UNITED NATIONS (TIP): India has slammed Pakistan for its “unjustified” reference to Jammu and Kashmir in the UN General Assembly, with New Delhi asserting that such remarks will neither validate the country’s claim nor justify its practice of cross-border terrorism. “As is their habit, the former foreign secretary of Pakistan today has made an unjustified reference to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador P Harish, said in remarks on Friday, March 14, in the General Assembly at the informal meeting of the plenary to commemorate the International Day to combat Islamophobia. Harish said frequent references by Pakistan will “neither validate their claim nor justify their practice of cross-border terrorism”.
“The fanatical mindset of this nation is well known, as also its record of bigotry. Such efforts will not change the reality that Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will always be an integral part of India,” he said.
Harish’s strong retort came after Pakistan’s former foreign secretary, Tehmina Janjua, made references to Jammu and Kashmir in her remarks at the informal meeting to commemorate the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
(Source: PTI)
WELLINGTON (TIP): A wave of antisemitic attacks has roiled Australia, with a dozen arrests for vandalizing or setting homes, schools, and synagogues on fire since October and hundreds more charged in just over a year with crimes targeting Jews.
The attacks in areas where Jewish people live have provoked an outpouring of condemnation — and a fraught and complicated debate about who’s to blame. But in a rare moment of unity, Australia’s federal lawmakers on February 6 advanced hate crime laws almost unanimously.
“We want people who are engaged in antisemitic activities to be caught, to be charged and to be put in the clink,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters.
“This is a time of national crisis,” opposition leader Peter Dutton said.
What’s happening in Australia?
Jewish and Muslim organizations and hate researchers have recorded drastic spikes in hate-fueled incidents on both groups since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. And although how groups define antisemitism and Islamophobia differs, the numbers the organizations cite all show a rise in incidents.
Antisemitic episodes in the two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne — home to 85% of Australia’s Jewish population — have drawn the highest profile because they’re severe, unusual and public.
Since November they’ve included:
— A trailer filled with explosives used in the mining industry and a list of Jewish targets discovered on Sydney’s outskirts
— Firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, with one person hurt. Defacement of another with Nazi symbols and pro-Palestine graffiti
— A Jewish childcare center set on fire
— Jewish schools in Sydney and Melbourne daubed with white supremacist graffiti
— Three Jewish businesses torched
— The former home of a prominent Jewish leader sprayed with graffiti
— Cars defaced and windows smashed in areas where Jews live
Counter-terrorism officials have arrested 12 people in connection with those crimes. Nearly 200 more have been charged since October 2023 in the state of New South Wales – where Sydney is located – with crimes linked to antisemitism, police say.
Who’s committing the crimes?
Investigators are examining whether criminals for hire were paid by foreign actors to carry out the recent attacks, leaders of the taskforce said in January. They did not specify what foreign interests they believed were responsible.
Days later, officials said the 12 arrested by the taskforce don’t share the antisemitic ideology expressed by their crimes, underscoring suggestions that the acts were orchestrated abroad.
The revelations were strange — but not unprecedented, analysts said.
“It’s not completely new, the connection between ideological groups and criminal groups,” said Matteo Vergani, a researcher of hate and extremism with Deakin University. “What’s new is that it usually happens in relation to larger scale terrorist attacks. So that is surprising.”
What’s behind the rise?
Lawmakers in speeches this week said the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas had provoked a outburst of antisemitism at levels Australia had not registered before.
In tense public debates echoing those in the United States and elsewhere, right-leaning lawmakers and some Jewish leaders — among them Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry — have accused pro-Palestinian demonstrators, particularly “progressives” and university students, he said, of fueling the crimes.
Demonstrators use opposition to Israel to target Jews and give antisemitism “a new social license,” he said.
Other Jewish leaders were more cautious. The episodes were “alarming and worthy of attention,” said Sarah Schwartz from the Jewish Council of Australia.
“But I think the real danger we see here with linking this spate of antisemitic incidents to the Palestine solidarity movement is that that sort of language breeds division, breeds anti-Palestinian racism, breeds Islamophobia and is also bad for Jews as well,” she said.
What’s the government’s response?
Albanese’s center-left government on Thursday approved measures in the House of Representatives that will create new and bolstered hate crime offences protecting a raft of characteristics, including race, religion and gender.
Amendments from the opposition include the imposition of mandatory prison terms for terrorism offenses — which the prime minister had rejected before —- and for displaying hate symbols.
The bill passed 117 votes to 13. It’s expected the Senate will pass it into law.
Other initiatives since last January include:
— Imposing sanctions on Terrorgram, an online white supremacist terrorism financing network
— Criminalizing Nazi salutes
— Making doxing — the sharing of personal information online — illegal after a list of Australian Jews was published on the internet in 2024
— Appointing national envoys to address Islamophobia and antisemitism
Some states have passed their own laws; New South Wales also revealed proposed hate crime measures Thursday.
What’s different in Australia?
By all measures, anti-Jewish hate has spiked across the U.S., Europe and the United Kingdom since October 2023 — even though many leaders have denounced it — prompting tens of thousands of Jews to leave Europe, according to some figures.
However, Australia’s situation had distinctive factors, analysts said. One was the claim that the primary agitators could be based abroad. (AP)
Right now, India’s global reputation as a viable Democracy and a Secular nation is under scrutiny as it has descended into a major milestone of steep descent into darkness of bigotry and Islamophobia. Modi that is known to invoke values of pluralism abroad, has remained silent as Indian democracy is humiliated with international backlash. It looks like Modi has successfully externalized his domestic agenda of targeting minorities, especially the 205 million Muslims with impunity and hate speeches, and with official sanctions. Prime example is Anurag Thakur who was elevated from a Junior Minister to Independent Minister after he made a remark in Jan 2020 targeting Muslims for protesting against Citizenship (Amendment) Act, “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko (Shoot the traitors of the country)”
By Dave Makkar
For the first time in the 75 years history of Independent India, the government headed by BJP’s Modi is on the biggest diplomatic firefighting mission of apology to 15 Majority-Muslim nations and 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) over the derogatory remarks made on Prophet Mohammed by leaders of the ruling BJP. This time it was not just Indian Muslims speaking out and protesting on the streets all across India but on June 5, 2022 the governments of Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Libya, Turkey, Maldives, Iraq, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Pakistan and Malaysia issued stinging statements condemning the comments. Some countries are demanding written apologies besides calling the Indian Ambassadors to register their protest. In some countries, there were massive street protests, and in Qatar, “Boycott India” campaign was also trending on social media.
Dinner to be hosted by Deputy Emir of Qatar for India’s VP Venkaiah Naidu was cancelled. VP Naidu was on a 3-day state visit to Qatar. Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Al Muraikhi warned in a statement that “insulting remarks would lead to incitement of religious hatred and offend more than 2 billion Muslims around the world.”
In response to this diplomatic row, the Indian embassy in Doha released a statement insisting that the comments were made by “fringe elements” and “do not, in any manner, reflect the views of the Government of India”.
The 57-member OIC . condemned the remarks and said it came in a “context of intensifying hatred and abuse toward Islam in India and systematic practices against Muslims.” OIC also urged the United Nations to take necessary measures to ensure that the rights of minorities are protected in India. The Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a halt to any sort of violence, especially the one based on perceived religious differences and hatred, amidst protests in India over the controversial remarks against the Prophet by two now-suspended BJP leaders.
This gigantic diplomatic backlash comes on the heels of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken naming India while releasing the State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report (USCIRF) on June 2, 2022. Blinken said: “in India, the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, we have seen rising attacks on people and places of worship.” Rashad Hussain, the Ambassador-at-Large for IRF called out the Indian government officials, who he said are “ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship.” The report also mentioned several Hindu extremist leaders; like Yati Narasinghanand, Maa Annapurna Bharti, Swami Paramatmananda, and BJP’s UP CM Yogi Adityanath, a close ally of PM Modi.
USCIRF has recommended U.S. Government to designate India as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA); Impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ or entities’ assets and/or barring their entry into the United States.
“Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko (Shoot the traitors of the country)”: Anurag Thakur, Sports Minister of India.
Right now, India’s global reputation as a viable Democracy and a Secular nation is under scrutiny as it has descended into a major milestone of steep descent into darkness of bigotry and Islamophobia. Modi that is known to invoke values of pluralism abroad, has remained silent as Indian democracy is humiliated with international backlash. It looks like Modi has successfully externalized his domestic agenda of targeting minorities, especially the 205 million Muslims with impunity and hate speeches, and with official sanctions. Prime example is Anurag Thakur who was elevated from a Junior Minister to Independent Minister after he made a remark in Jan 2020 targeting Muslims for protesting against Citizenship (Amendment) Act, “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko (Shoot the traitors of the country)”
After assuming power in 2014, Modi has been allowing rather encouraging without punishment; Islamophobic remarks by members of his government, his Party BJP, state governments under BJP, Hindu organizations, Media & educational institutions. In all the BJP ruled states Muslims & Christians are openly being denied basic human rights, right to justice as well as right to worship. Muslims, especially male and female student leaders & activists are maliciously prosecuted under the directions from BJP ruled states or Modi’s central government. They are beaten & lynched in broad daylight. Muslim Houses are demolished in (Israeli style) Collective Punishment for valid protests termed as riots or turned into riots by BJP or RSS or other Hindu organizations or as unauthorized structures even if they are there for 30-40 years & some have government documents. Hindu owned houses with similar or worst status in the same vicinity are left untouched. On social media, female Muslim journalists, activist and social workers have been ferociously trolled and issued threats of the worst kind, including rape. Muslim women have been put up for sale in fake auctions. Islamophobic memes and hashtags, taunting and tainting Muslims in India has become the norm.
Also, since 2014, Islamic structures including Mosques are being targeted under the excuse that they were built 5-9 centuries ago after demolishing Hindu Temples. UNESCO World Heritage Sites like Taj Mahal, Jama Masjid, Qutub Minar etc. are being disputed as built on Hindu temples. BJP ruled Karnataka that is referred as “Silicon Valley of India” has gone one step further and started doing surveys of Christian Churches also to establish if they were built after demolishing Hindu temples. Whereas “The 1991 Act says that a mosque, temple, church or any place of public worship in existence on August 15, 1947, will retain the same religious character that it had on that day – irrespective of its history – and cannot be changed by the courts or the government”.
Fringe elements? Home Minister Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of UP Yogi Adityanath.
Modi’s government has maintained a studied silence or at the most has always blamed “fringe elements” for such actions. They do not hesitate even to include their own National Spokesperson currently Chairman of Tourism Department, “Sambit Patra as Fringe Element”. All this appears to have emboldened ordinary Hindus to beat Muslims in public, go online and tarnish Muslims with impunity. They publicly cry about being the victim and think they are entitled to revenge for what happened from 7th to 17th century. This itself constitutes a grave danger to the protection of human rights and may lead to further prejudice and marginalization, which will create a cycle of violence and hate against Indian Muslims including public lynching.
Role of Indian Media in spreading Islamophobia in India:
The Godi Media of India
Prime Time debates in India since 2014 have become a platform to encourage Hindu hate mongers to speak ill about other religions. The anchors encourage hatemongering and allow BJP or RSS or other Hindu organizations spokesperson to speak rubbish that is corrupting the moral and social fiber of the society and can incite violence against believers of other religions.
These media houses are called as Modi’s Godi(lapdog), bikau (saleable), dalal(agent) and bharkau(inflammatory) Media This is how a major section of India’s mainstream media is labelled by most Indians, especially Muslims, Christians and low-caste Hindus, opposition parties, as well as ½ a dozen national media — all because of their brazen support for the ruling party BJP, its ideological parent RSS and the government.
Their journalists and anchors routinely engage in spreading hatred towards the country’s 205 million Muslim population and Islam, thus nourishing Islamophobia. They also demonstrate a clear bias against the country’s low-caste Hindus, the poor, and less privileged and weaker sections of society. They openly favor the rich and powerful that owns or finance their channels. Shamelessly they promote Hindutva & Hindu Rashtra– an ideology that seeks to establish the hegemony of Hindus and the Hindu way of life — spearheaded by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its ruling political front Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Any criticism of the BJP is narrated as “anti-nationalist” and any individual challenging or demanding answers from the party is labelled “anti-Indian”.
Here is Media ranking in descending order in spreading Islamophobia in India:
Republic TV- co-founded and majority-owner Arnab Goswami is the channel’s editor and news anchor. Known for opinionated reporting in favor of BJP & RSS and their Hindutva-Hindu Rashtra agenda including uncritically reproducing government narratives, avoiding criticism of BJP/RSS figures, and presenting their political opponents in a negative light. He shamelessly shows his bias. He is the King; “No one can beat him in spreading hatred against Muslims and fake news”. On top of that no one can match him in shouting contest.
CNN News 18 owned by Poster Boy of Gangster Capitalism, billionaire Mukesh Ambani. A supporter & 2nd top financier of Modi, RSS, Hindu Rashtra; owns 65 channels: English, Hindi and 14 regional language news, business, entertainment, music, movies, youth, Kids, factual entertainment and shopping channels. Its star news anchor Amish Devgan is a Clone of Republic TV’s Arnab in shouting and arrogance, and routinely indulges in Muslim bashing and spreading fake news.
Aaj Tak – Owned by Arun Purie’s India Today Group, Aaj Tak has three of the worst Islamophobic anchors in the Indian media — Anjana Om Kashyap, Rohit Sardana and Sweta Singh. They are notorious for their vitriolic attacks against Muslims and spreading communal hatred. They routinely indulge in Muslim bashing, while show deferential surrender to anything the BJP does.
India Today (English) Also owned by Purie’s India Today Group with main anchors Rajdeep Sardesai and Rahul Kanwal. Rajdeep is mildly anti-BJP and a bit critical of Modi. Rahul Kanwal in 2020 became a full-time supporter of Modi, BJP & RSS and its ideology after a punishment for being openly critical of Modi.
Wion (World is One News) – operated by Essel Group, owns nearly two dozen Zee channels (some of them merged with Sony TV in Feb. 2022). Its chairman Subhash Chandra was a BJP supported Rajya Sabha MP till June 11, 2022. He has been promoting its Hindutva aka Hindu Rashtra agenda and anti-Muslim tirades. His star prime time news anchor Sudhir Chaudhary was jailed for demanding bribes for not publishing news; is also the editor-in-chief. He is the Hindi version of Republic TV’s Arnab as he openly supports the BJP, RSS and Modi.
Times Now- owned by Pro BJP/RSS Sahu Jain family of Times of India News paper’s Group. Rahul Shivshankar Editor in Chief, Navika Kumar Gp Editor; openly support BJP and RSS by promoting its Hindutva aka Hindu Rashtra and anti-Muslim agenda
India TV – Founder Rajat Sharma and his wife Ritu Dhawan. Rajat was a member of ABVP (Student Wing of RSS) & very close friend of late Arun Jaitley, the most corrupt Modi’s BJP Finance Minister in the history of India. He openly supports BJP and RSS by promoting its Hindutva aka Hindu Rashtra and anti-Muslim agenda.
ABP News – Owned Pro BJP Aveek Sarkar of Anandabazar Patrika Group. It used to be neutral, but it turned pro-BJP a couple of years ago. after the Modi government objected to criticism of the BJP and Baba Ramdev by its star journalists Punya Prasoon Vajpayee and Abhisar Sharma. Both were fired and Rubika Liyaquat joined to replace them to became the commander-in-chief of its news anchors. A Muslim, with angry rhetoric against Muslim leaders and do not allow any criticism of Modi or BJP or RSS or their policies.
Republic Bharat — This sister channel of Republic TV is funded by the BJP and RSS. Its anchor Sucherita Kukreti, a female version of Arnab Goswami in shouting and spitting the venom of hatred against Muslims.
Sudarshan News — Its chairman, Suresh Chavhanke, knowingly disseminates anti-Muslim content and manufactures fake news with communal overtones, which has earned him titles such as “bigot” and “dangerous”. He was a long-term RSS volunteer and associated with ABVP. And prefers that the news programs over his channel be viewed as opinionated campaigns.
News Nation – Deepak Chaurasia, the consulting editor of this channel, which is owned by News Nation Network, is known as a “puppet” of Modi. He always makes fun of all the political parties except the BJP and its allies. He is notorious for his over-the-top coverage of news issues and for being uncritical of the BJP government.
News24 (India) – Owner B.A.G. Films and Media, promoters are Anurradha Prasad, sister of BJP Union Minister R S Prasad, along with her husband, Pro BJP Congress politician Rajeev Shukla.
Ethnic Indian media in USA
Unfortunately, 97% of the Ethnic Indian media in USA are like their counterparts in India. Their anchors are no less than Arnab Goswami or Amish Devgan or Sudhir Chowdhary or Navika Kumar or Anjana Om Kashyap etc. when it comes to spreading Islamophobia and fake news while promoting BJP & RSS’s Hindutva & Hindu Rashtra agenda in USA.
A glance over the few important Islamophobic incidents in last 31/2 years that has led to the unprecedented international outcry against India for the Islamophobic comments made by ruling party BJP’s 2 senior leaders about Prophet Muhammad.
June 2018, Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochar was fired from JW Marriott Marquis, Dubai after he tweeted that followers of Islam had “terrorized” Hindus for 2,000 years.
Sep. 2018 in a public meeting, India’s Home (Interior) Minister Amit Shah compared the illegal Bangladeshi Muslims migrants with “Termites”.
April 2019 Home (Interior) Minister Amit Shah in an election rally again said, “Infiltrators are like termites in the soil of Bengal.” “A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will pick up infiltrators one by one and throw them into the Bay of Bengal,” referring to illegal Muslim immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.
April 2019, BJP’s Communal & a Criminal Hindu Priest CM Adityanath Yogi of UP the most populous state of India, spoke about a “green virus” in an election speech in reference to Muslim voters who he said were being wooed by opposition parties. In another election speech he referred Muslims as the “Taliban”
April 2019, BJP MLA Mayankeshwar Singh from UP’s Siddharthnagar in an election speech threatened Muslims with bodily harm for effectively just existing. “If Hindus in Hindustan wake up the beard will be pulled and made into a choti (a tightened braid). If you have to live in Hindustan you have to say ‘Radhe’ (chant Hindu God’s name), else, like those who went to Pakistan during the partition, you can go too… you have no use here,”
Dec 2019, PM Modi made a Islamophobic remark targeting Muslims protesting over Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA); “those indulging in arson “can be identified by their clothes”.
Feb. 2020, Modi’s Junior Minister Anurag Thakur while leading a pro CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) rally called a slogan, “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalo ko (Shoot the traitors of the country)” targeting the ongoing Muslim women’s 24X7 sit in protest against CAA & NRC at Shaheen Bagh, Delhi. After Thakur’s rally, the city saw deadly communal riots which left 53 dead and 700 injured – majority of them Muslims. Shaheen Bagh protest (Dec 15, 2019 to March 24, 2020) was a peaceful sit-in protest in Delhi lead by women only. Anurag Thakur was rewarded and elevated to a Minister with independent charge in July 2021.
Nov. 9, 2019, Travesty of justice in Babri Masjid vs Ram Janma Bhumi; in a unanimous verdict the Supreme Court of India under CJ Ranjan Gogoi who was retiring on Nov. 17, 2019; awarded the land of disputed Babri Masjid to Hindus. However, the court added that the demolition of the Babri mosque was against the rule of law but do not propose any prosecution for those responsible for the demolition; basically acquitting all the 49 accused high ranking leaders of instigating the mob. Babri Masjid was built in 1528-29 and demolished by the Hindu mob under the top leadership of BJP, RSS, VHP & other militant Hindu organization in 1992. It led to riots in different parts of India that killed nearly 2,000 people. All the Hindu organizations led by BJP had started instigating the Hindus from 1989 to demolish the Mosque by making them believe that the land is the “Birthplace of Lord Ram”. On the other hand, Hindu scriptures say that “Kan Kan mei Vyape hein Ram” meaning “Lord Rama permeates every atom of this universe”. Ever since the Modi-led BJP came to power in 2014, India has seen deepening social and religious divisions. The demand for Ram Janam Bhumi became louder and clearer. Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was rewarded by Modi regime in March 2020 by making him Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) member after awarding a verdict in favor of Hindus in Dec 2019.
April 2020, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya landed in a row for a tweet he had posted in 2015 with an “objectionable and disrespectful” comment about Arab Women. “95 percent Arab women never had orgasms in last few hundred years: Tarek Fatah.” Prominent businesspeople, lawyers and commentators in Dubai and Kuwait condemned his remarks. He deleted the tweet.
April 2020, When Indians living in Dubai began posting anti-Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi as a supper spreader of Covid, Princess Hend Al Qassimi warned that “anyone that is openly racist and discriminatory in the UAE will be fined and made to leave”. Under Modi’s Home Minister Amit Shah, attendees of Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi were accused of spreading the Covid-19 virus. Criminal cases were registered against several attendees including foreign nationals in the courts across India. in August 2020, the Bombay HC quashed three FIRs against 35 petitioners – 29 of them foreign nationals. The court observed: “A political government tries to find the scapegoat when there is pandemic or calamity and the circumstances show that there is probability that these foreigners were chosen to make them scapegoats. Some of the charge sheeted Muslims neither attended the Delhi congregation nor were they inclined to the Tablighi ideology, as evidenced in the case of eight charge sheeted individuals, whose case was dismissed by the Delhi’s Saket district court on 25 August 2020. The SC CJ Sharad Bobde observed “evasiveness” in that the Government of India’s affidavit filed in response to petitions challenging the discriminatory and communal coverage of the Tablighi Jamaat incident by some sections of the media. He termed it as “unnecessary, nonsensical” averments. On 16 December 2020, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of a Delhi Court, Arun Kumar Garg, acquitted the 36 foreign nationals from 14 countries of all the charges levelled against them.
August 2021, BJP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay made anti Muslim slogans including calling for Muslims to be murdered, in a rally in favor of the uniform civil code, at Jantar Mantar, Delhi.
Sep. 2021, BJP’s UP CM Adityanath Yogi in a public rally said that prior to his government’s formation in 2017, the ration (subsidized food grains) meant for the poor would get ‘digested’ by those who utter “Abba Jaan” as a communal reference to Muslims. In several parts of India, Muslims use the phrase “Abba Jaan” to refer to their fathers or as an endearment.
Oct. 2021, Uttarakhand BJP president Mandan Kaushik told the media, “Our party line is clear that no [religious] conversion [from Hinduism] will be tolerated.”
November 2021,BJP Leader Ashwini Upadhyay was featured on a panel on the imaginary bogey of ‘thook jihad (spit jihad).’ where he said, these thook (spitting) jihadis are either being taught all this by their parents or at their madrassas (schools).” He even suggested that Muslim men may be mixing other body fluids in the food they prepare for sale to Hindus.
December 2021, Upadhyay was a notable BJP presence at the now-notorious Dharma Sansad which took place at Haridwar. Known Islamophobic Militant Hindu Priest Yati Narsinghanand called Muslims “demons”, threatened to “eliminate” them and said he is striving to create an India “free of Islam”.
Swami Prabodhanand Giri said the country now belongs to Hindus. “This is why, like in Myanmar, the police here, the politicians here, the army and every Hindu must pick up weapons, and we will have to conduct this cleanliness drive,” he said while referring to Muslims. “There is no solution apart from this.”
Maa Annapurna Bharti, alias Pooja Shakun Pandey, “Nothing is possible without weapons. If you want to eliminate their population then kill them. Even if 100 of us are ready to kill 20 lakhs of them (Muslims), then we will be victorious, and go to jail.”
Suresh Chavhanke, owner of Militant Hindu channel “Sudarhan News”, administered an oath to turn India into a Hindu-first country. “We make a resolution until our last breath: We will make India a Hindu nation, and keep it a Hindu-only nation,” he said. “We will fight and die if required, we will kill as well.” He then tweeted a video of the oath to his half a million followers.
The event concluded with an oath-taking which called for the “protection” of the Hindu religion against all those who might pose a threat to it ‘by any means necessary.
Feb. 2022, BJP MLA from UP’s Dumariganj, in a video said, “Since I became an MLA, they (the Muslims) have stopped wearing skull caps. If you vote for me again, they will start wearing tilaks.” Again on February 15, 2022 panel on India TV, he interrupted a Muslim panelist to hurl religious slurs and abuses against him, threatening to feed pig’s milk (derogatory for Muslims) to the panelist, whom he described as a “b*****d dog and an illegitimate child of Hindus”. He was seen in another video threatening Muslims and accused all Hindus who did not vote for him of being Muslims. He said, “Any Hindu who doesn’t vote for me has Miyan (Muslim) blood in his veins. He’s a traitor. He is a b*****d son of Jaichand. He’s a sinner son of his father…I am warning you this time…traitors of Hindu religion will be destroyed.” Further he goes on to threaten Muslims by saying, “Listen Muslims, if any Hindu is insulted and if you look at any Hindu girl, then I’ll get you beaten so much and cut so much…that…”. The latter part of his warning drowns out amidst ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants.
April 2022, Bihar BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul said that Muslims should be set ablaze just as Hindus burn Ravana effigies during the festival of Dussehra. Earlier in Feb 2022, he had also said that Muslims living in India should be stripped of “Voting Rights” and treated as second-class citizens.
May 2022, 3 BJP MLA’s K.G. Bopaiah, Appachuranjan and Suja Kushalappa from BJP ruled Karnataka state Assembly were present at the “Arms training camp’ organized by the anti-Islam militant Hindu “Bajrang Dal”. A viral video on social media showed youths, appearing to be minors, in possession of airguns, trishuls(Tridents) and other weapons.
May 2022 in BJP ruled MP, a 65-year-old Hindu with cognitive disabilities Bhawarlal Jain, was beaten to death by a BJP worker Dinesh Kushwaha suspecting him to be a Muslim.
NEW DELHI, INDIA – JANUARY 21: BJP candidate from New Delhi Constituency Nupur Sharma arrives at Jamnagar House to file her nominations for the upcoming Delhi Assembly Elections 2015 on January 21, 2015 in New Delhi, India. Polling in Delhi will be held on February 7 and the counting of votes will take place on February 10. (Photo by Saumya Khandelwal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
May 27, 2022, BJP National Spokesperson & SC Lawyer Nupur Sharma’s made derogatory and insulting comments against Prophet Mohammad during a debate on Times Now with Anchor Navika Kumar on the dispute over the Gyanvapi mosque. Pro BJP Navika Kumar allowed Sharma to make insulting remarks about the prophet and his marriage. The party’s Delhi media head, Naveen Kumar Jindal, subsequently tweeted another offensive comment about Prophet Muhammad, the most revered figure in Islam. This has incensed Indian Muslims and a week later outraged more than a dozen Islamic nations.
Hindus claim that the Gyanvapi Mosque in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi is built on the ruins of a grand 16th Century Hindu shrine – destroyed in 1669 by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb – and some are now seeking a court’s permission to pray within the mosque complex.
May 27, 2022, Former Karnataka Deputy CM and at present BJP MLA Eshwarappa issued a statement to media that 36,000 temples were destroyed to build mosques over them. He stated that all of them would be reclaimed by Hindus legally.
June 5, 2022, repeat offender for Islamophobic comments including calling for genocide & derogatory comments against the Father of the Nation, Mahatama Gandhi; Maa Annapurna Bharti alias Shakun Pandey inked a letter “with her blood” to India’s President Kovind, asking him to take action against Friday Muslim prayers, which she claims are an “anti-Hindu congregation”. She said, “Friday is not a day for prayers. Instead, it is a day for terrorism. The Friday congregations by Muslims are not for worship but for the genocide of non-Muslims, loot, arson and sexual harassment. Hence, the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha demands that on Fridays, the entry of Muslims in small mosques should be restricted only to 10 Muslims while 25 Muslims should be allowed in bigger ones.
If all the above Islamophobic actions were done by the “Fringe Elements” then who is promoting and supporting “Islamophobia” in India? The answer is not difficult to find. It is India’s internationally known Hinduwadi and domestically known as Hindu Heart Throb aka Hindu Hriday Samrat aka Hindu King aka Prime Minister Narendra Modi…!! Under parliamentary system fashioned after the Westminster system the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of the government and head/owner of all the departments and executive power. The head of the state, the president in India, holds a largely ceremonial position, although often with reserve powers. In case of current President Kovind, it is a well-known fact that he only speaks the language of PM Modi.
Poster Boys of Gangster Capitalism of India. L to R: Rattan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, and Gautam Adani
The next question is who is financing Islamophobia and Modi that is representing each and every Hindu organization that wants to make India a “Hindu Rashtra” ? The answer is the gangster capitalist of India that is supporting Modi. The current top 3 Poster Boys of Gangster Capitalism of India are Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani, and Rattan Tata. Their net worth under Modi’s 8 years rule has gone up by 175% to 350% and now they own all the major industries, including defense and service sector of India.
“Modi’s eminence is due to the surrounding flatness of India”.
Unfortunately, here the flatness means; illiterate, communal & criminal Modi’s high reputation is only because of the terribly low morals, ethics, honesty and talents left in India these days. Since 2014, India under Modi has become a sad story. Over 60% Indians are gladly willing to pay Islamophobic Tax, even if it begets them unemployment, poverty, hunger and even starvation! No one can save a nation in death wish mode.
(Compiled by Devendra Makkar from various internet sources & writings of prominent journalists)
Islamabad/Dhaka (TIP): Tens of thousands of Muslims protested in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Palestinian territories on Friday after killings in a French church prompted a vow from President Emmanuel Macron to stand firm against attacks on French values and freedom of belief. French Interior Minister Gerald Damarnin said France, the home to Europe’s largest Muslim community and hit by a string of militant attacks in recent years, was engaged in a war against Islamist ideology and more attacks were likely.
In Pakistan, police briefly fired tear gas at protesters who broke through security blockades in Islamabad in a failed attempt to demonstrate at the French Embassy against the printing in France of images depicting the Prophet Mohammad. Protests and gatherings marking the occasion were also held in the Pakistani cities of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. In Bangladesh, tens of thousands marched through Dhaka, the capital, chanting “Boycott French products” and carrying banners calling Macron “the world’s biggest terrorist”.
“Macron is leading Islamophobia,” said Dhaka demonstrator Akramul Haq. “He doesn’t know the power of Islam. The Muslim world will not let this go in vain. We’ll rise and stand in solidarity against him,” he added.
Some Bangladeshi demonstrators also burned effigies of Macron and carried cut-outs of the president with a garland of shoes around his neck, a severe insult according to Islam.
a Muslim-majority district of India’s financial hub Mumbai, some 100 posters showing Macron with a boot on his face and calling him a “demon” were pasted on pavements and roads.
In Lebanon, security forces fired tear gas to drive back some 300 protesters including supporters of a local Sunni Islamist party who marched from a mosque in the capital Beirut to the official residence of the French ambassador.
Thousands of Palestinian worshippers rallied after Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, in Jerusalem’s walled Old City to condemn the republication of Mohammad caricatures in France. “A nation whose leader is Mohammad will not be defeated,” protesters chanted.
“We hold the French president responsible for acts of chaos and violence that are taking place in France because of his comments against Islam and against Muslims,” said Ikrima Sabri, the preacher who delivered the sermon at al Aqsa. In Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinians trampled on a large French flag and burned other French flags. In Gaza, ruled by Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, hundreds of Palestinians took part in anti-France rallies, chanting: “With our souls and blood we will redeem the Prophet.”
Thousands in Somalia turned up for Friday prayers in mosques where sermons were dominated by curses and condemnation of Macron and his government.
Abdirahman Hussein Mohamed, a shopkeeper in the capital Mogadishu, set aside all French products including face wash, perfumes and other cosmetics with a large sign, “NOT FOR SALE”.
“I will never sell those products…as long as France does not apologise. France insulted our Prophet,” Mohamed told Reuters. (Reuters)
BEIJING (TIP): China will step up a campaign against religious extremism in the far western region of Xinjiang on March 25 by implementing measures, including prohibiting “abnormal” beards, the wearing of veils in public places and the refusal to watch state television.
Hundreds have died in recent years in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people, in unrest blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants and separatists, though rights groups say the violence is more a reaction to repressive Chinese policies.
The government denies committing abuses in Xinjiang and insists the legal, cultural and religious rights of Uig hurs, a Turkic ethnic group, are fully protected.
While China officially guarantees freedom of religion, authorities have taken steps in the past few years to tackle what it sees as a rise in religious extremism. New legislation passed on Wednesday, widens existing rules and will come into effect on April 1.
Workers in public spaces will be required to “dissuade” those who fully cover their bodies, including veiling their faces, from entering, and to report them to the police, the rules state. It will be banned to “reject or refuse radio, television and other public facilities and services”, marrying using religious rather than legal procedures and “using the name of Halal to meddle in the secular life of others”. “Parents should use good moral conduct to influence their children, educate them to revere science, pursue culture, uphold ethnic unity and refuse and oppose extre mism,” the rules say . The document also bans not allowing children to attend regular school, not abiding by family planning policies, deliberately damaging legal documents and “abnormal growing of beards”.
While Uighurs have traditionally practiced a more relaxed form of Islam, the popularity of veils for women has grown in recent years in what experts say is an expression of opposition to Chinese controls.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a “great wall of iron” to safeguard Xinjiang during the annual meeting of the parliament earlier this month.
“Europe is sitting on a time bomb and any small spark could ignite it. Remember that all conflicts in the last 2000 years have started in Europe and became ‘world’ conflicts. India has already given $10 billion or Rs 56,000 crore – nearly one per cent of GDP to help Europe. Not a single European paper or leader has thanked us openly. One can only hope that we need not give more of our GDP or become cannon fodder in Anglo-Saxon conflicts”, says the author – By Prof Vaidyanathan
I wrote in 2013 about “Europe Going Down”
Quote
“The European economic and social crisis is becoming worse with each passing day. One business channel asked me in 2008 how long it might take to recover and I responded saying 40 quarters – they never came back to interview. But now I forecast it may never recover.
Sri Aurobindo seems to have said that India will rise on the ashes of western civilization and it seems to be coming true. It is important to recognize that the dominance of the West has been there only for last 200 odd years. According to Angus Maddison’s pioneering OECD study, India and China had nearly 50 per cent of global GDP as late as the 1820s. Hence India and China are not emerging or rising powers. They are retrieving their original position. In 1990, the share of the G-7 in world GDP (on a purchasing power parity basis) was 51 per cent and that of emerging markets, 36 per cent. But in 2012, it is the reverse. So, the dominant west is a myth.
Europe is facing three types of crisis – economic, demographic, civilizational and it is not in a position to come out of these. All three are not recent ones; they were developing over a period and are now culminating into a catastrophe.
The Debt to GDP ratio of most of Europe is at unsustainable levels with our own Britain having above 500 per cent – I say our own since we are going to have to help them run their country sooner than later. There are three major constituents of debt – Government debt, corporate debt and household debt. Of the three, we find household debt has reached nearly 80 to 100 per cent of GDP in most of these countries. The reason is simple – unlike India, households in Europe and USA have forgotten one simple word – savings. They live on debt and are interned by debt.
The situation is made worse by the unemployment situation. Youth unemployment has reached 55 per cent in Spain and hovering above 30 per cent in most of the other countries. Youth is defined as being between the ages of 16 to 24, unlike in India where even a 43-year-old is a ‘youth icon’. The overall unemployment is at more than 25 per cent in most countries and it is creating social turmoil.
Along with this is the demographic crisis. The population of Europe during the First World War was nearly 25 per cent. Today it is around 11 per cent and is expected to become 3 per cent in another 20 years. This is mainly due to low reproductive rates and in some countries, is as low as 1 when 2.1 is considered as equilibrating rate. Europe will disappear from the world map unless migrants from Africa and Asia take it over. That is why Europe is being referred to as Eurobia and London as Londonistan.
The root cause of the issue is the attempt in Europe to nationalize families and privatize business. Old age issue/health issues/ child care issues are all normal family activities that have been taken over by the state and the state is broke. Funded security schemes are facing crisis since not enough numbers are getting in to labor force due to low reproductive rates and unfundedsecurity system is in difficulty since taxes are not adequate due to low population growth.
Coupled with economic and demographic crisis is the crisis of civilization in Europe. It has renounced the Church and has become secular. Church attendance has fallen significantly and churches have become tourist attractions rather than places of worship.
Most of the migrants, particularly those doing ‘brown color work’ – like garbage removal, cleaning plates in restaurant, porter jobs, and grape-picking – are people from Mauritania/Somalia/ Algeria etc. and most are Muslims by faith. Due to a high degree of unemployment, there is resentment against migrants and this anger is turning into anger against Muslims. Added to this is the new front started by France in Mali to fight Islamic fundamentalists. Africa may become a new Vietnam for Europe.
Europe is sitting on a time bomb and any small spark could ignite it. Remember that all conflicts in the last 2000 years have started in Europe and became ‘world’ conflicts. India has already given $10 billion or Rs 56,000 crore – nearly one per cent of GDP to help Europe. Not a single European paper or leader has thanked us openly. One can only hope that we need not give more of our GDP or become cannon fodder in Anglo-Saxon conflicts.”
Unquote
Again in 2016 about- How the idea of Europe is dead
Quote
“Brussels Airport attacks by Jihadists again bring to life challenge faced by Europe as we know. Europe of Mozart and Goethe and Schopenhauer and Sartre and Beethoven is dead.
The cultured European having his wine and enjoying concerts and Opera is passé.
Today Every European walks with his eyes turned on his back and ears listening to any changes.
In small towns, new neighbors are looked at with suspicion and old neighbors are expected to behave. The sound of screeching cars at night makes them awake and sirens and cops are normal scene.
The Radical Islam is not fighting Christianity -which anyhow is dead in Europe-but it is fighting the modernity. Islam is frightened of modernity destroying their religion and culture how so ever unacceptable it may be to European liberals. It is concerned about pre-marital sex/contraception/homosexuality/adultery/ “unprotected” women etc.
Europe does not know how to handle it. The rise of rightwing forces -le Pen in France and PEGIDA in Germany-is going to lit the fires of newer European conflicts. Europe thought- a la Merkel- that they can buy peace with radical Islam by “requesting” them to integrate. But integrate with what? Integrate with “immoral” Europe where women are exhibited as “open meat” [in the words of the Australian Imam] who are “poisonous”
Europe has seen Crusades and 100 years wars-between Christianity and Islam. But never has it had seen a conflict of this nature between “modernity” and Islam. The ongoing tussle in Turkey enlarges the conflict in the underbelly of Europe. Already Europe has 50% unemployment among youth groups and everyday 10000 are marching in the name of refugees. Remember some 200 years before entire Spain and up to the gates of Vienna it was Andalusia Empire and thousands of mosques were converted to Churches after Europe was “cleansed” of Islam.
This time the Europe which is facing crisis is different. It is not the Pews and Stained glasses but concert halls and swimming pools and whole night parties opposed by Radicals.
The issue is regarding life style and one likes it or not radical Islam is “Global moral policeman”. He knows the place of women in society and also the place of Europeans.
Unfortunately, Europe has lost the will to fight and stand for whatever are its values. Its own idea of “freedom” is going to devour it when it is offered to Radical Islamists. Europe as we know is dead. Amen.”
Unquote
Merkel did a major mistake in opening the doors for the “refugees” and same with EU. The numbers are swelling and expectedly a million more waiting. One section of them would prefer Sharia and rule of Caliphate. Social tensions increasing and the forces which are anti-immigrant -more particularly anti-Muslim are on the rise. The new forces reject the current EU but may build a new EU based on different set of values. The meeting of all these forces like Le Pen/Greet wilders/AfD at Koblenz in Germany – where MSM was not allowed – Marine Le Pen claims ‘Anglo Saxon world waking up’ as Europe’s far-right parties meet after Trump inauguration. ‘Yesterday, a new America. Today – a new Europe,’ anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders tells cheering crowds.
The conflict has given rise to war clouds over Europe between Global moral policeman “radical Islam” and “modern Europe”
This war is going to be catastrophic if Turkey falls to radical Islam.
Actually, the origins of the conflict can be traced to Globalization which rejected Westphalian idea of sovereignty of nations. Both Radical Islam and Global corporations/Hege funds embraced this rejection. Local populations were against globalization which affected them. This we will see in another article.
This impending social strife and civil war in Europe will have implications for India.
US will send troops to Europe to keep peace and arm twisting of India will start. Remember that India is largest contributor to “global peace keeping “role of UN.
But India is never consulted about the conflict zones or location & the need for peace keeping. India must not get involved in “peace keeping” given its internal demographic composition. India must demand membership of UNSC before even considering any request.
Saudi wants to finish Iran in the process and USA has been stupidly convinced that Iran is a major danger. Saudi is also member of -believe me- UN human rights council- and a major financier of Amnesty International. Let India remember that civilizational we have more in common with Iran than Saudis or their poodle terror central Pakistan.
India has opportunity to scrap article 370 in J&K and allow all Indians to settle down in the valley. Each settler can be given Rs50 lakhs and a gun. Neither Trump nor Le Pen or AfD is going to bother about it. Within India except some TV warriors none would oppose it.
Any war in European theatre will create huge number of our own Indian-refugees from ME and Europe into India. We need to be prepared for it
There would be attempts by ISIs to recruit from India on a large scale by giving attractive stipends and Insurance to their families. India must crush such attempts with all its might.
Indian businesses should be alert since most funds would pull out of India for war efforts in European theatre. Those businesses which have export/import links with US/Europe will be maximum affected unless their export products are useful for war.
Of course, Sensex and Nifty will be affected since our markets are not linked to our economy but to US and Europe situation since market movements are decided by Foreign funds.
India has to take a stand -howsoever painful-that this war is not our war but between desert cultures.
We have been sucked into 1st and 2nd world war due to colonialism. Even though the colonial genes are still strong in our body polity -we must not put the boots of our soldiers on European soil under any pretext.
It will not be a conventional war but a war between terrorists/snipers/belt bombers and right wing militia men of Europe and US.
Left liberals as usual will be with belt bombers but alas they will be the first one to be swallowed by the Radical Islam.
Breaking India forces can be crushed due to evolving global situation. Are we ready and do we have a plan?
(The author is a professor of Finance at IIT, Bengaluru)
NEW YORK (TIP): Indian American actor Kal Penn launched a fundraising campaign to aid Syrian refugees after being asked to leave the US by an online troll. The 39-year-old “House” star launched a Crowdrise.com appeal to help those left stranded by President Donald Trump’s weekend executive order to keep Muslim travelers from seven countries around the world out of America. “To the dude who said I don’t belong in America, I started a fundraising page for Syrian Refugees in your name,” Penn tweeted on Saturday, January 28.
“I just want to keep it short and let you know that so far, you have raised a total of $813,533 & counting for Syrian Refugees through International Rescue Committee (“in the name of the dude who said I don’t belong in America”, haha)! I’m so speechless. Thank you for continuing to share our stories on social media for folks who would like to contribute. More than 20,443 of us have joined together to donate. To borrow a phrase from a friend, this is obviously about so much more than any one of us. Thank you, and keep it up! Wonder how high we can get this number”, Penn wrote on the online fund raising website on February 2.
The funds raised would go to the International Rescue Committee.
Kalpen Suresh Modi, better known as Kal Penn, was born to Indian parents in New Jersey. He’s starred in several popular TV shows like House M.D., How I Met Your Mother and the Harold and Kumar movies. In 2013, President Obama appointed Penn to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
WASHINGTON — Top Democratic lawmakers and rights bodies have slammed President-elect Donald Trump’s reported plan to reinstate a database of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.
The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) is a post-9/11 program which required travelers to the U.S. from specified Muslim-majority countries to immediately register with the federal government or face deportation.
“Reinstating failed programs that target Arabs and Muslims in our country is exactly what ISIS was cheering on election night when America, a beacon of freedom in the world, gives in to fear and begins chipping away at civil rights, our enemies are emboldened and their ranks swell with new recruits,” Senator Dick Durbin said.
“Back in 2002, I called for this program to be terminated because there were serious doubts it would help combat terrorism. Terrorism experts have since concluded that this program wasted precious homeland security funds and alienated Arab- and Muslim-Americans. Failed programs like this are the exact wrong approach to combating terrorism, and I will fight to ensure it never returns,” Durbin said.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raul M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus chairwoman Judy Chu, CPC vice chair Congressman Mike Honda, and CPC vice chair Mark Takano slammed Trump surrogate Carl Higbie for suggesting that Japanese-American internment camps could serve as a precedent for the creation of a Muslim registry.
“These remarks are beyond disturbing. This is fear, not courage. This is hate, not policy,” Honda said.
“Since Trump was elected president, thousands of Americans have voiced fears over what our country might look like in the coming years. Last night, one of his surrogates showed us why so many people are afraid of a Trump administration.
“The fact that our incoming president has considered internment as a model for how to move forward with the Muslim community is absolutely shocking. We cannot allow it to be normalized or enacted,” Ellison said.
The South Asian Bar Association, which represents Indian American and other South Asian lawyers, has also denounced the suggestions of a registry for non-citizen Muslims in the U.S.
“While once just a campaign promise, this xenophobic and un-American idea has been thrust back into our national consciousness by Carl Higbie, former spokesperson for a Super PAC supporting the president-elect,” SABA said in a statement.
Higbie’s suggestion that internment camps that imprisoned countless Japanese-Americans during World War II is a “precedent” for a possible Muslim registry, presupposes the lawfulness of a program that’s only lasting impact is that of shame, regret and embarrassment, it said.
SABA said this proposed registry is rooted in NSEERS that required certain “foreign citizens and nationals” to continuously check in with U.S. authorities.
After repeated criticism and documented ineffectiveness, NSEERS was abandoned in 2011, leaving a legacy of deporting individuals who had committed no crimes and had no links to terrorism, it said.
SABA called on Americans of all backgrounds to reject the notion that registration and potential mass incarceration of residents of this country solely based upon nationality, race or religion, without justification, cause or purpose is acceptable.
“Discrimination towards any community cannot be condoned and we hope the president-elect and the pending administration uniformly reject such proposals. The perpetuation of hate solely serves to continue the divisiveness that tears at the core of our values of equal protection and freedom for all individuals,” it added.
Two days after an Arab-American Uber driver was the victim of a racist tirade in Astoria, two Muslim teens were attacked by three men outside of an Astoria bar.
An NYPD spokesperson said the agency’s Hate Crime Investigations Unit is investigating this incident as a possible bias crime.
On Nov. 19 at approximately 7:30 p.m., police said, two teenagers were sitting on a bench near Jarfi’s, a bar and restaurant at 27-35 21st St., when three white men approached them and started making anti-Muslim comments.
One of the men said he didn’t “want any Muslim sitting on the bench,” an NYPD spokesperson said.
One of the teenagers was struck in the face with a bottle, a police spokesperson said, and was taken to a local hospital after suffering an eye injury.
According to the New York Post, the 17-year-old teenager suffered a fractured eye socket and was taken to Elmhurst Hospital.
The first suspect was described as a white male, approximately 6 feet, 4 inches and about 280 pounds.
The second suspect was described as a white male, approximately 5 feet, 5 inches and 160 pounds.
There was no description available for the third suspect.
NEW YORK (TIP): New York Police said late on Monday, August 15, that Oscar Morel, 35, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder over the deaths of Imam Maulana Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 64, just hours after thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral of the two men.
A police spokesman said Morel was also charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He did not disclose any possible motive for the killings at the briefing.
Police earlier said ‘hate crime’ was being investigated as a possible motive.
Both Akonjee and Uddin were wearing religious clothing when they were shot in the head on Saturday after leaving the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque in the Queens area after mid-afternoon prayers.
“We believe because of the evidence we have acquired thus far that … this is the individual,” Robert Boyce, a New York City Chief Detective, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.
Huge crowds lined the streets earlier on Monday as the bodies of Akonjee, a father-of-four, and Uddin were carried aloft during a procession.
Thousands of people marched in protest after the funeral – holding placards reading: “Muslim Lives Matter”.
“We pray here five times a day, we are scared, we need protection,” one mourner told Al Jazeera. “He was dressed like a Muslim; this was a hate crime.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio, addressing the funeral, blamed hate and division for the murders and promised to step up protection at mosques and other parts of the city with big Muslim populations.
“There are voices all over this country who are spewing hate, trying to create division and turn one American against another … we’re not going to listen to those voices that try to divide us,” de Blasio said.
Khairul Islam, a local resident, singled out Donald Trump for blame, saying the Republican presidential nominee had incited hatred and fear of Muslims.
“We blame Donald Trump for this. Trump and his drama has created Islamophobia,” he was quoted by local newspaper the Daily News as saying.
Trump has been criticized for several statements his opponents say are Islamophobic, and he has previously called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Shah Noor, a recent transplant to California from Maryland, was driving through a nearby community one evening with his wife and stopped at a 7-Eleven to get some milk.
A police car pulled up with lights flashing. Officers walked to their car and grilled them for 45 minutes. They were aggressive, he said, and asked what they were doing there, where they work. At one point, he saw the officer put his hand on his gun.
“It was scary,” Noor said. “Pure harassment.”
Police — Noor declined to identify the agency because of an ongoing investigation —cited him for talking on his cell phone while driving. He said the charge is bogus.
“My phone had been dead for over three hours,” said Noor, 32, a lawyer who now runs JS Noor, a jewelry business. And the log on his wife’s cell phone shows no activity during that time.
He’s convinced that racial profiling was in play. He wears a turban and has a beard. His wife, Stephanie, is African-American. And all of this happened within days of a mass shooting in San Bernardino carried out by a Muslim couple.
After every attack on U.S. soil committed by Muslims, the backlash seems to increase. But hate crimes don’t target only Muslims.
Noor is originally from India and a Sikh, not an Arab or Muslim.
‘[Sikhism] preaches a message of devotion, remembrance of God at all times, truthful living, equality between all human beings, social justice, while emphatically denouncing superstitions and blind rituals.’ – Sikh Coalition
Since 9/11, Islamophobia has spread and has targeted groups indiscriminately. Sikhs, who wear a turban as an article of faith, have often been mistaken for Muslims in the U.S. They pray at a gurdwara, not a mosque, but a gurdwara in Buena Park, Caifornia, was vandalized days after the San Bernardino shooting. Graffiti sprayed on the façade included the misspelled “Islahm” and an expletive directed at the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The San Bernardino shooters had apparently been inspired by the group that has been behind horrific violence worldwide, including the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris.
The 20-year-old man arrested for the vandalism issued a public apology to the congregation of Buena Park Gurdwara Singh Sabha, a Sikh house of worship in Orange County.
But other assaults have been more violent. On Sept. 15, 2001, four days after the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot and killed outside of his Mesa, Arizona, gas station by Frank Roque. Roque wanted to “kill a Muslim” in retaliation for the attacks on Sept. 11. Sodhi is considered the first murder victim of post-9/11 backlash. Roque was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the hate crime.
The Sikh Coalition was founded by volunteers in 2001 in response to a spate of attacks against Sikh Americans.
“Sikh adults were assaulted, Sikh children were bullied, places of worship were vandalized,” said Arjun Singh, the coalition’s law and policy director. “Terrorist attacks lead to xenophobia and anyone who looks different is targeted, including Sikhs.”
The Sikh Coalition reports a spate of attacks and harassment this month alone.
A Sikh woman traveling to California shortly after the San Bernardino attacks said she had to show her breast pump to airline employees to prove she wasn’t a “terrorist”.
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a store clerk originally from the state of Punjab in India was shot during an armed robbery. The assailants called the clerk a terrorist.
Five days after the San Bernardino attack, Gian Singh, a 78-year-old grandfather, was walking to pick up his grandson from school in Bakersfield, when a man in a pick-up truck threw an apple at him with such force that the apple split when it hit his head, according to the Sikh Coalition, which is representing him.
‘Sikh adults were assaulted, Sikh children were bullied, places of worship were vandalized. Terrorist attacks lead to xenophobia and anyone who looks different is targeted, including Sikhs.’ – Arjun Singh, law and policy director, Sikh Coalition
There have been Sikhs in the U.S. for more than a century. Many came to build the railroads in the West. There is no accurate data on the number of Sikhs here, and estimates vary widely between 750,000 and 1.6 million, according to the coalition. Almost half of them live in California, the state with the largest Sikh population, but the densest concentration of Sikhs is in the tri-state area of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.
The Sikh religion is a monotheistic religion that originates in the Punjab region of India. According to the coalition, it “preaches a message of devotion, remembrance of God at all times, truthful living, equality between all human beings, social justice, while emphatically denouncing superstitions and blind rituals.”
“We were shocked after finding out about the graffiti,” said Jaspreet Singh, 40, on the board of the Buena Park gurdwara that was vandalized. “Especially the hate words being used.”
For Sikhs who grew up in the U.S., harassment has been a way of life. For Noor, schoolyard teasing was common but never did he feel so much hatred as after 9/11.
“You feel people don’t like you, like an outsider,” he said. People would call him “Osama” in reference to Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qaeda, the group that claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. They also called him “Taliban,” the armed fundamentalist movement in Afghanistan.
“Sometimes, I would walk up to [the hecklers] and yell back, ‘I’m not a terrorist,’” Noor said.
One time, someone pulled a knife on him in Wheaton, Maryland, a suburb of Washington. Another time, in Amsterdam, people in a car yelled out “bin Laden” at him, he said. When he yelled back, they followed him up an alley. He escaped.
And there was another encounter with police in a Detroit suburb. He had a bracelet in his hand that he was playing with. Police mistook it for a masbaha, Muslim prayer beads. He showed them that it had a cross on it.
“I wear religious symbols of all kinds,” Noor said. “I go to church, to gurdwara, to mosque.”
He has attended service at a Baptist congregation, his wife’s religion.
His cousin, Jaisal Noor, 30, a reporter for The Real News Network, a nonprofit news and documentary service based in Baltimore, wrote about assaults on Sikhs for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
“The day of 9/11, I was confronted with the reality that things changed,” he said in an interview.
He was in high school when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
“I remember that day feeling worried for my family, my parents,” he said. His father was a frequent business traveler who encountered a lot of discrimination at airports.
His classmates would rant, “We’re gonna get these A-rabs” but then would turn to him and tell him they had no problem with him because he was Indian.
“But it’s never gone away,” said Jaisal Noor. “Whenever we’re at war, the attacks increase … They see images of turban-wearing men as the enemies.”
Sikhs say their first reaction may be to distance themselves from Muslims and explain to people that they are not Arabs or Muslim. But they stress that no one, Sikh or Muslim or any other religious or ethnic minority, should be targeted.
“Many Sikhs are worried, and rightly so,” said Arjun Singh. “If the bigoted rhetoric continues, hate violence will continue too … Today’s toxic political climate has led to bias, discrimination and hate violence.”
India is awash with Islamophobia and there could not be a more dangerous time for this pernicious slant in our national politics.
Hateful vitriol was spewed upon actor Aamir Khan recently, for expressing concern over the rising anti-minority attitude, just as black ink was literally spilled on the Observer Research Foundation’s Sudheendra Kulkarni last month for organising a book release event for a former Pakistani foreign Minister.
Even more violent and disquieting were September’s mob lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, over rumours that he had stored beef in his home, and August’s murder of notable rationalist M.M. Kalburgi, who was shot dead after being threatened for his criticism of idolatry in Hinduism.
There will no doubt be more such displays of bigotry in the months ahead, as fringe elements of the Hindutva brigade, emboldened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s description of the Dadri lynching as “unfortunate” and “undesirable”, go on the rampage to correct what they perceive to be injuries to the sentiments of the majority.
The most compelling reasons for Mr. Modi to decisively stymie this rising tide of hatred are quite obvious: respect for India’s constitutionally protected secular credentials, and the maintenance of broader societal peace and harmony between communities.
Yet there is a third feature of the Indian political firmament that makes it urgent, nay imperative, that the country’s leadership effectively tamp down on the flames of extremism – the alarming proliferation of support for Islamic State (IS), the jihadist terror outfit that controls parts of Syria and Iraq.
The discovery of these IS-sympathisers has had a creeping quality, starting late last year with a handful of youth travelling to West Asia from Kalyan, near Mumbai, but more recently has been gathering momentum with a much larger cohort being pulled into the net by intelligence operations.
The fact that this trend has been coterminous with the surge in anti-minority violence ought to be a red flag for the Modi government, for there is a risk that the two developments may begin to feed off one another, leading to a perfect storm linking an ongoing foreign policy crisis to a community under siege on Indian soil.
Consider the speed and pattern of IS proliferation on Indian soil over the past year.
Back in January The Hindu received a response on a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Department of Defence asking what information it had on Indian nationals discovered to be fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq.
Their answer was simple: none. Clearly the few Indians that had made it into the ranks of IS at that point were either relegated to menial tasks or used as cannon fodder on the frontlines as they have generally been considered “inferior” fighters.
Yet, as outlined in a series of reports in The Hindu (“The IS Files”), the last past year has witnessed a slew of intelligence operations that have flushed out a number of potential IS recruits, and they hail from across the breadth of India.
For example, Haja Fakkrudeen and Gul Mohamed Maracachi Maraicar both grew up in Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu, and while Maraicar is now lodged in an Indian prison, Fakkrudeen, who may have been radicalised by Maraicar, is likely to be fighting alongside IS in Syria.
The case of Muhammed Abdul Ahad, a U.S.-educated computer professional from Bengaluru, reflects the diversity of backgrounds from which IS has managed to woo supporters in India. Ahad was intercepted by Turkish authorities last year on the Syrian border and deported earlier this year after authorities suspected him of seeking to enter the Syrian battlefield.
At the opposite end of the nation, in the Kashmir Valley, Kamil Wada spoke to The Hindu about how his older brother Adil had travelled to Syria, with authorities noting that he may have got radicalised by an Australian Islamic group after a visit to that country.
As Indian intelligence agencies continue to grapple with the “foreign fighter” question, an issue that has long been front and centre for the U.S., Canada and Western Europe, it behoves the government of Mr. Modi to more effectively address societal forces that make the isolation, demonisation and ultimate radicalisation of minority communities more likely.
Unless there is a concerted effort to neutralise the impunity of extremist elements that regularly engage in anti-Muslim violence, there may be little to halt the drift of a few members of an overwhelmingly moderate community into the arms of IS radicals.
In the present climate of hostility, a vicious cycle is likely, as there are groups that would happily seize upon the insidious presence of the IS in India to paint the entire Muslim community with the broad brush of negative propaganda or worse.
To have any hope of success in this context, anti-radicalisation strategies of the government must foster a sense of physical security, democratic space and cultural sensitivity towards traditions of minority communities while adopting a no-nonsense, intelligence-based crackdown on the shadowy menace of the IS.
NEW YORK: ICICI bank CEO Chanda Kochhar is among three Indians selected for this year’s Asia Game Changer awards given by Asia Society to honour “true leaders making a positive contribution to the future of Asia.”
Indian-American actor Aasif Mandvi, 49, and designer Kiran Bir Sethi, 49, also made it to the list besides Kochhar, 53.
Champion Boxer and Philanthropist from the Philippines Manny Pacquiao is the 2015 Asia Game Changer of the Year “for using his sport and his star power as forces for good,” Asia Soceity, the leading global cultural organisation, announced.
The honorees will be bestowed the honour at the Asia Game Changer Awards dinner and celebration at the UN in October.
The New York-based organisation said Ms Kochhar “not only made history” by becoming the first woman to head an Indian bank but she also transformed the entire Indian retail banking industry.
“Under Kochhar’s leadership, ICICI Bank has achieved great milestones year-after-year by expanding its businesses, leveraging technology to bring value to its urban and rural customers and partnering with the public and private sectors to create new opportunities,” it said.
By shattering the proverbial “glass ceiling,” Ms Kochhar has been an inspiration to many young women and has racked up numerous awards and accolades, it added.
Mr Mandvi has become a powerful spokesperson for Muslims and Asian-Americans. Mumbai-born Mandvi has “challenged stereotypes” and provided a voice for Muslim-Americans, changing the game in terms of how Asians are viewed on TV.
In 2015, he co-wrote, produced and acted in the web series ‘Halal in the Family’ for the popular comedy site Funny or Die, using the sitcom format to tackle Islamophobia.
“Mandvi aspires not only to provide positive representation for Muslim America – he also hopes to challenge non-Muslim audiences,” Asia Society said.
Interior designer Ms Sethi founded The Riverside School in Ahmedabad in 2001, aiming to provide an alternative model which focuses on “quality of learning,” “student well-being,” and “empathy in education,” a game-changing move in India.
In 2009, Ms Sethi expanded on the principles practiced at Riverside to found the ‘Design for Change’ movement with the goal of getting children to drive change in their communities by unleashing what she calls their “I can superpower.”
The award addresses the lack of recognition for Asians who are transforming ideas into action and improving lives, said Asia Society President Josette Sheeran.
The honorees are selected through a global survey of more than 1,000 thought leaders. The other seven honorees include 2014 Nobel Laureates in Physics and inventors of a new energy-efficient light source – the blue LED Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura “for lighting our world in a groundbreaking and sustainable way.”
SACRAMENTO (TIP): In California’s capital city of Sacramento this month, stark black billboards loomed over highways and faded commercial strips, offering solace to the troubled: “Looking for the answers in life?” one asked. “Discover Muhammad.”
With messages that are part religious invitation to explore the Muslim faith and part public relations, the billboards anchor a national campaign to showcase Islam as a religion of love and tolerance, aimed at Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
But the campaign by the mainstream Islamic Circle of North America, which is sponsoring billboards in other cities to publicize the Muslim prophet’s message, could also spark a backlash amid a spike in anti-Islamic sentiment marked by protests, advertising campaigns and sometimes vandalism and violence.
“We thought a proper approach would be to actually educate the larger public about his personality, which exemplifies love and brotherhood,” said Waqas Syed, ICNA Deputy Secretary General.
The billboard campaign is not the first high-profile bid by a Muslim group to bolster Islam’s image in America, tarnished by militant attacks. But it is the largest such effort by ICNA, the group most closely identified with billboard campaigns in recent years, and it includes some billboards that are clearly evangelical.
“Under the circumstances, it’s a pretty bold move,” said Todd Green, a professor who studies Islamophobia, or fear of Islam, at Luther College in Iowa. “When you’re a minority religion, you face a lot of pressure from the majority population not to proselytize.”
By asking Americans to discover Mohammad, the campaign is similar in some ways to efforts by evangelical Christians whose roadside billboards, especially in the US heartland, have sought to draw Americans into their fold with messages promoting Jesus as the Messiah, he said.
Organizers said they launched the program as a response to a deadly Paris attack by Islamist militants on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January over its anti-Muslim cartoons, aiming their message in part at other Muslims to say that violence is not an appropriate response to provocation.
By coincidence, the first billboards went up days after two US Muslim gunmen were killed in May as they tried to attack a Texas exhibit of cartoons depicting Mohammad, and shortly before heavily armed anti-Islam protesters demonstrated outside a Phoenix mosque.
A previous billboard campaign by ICNA two years ago invited Americans to see similarities between Christianity and Islam, which views Jesus as a prophet but not as the son of God as Christians do. A campaign by another US Muslim group tried to show non-violent interpretations of jihad, such as a holy struggle to lead a moral life.
Both campaigns prompted angry responses, and in the case of the “My Jihad” campaign, an opposing group put up signs and billboards linking Islam with violence.
Message of peace, women’s rights
The latest campaign, paid for by local ICNA chapters, will eventually include about 100 billboards from Philadelphia to Baltimore, Atlanta and Miami.
Some signs, like those in Sacramento, are clearly invitations to explore the Muslim faith while others aim to portray Mohammad as a supporter of women’s rights and religious tolerance.
“Kindness is a mark of faith,” a billboard in Elizabeth, New Jersey, reads. In Miami, another offers, “Muhammad believed in peace, social justice, women’s rights.”
Sharing that view of Mohammad is more important to ICNA than proselytizing, Syed said, though newcomers who want to convert would be welcomed.
Muslims make up 0.9 percent of the US population, but the number is expected to double by 2050, driven by immigration, high birth rates and a young population, the Pew Research Center says.
The first wave of signs, including those in Sacramento and Los Angeles, came down last week. New ones will be posted in San Francisco, Dallas and other cities in coming weeks. Despite tensions, the billboards have not been defaced, and negative responses have been few, said Imam Khalid Griggs, vice president of ICNA and leader of a mosque in North Carolina.
Last week, a group that fears radical Islam will grow in the United States erected billboards around St. Louis showing cartoon drawings of Mohammad, meant to flout the religion’s ban on depicting his image. In February, a Washington, D.C. mosque was vandalized twice in one week.
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, where one ICNA billboard went up, Tyler Coltelli, a 23-year-old Catholic, said the sign made him uncomfortable: “You should be able to practice your own faith, but I don’t necessarily agree with trying to convert people from the streets.”
But Bodia Wardany, a parishioner at the Salam Islamic Center in Sacramento said: “I think it’s a great idea, considering all the misperceptions about the faith and the terrorist, fanatical groups misrepresenting the faith itself.”
This week, two terrible acts of violence took place in the US. First, three young Muslim-American students were killed in cold blood in North Carolina by a neighbor. The cause, it was said, was an argument about parking spaces. It was also noted that the killer was an atheist and broadly anti-religious and, therefore, it was suggested that perhaps the attack could not be described as a religious hate crime.
That suggestion was instantly, perhaps naturally, met with a barrage of opposition. Al Jazeera published a learned summary of years of media research on Muslim stereotyping. Internet memes pointed out how the American media differentiated between white and Muslim criminals. The argument was made, effectively, for continuing concern about Islamophobia.
The other terrible act of violence, of course, was the one that took place in Alabama.
An elderly Indian grandfather travels to America to see his grandson for the first time, goes out for a walk, and gets smashed into the hard concrete footpath by policemen leaving him broken and paralyzed.
There is outrage in the media, and rightly so. The Indian-American community and many American friends (though not the one who visited India recently and told us Gandhi would be shocked), have spoken out against the ignorance, prejudice and brutality that took place here. In the wake of recent atrocities like what happened in Ferguson, the idea of the dangers of “walking while brown” obviously did the rounds.
But there was one notable difference in the reactions to North Carolina and Alabama.
When a Muslim is harmed, it is Islamophobia. When a Hindu is brutally assaulted, there is not one word uttered about Hinduphobia.
One might argue, not unlike the parking dispute angle in North Carolina, that there was no Hinduphobia in the atrocity that took place in Alabama. Maybe the cops did not know he was Hindu and brutalize him for that reason. Maybe it was just racism in the black and white sense. After all, we have been told for years now by concerned south Asian activists and commentators that the Indian-American community, by virtue of its elitism, fails to recognize racial solidarity. Once again, that trope surfaced about the Alabama attacks. We are getting attacked because of racism. True enough!
But how can we be so sure that the racism that Indian-Americans sometimes face has nothing to do with prejudices about the major religion they are identified with? How can we be sure that one kind of racism is independent of another?
We cannot. And yet, for several years, every single time we have talked about the brazen misrepresentation of Hinduism in American media, pop culture, and most all in academia, we have been shouted down by the same concerned south Asian activists and commentators. We could not even talk about Hinduphobia without being rudely told that no such thing exists, or that it is a figment of Hindu extremist paranoid fantasy. We could not even do the one thing every religious minority community in America did: get old colonial-era racist nonsense about them written out of their children’s history textbooks. We were shouted down by the same general group of concerned observers who want us to fight racism but just not this racism apparently. This racism is actually not racism in their view: the California textbooks according to them contain only the true facts about Hinduism, and questioning it is tantamount to saffronisation and fundamentalism.
To this day, children in America get just one basic kind of message about Hinduism and Hindus in their school lessons: that we are the last irredeemable racist-casteists and sexists in the world. When some of them get to college or grad school, they will read even more about how we dumbly worship body organs, and how we were not just racist-casteists but actually the original Nazis, the forerunners of Hitlerian genocide no less (no exaggeration, just look at what is written on page 111 and page 144 of Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History)!
And all this is still only in the genteel, ‘educated’ side. What about the insanity that bubbles in less scholarly corners?What about the ravings of supposed men of God in their sermons who rant about our gods as nothing more than animal-headed devils and beasts? And what about Hollywood, and big media and popular culture, which, under the guise of being fair to Muslims or feeling guilty for Guantanamo, goes Slumdog on Hinduism?
All this is around us. It is real. Whether it directly contributes to specific acts of brutality against people or not, it is there, a toxin in the culture. Just think of the attacks in Australia a few years ago on Indian students where the assailants reportedly used “slumdog” as an insult at their victims.
Prejudice is not something that plays out in microscopic precision inside the heads of people about to do something nasty. It is a big ugly cloud of falsehood, envy, self-hatred, and spitefulness lurking around a society, just waiting to burst into real life. It did, this week, in Alabama. We cannot be sure what exactly squirmed about in the brains of the man who called the police on an elderly neighbor walking around the block, or in that of a policeman who had to prove himself to be tougher than a meek old man not being remotely aggressive to anyone. Was it color, envy, boredom, overzealousness, fear…? We cannot say for sure. But the fact is that the culture in which they grew up, the culture in which millions of people, Hindu, Muslim, brown, black, are all growing up, still has a thriving place in it for the ugliest and pettiest kind of falsehood and maliciousness.
Who can say for sure that the men involved in brutalizing Sureshbhai Patel did not at some point in their lives, maybe in school, maybe elsewhere, pick up on anti-Hindu myths and prejudice?
The truth is that if Hinduphobia is not named, shamed and eradicated from the halls of media and academia, its consequences might end up being even worse, and not just for Hindus. I hope the enlightened and concerned observers of south Asia who deny that Hinduphobia exists quickly come to realize that bigots are not usually well informed in their actions. After all, Islamophobes have attacked not only Muslims but also Sikhs in America. It would be appalling to keep pretending Hinduphobia doesn’t exist until one day some poor person, Hindu or not, finds himself or herself at the wrong end of a maniac believing he is stopping a casteist idol-worshipper from doing Satan’s work or some such.
There used to be a popular poster on idealistic college campuses. It had these inspiring lines which Hinduphobia-deniers might want to look at again:
They came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak for them;
They came for the Communists, and they didn’t speak for them…
And then when they came for me, there was no one left to speak for me.
Charlie Hebdo is fetching $600 asking prices on eBay as millions hope to get their hands on the commemorative edition, the first to come out after eight staffers and four others were slaughtered.
PARIS (TIP): A defiant Charlie Hebdo went on sale Wednesday, January 14, in five languages and in more than 20 countries, splashing a cartoon purporting to be Mohammed on its front cover a week after jihadist gunmen stormed the satirical weekly’s offices killing 12 people.
The newspaper normally prints 60,000 copies a week. This week’s print run will be five million (up from three million announced on Tuesday), distributed over the next two weeks.
It is a record for any French newspaper, with versions being printed in Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Turkish and English for the first time.
Across Paris on Wednesday, even at 6am, many shops and kiosks had already sold out.
At Belleville in Paris’s 19th arrondissement (district), the newspaper kiosk at the metro station had sold its 150 copies within minutes of opening at 6am.
The paper’s front cover shows a turbaned man (not explicitly the Prophet Mohammed) shedding a tear and declaring that he too “is Charlie” – “Je suis Charlie” was the slogan of a huge outpouring of grief and solidarity in France in the days that followed the attacks. The front-page figure adds that “all is forgiven”.
Global response
The global attention following last week’s attacks – which saw another gunman kill four hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris -has seen demand for Charlie Hebdo explode as far away as India and Australia.
While the front page had been widely shared online ahead of publication, many newspapers in both Muslim countries and in the West refrained from printing the cartoon because of blasphemy laws and also sensitivity over reproducing an image of the Prophet, which is considered offensive by Muslims.
Charlie Hebdo’s front page was not reproduced by the mainstream media in the US, where any kind of religious satire is frowned upon, although the White House reaffirmed its “absolute support [of the] the right of Charlie Hebdo to publish things like this”.
In Egypt, the chief imam at the al-Azhar mosque, an institution widely-seen as the centre of the Sunni Muslim faith, condemned Charlie Hebdo’s decision to lead its latest issue with a cartoon of the Prophet, calling it an “incitement to hatred”.
The Dar al-Ifta, which represents Egyptian Muslims, called the new front page a “provocation”, while in Shiite-dominated Iran, conservative news site Tabnak accused Charlie Habdo of “once again insulting the Prophet”.
Islamophobia and France’s far right
Paradoxically, Charlie Hebdo is one of France’s loudest voices against racism, whose principal target of abuse has always been France’s far-right National Front (FN, whose founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has been convicted numerous times of racism and anti-Semitism). The FN is widely seen as virulently Islamophobic.
But the newspaper’s decision in 2006 to re-print cartoons of Mohammed published in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten brought so much ire on Charlie Hebdo that its editors decided to publish regular cartoons lampooning radical Islamists as well as depictions of Mohammed himself, who, in one case, is shown lamenting the difficulty of being “followed by complete idiots”.
Inevitably, Charlie Hebdo became the focus for widespread disapproval in France’s large Muslim community, and the two French-born gunmen who entered the newspapers offices last Wednesday, murdering 12 people, ran out shouting that they had “avenged the Prophet”.
The survivors of the attack have defended their caricatures of Islam and Mohammed.
“The Mohammed we have portrayed is a much nicer character than the version of Mohammed brandished by the attackers,” said one member of the weekly’s editorial staff.
“And if we can get our ideas read across the world, it is we who are the ultimate winners,” added Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief Gérard Biard.
On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls set out the government’s updated response to terrorism, following last week’s murderous assault on the magazine and a Jewish supermarket.
But he insisted that “blasphemy does not feature in the laws of France, and it never will”.
ANKARA (TIP): Pope Francis on November 28 called for dialogue between faiths to end the Islamist extremism plaguing the Middle East as he visited Turkey on his first trip to the overwhelmingly Muslim but officially secular state. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who welcomed Pope Francis as the first foreign dignitary to his controversial new presidential palace outside Ankara, for his part issued a strong warning about rising Islamophobia in the world.
The visit of the pope is seen as a crucial test of Francis’s ability to build bridges between faiths amid the rampage by Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Iraq and Syria and concerns over the persecution of Christian minorities in the Middle East. “Inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue can make an important contribution… so that there will be an end to all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism,” the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics said after talks with Erdogan. He said the world “could not remain indifferent” to the causes of the tragedies in the Middle East and appeared to indicate military action could be permitted with the proper legal backing.
While an “unjust aggressor” could be thwarted, the problem cannot be resolved solely through a military response, Francis said. Speaking in an overwhelmingly Muslim country which has a tiny but culturally significant Christian minority, the pope pointedly said all faiths should share the same rights. “It is essential that all citizens — Muslim, Jewish and Christian — both in the provision and practice of the law, enjoy the same rights and respect the same duties.”
Turkey’s own Christian community is tiny — just 80,000 in a country of some 75 million Muslims — but also extremely mixed, consisting of Armenians, Greek Orthodox, Franco-Levantines, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldeans. Erdogan — long been accused by opponents of seeking to erode Turkey’s secular foundations with creeping Islamisation — chose the occasion to make a characteristically strong-worded warning against growing Islamophobia in the world. “Islamophobia is rising seriously and rapidly.
We must work together against the threats weighing on our planet – – intolerance, racism and discrimination,” said Erdogan. He angrily accused the international community of “simply being spectators” in the face of the “state terror” of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza earlier this year. “There is a double standard and an injustice,” he said. Turkey’s top cleric Mehmet Gormez went even further in comments after his meeting with the pope, expressing concern that Islamophobic “paranoia that has already been spread among Western public opinion” was being used as a pretext for discrimination against Muslims.
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