic pressure – including a potent regime of economic sanctions – to deter India’s Hindu chauvinist political and social leadership from persecuting these innocents and to save these vulnerable people.
###
