OIC’s condemnation of Islamophobia in India indicates Muslim world’s growing concern
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The targeting of Muslims and blaming the community for spreading coronavirus pandemic in India has provoked strong reaction from the Muslim World. In a statement, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has expressed deep concern over rising anti-Muslim sentiments in the country.
The group, which represents 56 Muslim countries, has condemned the “deliberate targeting of the Muslim minority” at a time when the situation requires greater efforts and stronger mutual aid among all citizens. It is the strongest reaction yet by the OIC on the rise of Islamophobia in India.
Anti-Muslim violence in India has escalated after authorities had linked cases of COVID-19 to a Muslim missionary group that held its annual conference in Delhi in early March. With religious tensions already high, it didn’t take long for the situation to flare up. Videos falsely claiming to show members of the missionary group spitting on police and others quickly went viral on social media, exacerbating an already dangerous atmosphere for Muslims.
The Islamophobic comments reportedly posted on social media by some Indian expatriates have also triggered a strong response from some members of the UAE Royal family and Saudi scholars. The anger in the Gulf countries compelled the Indian government to issue a statement distancing itself from the posts.
The latest surge in the anti-Muslim campaign has come just weeks after religious pogroms conducted by Hindu nationalists left 36 Muslims dead in Delhi. The anxieties over the spread of coronavirus have merged with longstanding Islamophobia in the Hindu dominated nation, heightening the insecurity of its Muslim minority — 200 million people in a nation of 1.3 billion.
Mob violence against Muslims, who make up about 14 per cent of India’s population has risen alarmingly in recent months. In many cases, right-wing communal groups that form the nucleus of Prime Minister Modi’s support base have perpetrated the violence. And the bloodshed often goes unpunished.
The latest wave of Islamophobia and targeting the Muslim minority community has also provoked international concern. The condemnation by the OIC is indicative of the growing concern of the Muslim world over the anti-Muslim campaign led by Hindu nationalists and backed by the Indian ruling party.
Zahid Hussain
Last December, the Modi government passed a controversial Citizen Amendment Act that bars Muslim migrants from getting Indian citizenship. The discriminatory law prompted strong resistance across the country and came on the heels of several moves by the Indian government that seemed designed to punish Muslims. Soon after returning to power with an increased majority, the Modi government last year amended the Indian constitution to strip Kashmir, a Muslim-majority disputed region, of its autonomy.
Then, in November, the Indian Supreme Court issued a ruling which enabled the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a 16th-century mosque desecrated more than two decades ago by Hindu nationalists in the city of Ayodhya. All these actions were seen as part of Modi government’s move to turn India into a Hindu Rashtriya.
The very idea that Muslims are a kind of infection in the body politic has driven the communal based politics of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The ideology behind Hindutva, as articulated by BJP leaders, view Muslims as outsiders who according to them, “cannot claim equal membership in the Indian nation.” The ideology sees Muslims as an existential threat to Hindutva or a Hindu state.
The outbreak of coronavirus has presented just one more opportunity to Hindu nationalists to cast the Muslim as the other, as dangerous and to launch a fresh attack on the community. The ongoing physical and psychological warfare against Muslims has further pushed their ostracization in Indian society.
Violent attacks on Muslims perceived to be carriers of the virus have been reported from different parts of the country. There has been a sudden surge in Islamophobic hashtags and posts on different social media platforms accusing Muslims of purposefully spreading the virus. A new term, "corona jihad", has been coined to describe this conspiracy. Some Indian government communication has contributed in whipping up the anti-Muslim frenzy.
Indian military officials have recently claimed that there was a plot for people from a particular community (read: Muslim) to infiltrate the borders of India with the aim of spreading the infection in the country. They have also blamed the Pakistani military for pushing infected militants into Indian-administered Kashmir, fuelling a diplomatic war of words between the two countries.
The ideological battle over the idea of India, pitting an inclusive vision of a pluralistic, multi-faith nation against Hindu majoritarianism, which says Hindus should have primacy in Indian society, has polarized Indian society.
The latest wave of Islamophobia and targeting the Muslim minority community has also provoked international concern. The condemnation by the OIC is indicative of the growing concern of the Muslim world over the anti-Muslim campaign led by Hindu nationalists and backed by the Indian ruling party.
– Zahid Hussain is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a former scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholar, USA, and a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and at the Stimson Center in Washington DC. He is author of Frontline Pakistan: The struggle with militant Islam (Columbia university press) and The Scorpion’s tail: The relentless rise of Islamic militants in Pakistan (Simon and Schuster, NY). Frontline Pakistan was the book of the year (2007) by the WSJ.
Twitter: @hidhussain
