Being Muslim in Modi's India

BBC ^ | April 28 | BBC

[RandFan]

Six years ago, a Muslim boy returned red-faced from a well-known school in the northern Indian city of Agra.

"My classmates called me a Pakistani terrorist," the nine-year-old told his mother.

Reema Ahmad, an author and counsellor, remembers the day vividly.

"Here was a feisty, little boy with his fists clenched so tightly that there were nail marks in his palm. He was so angry."

As her son told the story, his classmates were having a mock fight when the teacher had stepped out.

"That's when one group of boys pointed at him and said, 'This is a Pakistani terrorist. Kill him!'"

He revealed some classmates had also called him nali ka kida (insect of the gutter). Ms Ahmad complained, and was told they "were imagining things… such things didn't happen".

Ms Ahmad eventually pulled her son out of school. Today, the 16-year-old is home-schooled.

"I sensed the community's tremors through my son's experiences, a feeling I never recall having in my own youth growing up here," she says.

"Our class privilege may have protected us from feeling Muslim all the time. Now, it seems class and privilege make you a more visible target."

Ever since Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in 2014, India's 200 million-odd Muslims have had a turbulent journey.

Hindu vigilante mobs have lynched suspected cow traders and targeted small Muslim-owned businesses. Petitions have been filed against mosques. Internet trolls have orchestrated online "auctions" of Muslim women. Right-wing groups and sections of mainstream media have fuelled Islamophobia with accusations of "jihad" - "love jihad", for example, falsely accuses Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage.

And anti-Muslim hate speech has surged - three quarters of incidents were reported from states ruled by the BJP.

"Muslims have become second-class citizens"

[Angelino97]

Diversity is India’s greatest strength.

[BobL]

Indians FIGHT BACK - probably best for the Muslims to stick with colonizing Western Europe and North America...FAR EASIER going.

[Paul R.]

Good Lord, there has been Hindu-Muslim violence in India for generations. In recent years, I would not say the larger occurrences are “common”, but when they do happen, usually it goes something like this:

Town population is ~2000. 400 are Muslims, of those, 18 are radicals / terrorists, 100 are sympathetic, 100 are neutral, and the remainder are actually opposed to the terrorists.

17 Muslim terrorists attack a bus and kill all 45 Hindus on board.

In retaliation, the Hindu population hunts down and kills every Muslim in the town (that they can find).

The interesting thing to me is that most native Indians I’ve met (including a few I’ve worked with) are quite nice people.

[magooey]

Right-wing groups and sections of mainstream media have fuelled Islamophobia with accusations of "jihad" - "love jihad", for example, falsely accuses Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage.

This is Taqiyya. There are too many testimonies and cases of Love Jihad to believe the BBC on this. The Love Jihad, rape and forced conversion of women, is real and very threatening to native Indians. Is the BBC a Muslim-influenced propaganda machine?

[PGalt]

Centuries of the depravity of the worst anti-truth, anti-freedom, anti-individual, anti-life collective in human history. Jihad continues apace.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

The BBC is a post-colonialist Leftist entity at this point, dreaming of becoming Muslims’ channel by writing drivel like this. “BBC World Service” is so biased at this point that it should be allowed to fail. Alas, the so-called fee the state charges in the UK, mandatory and punishable if unpaid, keeps afloat what a true market with a relatively equal playing field would long ago have discarded. Privileged Leftists.

[xp38]

Well I learned a new descriptive today. Nali ka kida (Insects of the gutter) could be of use in the future and also an excellent name for a rock band.