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In My View

Keep the Prophet of Islam out of your politics

Published : Friday, 8 July, 2022 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1673
Syed Badiuzzaman
There are some people including politicians in almost every country who sometimes say or do something often controversial for 15 minutes of fame. It means being in the spotlight or brief flurry of fame for a short time. After that they are quickly forgotten. Two such people are two former spokespersons of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party known as BJP in short.

Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal were both high officials of Modi's ruling party. But they both went low by dragging the Prophet of Islam into their politics to advance the anti-Muslim agenda of the Hindu nationalists. Despite having no clear knowledge of Islam, they both made speculative and derogatory remarks on Prophet Muhammad and his wife Aisha, which rose to the level of blasphemy in view of some Islamic scholars and Muslim countries.

After they made their insulting remarks against the Prophet of Islam, BJP tried to distance itself from them by suspending Nupur Sharma and kicking out Naveen Jindal from the party. But Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party gave them a pass in the beginning. It took actions against them only after an international diplomatic storm began over the incident with some Arab countries, such as Kuwait and Qatar summoning Indian envoys to register their protests.

"The controversial remarks follow increasing violence targeting India's Muslim minority carried out by Hindu nationalists who have been emboldened by Modi's regular silence about such attacks since he was first elected in 2014.Over the years, Indian Muslims have often been targeted for everything from their food and clothing style to inter-religious marriages," reported America's global news agency the Associated Press from the Indian capital New Delhi.

Being in politics, both Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal knew fairly well that any kind of criticism against Prophet Muhammad would never be tolerated by Muslims anywhere in the world. Yet, both officials of BJP made their provocative remarks in an effort to promote the politics of Hindu extremists in India. Sharma used a TV program and Jindal took to twitter to insult the Prophet of Islam which was, as expected, met with anger in the Islamic world and also in India by Muslims.

"Two demonstrators were killed and hundreds of others arrested � in nationwide protests over the comments, which embroiled India in a diplomatic furor and caused widespread outrage in the Islamic world.

Footage of bulldozers demolishing homes of those arrested or identified as protesters has since been spread on social media," reported international French news agency AFP from New Delhi. "India must immediately end a 'vicious' crackdown on Muslims who took to the streets to protest a ruling party official's remarks about the Prophet Muhammad," demanded the London-based Amnesty International.
India lost its long-held secular tradition after Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014. Since then his government was accused of openly pursuing a discriminatory policy against India's minority Muslim community.

Under Modi's government, India passed a highly controversial Citizenship Act in 2019 granting faster citizenship to people of all religions excepting Muslims from three neighboring countries -- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. While the act was heavily criticized by rights groups, Modi's government denied discrimination against Muslims.

Any kind of debate about the Prophet of Islam is off-limits. And that is precisely the reason many Arab and Muslim countries and institutions have strongly condemned the derogatory remarks on Prophet Muhammad by Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal. The Prophet of Islam is extremely revered by Muslims all over the world. They think that it is their moral as well as religious obligations to protect the dignity and honor of Prophet Muhammad and his family. So, any kind of insult or derogatory comment by anybody against him and any member of his family is completely unacceptable to Muslims.

Yet, Sharma and Jindal made insulting remarks against Prophet Muhammad ignoring India's national interest, its relations with the Arab and Muslim world as well as the interest of millions of Indian migrant workers in the Middle East. Their conduct reflected their utter selfishness, gross irresponsibility and myopic vision as politicians. While trying to promote their narrow objective of selfish politics and petty interest of their party, they abandoned the greater interest of India as well as the interest of millions of Indian workers in the Middle East.
 
The fallout of their anti-Islam and derogatory remarks on the Prophet of Islam was instant in many Arab and Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations immediately condemned their offensive remarks against Prophet Muhammad. Calls came from many Arabs for boycotting Indian goods in Persian Gulf countries. Qatar demanded a public apology from India for what it called "Islamophobic remarks." The 56-nation Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) also condemned their comments.

Sharma and Jindal's insulting remarks against Islam and Prophet Muhammad sparked widespread demonstrations by minority Muslims who make up 14 percent of India's 1.4 billion people in many parts of India. The protests spread to the social media which erupted with fury against the offensive remarks on the Prophet of Islam. The protests also spilled over to India's neighboring countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh. Even though Bangladesh is a friendly nation of India, this country also witnessed large demonstrations against Sharma and Jindal's derogatory comments on the Prophet of Islam.

Recently, an awkward incident of forcibly putting a shoe garland around the neck of a college professor took place following a Facebook post by a Hindu student of the same college in Bangladesh. As reported by media, the student supported Nupur Sharma, the suspended BJP official who made the insulting remarks on Prophet Muhammad. The incident triggered unrest on the college campus and angry mob took law into their own hands and humiliated the acting principal of the college Swapan Kumar Biswas on the basis of a rumor that he sided with the student who made the post on Facebook supporting Sharma.

Since 2014 when Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party came to power, India, the largest democracy in the world has been experiencing a democratic backsliding. According to Freedom House, a Washington-based think tank, India has lost its status as a full democracy and is now holding the rank of a partly democratic or free nation. Since Modi's accession to power, India also lost its secularism, a long-held constitutionally guaranteed position that allowed people of all faiths to practice their religion freely. Under Modi's government, communal harmony in India has been wrecked with anti-Muslim attacks exceeding all previous records.

Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal's comments on Prophet Muhammad and his family shocked the Muslim world. The governments of as many as 20 Muslim-majority countries summoned the Indian envoys to register their strong protests. As viewed by Islamic scholars and leaders of all Muslim and Arab countries, any debate or offensive comment about Prophet Muhammad and his family is a clear red line. Those who will cross it will hurt the religious sentiments of more than 1.9 billion Muslims, roughly 25 percent of the world's total population. Muslims never attack other religions or religious figures of any faith. Therefore, they expect that their prophet and religion will also be equally respected.
Writer is a Toronto-based
journalist who also writes for the Toronto Sun as a guest columnist






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