Last month, the US District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the defamation suit filed by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) against Hindus for Human Rights co-founders Sunita Vishwanath and Raju Rajagopal, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) executive director Rasheed Ahmed, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA) chairman John Prabhudoss, and Rutgers University professor Audrey Truschke.
Notably, the court had dismissed the lawsuit despite the fact that Vishwanath and Truschke, among others, were found to have made verifiably false statements attacking HAF.
Now, following the US court’s arbitrary rejection of the complaint, the ultra-leftist website The Wire, which has always been eager to provide platforms to those peddling anti-India, anti-Modi, and anti-Hindu narratives, has now given Rasheed Ahmed, the executive director of the radical Islamist organisation Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), a platform to insult and gaslight American Hindus in their lawsuit against controversial ‘historian’ Audrey Truschke and others.
Rasheed Ahmed’s article degenerating the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) was published by The Wire on January 13, Friday. The IAMC executive director not only accused the Hindu American Foundation of ‘deliberately cooking up falsehoods’ but also spewed venom against the Indian government by calling it a ‘fascist’ regime, a usual narrative peddled by the anti-Modi, anti-India brigade, both in India and outside.
In may be recalled that after the verdict, HAF’s Executive Director Suhag A Shukla in a statement said, “It is incredibly disappointing that, despite the fact that Vishwanath and Truschke, among others, were found to have made verifiably false statements attacking HAF, the judge dismissed our legal action on procedural grounds. We remain convinced that the defendants’ false and malicious statements about HAF constitute actionable defamation, and we have every reason to believe that they will continue to spread their malicious lies.”
Despite the fact that the court had noted that false statements about HAF were indeed made, IAMC’s Rasheed Ahmed wrote, “HAF’s response, though, on losing the lawsuit, was incredibly audacious: they celebrated their loss by misrepresenting short phrases sans context, deliberately cooking up falsehoods.”
“This reaction by HAF is hardly surprising. It is in line with how the Hindu far-right ecosystem in India – the current government, its stogie media and their hate-mongering leaders – constantly distort truth to humiliate, harass, disenfranchise and even kill Muslims, Christians and Dalits, all the while claiming to be on the right side of the law,” Rasheed Ahmed continued to spew venom in his article.
What is IAMC and what does it do?
For the uninitiated, Rasheed Ahmed is the executive director of the Indian American Muslim Council, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), a radical Islamist group that has alleged links with banned terror organizations such as the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and has a long history of lobbying against India.
The IAMC is a Jamat-e-Islami-backed lobbyist organisation claiming to be a rights advocacy group. In the past, it had reportedly collaborated with and even paid money to various groups in the USA to get India blacklisted by the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom). A detailed report by Disinfo Lab has exposed its links with the terror outfit Jamat-e-Islami.
IAMC founder Shaik Ubaid and member Abdul Malik Mujahid have headed the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the US front for Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan. According to DisInfo Lab, ICNA has established links with Pakistan-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Rasheed Ahmed, who heads the IAMC currently was the former executive director of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). IMANA’s Director of Operations is Zahid Mahmood an ex-Pak Navy official.
IAMC had been caught spreading fake news and misinformation to further the Islamist cause in India. It had also been slapped with the UAPA in 2021.
HAF Chief reiterates how the US court had found that the defendants had made verifiably false statements attacking HAF
Meanwhile, reacting to the hateful and malicious article written by Rasheed Ahmed for The Wire, HAF’s Executive Director Suhag A Shukla took to Twitter to reiterate how the defendants named in the lawsuit were, indeed, found to have made verifiably false statements attacking HAF. She also took a dig at the ultra-leftist portal The Wire for providing a platform for Rasheed Ahmed.
Facts:
— Suhag A. Shukla (@SuhagAShukla) January 13, 2023
-Author of Al Jazeera piece defaming Hindu orgs was on Exec Com of @IAMCouncil (conspiracy)
-Truschke & Viswanath “plausibly verifiably lied” about HAF in different ways
IAMC resorts to hateful cartoons & a piece in @thewire_in—as credible an outlet as their reaction. pic.twitter.com/ok9Cp0Uqo5
“Facts: -Author of Al Jazeera piece defaming Hindu orgs was on Exec Com of @IAMCouncil (conspiracy) -Truschke & Viswanath “plausibly verifiably lied” about HAF in different ways IAMC resorts to hateful cartoons & a piece in @thewire_in—as credible an outlet as their reaction,” tweeted Suhag A Shukla.
