Attempts by extremist Hindus in India to defame Islam, Islamic slogans and sacred religious figures have been going on for a long time. Every day some Hindu Jogi or Pandit gets up and spews his poison, an incident which took place a few days ago, shocked India. For the first time in many years, the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are facing severe difficulties and pressure. This time the pressure has come from outside India.
The recent incident of blasphemy has drawn strong reactions from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Iran and others. In fact, these nonsensical, frivolous words hurt the feelings of Muslims in the Arab world in such a way that all their grief and anger turned against the Indian government and India.
In fact, the ruling party’s spokesperson Nupur Sharma made blasphemous comments in a program on the well-known Indian TV channel Times Now. There was a strong reaction in India to the comments of Sharma. Muslim organizations protested and FIRs were registered against her in at least two different places.
Nupur Sharma is a prominent female leader of the BJP and has been the official spokesperson of the party. Along with Nupur Sharma, another important BJP leader Kamal Jundal also made derogatory remarks against prophet. Surprisingly, Nupur Sharma is a highly educated woman who has done LLM from the London School of Economics, but education has not changed her ugly inner self, hatred and poisonous thinking.
The incident of blasphemy by BJP leaders was raised on Twitter by Indian journalist and well-known fake checker Muhammad Zubair. Muhammad Zubair is the head of Alt News, a non-profit fact-checking website. It was Zubair who highlighted these controversial statements from his Twitter handle and he is constantly reporting in this regard. That is why the BJP and other extremist Hindu organizations are waging a campaign against Zubair, with cases registered against him and Hindu jogis threatening him.
The BJP government, as per its tradition, tried to save its people and did not take any action despite the public reaction. However, when the issue became prominent in the Arab world and Arab social media made it a trend to show public grief and anger against India, the Arab governments also had to take up the issue strongly. Over the last few days, this has become a trend in Arab social media, “Ala Rasoolullah Yamudi” is the biggest trend at the moment. That is, O Modi, do not say anything against the Messenger of Allah.
A campaign to boycott Indian products is being launched on social media in the Arab world with protests and condemnation. People are posting pictures of various Indian products and tweeting and posting on Facebook that the boycott will continue till the Indian government punishes the insulters and apologizes for the insolence. In many Arab countries, Modi’s picture has been stamped on trash cans and containers. It is to be noted that this is the first time in any Arab country that such a strong reaction has taken place against India or an Indian product.
The Indian government initially tried to adopt a selfless attitude. The statement of protest from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) was vehemently rejected by the Indian Foreign Ministry. However, the threat of social boycott of Indian products by Arab governments and the Arab world forced the ruling BJP to bow down. On Monday, the BJP expelled Naveen Jundal, a blasphemer, and suspended Nupur Sharma’s party membership. She is no longer the party’s official spokesperson.
Cases have also been registered against Nupur Sharma, who may be arrested at some point. These two have announced to withdraw their insulting statements and make an excuse that our comments have been distorted, however this weak excuse has been rejected by the Indian media and social media itself.
It is to be understood that such insulting statements of Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jundal are not the opinion of any individual but are part of an organized campaign. The BJP and other extremist Hindu organizations, Hindu religious leaders have been constantly hurting the feelings of Muslims for the last few years, targeting their religious slogans and not wasting any opportunity to ridicule them.
A similar tragic incident took place just five or six months ago in the city of Hari Dewar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand when it was announced at a Hindu religious festival that they would genocide Muslims from India. This openly poisonous and hateful statement caused a wave of great uneasiness among the Indian Muslims and there were public protests, but this Hindu Swami was not arrested and prosecuted.
Leading Indian Muslim actor Naseeruddin Shah also reacted strongly, saying that it was actually a plan for civil war. Naseeruddin Shah said that 200 million Muslims could not surrender like this, they would fight and fight hard. Remember that Naseeruddin Shah is a non-religious secular person, but because of his statements in favor of Muslims, Hindu organizations are also campaigning against him.
It seems that the Indian ruling party and the extremist Hindu lobby want to increase anti-Muslim sentiments. In the past too, the Modi government’s favorite tactic has been to win elections. If this is true then, God willing, such vile attempts may be more.
However, in the Arab world, the Muslims intensified their social boycott and increased the pressure on India, forcing it to retreat and take a defensive position. If the Muslim world unites and takes a strong stand, all such efforts may fail. The first attack of the ardent Dahan Hindu leaders was repulsed.
