The propaganda wings of Islamists are burning the midnight oil to whitewash the unspeakable atrocities being committed by Islamist mobs against Hindus in Bangladesh. On the 8th of August, the Qatar-funded propaganda portal Al Jazeera attempted to pass off the communally motivated attacks on Hindus as an act of political revenge. While denying the ongoing Hinduphobia as false, the publication then went on to claim that India media houses reporting the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh is Islamophobic and Alarmist.
Al Jazeera published an article titled “Islamophobic, alarmist’: How some India outlets covered Bangladesh crisis” by Faisal Mahmud and Saqib Sarker on 8th August. Invoking ‘Islamophobia’ is the most reliable and effective tactic of Islamist pens for hire to downplay the crimes of Islamist terrorism against non-Muslims and guilt-trip people questioning or criticising Islamists.
The article claimed that Times Group’s Mirror Now ran misleading news that 24 were burnt alive by a mob and “minorities at the centre of attacks” to insinuate that Hindus have been burnt alive. However, the said video report neither claimed that all those killed were Hindus nor did it claim that only Hindus were being attacked across the country.
While the Al Jazeera report claims that only two people have been killed since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, media reports including reports by Bangladesh media show that many more Hindus have been killed. Moreover, entire Hindu villages are being attacked, leading to hundreds of Hindus trying to enter India.
The Qatar-funded Islamist propaganda outlet, further alleged that several other Indian media reports made “outlandish claims” by quoting some Indian politicians and Muslim student bodies expressing their concerns and apprehensions regarding the unrest in Bangladesh. Exposing its admiration for Islamists, Al Jazeera also targeted the Times of India for its report saying that Jamaat-e-Islami, the biggest Islamist party of Bangladesh “brought down Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh”.
While Al Jazeera insinuated that somehow Jamaat-e-Islami had nothing to do with the ongoing violence in Bangladesh, their involvement in exploiting the anti-quota protests to oust the Sheikh Hasina-led government is widely reported. In fact, both, Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), notorious for their anti-India and extremist views, hijacked the anti-quota protests, using them to undermine the Awami League government. As their supporters joined the fray, the student-led movement was transformed into a larger anti-government campaign.
Notably, initially the anti-quota protestors and the Sheikh Hasina govt were on the same side, and the protest was essentially against a High Court order. The govt had actually abolished 30% for families of freedom fighters, but the High Court restored that quota, leading to protests by the students. Hasina govt had appealed against the order at the Supreme Court, and the student groups also filed similar appeals. But within days, other elements like Jamaat-e-Islami infiltrated the protests, leading to widespread violence.
This is why the protests continued even after the Supreme Court quashed the High Court order, and removed other reservations too, bringing it down to just 7% from 56%. It is by now clear that anti-quota protestors didn’t result in the fall of the Sheikh Hasina govt, it was the movement hijacked by Islamists groups in the country.
After invoking the “Islamophobia”, the Al Jazeera propaganda piece also attempted to hand a clean chit to Pakistan’s ISI which has allegedly been involved in fuelling anti-Hasina protests by backing BNP and JeI to turn Bangladesh into an Islamic nation. It is not too difficult to understand that no intelligence agency jumps and claims credit for such regime change operations if they are involved in it. The claims of the involvement of ISI and even the US in Sheikh Hasina’s ouster are not completely unsubstantiated since Hasina had repeatedly raised alarms that the US and other foreign elements were conspiring to oust her government and even carve out a separate country.
OpIndia reported how Pakistani social media handles had fueled this social unrest in Bangladesh and how it amplified fake news and anti-government propaganda shared by notorious Bangladeshi handles. Recently, Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy also alleged ISI’s involvement in Bangladesh unrest and said, “I am quite certain given the circumstantial evidence; I suspect Pakistan ISI’s involvement. The attacks and protests were very coordinated, meticulously planned, and intentional efforts to keep inflaming the situation through social media. No matter what the government did to control the situation, they kept trying to worsen it.”
Hindus attacked for political affiliations, not religious identity: Al-Jazeera joins New York Times in whitewashing the Islamist crimes against Hindus
While Hindus across Bangladesh are being attacked, their houses being plundered, and temples being vandalised, Al Jazeera attempted to whitewash the communal angle in the ongoing anti-Hindu pogrom by claiming that only those Hindus associated with Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League are being targeted. Al Jazeera’s disdain for Hindus has reached such an extent that to defend Islamists, the propaganda outlet resorted to demonising Hindu victims.
Quoting a random car driver Mustafizur, the article claimed that Hindus were ‘bullying’ others when Awami League was in power so now they are facing the backlash.
The Islamist propaganda outlet quoted Gobind Chandra Pramanik, who served as general secretary of Bangladesh National Hindu Mahajot but was removed from his post, to back its false claim that only Hindus with Awami League connections are being attacked not the rest. It is pertinent to note that Gobind Chandra Pramanik was recently removed from his post by the Mahajot after he made false claims that Hindus were not attacked and their temples were not vandalised after PM Hasina’s ouster.
Evidently, Al Jazeera is quoting a person notorious for making false statements and also having pro-BNP views, to whitewash Islamist atrocities against Hindus since Hindu names add more impact and give the impression that “see, the Hindu leader himself is saying Hindus were not attacked”.
Notably, the New York Times had recently changed the headline of one of its published news reports after facing severe backlash from readers. Earlier, the headline read “Hindus in Bangladesh Face Revenge Attacks After Prime Minister’s Exit” which attracted heavy criticism on social media. Though the title has been changed to “Hindus in Bangladesh Face Attacks After Prime Minister’s Exit”, the content remained the same, pushing the narrative that Hindus were being targeted as they supported Hasina’s political party and not because of communal reasons.
Similarly, Meenakshi Ganguly, the Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch resorted to whitewashing the crimes against Hindus being committed by Islamists saying that it is due to political reasons and not hatred against Hindus.
OpIndia has reported numerous verified incidents of target attacks by Muslim mobs on Hindu temples and Hindu houses. While there have been incidents wherein the mob targeted Hindu leaders of the Awami League, the attacks are not confined to political rivalries or revenge. While attacks on Hindu temples itself make it evident since temples don’t have any political affiliation but are simply the abode of Hindu deities, Hindus regardless of their political leanings have been singled out and attacked.
Speaking to OpIndia, several Bangladeshi Hindus said that Jamaat-e-Islami members have been making a list of Hindu businesses and Hindu houses since the fall of Sheikh Hasina. In one of the most horrifying incidents, Islamists encircled a dead victim lying on the ground while several men were gathered around the deceased. With the aid of a stick, one of the Islamists strips the deceased person naked and checks the victim’s private part for circumcision. The happiness of the Islamist had no bounds and he started shouting ‘Hindu, Hindu’ over the corpse, the crowd hovering over the dead body laughed, realising that the man was a Hindu because he was not circumcised. Probably, Al-Jazeera would come up with an argument that Islamists were checking the deceased man’s private part to determine his political affiliation.
Al-Jazeera peddles “human chain” style lies to peddle the ‘Hindus are safe in Bangladesh’ narrative
Much like the “Muslims forming human to protect Hindu temples” claims made by AltNews’s Mohammed Zubair and others in India to defend the murderous actions of Bangladeshi Islamists, Al Jazeera also claimed that Muslims were protecting Hindu houses in Brahmanbaria, a Hindu majority area. “News of Bangladeshi students, including from religious schools, volunteering to protect Hindu temples have been reported locally since the unrest began, and it has been picked up by outlets like Clarion India and The Wire,” the article reads.
In one same article, Al-Jazeera went from Hindus not being targeted for religious identity to Muslims protecting Hindu houses in an area with large Hindu populations. Most importantly, even if we assume they are protecting Hindu houses, then from whom are protecting them? Islamists or aliens?
Al-Jazeera drags BJP-Hindutva into anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh, equates the situation of Bangladeshi Hindus with Indian minorities
Quoting the cheerleaders of Islamists—the left-liberals—in India including leftist propaganda portal TheWire’s founder editor Siddharth Varadrajan, the Al Jazeera propaganda piece authored by Faisal Mahmud and Saqib Sarker, asserted that the Indian media is exaggerating the anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh and using them to “boost anti-Muslim rhetoric “in service of the BJP and [its ideological parent] RSS’s agenda.”
“For them, the ouster of Hasina is an Islamist conspiracy hatched in collaboration with Pakistan and China and the target is India and Hindus,” Varadrajan said.
While ISI’s hand is suspected to be behind fueling violence in Bangladesh, the BJP-RSS or its supporters have largely and rightly blamed the local Islamist mobs for violence against Hindus. Moreover, much like the concern voiced by World Hindu Federation (Bangladesh)’s secretary General in conversation with OpIndia, that “if Bangladesh becomes a Hindu-free and Islamic-extremist country, India will be the biggest sufferer”, the Hindus here are concerned about Bangladeshi Hindus and the impact the neighbouring country’s unrest will have on India.
Meanwhile, Naresh Fernandez, the editor of the leftist propaganda portal Scroll dragged Hindutva into the context to claim that Hindutva supporters are peddling their conspiracy theories and fantasies including the hand of foreign elements in regime change operations in Bangladesh and potential replication of the same in India. Fernandez said that some of the concerns raised by Hindutva supporters are legitimate but they fail to show the same concern for Indian minorities as Hindus are walking on streets with lethal weapons and carrying out target killings of Muslims and other minority groups just as in Bangladesh.
Notably, OpIndia recently reported how Scroll defended targeted violence against Hindus in Bangladesh by calling it the ‘inevitable aftermath of uprising’ and even blaming ‘Hindutva’ alongside claiming the Hindu victims were ‘Awami League supporters’.
By describing the anti-Hindu violence as solely political, propaganda outlets like Al-Jazeera downplay the fundamental religious hatred of BNP and JeI supporting Islamists that underpin these attacks. The targeted destruction of Hindu temples and the assault on Hindus are unmistakable signs of religious persecution, and any attempt to dismiss or mischaracterise these actions as purely political does a disservice to the victims and the greater understanding of the unrest prevailing. However, that’s exactly what Al-Jazeera wants to do, they are using ‘Islamophobia’ as a tool to prevent Hindus and others worldwide from speaking about the ongoing genocide of Hindus in Bangladesh.
World Hindu Federation (Bangladesh) Secretary General trashes Al Jazeera propaganda
Speaking to OpIndia, Dipan Mitra, the secretary general of the World Hindu Federation (Bangladesh Chapter) said that Islamist sympathising media outlets like Al-Jazeera misleading their readers. When asked about Al Jazeera’s claim that only those Hindus who had connections with the Awami League were targeted, Mitra said that this was “totally wrong”. “Those attacked are 99 percent Hindus, till now, even on yesterday night, they [Muslim mobs] torched Hindu houses, looted their properties, and burned their shops even in Dhaka,” he said.
Furthermore, debunking the “Muslims protecting Hindu temples” claims, Mitra told us that if it was actually the case, then why are temples across the country being vandalised? “It is just a stunt. They take photos near Hindu temples, publish them [on social media] and leave. This is just an eyewash for global leaders and people worldwide that oh, see, even Muslims are protecting Hindu temples. But this is totally wrong.
Speaking about Bangladeshi author Aupam Debasis Roy’s claim that the numbers regarding attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh are being overblown and that the country is not being taken over by Islamist forces, Mitra said these sort of ‘intellectuals’ are maybe taking “facilities and support” from Jamaat-e-Islami to speak in favour of them. They [Jamaat] find such people and provide them financial support and other support since most people will believe their lies if a Hindu author or writer says it to spread their propaganda.
On being asked about leftist-Islamist propaganda portals dismissing the allegations of ISI’s involvement in fomenting unrest in Bangladesh, the WHF (Bangladesh) leader said that the answer to this lies in the fact that “just yesterday Mohammed Yunus who is going to lead the interim government in Bangladesh said that if Bangladesh becomes unstable, India’s “seven sisters” and West Bengal will not be safe. I ask them why. I believe it. I believe that ISI is behind the turmoil in Bangladesh.”
He further pointed out that the opposition parties and political leaders like Mohammed Yunus who always opposed Sheikh Hasina, backed the anti-India campaigns. He added that these parties never support or see India as a friendly country, rather they see India more as an enemy. Mitra also told OpIndia that Mohammed Yunus is a pro-US leader and might act like the US’s puppet.
