IRIA News

Indian police shot dead two protesters and arrested more than 130 during protests sparked by a ruling party official’s remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.

From South Asia to the Middle East and Africa, millions of Muslims all around the world are outraged at India because of the insulting comments on Prophet Muhammad by the Indian ruling party’s spokespersons.

Muslim countries had been voicing their concerns against India’s deteriorating treatment of its Muslim minority and corroboration of Hindu supremacist ideology backed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The issue of India’s far-right government’s prejudice against Muslim minorities became a global issue when BJP’s spokesperson made insinuating remarks against Prophet Muhammad on a live television show during a heated debate. This caused outrage among Indian Muslims as well as among millions of Muslims all around the world.

Many far-right Hindu leaders and other BJP members have attempted to justify her actions and remarks, while Modi’s government has been reluctant to take any legal action against her, which made the situation even worse.

It is not often that geopolitical rivals like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar get on the same page, however, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has united the entire Muslim world in condemnation of his country. Muslim countries have joined their voices to condemn the incident as well as India’s overall treatment of the Muslim community and its strive for Hindu Supremacy.

The international blowback against India started on June 5, with Qatar, Iran, and Kuwait summoning their Indian ambassadors to lodge protests and demanding an apology. The list keeps expanding with more countries demanding an apology and legal action against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jinda.

Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Maldives, Pakistan, Bahrain, Libya, and Turkey have summoned their respective Indian ambassadors to record their protests. While the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council, a bloc of six West Asian nations, have separately filed formal protests.

Most of the Indian embassies from all around the world have been unconvincingly trying to repair the damage by releasing statements that the BJP spokesperson’s comments did not reflect the view of the Indian government. Sharma along with another BJP spokesperson Naveen Jindhal, has been removed from official positions and expelled from the party.

A press statement from BJP stated that the party ‘respects all religions’ and is strongly against any ideology which insults or demeans any sect or religion. However, the analysts and commentators believe that BJP’s statement is far from being true about the party’s ideology. India’s BJP rise to power has been fueled by the strategically mobilizing Hindu voter and showing an open grievance against India’s model of inclusive democracy.

India’s 200 million Muslims are the main target of the BJP’s lopsided policies. Many states have been imposing laws against Hijab, cow slaughtering, and other Muslim practices while using the government machinery for tormenting and brutalizing Muslims.

Being a close strategic ally in the Indo-Pacific region and fellow Quad member, the U.S. administration often downplays India’s human rights abuse and Islamophobia, however, in recent times, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also raised concerns about the situation in India. U.S. State Department in its latest annual International Religious Freedom Report to Congress stated that “Attacks on members of religious minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout the year.”

Earlier in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual news conference that insulting Prophet Muhammad is a “violation of religious freedom and the violation of the sacred feelings of people who profess Islam.”