In the past two weeks in the district of Nuh in India’s Haryana state, 1,200 Muslim homes and businesses were razed to the ground in illegal demolitions carried out by the local affiliate of the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). [1]
Just prior to this, the far right Hindu group, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (translated as the World Hindu Council and known as the VHP) and its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal, had organised an anti-Muslim procession and reached the town of Nuh, about 73km from New Delhi.
Punjab and Haryana High Court describes events as ethnic cleansing
The bulldozing of Nuh’s Muslim infrastructure was revenge by the BJP for clashes that occurred after the above procession, and is yet another obvious instance of the selective and collective punishment of Muslims. [2]
Even the High Court of Punjab and Haryana likened the incident to an act of ethnic cleansing, as it was clearly part of an orchestrated trend of violence that has become a nationwide movement, growing in numbers, strength, and ferocity throughout Narendra Modi’s nine years in power. [3]
Just hours after the bulldozing, Hindu vs. Muslim clashes spread to Gurugram — 46km away — in which a mosque was torched and the imam was beaten and stabbed to death.
Notably, the incidents occurred in the same week in which three Muslim passengers were randomly targeted and murdered in cold blood by a rogue policeman on a moving train in Mumbai, for no crime other than being Muslim. [4] [5]
This motive is something that the killer openly admitted in a hateful rant upon his arrest. [4] [5]
A co-ordinated attack by dozens of village leaders
The tensions in Haryana state have been growing ever since over 50 panchayats — village councils with an acting chief — in three separate districts mandated with letters of identical wording that all Muslim traders are to be barred from the state. [6]
Curiously, the three districts have no Muslim residents. Such letters and injunctions banning traders are completely illegal.
However, due to the weak-minded prejudice of some uneducated and easily riled up BJP government supporters, the Muslim minorities of Haryana have been scared, tense, and on high alert amid the toxic atmosphere being fuelled against them day by day.
Silent suffering: the disturbing reality of anti-Muslim atrocities in India
Of course, it is undeniable that throughout India the oppression and persecution of Muslims is incessant and the global community as well as rights groups have amassed and documented vast evidence of this.
Anti-Muslim legislation, demolitions, and the barring of Muslims from trade and commerce, as well as from occupying social spaces, is spreading more rapidly than ever. [7]
However, for the last nine years in particular, the increase in vile and horrendous attacks on Muslims has spanned an entire spectrum of evil incarnate.
To list but a select few forms of abuse that Muslims in India regularly face, and which have been reported throughout the country:
- Beatings
- Electrocutions
- Public floggings with rods
- Stabbings of men, boys, and even women
- Torching of houses, businesses, and mosques
- Beheadings of respected family men and boys
- Rape and the molestation of girls and women by Hindu mobs.
What is more, anti-Muslim rallies are all too familiar and almost always followed by so-called “communal tensions”; these, in reality, are attacks on Muslims that result in fights, rioting, and casualties.
This unhinged behaviour is arguably a form of collective punishment meted out for any obvious act or symbol of Islam, such is the hatred of women in Islamic dress, of Muslims celebrating Eid, of prayers in mosques, of the calling of the adhān, and everything about normative Islam that has peacefully existed in India for 800 years.
From coexistence to attempted extermination: Hindutva’s impact on India’s Muslims
Until around 70 years ago, India’s considerable Muslim minority lived in peace alongside the country’s other religious groups.
However, since the initially steady and now rapid rise of the Hindutva ideology, Muslims are being systemically debased and dehumanised… until hate-filled assumptions become rumours… which become allegations… a response for which becomes justified by the psychotic behaviour of many Hindu nationalists and their bloodthirsty followers.
Upholding brotherhood: Islamic mandate to support the oppressed
In today’s global reality, it seems strange to many of us that the Muslim military strength of neighbouring lands should intervene in India’s domestic policies on behalf of the Muslims.
However, the Islamic perspective on alleviating oppression and genocide is undoubtedly that Muslim blood is more sacred than the Ka’ba.
As Abdullah ibn Umar (radiy Allāhu ‘anhu) reported in a famous hadīth,
“I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, circling the Ka’ba and saying,
‘How pure you are and how pure is your fragrance! How great you are, and how great is your sanctity! By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the sanctity of the believer is greater to Allah than your sanctity, in his wealth, his life, and to assume nothing of him but good.’” [8]
In our religion, Muslims are most definitely allies and helpers of one another, as Allah ʿazza wa jal explains in the Qur’ān,
“The believing men and believing women are allies of one another.
“They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give zakat, and obey Allah and His Messenger.
“It is they who will be shown Allah’s mercy. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.” [9]
The concept of brotherhood, unity, and the Ummah is recurrent in Islamic theology and so Muslims must believe that brotherhood is the cornerstone of an Islamic society.
Neither should we overlook the ijtihād of the great ulamā of the 20th century, who stipulated that when Muslims have the material strength to defend and support the oppressed, it’s an Islamic duty and collective responsibility to help their brothers.
This said, the surrounding region and wider geographical area’s Muslim countries including Pakistan, the Gulf states, and even the Far East Muslim lands are duty bound to come to the aid of the Muslims in India — however incomprehensible it may seem in the nation state-serving geopolitics of today.
May Allah (subḥānahu wa ta’āla) give every aid and comfort to the Muslims in India for their extreme sufferings, and all those living in fear and persecution across the globe, amīn.
Source: Islam21c
Notes
[3] https://www.rediff.com/news/report/act-against-panchayats-for-banning-muslim-traders-nuh-mla/20230810.htm
[4] https://thewire.in/communalism/nuh-violence-rpf-constables-murder-new-phase-anti-muslim-hate
[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/1/deadly-train-shooting-in-india-what-to-know
[7] https://www.reuters.com/world/india/hindus-muslims-clash-indias-haryana-trouble-spreads-2023-08-07/
[8] Sunan Ibn Mājah 3,932
[9] al-Qur’ān, 9:71
