Since the former spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party, Nupur Sharma, got suspended from the party, a lot of facts have surfaced pointing toward a well-planned conspiracy to defame India and get a target on the ruling party’s leader head. Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal appear to be victims of a sophisticated plan that has been exposed in parts over the past few days. Here is how dog-whistling by AltNews cofounder Muhammad Zubair culminated into terror-attack threats by dreaded terrorist group Al-Qaeda over the alleged derogatory remarks on Prophet Muhammad.
The remarks by Nupur Sharma
On May 26, former spokesperson of BJP Nupur Sharma participated in a debate on the Gyanvapi disputed structure case on Times Now, where the other panellist from the Muslim community repeatedly abused Bhagwan Shiv. In response, Sharma remarked on Prophet Muhammad by narrating what has been written in Islamic holy scriptures. What she said has often been cited by various Islamic scholars, including hate-preacher Zakir Naik.
AltNews’ Mohammad Zubair’s role in the controversy
So-called fact-checking website AltNews’ co-founder Mohammad Zubair saw an opportunity in what Nupur said, and he used a cleverly trimmed video clip of the debate to target her. Little after the debate, he published a tweet and said, “Prime Time debates in India have become a platform to encourage hate mongers to speak ill about other religions. Times Now’s Anchor Navika Kumar is encouraging a rabid communal hatemonger & a BJP Spokesperson to speak rubbish which can incite riots. Shame on you, Vineet Jain.”
In another tweet, he wrote, “Why do we need Hate Mongers like Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati or Mahant Bajrang Muni or Anand Swaroop to arrange a Dharam Sansad to speak against a community and a Religion when we already have Anchors who can do a much better job from News Studios.” Notably, this particular tweet resulted in an FIR against Zubair based on complaint by Mahant Bajrag Muni.
It is notable that Zubair cleverly snapped the part where a Muslim speaker had used derogatory language for Shivling. The clip starts with Nupur warning him to stop abusing the Hindu religion and its Gods. However, Zubair, in his tweet, insinuated to make it look like only Nupur had used derogatory remarks.
Soon several media houses including international media picked it up to attack India. British online paper Independent also noted in a report that it was Zubair who initiated the first attack on Nupur. In a report, they said, “The video was first flagged by Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, on his Twitter account.”
Zubair posted the tweet at 11:31 AM on May 27. In less than an hour, at 12:08 PM, Sharma confronted him and asked him not to put up fake videos. She asked him to check the complete video to get the context. She wrote, “Stop putting out selectively edited fake videos. Watch the full video Fact-checker. I had repeatedly requested co-panellists to stop insulting the Hindu religion. Maybe you would want to upload the truth & full video. And Stop inciting communal passions.” However, things were only going to escalate from this point. Zubair had a weapon in his hand in the form of a well-crafted plan and an edited video that he was going to use against Sharma and the ruling party, BJP, at the centre.
By that time, Nupur had already started getting rape and death threats. She published some screenshots of the comments she had received. Notably, even after two weeks, such threats are still coming in, and they are no longer limited to India but also from Islamic countries, including Pakistan.
AltNews’ other co-founder Pratik Sinha also chipped in and rushed to give clean-chit to his partner. In a tweet thread published on May 27, he pointed out that Zubair did not put up the edited video and said he was not responsible for any death threats to Sharma. Both Pratik and Zubair used this opportunity to then ask for donations for their propaganda page.
The entry of Ayyubs
Several left-leaning leaders, activists and opposition parties had by now started targeting Nupur over her alleged defamatory comments. However, things got further escalated with the entry of the Ayyubs. Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub and her brother Arif Ayyub used social media to further fan the online mob against Sharma.
On May 28 around 2:56 AM Rana Ayyub took on Twitter to target Nupur. In a tweet, she wrote, “As somebody who grew up witnessing two of the worst anti-muslim pogroms in India, I think like a journalist, and as a Muslim, I have NEVER witnessed this level of brazen, televised hate. This lady is the national spokesperson of Narendra Modi’s BJP. THE NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON.” Again, the fact was ignored that the Muslim panellist had used derogatory remarks against Bhagwan Shiv first.
On May 28, Arif Ayyub, the brother of financial fraud accused Rana Ayyub took to Twitter and suggested that the Gulf nations restrict their oil supplies to India in order to make Hindus in India suffer. By now, the Islamists are leaving no stone unturned to target Nupur Sharma even though all she did was quote what the Islamic holy scriptures say about Prophet Mohammad.
Quoting the tweet of her sister Rana Ayyub and tagging Saudi based oil company Aramco, UAE President Mohamed Bin Zayed, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at 3:20 PM on May 28, Arif wrote, “India runs on Oil from middle-east, a region of Islamic nations. If these nations were to stop their supplies for a month, Indians, of which a vast majority are such Muslim-hating Hindus, would suffer greatly.” Arif and other Islamists soon urged the Gulf countries to boycott Indian products but none of them suggested to stop oil trade with India.
The anti-India ‘toolkit’ exposed
A week after the online mob attack by Islamists and incessant tagging of Gulf countries, when Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was in Qatar, the BJP suspended Nupur Sharma and terminated Naveen Jindal from the party. The duo even issued public apology for their statements and withdrew the same. Things should have calmed down, but even after India’s statement that appropriate action was taken against the party spokesperson, reactions in the form of condemnations kept coming from Islamic countries, including Pakistan, following which India had to issue strong-worded statements.
But the question arises, how Gulf countries were roped into the controversies? Who was behind the campaigns on social media to run hashtags and publish tens of thousands of posts to target Nupur Sharma and, ultimately, the Government of India? The first expose came from The Hawk Eye.
On June 6, Twitter user The Hawk Eye published a series of tweets explaining how a malicious campaign was active against India. The malicious trend took Twitter by storm as the bigoted online mob, consisting mostly of Muslim Twitter users from the Arab world launched a coordinated social media campaign attacking Hindus residing in the Middle East and outraging over the alleged blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad.
The propaganda tweets are related to every other matter like hijab to random incidents, haven’t even heard of with ‘hate’ graphics (mostly carrying PM Modi picture). This is professional work in coordination with someone who closely follows Indian news days n nights.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) June 5, 2022
2/ pic.twitter.com/Z5dVW2Ldro
Whipped up by accusations of blasphemy, thousands of Islamists and their sympathisers around the world, most notably in India and the Arab countries, started trending ‘إلارسولاللهيامودي’, a message written in Arabic, on Twitter to mobilise support and demand action against the BJP leaders for quoting Islamic hadiths on Prophet Muhammad.
According to the Twitter account ‘The Hawk Eye’, a social media page known for conducting independent investigative journalism, the Twitter storm was initiated by an Egypt based organisation called “International Organisation for the Support of the Prophet of Islam” (IOSPI). The first tweet by the dubious body that touts itself as an organisation that fights ‘blasphemy’ against the Islamic prophet was posted on Friday, June 3 2002. This was two days prior to Nupur Sharma’s suspension from BJP.sa
He concluded that the propaganda appeared professional and betrayed the involvement of someone who closely followed Indian news. The tweets aimed to whip up hatred and resentment against India carried several matters, from the hijab ban in schools where it was not part of school uniform to unheard of random incidents with ‘hate’ graphics bearing mostly pictures of PM Modi—an insidious attempt to demonise the central government and brand them as anti-Muslim.
For over two days, the trend did not gain traction as desired by its machinators. Then on Sunday, June 5 2022, it suddenly picked up pace after notable Arab personalities with verified Twitter accounts and news organisations started tweeting about it. Soon thereafter, many people, including those in India, started tweeting about it. At the time of writing the thread, The Hawk Eye mentioned that more than 6.1 lakh tweets were posted, with over 45,000 tweets being posted every hour.
While 76% of tweets are in Arabic (sampling), the trend was further pushed by the various handle in Gulf and lslmc nations. In India & nearby, its been contributed by Alt News co-fo Md Zubair & PTI, South Asian INdex (Pak handle) who used hashtag key-word in their tweet.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) June 5, 2022
4/ pic.twitter.com/JIGokSFTGg
While 76 per cent of tweets were in Arabic, in India, the trend was pushed by none other than AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair, PTI and the South Asian index (Pakistan handle), who used hashtag keywords in their tweets.
The second expose by Times Now
In its expose, Times Now revealed that the anti-India campaign was being run from Pakistan. In the malicious campaign, Pakistan used fake accounts, and social media accounts of journalists and politicians to run an anti-India campaign. They targeted Sharma by rallying the Arab world against India. PTI, Imran Khan’s political party, also took on Twitter to post anti-India comments.
Rally Arab world against India ‘plot’; Anti-India ‘toolkit’ reveals Pak hand
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) June 7, 2022
“Pakistan ran social media campaign on Nupur Sharma” @kritsween and Shivani with details
Not surprised with the development, says @SushantSareen #Pakistan #NupurSharma pic.twitter.com/DTZnfNa8jt
Times Now said that Pakistan had spent crores of rupees on the campaign. Hashtags like ‘StopInsulting_ProphetMuhammed’ were used. In Arabic, hashtags like Except_Messenger_of_God_Modi were trending. Anti-India elements like CJ Werleman also tweeted using the hashtag.
Times Now said that the handles used fake locations to ensure the role of Pakistan in the campaign could not be unearthed.
Threat by Al-Qaeda
The latest feather in Zubair, Ayyubs and other anti-India forces’ hats is the threat issued by the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. In the letter dated the 6th of June, the Islamist terrorist group said, “We shall kill those who affront our Prophet and we shall bind explosives with our bodies and the bodies of our children to blow away the ranks of those who dare to dishonour our Prophet.” The letter also goes on to say that Hindutva terrorists are currently occupying India.
The letter further stated, “We say with the help of Allah the almighty, the saffron terrorists should now await their end in Delhi, Bombay, UP, and Gujarat. They shall find refuge neither in their homes nor in their fortified army cantonments. May our mothers be bereaved of us, if we do not avenge our beloved Prophet.” The terror organisation also said how it would strap themselves and the children with explosives and carry out attacks.
Ummah over India
People like Mohammed Zubair, Rana Ayyub and her brother, Owaisi and other politicians and public personalities, not only triggered the Middle East countries to embarrass India on an international platform but even cheered as they did. For them, their faith came before the country. They were happy to see India firefighting a diplomacy situation because their ‘religious feelings’ were hurt. No such discount was given to Hindus when Islamists and ‘liberals’ mocked the Shivling found in the wuzukhana at the disputed structure of Gyanvapi complex.
For the Islamists, it is the religious bond that trumps nation. And under the garb of ‘fighting hate speech’ in India the fundamentalists would gladly sacrifice the nation at the altar of The Book.
