Blasphemous statements against the Prophet (pbuh) by spokespersons of India’s ruling Hindu-extremist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have led to their temporary suspension.
Nurup Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal’s suspensions came following outrage from Muslim governments.
Indian ambassadors in several Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and others forced the BJP to take these steps.
It would, however, be wrong to assume that such blasphemous statements are isolated incidents.
Statements by Sharma and Jindal reflect the growing anti-Muslim sentiment in India stoked as part of official policy of the BJP-led regime headed by Narendra Modi.
Ever before he became prime minister in 2014, Modi had gained notoriety as an unabashed anti-Muslim bigot.
In February 2002, as chief minister of Gujarat state, Modi prevented the police from rescuing Muslims that resulted in more than 2,000 being hacked to death.
Others were burned alive. Women were raped and children bayonetted to death.
Even when Muslims begged Modi for help, he refused to send the police to protect them.
This is not surprising.
Modi emerged from the bowels of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a fascist outfit of Hindu zealots that have for decades terrorized Muslims in India.
The Hindutva ideology peddled by Modi and his ilk want an exclusive Hindu state in which there is no room for religious minorities, especially Muslims.
The Hindu fascists have repeatedly perpetrated massacres of Muslims.
Whether it is the cow vigilantes or disputes over mosques, Muslims are targeted as never before.
Cow vigilantes accuse Muslims of slaughtering cows for meat consumption.
The Hindus consider cow to be sacred and worship it as their “mother”.
The reality is that Indian beef exports amount to $4 billion annually.
Most slaughter houses in India are owned by Hindus, not Muslims, yet the latter suffer the brunt of the attacks.
There are more than 200 million Muslims in India. The Hindu fascists have given the Muslims a stark choice: convert to Hinduism or face death.
In addition to facing frequent attacks, mosques are also targeted.
The most famous case was that of the sixteenth century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.
It was destroyed in December 1992 under the spurious pretext that the Hindu god, Ram, was born in its spot and that there used to be a temple there.
Modi was part of the assault party that destroyed the mosque.
There are two other locations in India that claim that Ram was born there.
Surely even a Hindu god cannot be born in several places simultaneously.
But logic, reason or historical facts are not relevant to the Hindu fascists’ campaign to obliterate the presence of Muslims from India.
The Hindutva brigade has become so bold that it now targets academics abroad that dare to expose its crimes.
Professor Audrey Truschke of Rutgers University in New Jersey is a particular target.
She has received death threats from the Hindu fascists who have also threatened to rape her daughter.
Professor Truschke has to move in the university under armed guard!
The Hindutva ideology is based on Nazism and its leading lights have praised Hitler’s policy against the Jews.
Yet the zionist regime in Occupied Palestine has close relations with the Hindu fascists.
V.D. Savarkar, a leading proponent of Hindutva ideology, not only praised Hitler but said his campaign to cleanse the German society of Jews was the right policy.
Savarkar advocated the rape of Muslim women and the extermination of Muslims from India.
The question facing Muslims is: what is to be done with India?
Mere protests or de marches delivered to Indian envoys are not enough.
Muslim governments especially in the Middle East can take practical steps to stop the genocide of Muslims and blasphemous insults to the revered personalities of Islam.
There are at least 12 million Indian workers in the Middle East.
They send tens of billions of dollars to India every year.
The Middle Eastern governments can serve notice that unless the genocidal policy against Muslims end, these workers would be sent home.
Further, regimes like those in Saudi Arabia and the UAE each plan to invest $100 billion in India’s economy.
They should terminate such plans.
Only by hitting India’s pocket book will send a clear message that Muslim lives matter.
The genocide of Muslims or insults to the noble Prophet (pbuh) are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Period.
Will the Arabian regimes take such a principled stand?
Their record so far does not give much cause for optimism.