On May 31, Wednesday, Jamaat-e-Islami linked Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) posted a video on Twitter to empathise with the protesting wrestlers Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia whom Delhi police detained from the Jantar Mantra protest site on Sunday. Notably, the Delhi police cleared the protest site on Sunday, May 28, after the protestors and their supporters breached the security cordon while trying to march towards the new parliament building for a ‘Mahila Samman Mahapanchayat.’
Further, in their desperation to demonise the Modi govt and portray them as ‘fascists,’ the Islamist outfit, which has a long history of lobbying against India, brazenly went on to extend their unwavering support to Islamists who had tried their hardest to push their anti-India agenda and create anarchy in India during the anti-CAA protests that engulfed that country’s capital in years 2019-2020.
The first caption added to the 2.41-second video IAMC posted read, “From assaulting protesting students at Jamia Millia Islamia University to detaining and harassing top wrestlers of the country, here’s how Modi suppressed dissent in India.”
From assaulting protesting students at Jamia Millia Islamia University to detaining and harassing top wrestlers of the country, here’s how Modi suppressed dissent in India. pic.twitter.com/hUVxLaNaNU
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) May 31, 2023
In the above 2.41-second movie, IAMC carefully cherry-picked video snippets of PM Modi’s inauguration of the new parliament building, as well as scenes from the wrestlers’ detention by Delhi police in Jantar Mantar, the anti-CAA protest, and the farmer’s protest. It used meticulously phrased captions to weave together a story portraying the Modi govt as anti-Muslim.
The video began with the glorification of anti-CAA Islamists like Burkha Dutt’a ‘shero’ Aysha Renna and Kashmiri separatist terrorist Yasin Malik. It began showing how during the anti-CAA protest, the Delhi police, working at the behest of the Modi govt, used brute force to suppress dissenting voices like that of Yasin Malik and anti-CAA Islamist Aysha Renna. This part of the clip carried a caption, “From Jamia Milia to Wrestlers Protest: How Modi suppressed dissent.”
Aysha Renna is one of the two ‘sheroes’ of controversial journalist Barkha Dutt, who had called India ‘fascist’ because the terrorist Yakub Memon was hanged to death after he was convicted for his involvement in the Mumbai Blasts that killed hundreds of people. It may be recalled that at the time when controversial journalist Barkha Dutt was trying to elevate female students of Jamia Milia Islamia University, Ladeeda Farzana and Aysha Renna as national ‘heroes’ after a video had gone viral showing them protecting a male student from police lathi charge during the anti-CAA protests, OpIndia had exposed the Jihadi ideologies of these Barkha Dutt’s ‘sheroes’.
The radical Islamist group, which has links with banned terror organizations such as the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Jamaat-e-Islami, further went on to add cherrypicked video clips from the farmer’s protest and anti-CAA protests that happened in Delhi in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and drew parallels between them and the Sunday scuffle between the Delhi police and the protesting wrestlers to show Modi as ‘fascist.’
It inserted clips of PM Modi inaugurating the new parliament building on Sunday, May 28 to insinuate that the Modi govt was indulging in a vanity project while wrestlers were being ‘mistreated’. It is important to note here that the wrestlers were detained not because they are not allowed to protest but because there was a security detail in place and protestors of any hue are not allowed to break the law.
Following that, the video showed Delhi police actions against Jamia Millia University students and farmers protesting during the anti-CAA and farmers’ agitations, respectively. The Islamist outfit conveniently used clips that portrayed these ‘students’ and farmers as victims, ignoring the numerous videos and pictures that had emerged showing how these protests, which eventually turned aggressive and violent, were a concerted effort to push India into anarchy by Islamists and Khalistanis respectively.
The video concluded with images of PM Modi receiving the Sceptre (Sengol) during the inauguration of the new parliament building and him with HM Amit Shah. It added prejudiced and hateful captions like, “BJP’s message is clear- dissent of all kinds will be suppressed” and “A regime that places its own interests over the interests of the people” to demonise Modi as someone who takes exception to ‘dissent,’ an over-used rhetoric hackneyed by the country’s elite cabal of liberals and Islamists ever since Modi assumed power in 2014.
The Islamist organisation IAMC essentially decided to invoke empathy for the Islamists who carried out a sinister plan to instigate a civil war in India over the NRC and CAA and paint Modi as a tyrant by using Sunday’s episode in Jantar Mantar. We have, however, witnessed, how protests like the one launched against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Farmer’s Laws had evolved into a tool for anti-India elements to create an opening through opposition parties and use it to make inroads into the country with the hope of destroying it from within.
The sordid legacy of the anti-CAA and farmers’ protests
The anti-CAA protests allowed the Islamists to raise their ugly agenda in India, designed to divide the country and target Hindus who are considered Kafir in Islam. These protests were heavily funded by Islamists, Jihadi organisations and even elements from outside India. The protests allowed the ‘tukde tukde’ gang to propagate their agenda under the spotlight. The intentions were clear, these Islamists with tactical support from anti-India elements and members of the opposition parties wanted to burn the country to pull down a democratically elected government.
It was evident that no incident of violence during the anti-CAA protest was a stand-alone incident. It was evident that every cluster of violence had been planned carefully and executed. This well thought and carefully devised anti-government propaganda ultimately culminated in the anti-Hindu Delhi riots that claimed the lives of over 50 people. These protests basically paved a smooth path for the Islamists and Leftists to not only claim the lives of Hindus and subvert an entire nation, and then, play the victim.
Similarly, the farmers’ protests which started in November 2020, left in their wake losses, incidents of rapes, riots, murders and a brazen undermining of democracy. From business losses to the tune of Rs 60,000 crores to the egregious subversion of the elected government, to the insidious resurgence and manifestation of Khalistani sentiments and to a host of criminal activities such as rapes, murders, riots etc., the farmers’ agitation has been a grave assault on the national security, public exchequer and our fundamental values that are enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
By painting heroes of the Islamsits like Kashmiri separatist terrorist Yasin Malik and Burkha Dutt’a ‘shero’ Aysha Renna, who played active roles in pushing the country into anarchy and complete chaos during the anti-CAA protest, IAMC is playing an active role in justifying not only the violence but also shifting blame from the Islamists to the government at large.
Burkha Dutt’a ‘sheroes’ Ladeeda Farzana and Aysha Renna and their jihadi ideologies
The female students of Jamia Milia Islamia University, Ladeeda Farzana and Aysha Renna, had become ‘sheroes’ of Barkha Dutt after a video had gone viral showing them protecting a male student from a police lathi charge. The incident happened during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest that had turned violent, prompting police to use force to control the situation.
Despite the Jihadi ideologies of Barkha Dutt’s ‘sheroes’ from Jamia already exposed by OpIndia and social media users, the controversial journalist continued to refuse to accept their reality.
After Barkha Dutt made the students heroes, whom she calls ‘sheroes’, and interviewed them, social media users were quick to find that these students harboured jihadi ideologies.
People discovered that Aysha Renna had called India ‘fascist’ because the terrorist Yakub Memon was hanged till death after he was convicted for his involvement in the Mumbai Blasts that killed hundreds of people.
Ladeeda Farzana, who used the name Ladeeda Shakhaloon for her social media accounts, had openly given calls for jihad. She had said that people should “learn about our ‘Jihad’”. She also glorified the early Muslims who had scored victories against ‘Kaafirs’. Aysha Renna had shared these jihadi and anti-India posts of Ladeeda.
Who is Yasin Malik whom IAMC is eulogizing
On May 25, terrorist and Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Special NIA court for terror funding activities in Jammu and Kashmir. On May 10, he pleaded guilty to all charges, including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act (UAPA), before a Delhi Court in a case related to terrorism and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir that convulsed the Valley in 2017. He had admitted that he was involved in terrorist activities, had also hatched criminal conspiracies, and that the sedition clauses against him were also correct.
He has been active in Kashmir politics and is one of the key instigators and secessionist leaders in the Kashmir valley. He is the chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), an outfit that was banned shortly after the Pulwama attack. He was accused of kidnapping former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Saeed’s daughter Rubiya Saeed in 1989 and of killing 5 IAF personnel in early 1990. He also was involved in the killing of Justice Neelkanth Ganju, the judge who had ordered the death sentence for JKLF terrorist Maqbool Bhatt, and the murder of the former director of Doordarshan Kendra in Srinagar, Lassa Kaul.
Terrorist Yasin Malik has been one of the primary figures who led the Kashmiri Hindu genocide in the 1990s.
Despite his terror links and his involvement in the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley, the erstwhile governments, and the left-liberal media establishment have often tried to portray Yasin Malik as a peace icon and ‘messiah’ of the Kashmiris.
IAMC and its dubious history
For the uninitiated, Rasheed Ahmed is the executive director of the Indian American Muslim Council, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), 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.
