Controversial Muslim leader and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi accused Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Modi government of being part of a larger movement known as Hindutva and claimed that the founders of the Hindutva movement were inspired by the ideas of fatherland and racial supremacy espoused by the Nazis and fascists in Europe at the time, reports Sunday Guardian.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), one of the largest and most influential Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the United States which has links to the Islamic terror organisation HAMAS, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the BJP has run on a majoritarian Hindu nationalist plank that seeks to turn India from a secular constitutional republic to a Hindu Rashtra.
Owaisi said that BJP’s Hindutva was rabidly anti-Muslim and the party has repeatedly mobilized public opinion against Muslim citizens. These allegations were made at the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) held virtually on 5-6 September.
Echoing similar allegations as Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Owaisi reportedly said that RSS was inspired by the fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini and believed in the racial supremacy of the Hindu civilization and the ethnic cleansing of Muslims from India. In 2019 ISNA convention, Imran Khan had reportedly made similar remarks targeting the Hindu nationalist organisation RSS.
The ISNA, which was founded in 1981 by US-based members of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been included on a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas-financing prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Hamas is a US-designated terrorist group that has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and Israelis.
ISNA is listed among the members of the US Muslim Brotherhood, who are found guilty in a trial in 2018. ISNA’s conventions attended by tens of thousands of people have featured rhetoric in support of terrorist groups and other radicalism. ISNA’s magazine, Islamic Horizons, publishes pro-jihadist literature and has long championed the terrorist group Hamas.
At the IMRC session on 6 September, Owaisi alleged that Indian Muslims faced “systemic and structural discrimination” and “are the poorest religious group and their poverty has only increased with each generation”. He also criticized the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), claiming that it “explicitly excludes Muslims from becoming citizens.”
The IMRC – Indian Muslim Relief & Charities, which claims to be having a mission is to “help India’s Muslims & minorities achieve security, freedom and equality—Their rights as citizens of India”, hosts its Annual Benefit Luncheon every year at the ISNA convention.
“The ruling party incited a full-blown massacre against Muslims in the capital city of New Delhi,” Owaisi said in his speech claiming that the message was to teach Muslims a lesson.
In his speech, Owaisi also attacked the government for deploying “the largest troop presence in erstwhile state Jammu and Kashmir and claimed that “severe restrictions” are being faced by the Kashmiri people over the past year.
