The Citizenship Amendment Bill being tabled in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has created a political slugfest where several “secular” politicians are fear-mongering and spreading lies about the bill. In a shameful interview to Leftist portal The Logical Indian, AIMIM chief Asaddudin Owaisi made wildly fallacious claims including denying persecution of Hindus and other minority groups in Pakistan and other neighbouring Islamic nations.
In response to a question by the interviewer, Owaisi said, “I asked the ruling government in the Parliament whether they had the numbers or data to prove that there was pervasive persecution of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Sikhs, and Christians. Amit Shah said ‘lakhon-crorodon’ (lakhs and crores) – which is a very tall and unverified claim and not even remotely substantiated. I asked him for the exact number, broken down nation-wise between the three Islamic nations, and there was no answer given”.
In this shameful statement by Owaisi, he has clearly attempted to deny the persecution of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians and Parsis in neighbouring Islamic countries where there exists ample evidence of the religious persecution faced by these minorities.
Owaisi said he had asked the government for data on the quantum of persecution of minorities in Islamic nations and he has not got those statistics yet. Insinuating that the persecution that is being cited to provide refuge to minorities of neighbouring Islamic nations might be completely concocted or the quantum might not be as much to require refuge.
Owaisi might do well to realise that Islamic nations, as a matter of state policy discriminate against Hindus and other minorities and any communities that are not Muslims. For example, in Pakistan, Islam is the state religion. It also stated that all laws would have to be brought into accordance with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah and that no law repugnant to such injunctions could be enacted. In 2019, Pakistan Assembly rejected a bill that sought to ensure that non-Muslims could too become the Prime Minister or President of Pakistan. The bill was introduced by a Christian legislator. In fact, that it was rejected was hailed by Pakistan saying that no law which does not conform to Islam can be passed. By the very virtue of Islam being the state religion of Pakistan, Bangladesh etc, the state is predisposed to discriminating against minorities.
Besides the basic law that discriminates against minorities, firstly, there is no denying that the tenets of Islam itself discriminate against other religions and we have seen that time and again. Secondly, there are ample reports and even global condemnation that has accrued to Pakistan, Bangladesh etc that point towards widespread persecution of minorities in neighbouring Islamic nations.
There have been thousands of Hindu, Sikh and Christian girls who have been abducted, raped and forced to convert to Islam. In October this year, a young girl named Chandri Kolhi from Noukot, Mirpurkhas was abducted, converted and married to Allah Dino. The family of the girl filed a complaint alleging that she was abducted and forcefully converted to Islam.
Earlier, following an allegation of blasphemy against a Hindu school principal, Hindu temples, shops and homes of minority Hindus were ransacked by Muslim rioters. However, later it was revealed that the attack on Hindus was a pre-planned event to cover-up a child abduction incident. The school principal had thwarted efforts by giving refuge to one of the Hindu girls, who was abducted by associates of child kidnapper radical Islamist Mian Mithoo.
The violence against Hindus in Pakistan’s Ghotki came months after a series of abductions and forceful conversions of minority Hindu and Sikh girls. In March, two underage Hindu girls Raveena (13) and Reena (15) were abducted from the Ghotki in Pakistan’s Sindh on the eve of Holi. The girls were later forcefully converted and married off to older Muslim men.
Earlier, Jagjit Kaur, a Sikh girl was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam in Nankana Sahib which had caused a huge uproar. In another horrific incident, a 13-year-old Pooja Sotahar Kumari, daughter of Fatan Rathore, resident of village Bakhsho Laghari in Hyderabad district’s Hosri Taluka, was kidnapped, forcefully converted and subsequently married off to a man identified as Syed Irshad Shah.
Recently, a Christian girl was abducted and forcefully converted to Islam before being married off to her abductor.
Many instances of Pakistani Christian women being married to Chinese men and then being forced into prostitution have emerged in several areas in Pakistan. In a recent case, a 27-year-old woman named Rimsha had reached out to her family members in Lahore via a messaging app, claiming that her Chinese husband has been physically abusing her and forcing her into prostitution.
Rimsha was married to a Chinese man who had promised that she will have a comfortable life in China. Rimsha’s family, like many Pakistani Christians, live a life of abject poverty and marginalisation. When the Chinese suitor had promised a comfortable life for Rimsha and also good jobs for her brothers, the family had delightfully agreed to get her married. However, soon after her wedding, Rimsha was reportedly subjected to physical and mental abuse. She was reportedly forced into prostitution by her husband.
The Associated Press had reported that as the Faisalabad racket targetting Christian women revealed an extended network of trafficking, the police were ordered to remain quiet over the issue for the fear of hurting economic ties with Beijing. The report also stated that Chinese Christian pastors and brokers inside Pakistan target and pursue poor Christian girls aggressively to trap them in fake marriages and subsequent trafficking and prostitution.
As for Bangladesh, one recalls the Bhola rape and violence incident which occurred in 2001, just after the Bangladesh National Party under Begum Khalida Zia came to power. After the election victory, the BNP and Jamat-e-Islami goons had wreaked havoc over Hindus in Bangladesh.
Read: Leader from Bangladesh opposition party confesses to leading arson attacks against Hindus in 2017
In October 2001, in Bhola districts, Lalmohan region, Hindus were attacked by Muslims. The attackers rushed into Hindu homes, looted their belongings, cut down their trees, destroyed their crops. In Bhola’s Char Fasson, BNP supported Muslims had attacked and raped over 200 Hindu women. The youngest victim was 8. The eldest was a 70-year-old woman.
Years later, a Judicial Commission inquiry in Bangladesh had concluded that over 25,000 leaders and local party workers of the then ruling BNP and Jamat-e-Islami were involved in the attack against Hindus and other minorities that had led to hundreds of deaths, injuries and had forced the Hindus in Bangladesh to flee into India.
In addition to all of this, there are hundreds and thousands of temples that are desecrated regularly in Islamic nations. One even recalls the images of caged Durga Puja pandals in Bangladesh as an example.
The fact remains that if one had to write a comprehensive report on the persecution that minorities face in neighbouring Islamic nations, merely an article would not be sufficient. That Owaisi is now questioning the very persecution that minorities face in Islamic nations points towards his deep-seated Hinduphobia. It merely proves beyond doubt that Owaisi is an Islamist who would even deny long-established facts to ensure the persecuted Hindus, Sikh, Buddhists etc don’t find shelter and refuge in India.
It is also interesting that a portal would publish this genocide denial without any counter questions posed to Owaisi. It shows the utter lack of honesty and ethics prevalent in the media and the fact that they are more than happy to provide a platform to radical Islamists who choose to spread their propaganda and are confident that it would go unchallenged by the concerned news agency.
