Islamophobia: a neo-Nazi ghetto for Indian Muslims

Blend of politics and religion has signaled a shift toward muscular, majoritarian, religiously inspired nationalism

In The Clash of Civilizations, published in 1996, Samuel P Huntington highlighted that after the end of the Cold War, cultural and religious identities will be a major source of conflict between the states and that future wars will be fought on civilizational lines. Since then, religion has become a prominent element in the socio-cultural identity of the state and has turned into a driving political force in interstate and intrastate conflicts. The new blend of politics and religion has signaled a shift toward a muscular, majoritarian, religiously inspired nationalist movement that has grave political, economic and security repercussions for the world at large. Similarly, in today’s ‘incredible India’, the so-called world’s ‘largest democracy’ has fallen into the trap of inter-communal clashes over religion against its minorities.

Historically, the Islamophobic discourse which was led by the liberal world has now been copied by India, a Hindu-majority state with Muslim population of 200 million. Since its independence, Muslims have faced systematic discrimination despite their constitutional protections. The hate against minorities, specifically Muslims, has reached dangerous levels in India. The systematic hate speech targeting Islam is considered a deliberate attempt to insult Indian Muslims. Recently, BJP officials Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal made blasphemous remarks about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Initially, Modi denied any such remarks, but then in order to ease the anger that emerged in the Arab world, revoked the party membership of both officials. Modi’s hardcore supporters are angry at the action, particularly due to his statement that he respects all religions, which is in contradiction to RSS-inspired BJP governmental policy.

Modi’s remarks about the respect of all the religions can be seen in the context of his economic interests lying in the Arab world. India meets 70% of its oil needs and 40% of natural gas needs through imports from Muslim countries. India also gets around $60 billion in remittances from these countries.

In its reaction to the blasphemous remarks, Qatar not only summoned the Indian Ambassador to Qatar but also canceled the state dinner in honour of the visiting Indian vice president. Under the circumstances, Modi has little choice but to appease Gulf countries despite the rage from his supporters at home. Contrary to his appeasement policy on the international front, the BJP government is brutally involved in silencing the voice of Indian Muslims at home by punishing and beating them and demolishing their homes. All this is a desperate attempt to contain international backlash without compromising the policy of state-sanctioned prosecution of Muslims that is the core of the BJP identity.

Those around the world wonder what is happening in India. The Indian state moved to punish Muslims for bringing international attention to their plight last week. The houses of Muslim activists were demolished in broad daylight which was live-streamed on news channels. Two Muslim teenagers were shot dead when protesters took to the streets against the fascist Nazi’s Indian regime.

New Delhi, in the same vein, continues its fascist policies in IIOJK too. Modi employed brutal tactics like imprisonment and kidnapping of activists. Since BJP’s arrival in New Delhi, Muslims have been cornered and ghettoed like the German Jews.

However, the world is observing India’s descent into hate. This is the second time in less than two months that the US has directly expressed uneasiness about a rising trend in human rights violations in India. The US Secretary of State, at the release of the State Department’s annual report on international religious freedom on 2 June 2021, highlighted the inhuman and dark face of the Indian track record. After that, the Arab world has also condemned India amidst calls for an economic boycott over the blasphemous remarks about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The BJP-led government is leaving a terrible legacy by destroying the socio-religious fabric of the country through systemic propagation of religious intolerance, bigotry and Islamophobia among their devotees.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2022.

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