Washington, April 05, 2023 (PPI-OT):The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) has strongly condemned the violence by Hindu extremists against Muslims in various Indian states over the last week. Hindutva mobs participating in processions for the Hindu festival of Ram Navami have systematically attacked Muslims, along with their homes, businesses, and places of worship in several states, including Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat, Telangana, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
“It is unacceptable that some extremists in India are using Hindu festivals to terrorise Indian Muslims. It is profoundly alarming that these acts of large-scale violence are premeditated, organised and committed in the presence and full knowledge of the police, who according to numerous video reports, are doing nothing to stop them,” said a statement issued by Rasheed Ahmed, Executive Director of IAMC. News reports and videos circulating on different social media platforms indicate that the violence has been orchestrated by the militant affiliates of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), including Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the statement said.
Recalling similar incidents during Hindu festivals last year, the statement cited a newly released report from the Citizens and Lawyers Initiative, ‘Routes of Wrath: Weaponising Religious Processions’. The report provides deeply researched documentation of the weaponisation of the Ram Navami and Hanuman riots. The report, featuring an introduction from retired Indian Supreme Court Justice Rohinton F. Nariman, highlights consistent collusion on the part of the Hindu far-right groups and the authorities in choosing procession routes. “Religious processions in state after state have been granted licenses or permissions to pass through the most congested and sensitive areas,” the report states.
The IAMC statement recounts harrowing details of the violence perpetrated by Hindu extremists at several places. It said instead of holding Hindu extremists accountable, the police in states ruled by the BJP continue to arrest Muslims on fabricated charges of violence. “We should not need to provide encyclopaedic documentation of clear bias and genocidal threats to Muslim lives in India. Any given day furnishes hundreds of examples of a rising existential threat,” said the IAMC Executive Director Rasheed Ahmed. “If the international community does not quickly intervene, it will be impossible to reverse India’s violent decline.”
The IAMC urged the international human rights organizations and civil society groups to take note of the deteriorating situation in India, which has the potential to turn into a full-blown Muslim and Christian genocide. The IAMC also called on the US State Department to ask the Indian government to stop stoking the anti-Muslim sentiment, punish the Hindu extremists involved in anti-Muslim violence, and accept the recommendation of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
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