On June 7, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), which has links to Islamic terror organisations, announced that 17 organisations have written to President Joe Biden to rescind the State Dinner invitation to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. In the letter, the Islamist organisations have accused PM Modi of a crackdown on fundamental democratic rights, jailing critics, enforcing anti-minority laws and more.
#Breaking— A coalition of 17 civil rights organizations, including the IAMC has released an open letter urging @POTUS to reconsider his decision to extend a state dinner invitation to Indian PM Narendra Modi due to the steep decline of democratic values and the continuous… pic.twitter.com/dkY4QY4Zjg
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) June 7, 2023
IAMC undersigned the letter, Jubilee Campaign American Muslim Institution, Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), Dalit Solidarity Forum, World Without Genocide, International Defenders Council, International Society for Peace and Justice, Dalit Solidarity Forum in the USA, Genocide Watch, Asian Children’s Education Fellowship, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Misión Vida para las Naciones, Church in the Republic of Uruguay, Global Christian Relief, American Sikh Council, Human Rights and Grassroots Development Society and International Commission for Dalit Right.
The organisations claimed that India is facing sharp democratic backsliding. The claim was based on April 20, 2023, Financial Times report titled ‘India’s Democratic Backsliding’. In the report, FT claimed the democratic values of India were on backtrack because a Gujarat court denied disqualified Congress MP Rahul Gandhi‘s plea against a 2-year sentence in a defamation case. FT called it bad news not only for India but for the whole world.
However, FT failed to mention that Rahul Gandhi has a habit of making derogatory comments against PM Modi and his supporters. He also apologised in the Supreme Court for one such statement and was warned not to repeat it. There are other cases against Gandhi for such speeches as well. Gandhi was not disqualified for just PM Modi but for a whole community. In fact, there is no reason to blame PM Modi or anyone else for this decision, which was taken by a court of law and upheld even after Gandhi appealed the decision. To call this decision ‘undemocratic’ is basically saying that India as a democracy is not functioning at the whims of the West and the Liberal ecosystem of the world and is, therefore, not a conducive democracy.
The organisations claimed that the Modi Administration routinely jails political critics and opponents. The claim was supported by an Al-Jazeera report from 2021. The information mostly talked about a 33-year-old man identified as Mohammad Irfan, who was acquitted of all charges under UAPA. Interestingly, Irfan spent nine years in jail and was arrested in 2012. Modi Government came to power in 2014, two years after his arrest. IAMC and others seem to have missed the fact that three others involved in the case were convicted and sent to prison for ten years. Acquittals came mostly due to a lack of evidence. The report further mentioned that there were 5,922 arrested under UAPA between 2016 and 2019, out of which 132 were convicted. However, the report did not mention how many cases among them were under trial. Half-baked and half-cooked stories are the expertise of Al-Jazeera, and such reports are often used by dubious organisations like IAMC.
Furthermore, the organisations accused PM Modi-led Indian Government of enforcing anti-minority laws. The claim was based on another Al-Jazeera report from March 2020 on Citizen Amendment (Act), 2019. The report was based on the conspiracy that CAA and NRC were aimed at stripping Indian Muslims of their citizenship. In reality, CAA does not affect Indian Muslims. It was meant for the minorities that are Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains in the neighbouring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. CAA is aimed to fast-track the process of granting citizenship to these minorities who shifted to India. It has nothing to do with Indian Muslims at all. The propagandist used CAA to target the Modi government by misleading the public, especially Muslims living in the country. Organisations like IAMC are still using it to target India on different platforms.
In the letter, they also cited four other reports linked to CAA and NRC. They included a fact sheet by United States Commission on International Religious Freedom from February 2020. However, the report clearly mentioned that CAA was only meant for minorities in neighbouring Islamic countries. The report does point out Assam NRC controversies, but assuming NRC, whenever it comes, will have the same regulations and guidelines is far-fetched. The government of India has not issued any draft related to NRC to date, and we are talking about a fact sheet from 2020. IAMC and others forgot to check if there was any update on NRC and CAA before using them to discredit the Modi government.
Also, we noticed that the USCIRF report claimed BJP leaders advocated for CAA to protect Hindus excluded from NRC in Assam. The report by Hindustan Times cited by USCIRF nowhere mentioned what was claimed! The US autonomous body cooked up a theory based on non-existing statements in 2020, and IAMC, along with others, used it as a tool against India in 2023. They also used a report from Foreign Policy that talked about fear among Muslims that they have to prove they are Indians if NRC is implemented. None of the reports, NGOs, protesters and so-called experts cared to tell the Muslims in India that NRC’s draft was not out. Even to date, the government of India has not issued it.
The letter tried to draw a parallel between Assam NRC (which was mandated by the Supreme Court) and the proposed NRC by the Government of India (which is not even proposed, per se. There is no draft yet). However, they are completely different. While Assam NRC was for the residents of Assam only, the proposed countrywide NRC will include Assam. The two processes are different and guidelines for the nationwide NRC are yet to be announced. There are some detention centres in Assam for illegal immigrants and some legal battles are underway. Suggesting Assam NRC will have any effect on nationwide NRC is far-fetched and ill-informed.
They also claimed attacks on Muslims in India by citing reports that insinuated allegations against Muslim roti makers that they spit on food were false and fabricated. However, there is documented evidence that proves such incidents happened and keeps happening across the country. The report also talked about a Muslim bangle seller being beaten up. The Muslim man identified as Taslim was beaten up not for being Muslim but for harassing a Hindu minor girl in the guise of selling bangles. Later, during the investigation, it was revealed Taslim had two Aadhar cards. Maybe IAMC and others need to update their facts before calling out Indian Government claiming minorities are under threat in the country.
From citing the banned BBC documentary against PM Modi to citing the dubious report by Reporters Without Borders, the organisations used all tools under their belt to target PM Modi.
A brief history of IAMC
For the uninitiated, Rasheed Ahmed is the executive director of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), a radical Islamist group that has alleged links with banned terror organisations 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.
Similar reports covered by OpIndia on HfHR and Hamas-linked Islamist group CAIR can be read here and here.
Organisation which sat with Rahul Gandhi during his USA trip also among organisations like IAMC undersigning the letter
Rahul Gandhi is on a 10-day USA tour, where he spoke at the National Press Club, Stanford University and also, to ‘think tanks’, allegedly discussing relations between India and USA. The Hudson Institute tweeted images of Rahul Gandhi in deep conversation with these “think tanks”. Sunita Vishwanath was seated alongside Rahul Gandhi at this event at Hudson Institute. Sunita Vishwanath is the co-founder of HrHR, which has also signed this letter against Narendra Modi alongside IAMC.
Investigating Info-warfare and Psy-war OSINT Disinfo Lab had conducted an investigation revealing that the ‘Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR)’ had been promoting the misleading narrative of ‘Hindu Vs Hindutva’. The same organisation was also seen endorsing the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ event.
As per Disinfo Lab, HfHR was formed in the year 2019 by two Islamist advocacy groups named Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and the Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI). Interestingly, the three organisations had formed another outfit called the Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA).
As per an article in The Hindu, the Alliance for Justice and Accountability had been at the forefront of leading demonstrations against the visit of PM Modi to Houston on September 22, 2019.
“The AJA comprises of Hindu, Muslim, Dalit, Sikh and Christian groups, among others. They include the Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), a progressive Hindu group that opposes Hindutva; the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC); and the Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI),” the article read.
According to Disinfo Lab, the co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights, Sunita Vishwanath, also runs an organisation named ‘Women for Afghan Women’, which is funded by the Soros Open Society Foundation. Earlier, OpIndia reported in detail how George Soros had been fuelling a dangerous anti-India narrative through media and ‘civil society.’
Interestingly, Sunita Vishwanath, who was pictured alongside Rahul Gandhi, had tried to create hysteria and panic among Indian Muslims about the National Register of Citizens (NRC). “We are especially appalled by the most recent nightmare of the Kashmiri people, and the situation of 1.9 million people in India who are rendered stateless due to the imposition of the travesty called the National Register of Citizens”, she had said. It is pertinent to note that even during this USA trip, Rahul Gandhi endorsed dangerous lies and propaganda against CAA and NRC, which led to anti-Hindu riots in 2020 in India.
HfHR’s founding member Raju also heads EKTA. It is an associate organization of IAMC. The sole purpose was to have Hindus on the panel to project that the Hindus, in general, were against Hindutva. Interestingly, HfHR ran Facebook ads to promote previous USCIRF reports.
Interestingly, Sunita Vishwanath, the co-founder of HfHR, is also closely connected to George Soros and Islamist linked IAMC. The in-depth analysis of the web can be read here.
