The incident sparked protests in neighboring Pakistan and sparked calls from across the region to boycott Indian products. India’s Hindu nationalist ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has imposed discipline on the two officials involved, but the storm involving India’s main Arab trading partners has not yet subsided. Here’s what you need to know.
What causes the reaction?
At the heart of the controversy is Nupur Sarma, a spokesman for the suspended BJP, the party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On May 26, Sharma made comments during a televised debate on an Indian news channel about the Prophet Muhammad that were widely considered offensive and Islamophobic. Most Indian media outlets have not directly quoted Sharma’s initial comments. Sharma later withdrew her comments, saying it was never her intention to “hurt anyone’s religious feelings”. On Twitter, Sharma said her words were a response to derogatory comments made during the discussion about a Hindu god. “If my words have caused discomfort or hurt anyone’s religious feelings, I will withdraw my statement unconditionally,” he said. Another BJP spokesman, Naveen Jindal, who has since been fired, also commented on the Prophet on social media.
effects
The BJP said on June 5 that it had suspended Sarma and expelled Jidal from the party. “The Bharatiya Janata Party is also strongly opposed to any ideology that offends or demeans any sect or religion. The BJP does not promote such people or philosophy,” the party said in a statement on June 5, without elaborating on Sharma or Jindal. . Police in the Indian capital, Delhi, have also filed charges against Sarma and several others accused of disturbing public order and incitement, according to a tweet from the official Delhi police Twitter account. Earlier, a complaint was lodged in Mumbai against Sharma for her inflammatory comments. On June 8, Indian police said they had arrested a former BJP local youth leader in the northern city of Kanpur for posting incendiary content on social media about the Prophet Muhammad. The incident has led to protests among the country’s Muslim minority in several states. In Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur on Friday, at least 54 people were arrested in connection with the protests, senior Kanpur police official Pramod Kumar told CNN.
Global reactions
The BJP’s move to suspend its spokesman failed to stop the escalation of the dispute beyond India’s borders. Qatar, Kuwait and Iran have summoned India’s ambassadors and the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have issued condemnation statements. Malaysia was the last country to condemn the comments. The Foreign Ministry summoned the High Commissioner of India to Malaysia on Tuesday to send him the “complete rejection of this incident”. Protesters in the Pakistani city of Lahore have called on Indian Prime Minister Monti to apologize. And some stores in Kuwait have removed Indian products from their shelves following similar calls for a boycott. The hashtag “Anyone but the Prophet, oh Monti” has become popular on Twitter in all six Gulf countries, as far as Algeria. The sincere Grand Mufti of Oman, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Khalili, the country’s main religious figure, described Sharma’s comments as “a war against all Muslims” and an issue that “calls on all Muslims to rise as a nation”. Monti has not commented publicly on the incident, but Indian embassies in the Gulf states have said the comments “do not in any way reflect the views of the Government of India” and that the government “respects all religions “. CNN contacted the Indian Home Office for comment.
Al Qaeda threats in the Indian subcontinent
The depictions of the Prophet of Islam are considered blasphemous by many Muslims, and offensive images or comments have led to mass boycotts, diplomatic crises, riots and even terrorist attacks in the past. a statement condemning the BJP officials’ comments and calling for revenge, warning that “they will find no refuge in their homes or in the strongholds of their army”. However, Mohammed Sinan Siyech, a non-resident fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based global think tank, said such threats were more of a recruitment strategy than a solid plan. “In a way they are trying to make their views public instead of taking action,” Siege said. AQIS had not recruited many people since it was formed on the subcontinent in 2014, so it may not have had the capability to carry out such an attack, he said. In 2015, Islamist militants attacked the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had printed cartoons of the Prophet, and a Jewish supermarket in Paris, killing 17 people.
Attitude towards Muslims at home
For many of India’s 200 million Muslims, Sharma’s comments were not an isolated incident. They came in the midst of a wider trend in India, which has suppressed the minority Muslim population since Monti’s BJP came to power almost eight years ago. Analysts say support for extremist Hindu nationalist groups and suspected hate crimes against Muslims has risen since 2014. In January, a senior member of the right-wing Hindu political party Mahashabha called on its supporters to “kill Muslims” in the country. . It caused outrage that was exacerbated by the consequent lack of arrests. In February, the southern state of Karnataka banned headscarves, sparking protests in the state and major cities, including the capital New Delhi. The demonstrations sparked protests by right-wing Hindus who chanted a religious slogan in support of the BJP. In 2018, incumbent Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah said that Muslim immigrants and asylum seekers from Bangladesh were “termites” and promised to expel them from the nation. And between 2015 and 2018, vigilante groups killed dozens of people – many of them Muslims – for allegedly consuming or killing cows, an animal considered sacred by Hindus, according to Human Rights Watch. In 2019, India’s parliament passed a bill that would give immigrants from three neighboring countries a path to citizenship – excluding Muslims. This has led to widespread protests and international condemnation. And in December 2020, Uttar Pradesh passed a controversial anti-conversion law, making it more difficult for interfaith couples to marry or for people to embrace Islam or Christianity. All of this, analysts say, is evidence that Monti and the BJP party have promoted an agenda of Hindu nationalism in secular India, a country of 1.3 billion people.
What does the BJP’s reaction say about India’s relationship with the Gulf states?
Analysts say Monti has made a stretch between keeping his Muslim international allies happy while advancing his party’s Hindu nationalist agenda at home. “Monty has worked very hard to prevent the spread of his party’s domestic political agenda and the poisoning of India’s relations with the Gulf states,” said Hassan Alhassan, a member of the Bahrain – based Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain. Indian foreign policy in the Gulf. . “The extent to which Sarma’s comments have clouded India’s relations with the Gulf states is unprecedented, and this is of course due to the fact that she is or was the representative of the BJP.” India has a lot to lose if it can not keep a lid on the controversy. It comes as the Gulf states and India seek to boost their economic cooperation. India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, looks to the Middle East for 65% of its crude. The South Asian nation also sends millions of Gulf workers home, sending billions of dollars in remittances each year. And the UAE has singled out India among seven other nations as a future economic partner. The Gulf states are India’s main source of oil and gas imports, with bilateral trade worth more than $ 100 billion, according to Alhasan. An earlier version of this story had been misrepresented by Mohammed Sinan Sieh. He is a non-permanent fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. CNN Abbas Al Lawati, Manveena Suri, Kunal Sehgal, Rhea Mogul, Nadeen Ebrahim, Swati Gupta and Akanksha Sharma contributed to the report.
