Bengaluru was yesterday convulsed with violent communal riots as members of Muslim community, offended over an allegedly derogatory social media post on Prophet Muhammad, went on a rampage in some parts of the city.
The communal conflagration that broke out in Bengaluru also saw pitched battle between the hoodlums and the police personnel who were deployed to contain the situation. The Bengaluru police fought with the protesters, who indulged in arson and vandalism, for six hours in the narrow streets of K G Halli and D J Halli.
Amidst the menacing chants of “Allahu Akbar” and “Naara e Taqbeer”, the rampaging Muslim mob burnt down a police station, attacked the residence of the Dalit Congress MLA’s residence after one of his relatives had allegedly made a derogatory Facebook post.
Over a 100 people had gathered around the residence of Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasamurthy around 7:00 PM on Tuesday. Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasamurthy represents Pulikeshinagar constituency which is reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC). The Muslim mob, armed with sticks, iron rods, sharp metal objects and other weapons, went berserk and barged into the house of the MLA.
The angry Muslim pelted stones and began to torch vehicles, ATMs, shops near the locality while protesting against the alleged derogatory post made by one of the relatives of Dalit Congress MLA Akhanda Shrinivasamurthy. Social media posts of few people involved in the mob violence indicate that the riots could have been pre-planned as calls for the mobilisation of Muslims were allegedly made on social media platforms on Tuesday evening.
While the news reports from multiple sources confirmed that the Bengaluru riots were a handiwork of anarchist members of the Muslim community, a concerted attempt is being made by the secularists and liberals on the social media to whitewash the criminality of these hooligans who had wreaked havoc on the streets of Bengaluru.
#muslim youth from #bangalore stands outside #temples to safeguard against unruly Mob .#bangaloreriots @ProfNoorul @_garrywalia @sushant_says @SalmanNizami_ pic.twitter.com/TM8iTNE1ck
— Zakiya Khan (@ZakiyakINC) August 11, 2020
In order to counter the view that the protesting Muslims in Bengaluru are responsible for the widespread violence in the city, a vile and deliberately misleading narrative is being spun around to understate the delinquency of the riotous Muslims accountable for the communal strife.
In the wake of the riots that erupted in Bengaluru, a canard is being peddled in the media to extenuate the violent Muslim protesters from their participation in the violence. A video is of Muslims allegedly protecting a Hindu temple from ‘unruly mob’ is doing the rounds on the Internet.
At around 2 AM on the intervening night of 11th and 12th August, Congress National Secretary and social media in-charge Zakiya Khan shared a video wherein she claimed that Muslim youth formed a ‘human chain’ to ‘safeguard’ a temple from an intractable mob.
While the secularists and liberals hold forth on rioters having no religion, they do not necessarily feel apply the same standards while characterising those who allegedly save temples from rioters. A later video that emerged showed how someone could be heard asking the person recording the video to ‘hurry up and upload’.
You should see this video. 'jaldi upload kar'
— ರಾಘವೇಂದ್ರ ಹೆಬ್ಬಾರ್ (@RK_Hebbar) August 12, 2020
All drama for publicity sake @smitaprakash pic.twitter.com/agHW4ayRP9
In their bid to diminish the cruelties meted out by members of a particular religion, liberals whitewash their crimes committed during the riots by disassociating their religion with their depravity but when it comes to an act which appears to reinforce their commitment to secularism, they fall over themselves to link religion with their putative act of goodness.
The curious case of ‘human chains’
Day after the Delhi’s Anti-Hindu riots in February, media reports had emerged how Muslims formed human chains to ‘save temples’ in Delhi. In the article, Hindu Frontline claims that Hindus desecrated the mosques and Muslims were afraid that Hindus would then destroy a temple to blame the Muslims. Hence, to ‘protect’ temple from Hindus, Muslims formed a chain. “As a Hindu mob finished its destruction of the mazaar and poured into the lanes wreaking havoc, Muslims retaliated by pelting bricks back at them. In the melee, it was feared that the temple would be attacked either by the Hindus, in order to put the blame on Muslims angry at their mazaar being torched.” the report read.
Similar such ‘human chains’ emerged while protesting against CAA and NRC as well. The CAA and NRC protests were also carried out mostly by Islamist organisation to protest against the citizenship law which would fast-track Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Similarly, the Muslim women at Shaheen Bagh had also formed a ‘human chain’ after an Aam Aadmi Party member opened fire at the road blocked by ‘protestors’.
Delhi’s Hauz Qazi where similar propaganda was peddled
A similar kind of trope was peddled during the communal violence that broke out in Delhi Hauz Qazi after a Hindu temple was desecrated in the area. A fabricated story, reinforcing ‘secularism’ and ‘bond of brotherhood’ was ran in the media, wherein Muslims were claimed to be helping the Hindus in ‘installing the idols’ and serving food.
As it turned out, the Hindu activists in the region rubbished the reports, claiming Muslims were serving foods only for ‘photo-ops’.
OpIndia had then spoken to Aviral Sharma, one such Hindu activist who was present at Hauz Qazi and was closely associated with the organisation of Hindu events in the area.
Aviral Sharma said that the event was organised by VHP and the money for the event came from donations by Hindus. The Muslims of Hauz Qazi did not pay any amount towards the Praan Pratishtha event and hence, reports that they ‘helped install new idols’ in the Durga Temple are outright lies.
Anti-Hindu riots in Delhi also witnessed attempts by media to sweep under the rug Muslim atrocities
Even in the aftermath of the vicious anti-Hindu riots in Delhi this year, media organisations made a beeline to publish stories that attempted to break the prevailing narrative that protesting Muslims instigated the riots in the national capital.
A report published in Outlook India said that Muslim neighbours in Delhi’s Babu Nagar area guarded a 39-year-old Hindu widow and her kids and ensured her safety. This report was in contrast to many other reports published by several media organisations, including OpIndia, which demonstrated that rioting Muslims had attacked colonies and places of Hindus through a co-ordinated and well-planned strategy. In fact, the charge-sheet into the Delhi riots lays bare the conspiracy hatched by Islamists to trigger communal clashes in the national capital.
Lies about Muslims helping cremate a Hindu body amid coronavirus busted
Recently, another spurious report highlighted how Muslims in the neighbourhood helped bury a man who was ostracised by the Hindu neighbours because he was suspected to have died from coronavirus. The report was carried by Times of India, apparently, to showcase how members of Muslim community helped a deceased Hindu man in performing his final rites.
However, the claims made in the report were rubbished by the grieving family, who were traumatised by the falsehoods peddled in the TOI report. Vinod, the dead man’s younger brother, categorically refuted the assertions made in the article, saying some 5 Muslim men did visit their house in the evening but only one of them was their acquaintance. Vinod stated that they all expressed their condolences and provided the family with food packets before leaving.
Vinod went on to say that those men also attended the funeral and some of them asked if they could pick up the bier. Vinod assented to their request, completely oblivious to the fact that photos of them carrying the bier were clicked and will be used against them to portray that Muslims helped in the cremation of the Hindu man.
This is a typical modus operandi employed by liberals and secularists to airbrush the offences committed by members of the Muslim community by citing alleged acts of generosity by Muslims towards non-Muslims. They either concoct incidents, such as the case in Delhi’s Hauz Qazi or highlight stray incidents such as the human chain being formed by Muslims in Bengaluru, to sweep under the rug the transgressions committed by the members of the Muslim community. While their benevolent acts may or may not be well-intentioned, but such actions do not acquit them of their role in instigating and perpetuating violence.
