TCN News
Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) along with Hindus For Human Rights (HfHR), both Indian American advocacy groups have released a statement condemning the escalation of Islamophobia in India following the spread of COVID-19 across different parts of the country.
Both the social groups dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos, have blamed mainstream media outlets in India for the “horrifying levels of vitriols poured on Muslims” that have resulted in an “alarming increase in assaults on Muslims.” The groups claim that an urgent healthcare and humanitarian crisis requires a unified response from the entire population and the pervading social and economic boycott of Muslims being “openly pursed” now is a threat to the nation’s security at large.
IAMC and HfHR resonate that Islamophobia has risen in the country “exponentially since news broke out that some members of the Muslim reformist Tablighi Jamaat had held their annual conference in Delhi in Mid March. What was absent in these one sided reports was the acknowledgement that Tablighi Jamaat conference took place before lockdown when it was business as usual for the entire country. The groups point that it was held much before the Janata curfew imposed by PM Narendra Modi on March 22.
“It is shameful that the crisis of COVID-19 is being exploited by people in positions of power and influence in order to intensify religious divisions in India,” said Mr. Ahsan Khan, President of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). In order to support their statement, the groups have questioned as to why only Muslims are being called carriers of the deadly disease when on March 14, the day the annual conference was in place, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah was the chief guest at the convocation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Rishikesh, with hundreds in the audience without social distancing. Following this, Saibaba temple at Shirdi city in Maharashtra and Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati city in Andhra Pradesh, each averaging over 50,000 pilgrims a day, closed only on March 17 and 19, respectively.
Calling upon the Indian Government to crack down on fake content that is making outrageous and patently false claims about Tablighi Jamaat members misbehaving with medical staff while in quarantine, IAMC and HfHR have accused such hate speech of “creating a dangerous and volatile situation for millions of people.”
“We must call out violations of social distancing protocols regardless of who the violators are,” added Ms Viswanath from HfHR. In their end note, both IAMC and HfHR have jointly appealed to the people of India “to reject hateful politics that only serves the nefarious ends of a privileged few,” urging civil society to unite in a spirit of brotherhood in combating not only COVID-19 but also “the bigotry and violence that represents as much of an existential threat to India as the coronavirus.”