Dear Readers,
I don’t often write a letter to you because I believe you resonate with OpIndia due to the work we do and not because of my explanation of what we do and why we do it. I don’t think you need to hear from me. I think you have known me, OpIndia and what we stand for instinctively, based on the principles we stand for. You have been in our 8-year-long fight, every step of the way. Through the state persecution, through us being targeted, the death threats, big-tech threats, legal threats and so much more.
It is your faith and support that have helped OpIndia not particularly care about the international media onslaught for the past several years and focus on covering the stories that we believe are important.
But sometimes, addressing what is truly going on behind the scenes becomes imperative, not only because I think you deserve to know about the brand you have helped build, but also because I fully acknowledge the fact that for us, sailing the tide would be impossible without you holding us up.
I am writing to you today because two American far-left publications have simultaneously targeted OpIndia. While I don’t particularly care about the rants of the Left and their publications, I think it is important for me to tell you what is really happening and their intention behind these hitjobs.
On the 22nd of May, WIRED, an American far-left portal published an article headlined, “A Far-Right Indian News Site Posts Racist Conspiracies. US Tech Companies Keep Platforming It”.
I will first address some claims made in the article. The article in their blurb says that OpIndia believes that Islamophobia does not exist and that Google lets its programmed ads run right next to our content. The insinuation is pretty simple. OpIndia denies Islamophobia and therefore, Google should demonetise us. Let me at the very outset address this claim. Yes. At OpIndia we believe Islamophobia does not exist. The term Islamophobia itself was created by the Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian fundamentalists who wanted to create a totalitarian concept, deeming any criticism of the violent tenets of Islam a sin ab initio. They essentially wanted to ensure that Islam was inviolate where stating the obvious becomes hate speech, where speaking the truth becomes racism.
OpIndia as a platform refuses to ‘take the knee’ to this mafia’s blood-lust. When Islamists, several daily, force Hindu women to convert to Islam either by violence, rape, assault or manipulation, we will not stay silent. When Islamists take to the streets to pick up rocks, acid pouches, and petrol bombs and hurl them specifically at Hindus because their fragile sensibilities can’t handle the very sight of Hindus in a nation of Hindu consciousness, we will not stay silent. When calls for genocide by Jihadi organisations are made, we will not stay silent. When conspiracies are hatched by Islamists, in cohorts with Leftists, to ‘teach Kafirs a lesson’, we will not stay silent. When Imams from mosques and madrasas teach children how to slit throats, we will not stay silent. When areas are declared Sharia-compliant, we will not stay shut. When Islamists, every day, tell us that all their aggressions find sanction in their religious text, we will talk about it. The USA can choose to keep quiet as large swaths of their land get converted to Sharia no-go zones. The UK can stand by while their young girls get groomed by Muslim gangs. The West can stand by as Muslim immigrants and ISIS terrorists take over their land. That is their choice. It is their land. It is their daughters. OpIndia will fight for the Hindus’ right to exist.
Bharat was torn apart based on religion. Bharat was torn apart because Hindus were told that according to Islamic religious text, Islam is a nation unto itself which makes it impossible for its adherents to coexist with Hindus. We gave up our land once to appease the inviolate. Our ‘fear’ of Islam is real and rooted in historical facts and present, documented realities. The US and its pink-haired Left zombies would do well to not pontificate to India or a portal like OpIndia which stands against the tyranny of the self-anointed inviolate.
Moving on, WIRED has repeatedly asserted that OpIndia spreads ‘disinformation’. To bolster their point, they quote Pratik Sinha and Mohammad Zubair of AltNews. The very portals whose lies and misrepresentations claimed the lives of Hindus like Kanhaiya Lal. In the very first paragraph, WIRED claims “In 2017, Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair cofounded the fact-checking website AltNews in India. Almost immediately, the pair were targeted with persistent and vicious attacks from the far-right news website OpIndia. Many of the attacks claimed that Zubair was a Rohingya Muslim who illegally migrated to India and that his cousin was a rapist. In several headlines, the site described Zubair as an “Islamist” spreading fake news”.
This is how truly intellectually neutered they are. OpIndia was actually charitable to Mohammad Zubair when some people were speculating that Zubair was possibly an illegal immigrant and fact-checked those claims. We, however, do describe Zubair as an Islamist spreading fake news. Perhaps WIRED should try and tell us why they think we shouldn’t be calling him that, when there is ample proof that he is one, instead of resorting to the usual trope of ‘Islamophobia’. WIRED must realise that OpIndia is not dependent on foreign funding and therefore, we are immune to their forced sensibilities which force them to share their bed with barbarians.
Apart from the other unsubstantiated tropes in the report which only regurgitate what Indian Islamists and Leftists say about OpIndia, the report repeatedly quotes Mohammad Zubair and Pratik Sinha to demand OpIndia’s de-platforming and demonetisation by tech-giants like Google, and Facebook and X.
Interestingly, on the very same day, another American publication called ‘checlmyads.org’ targeted OpIndia. This report was referenced by WIRED as well in their report.
Both reports essentially campaigned for tech giants like Google, META, X and individual advertisers to demonetise OpIndia. The information in either of the reports was nothing revolutionary. No new revelations were made. No information that was not in the public domain already. So why were these reports written? Why now? Who are these people and why have they suddenly woken up to target OpIndia?
The campaign to target OpIndia since 2020
To answer this, I will have to take you back to 2020. 4 years ago, a campaign was launched to demonetise and de-platform OpIndia. The campaign was started by an organisation called ‘Stop Funding Hate’. To be honest, at that time, I hardly paid attention to these campaigns because they were a dime a dozen – just like Left and Islamist pens (and swords) for hire. From what I can tell, their campaign started in May 2020 after OpIndia published a report on the Halal economy in India, how it is exclusionary and draconian, religiously supremacist and how the Halal money is often used to persecute Hindus. Stop Funding Hate took to Twitter to post a link to our report, tutoring people on how to write to advertisers and Google to stop ads on the website.
Can you help alert more brands whose ads are on this toxic OpIndia article? 1. Go to the article https://t.co/4ryRo0MzpV 2. Take a screenshot showing the advertiser 3. Politely tweet the advertiser urging them to add OpIndia to their exclusion list – cc-ing @StopFundingHate
— Stop Funding Hate (@StopFundingHate) May 25, 2020
From publicly available information, it appears that Richard Wilson, a former corporate fundraiser for Amnesty International, and Rosey Ellum, a charity fundraiser launched ‘Stop Funding Hate’ in August 2016. They mostly run on donations and according to their filings, the majority of the money they receive goes into paying themselves.
Stop Funding Hate, from then to now, has 100s of tweets targeting OpIndia and begging companies to stop advertising. In 2022, Stop Funding Hate started their campaign against OpIndia again after the Leicester violence against Hindus. This is not shocking given their links to Amnesty and the UK Labour Party. In 2020 and 2022, OpIndia had responded to their tirade. In 2020, it was after Scroll (surprise, surprise) reached out to us for our comments.
After the WIRED journalist Gilbert emailed OpIndia, I knew this was a merely resurrection of what had happened in 2020 and 2022. I was unbothered and unconcerned because frankly, neither Google ads nor the little money we make from Social Media monetisation sustains us. What sustains us is the support we get from our readers – something we had said back in 2020 as well. But writing this article, I looked things up a bit more closely.
Turns out, there was one woman called Nandini Jammi who was very active during the 2020 campaign by Stop Funding Hate. Such names hardly register as far as I am concerned because these brown slaves are a dime a dozen.
The business of hate has gone international as a result of sloppy ad tech brand safety practices.
— Nandini Jammi (@nandoodles) May 28, 2020
Our friends over at @StopFundingHate are fighting back against hate and Islamophobia in India by contacting advertisers one by one 👇🏼https://t.co/qqgW2cGt2n https://t.co/hviZR6Y09N
A cursory search led me to information that showed that the ‘Checkmyads’ publication that is now, in 2024, targeting OpIndia, has been founded by Nandini Jammi. She is a democrat who is a fan of Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (a scathing indictment of her intellect).
I also found that since 2020, Nandini Jammi has been one of the stars of Indian Left and Islamist portals. The Wire interviewed her in September 2022, where she trashed OpIndia as well, TheNewsMinute interviewed her in 2020, right after the Stop Funding Hate campaign against OpIndia, NewsLaundry too in 2020, Scroll quoted her, Quint did as well, and surprise, surprise, WIRED hailed her as a crusader too in 2020.
While talking about the organisations that want us defunded and de-platformed, we obviously cannot miss talking about IAMC – Indian American Muslim Council.
Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) is 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. Of course, IAMC, George Soros-backed organisations and other anti-Hindu fronts which attack OpIndia are also linked to Rahul Gandhi.
At this point, frankly, it is one ginormous orgy of fascist, Left, Islamist organisations and individuals who are baying for our blood. This would include international portals like the Guardian, VICE and several others.
Why is OpIndia being targeted now?
I could have responded to every allegation levelled by WIRED in this report, however, the purpose of this report is not to counter them, but to explain what is happening to our readers. At this point, I am not sure about the reasons behind the attack. Is it our coverage of the Delhi anti-Hindu Riots which triggered it? Maybe. Given that the ecosystem has certainly become active to save Umar Khalid (whose bail hearing is pending in the district court). Could it be because we continue to focus on religiously motivated crimes against Hindus? Possibly. Is it because we have announced the eventual launch of a hate tracker which would document religiously motivated crimes against Hindus? I am not very sure. Is it because our work actually has an impact? Certainly. Is it also because their tirade for 5-6 long years now has yielded no result? Absolutely.
I can’t really tell you one specific reason why they have continually targeted us. But our commitment to Hindu human rights is always at the heart of it – be it the Leicester violence, our work documenting cases of religiously motivated crimes against Hindus or calling a spade for what it is as far as Islam and its hostility towards Hindus is concerned.
I wanted to write this letter to you, dear readers, to tell you that their sole aim is to get big tech to defund us. They wish to silence us because we are perhaps one of the few publications who unabashedly attempt to your voice. Going forward, apart from the hate tracker, we also plan to shift our focus even more towards documenting hate crimes against Hindus, researching individuals and organisations against the rights of Hindus and bringing you ground reports and in-depth analysis – coverage that you deserve.
As we grow, the attacks will grow too. Their cacophony would only become louder. Because advertising revenue from big tech is not really our mainstay and we have survived so far only because of our readers, we would also be launching a subscription model where the content would continue to be accessible to all. More on this in the coming weeks.
To end this letter, I would only like to say that you are OpIndia’s strength. You are MY strength. You sustain us and keep us going. You ensure we can continue to be your voice and fight for the rights of Hindus.
As the editor-in-chief of OpIndia, I vow to continue the work we do and only strive to do better. I only pray that you continue to support us while the world’s Left and Islamist ecosystem fights us and tries to silence us.
Onwards and upwards. Together.
