Editorial Desk :
The recent derogatory remarks on Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (PBUH), made by the two high ranking leaders of the Indian ruling party — Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – have sparked condemnation from the Muslim world. A number of Arab nations including the UAE, Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have lodged official protests against India. Besides, some South West, South and South East Asian countries such as Pakistan, Maldives, Malaysia and Afghanistan also reacted strongly to the comments made by the two spokespersons from the BJP. At home, India has also led to protests against the ruling BJP in some parts of the country.
However, Bangladesh as a Muslim majority country is yet to make any reaction over the insulting comments on the Prophet (PBUH) made by the two BJP’s high-ranking leaders.
Meanwhile, Hefazat-e-Islam and Islami Oikko Jote held separate demonstrations in front of the Baitul Mukarram national mosque in Dhaka on Thursday protesting the BJP leaders’ derogatory remarks on the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Several thousand leaders of both the organizations joined the protest rallies, while central leaders were present. Earlier on Wednesday, thousands of supporters of Anjumane Talamije Islamia held a demonstration in Sylhet city protesting over the disparaging remarks on the Prophet (PBUH) by the top-ranking BJP leaders.
In the past few days, Indian Prime Minister Modi’s BJP has found itself in the middle of a political and diplomatic storm after two of its high-ranking leaders — the party’s national spokeswoman Nupur Sharma and Delhi media operation head Naveen Kumar Jindal — have publicly made disparaging remarks on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Anger has already poured out on social media, and calls for a boycott of Indian goods have surfaced in some Arab nations. Reportedly, Indian products have already been removed
from shelves in some shops in Kuwait. Soon after the diplomatic protests, the Indian government had to make an announcement that strong actions have been taken against the accused — Sharma was suspended and Jindal expelled from party membership.
However, the BJP government’s claims that the offending comments by Sharma and Jindal do not represent its views are deeply untruthful. Those remarks were not mistakes by a few low-ranking leaders, but an accurate reflection of the BJP’s views on and attitudes towards Muslims. This reality was perhaps explained best by the Saudi Arabia-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in a statement not only condemned the offending remarks by the BJP leaders but emphasised that they came in a “context of intensifying hatred and abuse towards Islam in India and systematic practices against Muslims”.
Indeed, Islamophobia has always been part and parcel of the BJP’s governing strategy since it came to power in 2014. In the not so distant past, Yogi Adityanath, the BJP affiliated Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, made anti-Muslim speeches during the last state assembly elections. In one such speech, he mocked Muslims and said he sees the state elections as a battle between the 80 percent Hindus and the 20 percent Muslims in the state.
On the other hand, the BJP-affiliated Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma is even more brazen in his speeches. Last year, he called the killing of two Muslims, including a minor, by police officers during a forced eviction drive in Assam “an act of revenge” for past “martyrdom” of Hindus.
Under the BJP’s rule, several campaigns have been started to ensure mosques and other places sacred to Muslims across the country are handed over to Hindus who claim that these places were originally Hindus. There are, for example, such campaigns currently under way to transfer the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, Jamia mosque in Srirangapatna, Qutub Minar in Delhi – and many others – to Hindus.
As the Muslim world reacts to the latest Islamophobic controversy in India, there is no reaction from Bangladesh. Though the people are expressing their anger in strong terms, mysteriously the government of Bangladesh not express solidarity with the Muslim countries. We certainly do not create communal situation in the country that does not mean we must be insensitive to degrading our religion as fun.
Let us hope our government is not, echoing the foreign minister, waiting for advice from appropriate authority.
