Deutsche Welle (DW), the state-owned broadcaster of Germany, has been the new entrant in the race for whitewashing the Islamist onslaught on minority Hindus in Bangladesh.
On Monday (19th August), DW News published a video, decrying attacks on the Hindu community in the Islamic Republic by violent Muslim mobs and accused Indians of fuelling disinformation on social media.
“Violent anti-government protests in Bangladesh have fueled many false claims of attacks against the nation’s Hindu minority. Here’s what’s been circulating online,” read the caption of a 2-minute 29-second video shared by it.
Violent anti-government protests in Bangladesh have fueled many false claims of attacks against the nation's Hindu minority.
— DW News (@dwnews) August 19, 2024
Here's what's been circulating online: pic.twitter.com/cwbXyhOLp8
DW News highlighted an arson attack on the Hazrat Garib Shah Mazar Sharif in Bangladesh’s Jessore, which was allegedly shared as an attack on a Hindu temple on social media.
“In this video, a Hindu temple in Bangladesh is allegedly burning. The video has over 280,000 views, but it’s false. Videos of alleged burning Hindu temples or houses were shared and viewed thousands of times during the deadly protests in Bangladesh. A lot of such attacks have actually been happening in Bangladesh, but not every claim is true,” it alleged.
Soon after, the national broadcaster of Germany roped in an ‘expert‘ named Thomas Kean to suggest that the motives behind attacks on Hindu minorities are unclear. “These attacks have been reported, particularly in India, as being religiously motivated. And it’s not clear that that’s the case,” Kean was quoted as saying.
DW News gives political spin to religious targeting of Hindus
However, DW News was quick to conclude that most attacks on Hindus were ‘politically motivated’ due to the reputation of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League as ‘protector of Hindus.’
“According to experts, many of the incidents were in part politically motivated against members of the formerly governing Awami League party, but also out of opportunistic reasons, as law enforcement was basically non-existent in those days. And secondly, Hindus make up almost 8% of Bangladesh, a minority in the Muslim majority nation. The former prime minister has seen as Awami League has been seen as the main protector of minority communities like Hindus,” it claimed.
Interestingly, DW News glossed over the fact that 91% of the population in Bangladesh consists of Muslims (most of whom are Sunnis). Islamic scholars in Bangladesh are often seen deriding visitors at Mazars at ‘Mazar pujaris,’ thereby keeping them at par with ‘Kafir’ Hindus.
Thus, it is not surprising that a Sunni-majority Muslim mob set fire to Hazrat Garib Shah Mazar Sharif. They are known to attack religious shrines belonging to Shias, Sufis, Hazaras and Ahmadiyas in the Indian subcontinent.
As such, citing the case of an arson attack on Mazaar cannot nullify the fact that temples were targeted because of their religious character. DW News has not been able to highlight a single case of an attack on mosques, which are sacred to the Sunni majority Muslim mobs.
DW News blames India
One of the strategies employed by DW News to give political colour to religious violence against Hindus was the frequent reference to India.
It is a known fact the Modi government supported Sheikh Hasina’s regime in Bangladesh. The state-owned broadcaster of Germany chose to exploit the relationship to suggest a sinister agenda behind the alleged dissemination of ‘fake videos’ by Indians.
“And Indian Prime Minister Modi and Hasina have close political ties. India views events in Bangladesh as a problem for security, trade and influence. So, different groups in India might have their own interests in sharing such content,” DW News claimed.
Denialism and perpetual victimhood
It cited another expert Sumon Rahman to drive home the point, besides using it to play the perpetual victimhood trump card.
“They might be worried about what’s been happening to the Hindus of Bangladesh. There might be genuine worries. They might have, you know, acquired a moral license to cast their evil eyes on Indian minorities who are Muslims,” Rahman claimed.
DW News further attributed unknown experts to allege that “some Indian right-wing media view Sheikh Hasina’s downfall through an Islamophobic lens and exploit the religious tensions in the form of myths and disinformation.”
It claimed that ‘disinformation originating from India’ was leading to the suppression of real incidents as fake, without actually highlighting any such real cases.
In that way, the state-owned media of Germany conveniently avoided the need to mention the role of violent Muslim mobs in orchestrating attacks on the minority Hindu community. The hitjob by DW News is nothing but a masterclass in political propaganda.
OpIndia had previously reported how Islamists had infiltrated student protests and carried out over 205 attacks on Hindu homes, businesses and temples.
BBC whitewashes anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh
Recently, BBC had resorted to cherry-picking, selective fact-checking and drawing false equivalence to downplay the hate-filled religious motivation behind the targeted attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.
Despite more than 205 targeted attacks on Hindu shops, temples, and businesses, BBC sought to fact-check ‘some videos’ to whitewash the systematic cases of religious persecution in Bangladesh in its entirety.
“We found that many of the videos and claims shared online are false,” it had claimed. BBC pointed out how Sheikh Hasina’s party Awami League was targeted and that it comprised both ‘Hindu and Muslim members.’
The UK’s national broadcaster thus shrewdly laid the foundation to justify attacks on Hindus as an aftermath of political turmoil in the Islamic republic.
In that way, people around the world voicing concerns about the plight of Bangladeshi Hindus could be accused of peddling misinformation.
As such, BBC did not disappoint when it claimed, “far-right influencers in neighbouring India shared false videos and information that gave a misleading view of the events.”
Given that the Modi government supported Sheikh Hasina’s regime in Bangladesh, BBC saw to it that India was frequently mentioned in the article.
It insinuated that ‘fake online videos’ about attacks on Hindus and their labelling as hate crimes was a larger ploy by India and accounts espousing ‘Hindu-nationalist values’.
While cherry-picking fake videos and selectively fact-checking them to whitewash genuine cases of atrocities on Bangladeshi Hindus did not prove fruitful, BBC claimed that assessing the motives behind attacks was difficult.
“Working out exactly what has happened in Bangladesh over the last few weeks has proved difficult. Many real incidents and attacks have taken place across the country, but the motivations are difficult to assess: religion or politics,” it alleged.
BBC then immediately imparted a political angle to the attacks by claiming that Hindus were largely ‘supporters of Sheikh Hasina’ and that any attack on them was the consequence of their political affiliation and not religious identity.
BBC was not able to explain why only Hindu temples and not mosques were targeted if the attacks were solely political. To further downplay attacks on Hindus, BBC highlighted photo ops about Muslims allegedly protecting temples.
“When false claims about attacks on Hindus went viral online, some Muslim protesters decided to guard Hindu temples,” it claimed.
Interestingly, BBC did not explain who was endangering the Hindu religious sites or the religious affiliation of the perpetrators. It’s an interesting case where alleged temple protectors are identified with their religion but not the attackers.
