Remember those Bollywood movies wherein a Hindu is corrupt, a Pandit is a rapist, an Indian soldier turns terrorist, a Baniya is an exploitative cheat, but Abdul is a peace-loving person driven by responsibilities? Well, one can probably give the benefit of the doubt (pains one to say so) for the sake of it to Bollywood in the name of creative freedom.
The Indian mainstream media on the other hand has no such excuse when it starts humanising terrorists. Read how the Times of India published an article talking about how much Umar Khalid’s girlfriend misses him, how much she loves him, how they met and started dating, how they meet in jail, and so on and so forth.
While one could laugh and dismiss these shenanigans, humanising terrorists is a potent tool that has been used by the media and their Islamist-Leftist brethren innumerable times before to ensure that the world disbelieves the facts against the terrorist presented to them because their vision would be coloured by just how likeable and relatable the terrorist is.
The expectation is simple – when one reads this interview, one would imagine oneself in such a situation. What if my husband was thrown in jail? I would feel the same, one would think. I would miss him too, he would get me chocolates too, he would be traumatised as well and you would fight for his release, just like so many people are. The aim is to establish an emotional connection to the average citizen who gets emotionally blinded into supporting a hardened terrorist, ignoring the facts of the case, based purely on emotions and how relatable the terrorist and his friends and family seem. With such articles, the media hopes that Umar’s girlfriend’s cause would become the cause of the average citizen, with the facts being suppressed and summarily ignored – it would not matter what Umar did. It would only matter that he is your average boy next door with people who love him, and he deserves to be freed. The emotionally coloured lens would then result in people not only ignoring the facts but refusing the belief in them altogether.
This emotional blackmailing is almost a pattern with the media, every time Jihadis are caught on the wrong foot – especially those who they wish to project as the voice of the voiceless Muslims. There have been several such incidents in the past where hardened Jihadis and terrorists were humanised so people would forget their crimes and only remember what nice, average, relatable folks they were. Following below are some such reports.
Hizbul terrorist Riyaz Naikoo eulogised
The Indian Express, Huffington Post, and The Wire published articles humanising Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Riyaz Naikoo by identifying him as the “son of a tailor”, “a Math teacher”, and “operational chief” of the terrorist outfit. The Wire went one step ahead and nowhere in its article called the Jihadi a terrorist.
The dead Hizbul terrorist was quite active in the valley and responsible for various abductions and recruitment of fresh blood to the Hizbul Mujahideen over the years. Propagandists sang dirges for the slain terrorist and provided disingenuous accounts of how the terrorist was pushed into “extremism” by the Indian state, thereby whitewashing his terror activities and elevating him to “martyr status”.
Shahrukh Pathan
As the law began to take its course and charges were framed against 2020 Delhi riots case accused Shahrukh Pathan, there were attempts to create confusion around him by Ravish Kumar and The Quint. The now-jobless NDTV anchor Ravish Kumar spread misinformation by identifying Pathan as Anurag Mishra.
For the 26th February 2020 show, Ravish claimed that police had not yet arrested him while he was arrested on 25th February itself, good 24 hours before his show aired. “Police ki haalat yeh hai ki abhi tak giraftar nahin hua hai. Police saaf kehti hai ki Shahrukh hai magar aap social media mein dekhiye Anurag Mishra bataya jaa raha hai. (Situation of the Police is such that they have not yet arrested him. Police says his name is Shahrukh but if you see on social media, he is called Anurag Mishra),” he spoke in his characteristic drawl during the show.
Meanwhile, The Quint started by describing his menacing march as ‘brazen confidence in his gait’. “Unfazed by the policemen in riot gear, he shot bullets in the air while media persons captured his acts in astonishment. The fact that the gym enthusiast, who was also a local, did not wear a mask to hide his identity, made his ‘bravado’ seem peculiar and odd,” they wrote. The writer went to great depths of his mind for this creative writing which The Quint passed as news.
Yasin Malik
For Hindustan Times, Yasin Malik, killer of the Indian Air Force personnel and terrorist who worked hands in glove-with Pakistan, “has a long history of struggle.”
Yasin Malik has waged attacks on Indians in Kashmir with the intention to rip apart the valley from India. He has now been separated from Kashmir by the Indian state and is now successfully rotting in jail.
Sharjeel Imam
This Hindu-hating bigot’s statements about wanting to isolate Assam from India have fallen on Quint’s deaf ears. The Quint’s Legal writer Mekhala Saran in her article makes a defensive case for Sharjeel Imam accused in the Jamia violence case. More than a legal news analysis, she attempts to school the justice system as if it needs her validation.
Saran writes while critiquing the Delhi HC judgment calling Sherjeel Imam the “main conspirator”,.”The judge has to reflect on the material at hand and decide if there’s even enough ground to sustain the charges. Anything less than that can result in a gross violation of right to liberty”, the article read.
Zakir Musa
Zakir Musa, the jihadi terrorist head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, was killed by the security forces on May 23. Musa’s terrorist organisation was supported by Al-Qaeda and he was being hunted by security forces for a long time.
However, Indian mainstream media and some so-called ‘secular-liberals’ never fail to mourn the slain terrorists and are often seen whitewashing their crimes, even giving them the ‘hero’ or martyr status.
The report by News 18 attempts to highlight information like how Musa’s father Abdul Rasheed Bhat, an engineer by profession, had received a packet containing an iPhone, iPod, and three debit cards in 2013. Zakir Musa’s decision to become an armed terrorist has been represented in the report as a father’s sorrow of his son ‘sacrificing’ luxury.
Osama bin Laden
Typically, The Guardian interviewed the mother of Osama bin Laden in 2018. Describing every detail that no one asked for, painting a sympathetic picture of the Al Qaeda terrorist’s family. The article talks about his family, his home, his childhood, his training, and his inclinations but tries to paint a sorry image as if waiting for the reader to buy into the narrative. Titled “My Son, Osama”, the article conveniently draws and withdraws links to his family.
It reads, “Bin Laden remains a popular figure in some parts of the country, lauded by those who believe he did God’s work. The depth of support, however, is difficult to gauge. What remains of his immediate family, meanwhile, has been allowed back into the kingdom: at least two of Osama’s wives (one of whom was with him in Abbottabad when he was killed by US special forces) and their children now live in Jeddah.”
This is a trend that has been followed by the mainstream media for decades, and in all that time it was unchallenged. Even the sympathies of India’s mainstream media for Jihadis are not original work. Notably, cheap copies have been published by Indian mainstream media inspired by the appalling love for jihadis in the Western media.
A privilege only reserved for Muslim accused
For the liberal media, the privilege of being seen as cherubic saints is only reserved for hardened criminals who work against the interest of India, murder Hindus, and for Jihadis who actively work towards ‘teaching Kafirs a lesson’. When a Hindu is brutally murdered by these very jihadis, they not only proceed to humanise the murderer but dehumanise the Hindu victim.
During the Delhi anti-Hindu riots, IB official Ankit Sharma was brutally murdered. He was stabbed so many times that his intestines lay outside his body. On the other hand, Dilbar Negi, another Hindu, was murdered mercilessly. His hands and legs were chopped off while he was alive and then he was burnt to death. In both these cases, the accused were humanised and the victims, dehumanised.
There is no low, it would seem, that the liberal, corporate media and their paymasters would not fall to. The mandate has been clear for decades and what we see with Umar Khalid and the Delhi anti-Hindu riots is merely a repeat of it – humanise terrorists and Jihadis, dehumanise their victims and always.. always blame the Hindus while shielding the Muslims. There is no mandate greater. There is no treachery more sinister.
