MUSLIM INDIAN WOMEN BRAVE HINDUTVA TERROR Self-advertised Indian secularists are covering up the dismantling of the Muslim minority’s rights BY AFSAR JAHAN
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ndia, the world’s largest democracy — in numbers — is known as the most religiously and ethnically diverse – self-claimed secular — country with about 204 million Muslims (2019 estimates) living in an overtly Hindu-majority country. While religious fault lines have existed in India for a long time, anti-Muslim violence has risen since 2014 under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his first term in office, there were numerous incidents of Muslims being attacked by gau rakshak (cow-vigilantes) merely over rumors that they had eaten beef or were trying to smuggle cows for slaughter — an animal that many Hindus consider sacred. He did not condone such attacks,
Muskan Khan
but was criticized for not condemning them quickly or strongly enough either.
RECENT ANTI-MUSLIM EVENTS
In 2019, p.factchecker.in, which counted hate crimes in India (and was pulled down on Sept. 11 that year), reported that more than 90% of victims in the past decade were Muslims and the perpetrators of these attacks not only remain unpunished, but also in fact enjoy the Modi government’s political patronage. For example, in July 2018, Jayant Sinha, the federal minister of state for civil aviation, honored eight men who had been convicted of lynching Alimuddin Ansari, a
Muslim, by garlanding them after their bail was paid. This was a message that it was alright to attack Muslims. After Modi’s reelection in 2019, anti-Muslim violence spiraled. Often the violence is not physical but assumes subtle insidious forms as well that seek to vilify and demonize the minority community. For example, when Covid-19 began to take hold in India, Hindu leaders, including several Cabinet members, accused Muslim men who had attended a religious gathering in New Delhi of launching a “Corona Jihad” by indulging in behavior that would spread the virus. Then followed the “Roti Jihad,” which included unfounded allegations that Muslim cooks were spitting on roti (handmade flat bread) to spread the virus to Hindus.
MAY/JUNE 2022 ISLAMIC HORIZONS
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