Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, the man responsible for unleashing his army of Islamists and jeopardising the safety of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, is now being painted as a victim by leftist propaganda outlets.
On Thursday (March 9), The Wire journalist Alishan Jafri claimed that the dubious fact checker has been the subject of multiple death threats over his reporting on the plight of migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.
Jafri, who was part of the now-banned BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made the claims not just in The Wire but other propaganda media portals including Newslaundry, The News Minute, Scroll and Article 14.
It is pertinent to note that Alishan Jafri is a journalist who writes for The Wire, The Quint, British state-run media BBC Hindi, Article 14, NewsClick, Qatar state-run media Al Jazeera and other platforms that are famous for anti-Hindu and anti-India rhetorical. Jafri was part of the now-banned BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the British broadcaster falsely accused PM Modi of orchestrating the Gujarat Riots of 2002.
Although Jafri tried his best to allege ‘occupational hazard’ faced by Mohammed Zubair and how ‘Hindutva forces’ at large were preventing him from doing his job, the fact remains that the threats (if any) were limited to his age-old habit of dog-whistling against the Hindu community.
On Wednesday (March 8), the Alt News co-founder threatened a man named Abhishek Singh over a meme on Holi and jeopardised his life at the same time. Singh was forced to delete his LinkedIn profile to avert physical harm to him and his family.
Aghast at his actions and the lack of legal action against him, columnist Harshil Mehta called for extrajudicial action against the dubious fact-checker in a fit of rage.
Essentially, the threat that was issued to Mohammad Zubair was only a response to Zubair himself brazenly threatening a Hindu man merely for posting an image where a Hindu man was seen playing Holi with a Muslim woman. The threat by Zubair was taken to a point where the Hindu man was forced to delete his LinkedIn profile and his Twitter ID, given the history of Zubair unleashing Islamists against those he disagrees with.
The threat, while being illegal, was a result of the frustration that is often felt by common Hindus because Zubair continues to endanger the lives of Hindus, send Islamists their way and threaten their livelihood, with no consequence whatsoever. The beheading and rape threats that were issued to Nupur Sharma, the former BJP spokesperson, were also a result of Mohammad Zubair posting a selective clip of a television debate. While Nupur Sharma today is confined to her home with Islamists across the globe baying for her blood, Zubair has propagandists like Alishan Jafri writing articles in his support and glorifying him, while he continues to threaten Hindus on a daily basis.
Despite the fact that Zubair has endangered the lives of many, Harshil, the man who had called for extrajudicial action against Zubair, was quick to do a course correction and wrote, “Clarification regarding my tweet on Mohammed Zubair: my words could be used to provoke or commit criminal offences against him. However, I hold no such intent to cause any injury or harm to any individual. Thus, the tweet is deleted.”
Clarification regarding my tweet on @zoo_bear : my words could be used to provoke or commit criminal offences against him. However, I hold no such intent to cause any injury or harm to any individual. Thus, the tweet is deleted. 🙏
— Harshil Mehta (હર્ષિલ મહેતા) (@MehHarshil) March 10, 2023
While Mehta realised the far-reaching implications of such tweets, Mohammed Zubair had no qualms about ensuring that radical Islamists threatened and caused harm to former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
Far from being apologetic, the dubious fact checker pretends that he has no role in Sharma not being able to make public appearances anymore. To add icing to the cake, the likes of Alishan Jafri are now suggesting that Zubair is being threatened for his ‘fact checks’ on Tamil Nadu’s migrant crisis.
This has further emboldened Zubair to play his perpetual victim card and not take responsibility for putting the likes of Abhishek Singh in danger.
While an isolated threat could be considered illegal, there were other tweets included in the article by Alishan Jafri to paint Mohammad Zubair as a victim, that could not remotely be considered as “threats”. One such was a tweet by lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha. He had merely said that he would never forgive Mohammad Zubair for endangering the life of Nupur Sharma and the fiasco that followed, including the death of innocent Hindus.
This tweet was then quoted by Jafri and called a death threat to Zubair.
Propaganda sites-@thewire_in@scroll_in@newslaundry@thenewsminute@Article14live
— Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) March 10, 2023
published article of @alishan_jafri accusing me of issuing death threat to @zoo_bear
If no public apology & taking down articles & SM posts within 24 hours,
I’ll send legal notices@DelhiPolice pic.twitter.com/eWFXTVfUEm
Jha has now taken to Twitter to to say that if his name is not removed by all of these portals in the next 24 hours, he would taken legal action against the portals and the author of the article.
Mohammed Zubair and the aftermath of his dog whistle against Nupur Sharma
In May 2021, ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma found herself at the centre of a raging storm after Islamists, egged on by the likes of AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair, issued multiple threats against her and her family for expressing her views on Prophet Muhammad and Islam.
Sharma was part of a debate panel on Times Now, discussing the finding of Shivling in the Gyanvapi complex and the subsequent mockery of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses that followed in the wake of the discovery.
Islamists had claimed that the Shivling discovered inside the wuzukhana of the Gyanvapi disputed structure was not a Shivling but a fountain. Across social media platforms, detractors had repeated ad nauseam that the Shivling found inside the Gyanvapi premises was a fountain and not an idol of a Hindu God.
In response to the contempt and scorn poured over Hindu Gods and Goddesses, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma asked them to refrain from insulting Hindu Gods and cited Islamic scriptures and Holy Quran for substantiating her remarks on Prophet Muhammad and Islam.
Zubair shared an incomplete video of the debate, touching off Sar Tan Se Juda protests all over the country. While Islamists went on a rampage on the streets in many cities across the country, it was essentially Mohammed Zubair who was responsible for kindling a fire that had gone on to assume uncontrollable proportions.
It was Zubair’s dog-whistling that made a mountain out of a molehill and painted a target behind the back of Nupur Sharma and anyone and everyone who came out in her support.
The ominous hounding of Nupur Sharma prompted many to extend their support to her. Kanhaiya Lal from Udaipur, Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, and many others extended their solidarity with the beleaguered leader, voicing their support for her amid the death threats from Islamists.
And so, Lal was a marked man the moment he came out in support of Nupur Sharma. Islamists, provoked by Mohammed Zubair, dished out death threats to him for what they considered an unpardonable sin committed against Prophet.
And days later, the Hindu man was killed for something as trivial as just sharing a social media post in support of Nupur Sharma.
A similar fate befell Umesh Kolhe, a chemist living in Maharashtra’s Amravati, who was murdered by four Muslim assailants while he was returning from his pharmacy on the night of June 22, 2022. Kolhe, too, was murdered for his social media post supporting Nupur Sharma.
Opindia had reported in details cases of murders and assaults faced by the Hindu community for extending their support to the former BJP spokesperson.
This makes Mohammed Zubair guilty of ‘stochastic terrorism’, a concept defined as the public demonisation of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted.
It was Mohammed Zubair who spearheaded a campaign against Nupur Sharma, accusing her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad and letting loose an army of Islamists against her that ultimately snuffed out the life of Lal, Kolhe, and many others.
