Demonstrations were reported in various Indian cities, including the capital New Delhi, on Friday, as Muslims marched after evening prayers, chanting anti-government slogans and demanding the arrest of members of Prime Minister Bharatiya Janata’s Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party. Anger has been rising in India and Muslim-majority countries around the world since last week when two BJP officials – BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma and Delhi media chief Naveen Kumar Jindal – spoke. considered offensive to the Prophet of Islam and his wife Aisha. The BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal, saying it was alleging insults to religious figures. The right-wing party also urged its representatives to be “extremely careful” on religious issues in the first-hour “discussions” on Indian news channels. New Delhi police on Thursday filed charges against two members of the BJP and others – including a Muslim lawmaker and journalist – for “inciting hatred” and other charges. But Muslims in India, who have seen a sharp rise in Islamophobia and attacks on them since Monti came to power in 2014, say those actions are not enough. People hold posters during a protest demanding the arrest of Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal for their comments about the Prophet, outside a mosque in Mumbai [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters] Several parts of Indian-ruled Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim-majority region, observed a spontaneous closure on Friday to protest the BJP leaders’ derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad. Authorities in the disputed area have suspended internet services via mobile phones and deployed additional security forces in some areas as a precautionary measure to quell popular protests. “The issue is outrageous for every Muslim in the world. “The BJP is spreading hatred against Muslims, but they should know that insulting our prophet will not be tolerated,” Mehraj Ud Din, a shopkeeper in the main city of Srinagar, told Al Jazeera. Protests after Friday prayers were also reported from several neighborhoods in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 204 million, more than 19 percent of whom are Muslim. In New Delhi, large numbers of people gathered outside the Mughal-era Jama Masjid in the capital’s old quarter and chanted anti-government slogans against the BJP-led government. Similar protests have been reported in other Indian states, including West Bengal and Telangana. In a report from New Delhi, Al Jazeera’s Pavni Mittal said there was “enormous anger in the streets of India” over BJP officials’ comments against the Prophet Muhammad. He said protests had escalated in some areas, with police firing on protesters and firing tear gas. “Protesters are demanding the arrest of former BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma for blasphemous comments,” he said. Mittal said the BJP’s action against Sharma and Jindal, critics said, was “a response too late”. “They (the critics) have accused the BJP of fueling anti-minority and anti-Muslim sentiment in India,” he said.
Anger in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, thousands of people protested outside Dhaka’s main mosque, Baitul Mukarram, after Friday prayers, chanting slogans such as “Boycott Indian products” and “Hang those who insult our prophet.” Muslims take to the streets after Friday prayers to protest blasphemous remarks about Prophet Muhammad by BJP members in Dhaka, Bangladesh [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters] Small processions were also reported from other parts of the capital against the Hindu nationalist party’s comments against the prophet. The demonstrations were co-organized by Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh and Islami Oikya Jote. As India seeks to curb a diplomatic storm in many Muslim-majority Arab and other countries over anti-Islamic rhetoric, the government in Bangladesh, home to the world’s fourth-largest Muslim population, has not yet condemned the Monti government. This silence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been criticized by opposition parties and the people. Asif Nazrul, a law professor at the University of Dhaka, told Al Jazeera that the Bangladeshi government did not speak out because it did not want to “fight India at any cost, even if it means honoring the prophet of Islam”. “Sheikh Hasina’s government remains in power without the mandate of the people and a large part of the people in Bangladesh believe that India has a role behind it. “Of course, the Hasina administration would not do anything to win the wrath of the Monti government.” Anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh over the treatment of India’s Muslim minority has grown since Monti came to power in 2014. On Thursday, Bangladesh’s largest non-political Muslim platform, Hefazat-e-Islam, held a large rally in Dhaka in protest of BJP officials’ comments about the prophet and called on the government to send an official message of condemnation to the authorities. . Speakers at the rally also called for a boycott of Indian products until the country abandons its anti-Muslim policies.
Rallies in Pakistan
Thousands of people also protested in Pakistan on Thursday and briefly clashed with police in the Pakistani capital, calling on Muslim countries to cut off diplomatic relations with New Delhi over statements by two BJP officials that were derogatory to the Prophet Muhammad. Protesters burn Indian flag during demonstration to condemn BJP members’ derogatory references to Islam and Prophet Mohammed in Lahore [K M Chaudary/AP] Clashes between protesters from Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami party and police broke out when protesters tried to reach the Indian embassy in Islamabad, but were stopped by police. In Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, dozens of people took to the streets, demanding that the government shut down India’s High Commission and boycott Indian products. “The government must close the Indian High Commission in Pakistan and boycott India financially,” said Shabana protester Ummul Hasnain. Protesters also burned Indian national flags and photos of Monti and Sarma. Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations. Since gaining independence from British rule in 1947, the nuclear-armed nations have fought two of their three wars over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim as a whole. . Faisal Mahmud contributed to this report from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
