India prayer bans

The continuing attacks on India’s Muslim minority by thugs affiliated with the ruling BJP and other Hindutva groups have gotten to the point where Muslims cannot even safely go to mosques in states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. In Haryana, which has a sizable Muslim population, Muslims are also facing government restrictions on Friday prayer attendance.

This comes a few days after reports of cow dung being thrown at mosques and other Muslim places of worship, along with a new spate of physical violence against Muslims and their businesses. In several cases, these attacks have gone unpunished, despite some people even taking credit for the attacks. Meanwhile, journalists and rights activists are facing penalties under draconian laws for simply drawing attention to the violence. The BJP fully backs the violence but doesn’t want its direct role exposed in front of the world.

Islamabad has also noted its concern over the increasing violence. The Foreign Office says it is “deeply concerned” by prayer restrictions, “continued vandalisation of mosques” by Sangh Parivar extremists” in BJP-ruled states. It also notes that attacks on Muslims, their businesses, and places of worship are continuing despite several countries voicing their concern — a reminder of how India’s human rights abuses could be an ‘internal matter’, but Indian political leaders have no qualms about passing critical and sometimes ludicrous comments on events in other countries.

Still, there are good people in India who are standing up for their friends and neighbours. In Gurgaon, Hindu businessman Akshay Yadav made one of his vacant shops available for Muslims to pray in after learning of the prayer ban. He also said that Muslims could pray in his other vacant properties and even his house if necessary. Yadav says he has no political affiliation and simply believes that opening his home and land to prayer to people of any faith is a good thing to do. If only India’s ruling party showed the kind of reverence for the law of the land that good people like Yadav do.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2021.

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