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billion-heartbeats · 4 years

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We are Hindus, Muslims, Christians! When are we becoming Indians? When all citizens follow the rule of law in letter and spirit the unity is right there. The Indian state and the constitution mandates everyone to follow the rule of law and not the laws of the caste and community they belong to. Indian first, Indian next and a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or whoever, last! I thought we are a rainbow nation. A rainbow is beautiful not because it has different colours. It is beautiful because these different colours shine together. There is harmony. There is amalgamation- one blends into the other. They don’t go away from each other. They don’t boast of their supremacy. They don’t try to overwhelm each other. They complement each other to create beauty through the gloomy sky. That’s the power and magic of unity in diversity! And that’s what used to make India so special. That is precisely what appears to be missing these days. Hinduism! Hinduism is not a religion, but a set of common values and an emotional attachment to a particular idea of India- says the supreme court! The term “Hindu”, even today, stands for Indians in general. In foreign countries all Indians are sometimes described as “Hindus”. Acceptance of Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means to salvation are diverse. The number of gods to be worshiped is large, that indeed is the distinguishing feature of Hindu religion. This definition brings out succinctly the broad distinctive features of Hindu religion. The Supreme Court has effectively erased the otherwise celebrated heterogeneity within the Hindu religion. Ram has found his place in Ajodhya. Now its time to usher in Rama Rajya. It was in post-colonial India, when Mahatma Gandhi first projected Ram Rajya, as the ideal state. By Ram Rajya, he meant a divine state where values of justice and equality prevail, where every citizen is treated respectably. It’s one of Righteousness and integrity! When we examine the history of elections fought since 1951, we observe a very prominent slogan—used almost customarily—till the early or mid-1970s. This slogan was the promise by aspiring candidates to usher in Rama Rajya in contemporary India. After seventy years, no party in our political class have managed to usher in Ram Rajya. Now the slogan of Ram Rajya has disappeared from the electoral politics! Ram has been confined to the temples. Muslims: Muslims have a trust problem. The Indian state and the constitution expect the minority community to follow the rule of law in letter and spirit and not the laws of their community! Muslims in America obey all the rules, regulations and American laws. Muslims in UK and Australia follow National laws of UK and Australia. They follow the laws of the nation of domicile elsewhere. But in India they want to follow the laws of Saudi Arabia and oppose anything Indian. Their refusal to accept Vandemathram is glaring and adds to suspicion in the minds of fellow citizens. This does not speak well for their commitment to unity of the Indian nation. A Muslim is one who Surrenders to the will of Allah! Islam means to achieve peace – peace with God, peace within oneself, and peace with the creations of God – through wholly submitting oneself to God and accepting His guidance. Partition has dealt a deadly blow to the harmony of India. Creation of Pakistan has instilled a perpetual doubt in the majority about the commitment of the minority community to the cause of India. There are 180 million Muslims in India. The Indian Muslims must rewrite their victim mindset to be indispensable in India’s rise. The refusal of the minority community to accept and practice Family planning sowed the seeds of the community’s expansionism in the minds of majority community. There was an existential concern in the major community. They feared that one day they would be reduced to a minority in their own country. That has changed Contemporary India fundamentally. what’s the reason for their frustration: a short answer is they are not so powerful as they were in the mythical past? All the political parties were playing into the theory of vote bank politics for their political harvest. It took almost three decades for the consolidation of majority community. The entire electoral logic of minority consolidation propelled a majoritarian consolidation, as reflected in the 2014 and 2019 national elections. Muslims today have the least political representation at the national level than at any point in Indian history. Muslims should think twice before going whole hog with vote bank politics. It may be counterproductive! The Pandemic was a wrong issue to register their opposition. Tablighi Jamaat is a hard-line Islamist organisation headquartered in Delhi. Muslims have been accused of waging “corona jihad” or sometimes “corona terrorism”. Even as the government was firefighting, ordering social distancing and wearing masks, banning mass gatherings, TJ hosted a congregation of more than 3,000 people at its headquarters in Delhi. Hundreds of participants, many of them foreign nationals, then travelled to different nooks and corners of India. This event has emerged as one of the biggest vectors responsible for the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Indian Union. corona infection went out of gear and there was a palpable surge in the corona numbers as corona positive TJ members moved into all nooks and corners of India without the mask and not maintaining the distance. This heralded the community transmission of the virus with disastrous consequences. In many cases, the doctors and front-line workers who reached them were met with hostility, even violence. Videos emerged of the group’s leader Maulana Saad, telling his followers that the virus was azaab — divine punishment — and they should ignore calls for social distancing and reject ban on mosque visits. The misinformation was that they have been prevented to go mosques to break them. First and foremost, it requires strict law enforcement. People should never feel emboldened to take the law into their own hands, whether it is those assaulting Muslims or Muslim groups assaulting health workers. Well the brighter side is that, now the Indian Muslims are better off than ever before. They haven’t lost anything, neither has Islam. However, vote bank advantage has been neutralised. May be this is the reason for frustration! Indian Muslims wove a false narrative, and immured themselves into it. There could be another. The one of India’s rise. They would be indispensable to the plot if they could rewrite victim mindset and be a part of the success story of the nation. Muslims in India must embrace modern education and an Indian identity based on humanism. Triple Talaq and talaq-e-bidat - “void and illegal The Act passed by the parliament and upheld by supreme court, declares the talaq-e-bidat to be “void and illegal” and also makes the offence punishable with imprisonment. The Triple Talaq Bill, was met with vehement opposition from some leaders of the opposition parties and Muslim leaders. The Supreme Court, in 2017, had dubbed the process of triple talaq unconstitutional. This is a historic bill that gives justice to the Muslim women. Citizenship Amendment Bill Citizenship Amendment Bill- applies to migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. CAA grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants. The Muslims of this country don't have to worry about anything. Why Should Muslims from Bangladesh and Afghanistan and the rest of the world be given citizenship? The country cannot run like this. The citizenship will be given only to persecuted religious minorities only from these three countries. The Uniform Civil Code: A case for Equality and non-discrimination This will be a historic event in the modern history of India to join the civilised world! The pandemic has delayed the process. Part IV of the Indian Constitution lists out the Directive Principles of State Policy, under which, in Article 44, the UCC is mentioned. The Article states: "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a UCC throughout the territory of India." In essence, the UCC would replace personal laws which are enforced in India, based on scriptures and customs of major religious communities, with a common set of laws applying to every citizen equally. These laws would deal with issues pertaining to marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance. Abrogation of Article 370. Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, which was administered by India as a state from 1954 to 31 October 2019. Kashmiri Hindus were thrown out of Kashmir lock stock and barrel, overnight. They were subjected to inhuman treatment. Article 35A of the Indian constitution, which gave some special privileges to the people of the state, has been scrapped. The government has revoked Article 370, which 35A is part of and which has been the basis of Kashmir's complex relationship with India for some 70 years. Kashmir will no longer have a separate constitution and will have to abide by the Indian constitution much like any other state. All Indian laws will be automatically applicable to Kashmiris, and people from outside the state will be able to buy property there. The government says this will bring development to the region. The political problems that the Prime Minister has yet to deal with are every bit as serious as the economic problems. The consecration of the temple in Ajodhya happened by coincidence on the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370. While the community needed to address the elephant in the room and could not be absolved of its responsibility for wrongful acts by the Tablighi Jamaat — the polarised discourse that was unleashed in mainstream media impacted the psyche of the general population. The Muslim community has to find good leadership and integrate itself into the mainstream of Indian society, rather than reverting to separatist tendencies, demagogy, and conspiracy theories. Most importantly, inter-faith dialogue and communal cooperation at every level of society needs to be facilitated. Governments can do a lot but it is up to the ordinary people to work at peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding, by building trust and confidence and knowledge of each other. Without this, nations cannot progress. Unfortunately, in the past many Muslim kings have not left us with pleasant memories. Christianity in India Demographically, Christian believers comprise only a tiny portion – about 2.3 percent of India's enormous population of 1.3 billion. Christianity is India's third-largest religion after Hinduism and Islam, with approximately 28 million followers. Critics should perhaps listen to the sociologists who say the educational and social success of a community could lead to a fall in its population. The fact is, the story of Christianity in India is not a success story. Even though the overseas missionaries are gone, the image and culture of Indian Christianity retain strong elements of foreignness. Most Christians are in line with the Indian mainstream. When the iconic Catholic figure Mother Teresa died in 1997, she was awarded a full state funeral. The gun carriage that bore her body was the same as that used to carry India’s founding father, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister, to their cremations. It’s difficult to imagine many other overwhelmingly Christian societies in which a Christian would be accorded that kind of treatment. Are we just diverse with no unity? India, the land that gave birth to four religions and enshrined both secularism and free speech in its constitution, has been having a curious debate these past few weeks about secularism and free speech. The pseudo secularism is making headlines! we must realise we have the power to say “no” to thoughts of resentment, jealousy, anger and greed. We must choose thoughts of love and accommodation and amalgamation instead. A responsible citizen abides by all the law and order of the country. Is there unity with diversity in India? We are just diverse. Where is unity? Even in COVID times we just proved that we are not united. Many of us were ready to infect others and risk their lives by our fraudulent behavior. We attacked the medical and para medical warriors who were trying their best to treat you, test you and prevent you from infection risking their own lives. India believes in” live and let live concept”. Every single person is guaranteed of his constitutional rights. The very idea of India is revolving around ‘unity in diversity’ and ‘diversity in unity’. It guarantees equality, liberty and freedom to every citizen of the country. India has emerged as a major player in the global arena. Besides being a major economic power, India is globally acknowledged as a soft superpower. Its Diaspora is the most successful ethnic group across the globe. Way Forward. Education will bring Muslims to the mainstream. Disrupt Radical Networks Foster Madrassa and Mosque Reforms Expand Economic Opportunities Support “Civil Islam” Engage Muslim Diasporas One nation. One India Law of justice for all! A country can flourish when its citizens are responsible enough to build a strong and powerful nation. We are all responsible for the protection and development of our country. Let us be Indians first, Indians next and Indians last! Dr N Prabhudev Former Director Sri Jayadeva institute of Cardiology Former VC of Bangalore university Former Chairman Karnataka state Health Commission [email protected]

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bhairavabhakta · 4 years

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Looting of Hindu Temples Rampant During Lockdown | "We will prefer to di...

“Coronavirus lockdown has been devastating for many Hindu temples in India. Despite doing everything they can to continuously provide relief services around the country, Hindu temples are being ruthlessly looted while people have been locked in their homes and distracted.

Only after pressure and prompt legal action the Madras High Court recently prevented the grafting of Rs 10 crores ($1.3 million USD) from 47 government-administered Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu.

The grab had initially been ordered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department of Tamil Nadu on April 22. On 6 May, the Communist government of Kerala brazenly extracted a sum of Rs. 5 crores ($650,000 USD) from the corpus of the Guruvayur Devaswom Board, despite most temples in Kerala and the country too, are facing a cash crunch owing to the nationwide lockdown. The transaction is still pending judgement in the High Court. Earlier this week Prithviraj Chavan, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, suggested trying to steal 1 Trillion from Deities of Hindu temples.

He suggested the Deities may have been donated gold that should be now taken from the temples. Some suggested he should also look to Bollywood, Media, and Cinema moguls who have amassed fortunes based on donations by their devotees as well, and return these coffers to the public now during COVID-19. He didn’t respond. Mr. Prithviraj Chavan has pointedly been called out and banned from entering Kashi Vishwanath temple now as the Mahant fraternity took offence to his blatant looting. He was also referred to as being “mentally deranged”. (TFIPOST)

Minority Hindus in Pakistan are claiming members of Tablighi Jamaat tortured them, demolished their houses and abducted a boy for refusing to convert (Outlook India).

A video from Sindh appearing widely on social media claims to show Bheel Hindus protesting against the forced conversion. “We will prefer to die, but never convert” read the signs held by Hindu women and children protesting the non-stop atrocities against the minority Hindus in Pakistan. One brave Hindu elderly says their properties are grabbed, homes are demolished and they are forced to leave or to convert in Sindh, Pakistan.

"We will prefer to die but will never ever convert." The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) recently said that over the years "there have been horrific, religiously motivated attacks on the minority communities and any efforts towards eradicating the violence, prejudices, and inequalities have been virtually imperceptible". (Outlook India) The commission said in Punjab and Sindh, girls as young as 14 were abducted, forcibly converted and coerced into marriage. In recent years, the commission said, people from minority religions have been facing persecution, and the Hindu community is feeling insecure and vulnerable as they face antagonism and mob attacks over allegations of blasphemy. (Outlook India) (18 May 2020)

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newsaryavart · 4 years

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जबरन धर्म परिवर्तन, अपहरण, जमीन पर कब्‍जा...पाकिस्‍तानी हिंदुओं के लिए दुश्‍मन बना तबलीगी जमात

जबरन धर्म परिवर्तन, अपहरण, जमीन पर कब्‍जा…पाकिस्‍तानी हिंदुओं के लिए दुश्‍मन बना तबलीगी जमात

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नवभारतटाइम्स.कॉम | Updated: 18 May 2020, 12:21:45 PM IST

पाकिस्‍तान के दूसरे सबसे बड़े प्रांत सिंध प्रांत में हिंदुओं के उत्‍पीड़न के एक वीडियो ने पूरी दुनिया में पाकिस्‍तान और वहां कट्टरवाद को बढ़ावा दे रहे तबलीगी जमात के सदस्‍यों की क्रूरता को उजागर कर दिया है। पाकिस्‍तान में हिंदुओं की सबसे अधिक आबादी वाले सिंध प्रांत का यह वीडियो इन दिनों सुर्खियों में बना हुआ है। मटियारी जिले के इस…

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#pakistan hindu tablighi jamaat #pakistan tablighi jamaat #Tablighi Jamaat #Tablighi Jamaat hindus force conversion #tablighi jamaat pakistan #Tablighi Jamaat Pakistan hindu #तबलीगी जमात #तबलीगी जमात पाकिस्‍तान #तबलीगी जमात पाकिस्‍तान ह‍िंदू #पाकिस्‍तान तबलीगी जमात

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xtruss · 4 years

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Fascist India & Fucked-up Facebook

Facebook ignored hate speech by India's BJP politicians: Report

Current and ex-Facebook staff tell Wall Street Journal a top India executive opposed taking down anti-Muslim posts.

Facebook ignored its hate speech policy and allowed anti-Muslim posts on its platform to avoid ruining the social media company’s relationship with India's governing party, says a report in the Wall Street Journal.

— Al Jazeera English | August 15, 2020

A woman checks the Facebook page of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, in New Delhi [File: Manish Swarup/AP] A woman checks the Facebook page of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, in New Delhi. (Manish Swarup/AP)

The WSJ report published on Friday said a top Facebook executive in India refused to apply the company's hate speech rules to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians and other "Hindu nationalist individuals and groups".

"The company’s top public-policy executive in the country, Ankhi Das, opposed applying the hate-speech rules to [T Raja] Singh and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence," it said, according to current and former Facebook employees.

Singh, the BJP's only legislator in the southern state of Telangana, is known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric. The WSJ said the right-wing politician had demanded mainly-Muslim Rohingya refugees be shot, called India's Muslims traitors and threatened to demolish mosques in his Facebook posts and public speeches.

In March this year, the report said, Facebook employees responsible for policing the platform found Singh had violated their hate speech rules and suggested banning his account.

But Das refused to act against Singh, who has tens of thousands of followers on Facebook and the company-owned Instagram, it added.

"Das, whose job also includes lobbying India’s government on Facebook’s behalf, told staff members that punishing violations by politicians from [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s party would damage the company’s business prospects," the report said, quoting unnamed current and former employees.

In this September 27, 2015 photo, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hugs Indian PM Narendra Modi in Menlo Park, California. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone "acknowledged that Das had raised concerns about the political fallout that would result from designating Singh a dangerous individual," according to the WSJ report.

It said the company deleted some of Singh’s hate posts after the newspaper made queries, removed the blue tick mark signifying a verified account and was "still considering whether a ban is warranted".

The report also mentioned at least two other BJP leaders, whose incendiary posts were reportedly deleted from the platform after the United States-based newspaper approached them for a response.

In his Facebook posts, Anantkumar Hegde, a BJP member of parliament, had alleged that Muslims were spreading coronavirus in the country as part of a conspiracy called “Corona Jihad".

In March, as the virus began to spread across India, a significant right-wing campaign by the BJP and sections of the media accused a Muslim missionary movement called Tablighi Jamaat of spreading COVID-19. Dozens of Jamaat leaders were arrested.

A month before that, a video featuring former BJP legislator Kapil Mishra had emerged in which he could be seen warning the police in capital New Delhi to clear protesters demonstrating against a controversial citizenship law passed by the Indian parliament last December.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) eases the path for non-Muslims from three neighbouring countries - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan - to gain Indian citizenship.

Muslims fear the CAA coupled with a planned national citizenship register is aimed at disenfranchising them. The United Nations has called the law "fundamentally discriminatory" towards Muslims and other minorities.

Within hours of Mishra's video going viral on social media, religious violence erupted in New Delhi, in which 53 people, most of them Muslims, were killed.

The WSJ said the three-day rioting in the national capital in February was also organised via Facebook-owned WhatsApp, according to court documents filed by police and published in Indian newspapers.

"(Facebook's Mark) Zuckerberg had cited Mishra’s post, without naming him, in an employee town hall meeting in June, as an example of the sort of behavior that the platform wouldn’t tolerate from a politician," the report said, adding that the company removed the video.

— SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

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indianarrative1 · 4 years

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Minority communities remain under attack from Muslim fanatics in Pakistan. In the latest instance, Hindus in the Sindh province of Pakistan staged protests against Islamic proselytising group, the infamous Tablighi Jamaat in Nasurpur, Matiar.

#tablighi jamaat

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dailykhaleej · 4 years

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COVID-19: In India, coronavirus fans religious hatred

Well being care staff communicate with a resident in Nizamuddin West, the place a gathering on the Tablighi Jamaat mosque and seminary turned the centre of a coronavirus outbreak, in New Delhi, April 8. Picture Credit score: NYT

New Delhi: After India’s well being ministry repeatedly blamed an Islamic seminary for spreading the coronavirus – and governing celebration officers spoke of “human bombs” and “corona jihad” – a spree of anti-Muslim assaults has damaged out throughout the nation.

Younger Muslim males who have been passing out meals to the poor have been assaulted with cricket bats. Different Muslims have been crushed up, practically lynched, run out of their neighbourhoods or attacked in mosques, branded as virus spreaders. In Punjab state, loudspeakers at Sikh temples broadcast messages telling individuals to not purchase milk from Muslim dairy farmers as a result of it was contaminated with coronavirus.

Hateful messages have bloomed on-line. And a wave of apparently pretend movies has popped up telling Muslims to not put on masks, to not observe social distancing, to not fear concerning the virus in any respect, as if the makers of the movies needed Muslims to get sick.

In a worldwide pandemic, there’s all the time the hunt for blame. President Donald Trump has completed it, insisting for a time on calling the coronavirus a “Chinese virus”. Everywhere in the world persons are pointing fingers, pushed by their fears and anxieties to go after The Different.

Dangerous 12 months for Muslims

Right here in India, no different group has been demonised greater than the nation’s 200 million Muslims, minorities in a Hindu-dominated land of 1.three billion individuals.

From the crackdown on Kashmir, a Muslim majority space, to a brand new citizenship legislation that blatantly discriminates in opposition to Muslims, this previous 12 months has been one low level after one other for Indian Muslims dwelling beneath an more and more daring Hindu nationalist authorities led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and propelled by majoritarian insurance policies.

Factor of fact

In this case, what’s making issues worse is that there’s a component of fact behind the federal government’s claims. A single Muslim religious motion has been recognized as being chargeable for a big share of India’s 8,000-plus coronavirus instances. Indian officers estimated final week that greater than a 3rd of the nation’s instances have been linked to the group, Tablighi Jamaat, which held an enormous gathering of preachers in India in March. Related conferences in Malaysia and Pakistan additionally led to outbreaks.

“The government was compelled to call out this congregation,” stated Vikas Swarup, a senior official at India’s international ministry.

He stated that the gathering in March “had a significant impact on the containment methods” however denied that the federal government’s frequent blaming of the group had “anything to do with a particular community.”

Missionary motion

Tablighi Jamaat is a multinational Muslim missionary motion. A tall, white, fashionable constructing towering over the Nizamuddin West neighbourhood of Delhi serves its world headquarters. The group is among the world’s largest faith-based organizations, with tens of thousands and thousands of members.

The Indian authorities has been racing to trace down anybody from Tablighi’s seminary and quarantine congregants. Masked law enforcement officials have sealed the headquarters on all sides; the opposite morning, they patrolled the world with their fingers on the triggers of assault rifles.

The neighbourhood resembles one close to a bus depot or a port; the seminary was the centre of the financial system, and throughout it stand cash changers, guesthouses, journey companies and present outlets, catering to the Muslim missionaries who would move via right here.

The virus and the brand new wave of hatred have modified every part. Mohammed Haider, who runs a milk stall, one of many few companies allowed to remain open beneath India’s coronavirus lockdown, stated, “Worry is watching us, from all over the place.’’

“People need only a small reason to beat us or to lynch us,’’ he said. “Because of corona.”

Mob rampage

Muslim leaders are afraid. They see the intensifying assaults in opposition to Muslims and keep in mind what occurred in February, when Hindu mobs rampaged in a working-class neighbourhood in Delhi, killing dozens, and police largely stood apart – or generally even helped the Hindu mobs. In many villages now, Muslim merchants are barred from coming into merely due to their religion.

“The government should not have played the blame game,” stated Khalid Rasheed, chairman of Islamic Centre of India. “If you present the cases based on somebody’s religion in your media briefings,” he stated, “it creates a big divide.”

“Coronavirus may die,” he added, “but the virus of communal disharmony will be hard to kill when this is over.”

‘Didn’t take it significantly’

Tahir Iqbal, a current college graduate from Kashmir, was among the many 4,000 or so gathered on the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in early March for missionary coaching. He stated individuals slept, ate and prayed in shut quarters, with little concern of the coronavirus. “We didn’t take it seriously at the time,” he stated.

On March 16, the Delhi authorities banned gatherings of greater than 50 individuals. A number of days later, Modi introduced a nationwide lockdown.

However as a substitute of dispersing, greater than 1,000 individuals stayed put on the centre. Throughout a March 19 sermon, Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, a Tablighi Jamaat chief, advised followers that coronavirus was “God’s punishment” and to not concern it.

A street that results in the Tablighi Jamaat seminary. Picture Credit score: NYT

A couple of week later, well being inspectors discovered round 1,300 individuals nonetheless sheltering on the centre with out masks or different protecting gear. Many Muslim leaders criticised the group’s centre for not closing down.

However by that time, lots of of congregants had already left. They wended their manner throughout India by automotive, bus, practice and aircraft, spreading the coronavirus to greater than half of India’s states, from seaside cities within the Andaman Islands to the new, farming cities within the nation’s northern plains.

On March 31, Delhi authorities filed a legal case in opposition to Maulana Kandhalvi for “deliberately, willfully, negligently and malignantly” placing the general public’s well being in danger. Tablighi Jamaat’s centre was sealed. The maulana, a title for a Muslim scholar, disappeared.

Indian authorities have been tightening the lockdown on scorching spots throughout the nation, shutting down all motion in areas the place coronavirus instances have been detected. Although the nationwide whole stays comparatively low, many concern the extremely contagious virus may rip via crowded city areas, overwhelming India’s already beleaguered public hospitals.

Indian authorities have used cellphone knowledge to trace Tablighi Jamaat congregants and intercepted Malaysian missionaries at an airport earlier than they might board an evacuation flight out of India.

At a public briefing final week, Lav Agarwal, a well being ministry spokesman, stated that the variety of days it could have taken India’s coronavirus instances to double would have been 7.4 – not the extra alarming 4.1 days it hit this previous week – had the gathering not occurred.

Since then, greater than 25,000 individuals who got here involved with Tablighi members have been quarantined. Some nurses have complained that Tablighi members put in isolation wards acted lewdly. One Muslim man who examined optimistic for the coronavirus slit his throat in a central Indian hospital Saturday.

Anti-Muslim sentiments

Some Hindu nationalist politicians and their supporters seized on the scenario, eagerly piling on the anti-Muslim sentiments which have been constructing in recent times beneath Modi’s authorities.

Raj Thackeray, the chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, a far-right nationalist celebration, advised native information retailers that Tablighi Jamaat members “should be shot.”

Rajeev Bindal, a pacesetter inside Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Social gathering, stated Tablighi members have been transferring via the inhabitants “like human bombs.”

Mob assault

In the village of Harewali, close to Delhi, a mob beat Mehboob Ali, a younger Muslim man, for attending Tablighi Jamaat occasions, and filmed the beating.

“Tell us your plan!” somebody shouts within the video. “Was your plan to spread corona?”

Ali, bloodied and crouching in a discipline, shakes his head.

Sensing the backlash in opposition to Muslims, India’s well being ministry has stopped blaming Tablighi Jamaat at public briefings.

“Certain communities and areas are being labelled purely based on false reports,” the well being ministry stated in a press release a number of days in the past. “There is an urgent need to counter such prejudices.”

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satyakosh · 4 years

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Pakistan Latest News; Hindus in Pak protest against forcible conversions by Tablighi Jamaat | जबरन धर्मांतरण पर सिंध में हिंदुओं का प्रदर्शन; यहां हर साल एक हजार हिंदू लड़कियों के अपहरण और मुस्लिमों से शादी कराने का आरोप

प्रदर्शन से जुड़े दो वीडियो वायरल, लोगों ने कहा- हम इस्लाम कुबूल करने की जगह मरना पसंद करेंगे

अमेरिका के सिंधी फाउंडेशन के मुताबिक, सिंध में हर साल करीब 1000 हिंदू लड़कियों का अपहरण होता है

दैनिक भास्कर

May 17, 2020, 02:22 PM IST

इस्लामाबाद. पाकिस्तान के सिंध प्रांत में जबरन धर्मांतरण के खिलाफ हिंदुओं ने विरोध प्रदर्शन किया। हिंदुओं का आरोप है कि तबलीगी जमात उन्हें मजहब बदलने के लिए मजबूर करती…

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sportsclassic · 11 years

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Mohammad Yousuf

Mohammad Yousuf formerly Yousuf Youhana, born 27 August 1974) is a Pakistani right-handed batsman. Prior to his conversion to Islam in 2005, Yousuf was one of only a few Christians to play for the Pakistan cricket team. Yousuf was effectively banned from playing international cricket for Pakistan, for an indefinite period by the Pakistan Cricket Board on 10 March 2010, following an inquiry into the team's defeat during the tour of Australia.[1] An official statement was released by the Pakistan Cricket Board, saying that he would not be selected again on the grounds of inciting infighting within the team.[1]On 29 March 2010, Yousuf announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket,[2] a direct reaction to the indefinite ban handed out to him by PCB. However following Pakistan's disastrous first Test against England in July/August 2010, PCB decided to ask Yousuf to come out of retirement

Early life

Yousuf was born in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan to a family who had converted from a Hindu low caste Balmiki to Christianity.[4] His father Youhana Maseeh worked at the railway station, the family lived in the nearby Railway Colony. As a boy, he couldn't afford a bat and so swatted his brother's taped tennis ball offerings with wooden planks of various dimensions on surfaces masquerading as roads. As a 12-year-old, he was spotted by the Golden Gymkhana, though even then only circumstances dictated his ambitions and never thought of playing cricket, to make a living. He joined Lahore's Forman Christian College and continued playing until suddenly giving up in early 1994.[5] For a time he tried his luck driving rickshaws in Bahawalpur.[6]Yousuf, hailing from poor background, was plucked from the obscurity of a tailor's shop in the slums of the eastern city of Lahore to play a local match in the 1990s. His well-crafted shots attracted attention and he rose through the ranks to become one of Pakistan's best batsman. He was set to work at a tailor's when he was pulled back by a local club was short of players. They called him to make up numbers and made a hundred which led to a season in the Bradford Cricket League, with Bowling Old Lane, and a path back into the game.[5]

Conversion to Islam

Until his conversion to Islam in 2005, Yousuf was the fourth Christian (and fifth non-Muslim overall) to play for the Pakistan cricket team, following in the footsteps of Wallis Mathias, Antao D'Souza and the Anglo-Pakistani Duncan Sharpe.[7] He also has the distinction of being the first and so far only non-Muslim to captain the country, leading the team in the 2004–05 tour of Australia where he scored a century in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He converted to Islam after attending regular preaching sessions of the Tablighi Jamaat, Pakistan's largest non-political religious grouping, whose preachers include Yousuf's former team-mate Saeed Anwar and his brother.

His wife Tania converted along with him and adopted the Islamic name Fatima. However, the news was kept private for three years due to family reasons, before his announcement of their conversion publicly in September 2005.[8][9] "I don't want to give Yousuf my name after what he has done", his mother was quoted as saying by the Daily Times newspaper. "We came to know about his decision when he offered Friday prayers at a local mosque. It was a shock", his mother was reported as saying. However, Yousuf told the BBC that "I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is."[10] As part of his conversion, Yousuf officially changed his name from Yousuf Youhana to Mohammad Yousuf. Former Pakistan cricketer and sports commentator Rameez Raja, who himself is Muslim, acknowledged the significance of Yousuf's new faith: "Religion has played an integral part in his growth not just as a cricketer but as a person."[11]

Career

He made his Test debut against South Africa at Durban and One Day International debut against Zimbabwe at Harare. He has scored over 9,000 One Day International runs at an average above 40 (2nd highest batting average among Pakistani batsmen after Zaheer Abbas) and over 7,000 Test runs at an average above 50 (highest batting average amongst all Pakistani batsmen) with 24 Test centuries. He has the record of scoring the most runs without being dismissed in the One Day International match, with a total of 405 runs against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in 2002–2003. He has also scored a 23-ball fifty and a 68-ball hundred in One Day International. In Test match, he has scored a 27-ball fifty, which is 3rd fastest by any player. He was the top scorer during the successive years of 2002 and 2003 in the world in One Day International match. In 2004, he scored 111 runs against the Australians in the Boxing Day Test. In December 2005, he scored 223 runs against England at Lahore, also earning him the man of the match award. Seven months later in July 2006, when Pakistan toured England, he scored 202 runs and 48 in the first Test, again earning himself the man of the match award. He followed up with 192 in the third Test at Headingley and 128 in the final Test at The Oval.

Yousuf was named CNN-IBN's Cricketer of the Year for 2006, ahead of the likes of Australian captain Ricky Ponting, West Indies Brian Lara, Australian spinner Shane Warne, South Africa's bowling spearhead Makhaya Ntini and Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan. He was selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 2007 edition.[12] Yousuf became the fourth recipient of the ICC 'Test Cricketer of the Year' award for 2007, he scored 944 runs at an average of 94.40 including seven centuries and two fifties in just 10 innings and that was enough to be awarded the honour ahead of English batsman Kevin Pietersen and Australian batsman Ricky Ponting.[13]

A year that started on a promising note, Yousuf carried it forward to break two world records both held earlier by former West Indian batsman Viv Richards. The 32-year-old, Pakistani batsman achieved an unparalleled 1788 runs in just 10 Test matches with the help of twelve centuries which became his second world record. Yousuf is known for his ability to score runs at exceptional rate through his great technique and composed strokeplay. Although capable of hitting the ball hard, Yousuf is quick between the wickets, although he is prone to being run out.[7]Yousuf is a skilful infielder, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the seventh highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman.[14] He is also distinguished by his characteristic celebration after hitting one hundred runs for his country, where he prostrates in thankfulness to Allah in the direction of Mecca. He has observed this act (known as the Sajdah) since his conversion to Islam.[15]

In 2007, after initially signing a contract to join the Indian Cricket League, Yousuf later refused due to pressure from the Pakistan Cricket Board as he would later face a ban by the board. In return the PCB promised to get him into the Indian premier league, however, no team bid for him as he faced litigation from the ICL.[16]In 2008, he once again threatened to join the ICL after the PCB dropped him from their squad. A PCB official was quoted as saying, "We have banned all our cricketers who joined the ICL and if Yousuf also plays for the unauthorised league then he will have to face the same punishment. Yousuf is still our best Test batsman and has a future with the Pakistan team, but not if he joins the ICL."[17] Yousuf decided to join the ICL again to play mid-way though the second season.[18] The Pakistan Cricket Board reacted to the news by banning him from the national team.[19] Yousaf's chances to return to Pakistani cricket improved on 2 February 2009 when a Pakistani court suspended the ban on ICL players.[20]

Pakistan Cricket Board recalled batsman Mohammad Yousuf to the squad for their July 2009 Test series in Sri Lanka. Yousuf ended his association with the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League (ICL) in early May, in the hope of earning a recall for his country. His decision to join the ICL was made because of differences with former captain Shoaib Malik, who has since been replaced by Younus Khan.[21] In July 2009, on his first match after returning to Test Cricket since 2007, Yousuf scored a century to announce his return to cricket. Yousuf informed the Pakistan Cricket Board that he would not be taking part in the Champions Trophy 2008 because it would coincide with the holy month of Ramadan.[22]

He along with another former Indian Cricket League player Abdul Razzaq were awarded ‘A’ category mid-term central contracts by Pakistan Cricket Board after they left Indian Cricket League.[23] A little over one year after being welcomed back by the PCB, Yousuf was made captain of the Test team for the tour of New Zealand after Younus Khan was allowed to take a break. The Pakistan Cricket Board, on 10 March 2010, banned Yousuf and former captain, Younis Khan from playing for the national team indefinitely and imposed one-year bans on Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.[1] Despite receiving the ban Yousuf said that the series against South Africa in late 2010 could be a possibility.[24] Pakistan then toured England in July 2010 and after losing the first test by 354 runs due to a weak batting line-up, the second innings total of 80 being the lowest total by Pakistan against England. Yousuf announced his return to International Cricket and was placed on the squad.[25] He then required a visa which was granted but there was a concern that Yousuf could not come to England in time for that tour. In January 2012 it was announced that Yousuf was holding talks with Leicestershire over becoming their overseas player for 2012. Talks broke down over Yousuf wanting to take time off for Ramadam.[26]

Retirement and subsequent return (2010)

On 29 March 2010, Yousuf announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket,[2] just days after the Pakistan Cricket Board imposed an indefinite ban on him. "I received a letter from the PCB that my staying in the team is harmful for the team, so I announce my retirement from international cricket", he said at a press conference in Karachi.[2] On 27 March, Yousuf said that he had decided to retire from international cricket.[27] "Yes, I have decided to retire as Pakistan player and my decision is not an emotional one", Yousuf told press agency AFP, "It's of no use playing if my playing is harmful to the team".[27] He was handed over an indefinite ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board for his disciplinary problems on Pakistan's tour of Australia 2009–2010.

On 1 August 2010, after Pakistan lost the first Test match against England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Yousuf was called back in the squad for the rest of the series.[3] He decided not to play the second Test because of tiredness.[28] Shortly after the completion of the second test, Pakistani captain Salman Butt announced that he expected Yousuf to return for the third test.[29] The selectors decided to play Yousuf in a tour match against Worcestershire just before the third Test so that his form and fitness could be checked.[30] Yousuf's form check was positive, because on a day inflicted by rain he managed to score 40*.[31] Yousuf then scored 56 against England in the third Test before being caught and bowled by Graeme Swann; in the process Yousuf became Swann's 100 casualty in Test cricket;the day saw a much improved performance by Pakistan as they were eventually bowled out for 308.[32]

In the same tour of England that summer, he participated in the Twenty20 series as well. Despite being considered an "old boys cricketer" and having participated in only a sole T20I in 2006 and considered one who does not slog as often (notable by the low number of sixes he has scored), Yousuf participated and scored 26 of 21 deliveries. His return continued well when he scored 46 in the second ODI against England. He consistently scored during the five-match England series as Pakistan lost 3–2. Yousuf was subsequently selected to play for Pakistan in all three formats against South Africa in October 2010;[33] he was considered as an option for becoming captain but the captaincy was given Misbah-ul-Haq Yousuf's batting partner Younis Khan; however still was not selected.[34]

Mohammad Yousuf captained his domestic team, the Lahore Lions, to victory in the 2010–11 Faysal Bank Twenty-20 Cup; the team defeated the Karachi Dolphins in the final. That was also the first time in five years that the trophy had gone to someone besides the Sialkot Stallions.[35] Despite his poor fielding skills, Yousuf was given the award of fielder of the series. He did however injure his hamstring in training for the series against South Africa in October 2010. Chief Selector Mohsin Khan elected to withdraw Yousuf from the ODI and T20I squads but said that he should be ready to play in the Test match series.[36] Yousuf's replacement in the limited-overs squad was Younus Khan, who had successfully reconciled with the Pakistan Cricket Board. He managed to regain his fitness and participated in the two-match Test series against South Africa. Also, he managed to regain his fitness quickly enough to participate in the final ODI of the five-match series. Yousuf wore a shirt which had his name written on in ink, which was against regulations.

The match-referee called him and Yousuf stated that because he came for the test series he did not bring coloured clothing because he did not think that he would play. Subsequently the ICC cleared him of any wrongdoing.[37] Minutes before the toss in the first Test match, Yousuf picked up a groin injury. The injury took two weeks to heal and subsequently Yousuf missed the two-match Test series.[38] Amid his recent spate of injuries, former Pakistan captain Moin Khan suggested that Yousuf should retire from ODIs and T20s and focus on Tests only due to age and consistent injuries.[39].[3]

#Yousuf #Wallis Mathias #Pakistan national cricket team #Pakistan Cricket Board #Pakistan #Mohammad Yousuf #Lahore #Duncan Sharpe

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khalilhumam · 4 years

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Nepali Muslims eye India's growing Islamophobia with fear

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/nepali-muslims-eye-indias-growing-islamophobia-with-fear/

Nepali Muslims eye India's growing Islamophobia with fear

Struggling against conspiracy theories on and offline

During the end of Ramadan celebrations in 2009, a man at Nepal's Jame Masjid Mosque in Kathmandu looks pensively into the distance. Image by Flickr user @Ingmar Zahorsky (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19. In early April, 13 members of Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat tested positive for coronavirus while living in a mosque in southeastern Nepal. Many of them were Indian nationals who had returned from a Delhi-based gathering organized by the religious group in March — referred to as a “super-spreader event”. As India deals with an increase of online and physical attacks against Muslims, Nepali Muslims are worried that their country may follow suit.

The precarious status of Muslims in Nepal

Muslims make up around 5% of Nepal's population, and in terms of access to health and education as well as a standard of living, the group falls well below average. With a history of limited physical protection from the state and local authorities in times of need, members of the Muslim community have been victim to attacks in 2004 and most recently in 2016. After the 13 Tablighi Jamaat members tested positive for the coronavirus in Nepal, conspiracy theories led to online anti-Muslim vitriol which solely blamed the religious gathering in Delhi for the spread of the coronavirus.

#Ramadan has always been a time of joyous celebration. This year however, there is anxiety and fear among Nepal’s Muslims because of fears that they will be blamed for the virus.@AlishaSijapati from @NepaliTimes reports on Ramadan during #lockdown.https://t.co/g0c7NbFU5X

— Nepali Times (@NepaliTimes) May 4, 2020

Twitter user Md Aasif asked the Nepali police to arrest users who were spreading messages of hate:

I request the @NepalPoliceHQ to arrest these people and take strict action against them because these people want to spoil the good environment of Nepal and are spreading hatred against Muslims. pic.twitter.com/7wtQCcmlfh — Md Aasif (@MdAasif166) May 3, 2020

Translation of tweets: Tejendra Kunwar: the police have sealed all mosques in Gulf countries, why is it still open in Nepal? All mosques need to be sealed before we face the worst. Naresh Prashad Patel: No place will remain safe if the government doesn’t focus on tracing, testing and treatment from eastern terai to west on time. Padam KC: Musa-Ban [“ban” is a curse word which means dead] is ruining everything. Krishna Rimal: The government should strictly speed up the search of Jamatis. Surya: Muslims are going to finish Nepal. Nayan Oli: Mosque Madarsa has sank us. Nabin Devkota: should bomb attack all mosques of Nepal.

Neighboring Islamophobia In neighboring India, Narendra Modi's nationalist Hindu party has been accused of creating an atmosphere of Islamophobia. Arjun Appadurai, a professor of media, culture and communication at New York University explains how the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated existing issues in the country:

One of the key features of anti-Muslim sentiment in India for quite a long time has been the idea that Muslims themselves are a kind of infection in the body politic. So there’s a kind of affinity between this long-standing image and the new anxieties surrounding coronavirus.

The fact that India focused almost exclusively on the gathering of the Tablighi Jamaat Islamic group to the exclusion of all others speaks to a much larger history of scapegoating and inciting communal violence. And Muslim Indians have indeed been targeted through social media through viral hashtags like #CoronaJihad’.

Read More: The coronavirus pandemic intensifies Islamophobia in India

While Muslims have been marginalized in Nepal, from education to politics, Kathmandu-based American journalist Peter Gill explains that, unlike in India, the recent anti-Muslim sentiment does not have overt rhetorical support from ruling Nepali political parties:

“…religious violence [in Nepal] is much less common than in India, where interfaith relations have been fraught since the bloody partition of India and Pakistan in 1947… [In Nepal] there are no powerful political groups that openly target Muslims in Nepal. The mainstream Hindu nationalist political party, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, has focused on trying to restore Hinduism as the official state religion, bringing back the monarchy and stopping the spread of Christian proselytization. While these issues are indirectly threatening to Muslims, the party generally does not oppose Muslims in its rhetoric.

However, this may not be enough to allay the fear of Nepal's Muslim community. For the head of Nepal's Jame Masjid, Abdul Shamim:

After these cases, whenever there is news of confirmed cases going up, people are always asking were they Muslims? Were they caught in a mosque? The media highlights Muslim positives, they never say a Hindu or a Christian tested positive. […] Muslims in Nepal are a minority and have peacefully coexisted without any conflict for centuries, but now I dread the future, and the rise of xenophobia and intolerance spreading from across the border.

As the Nepali government struggles to respond to an overwhelming series of challenges posed by the coronavirus, including organizing the return of thousands of its migrant workers abroad, and harmful testing, the situation for Nepal's vulnerable populations is only likely to get worse.

Written by Saprina Panday, Benju Lwagun · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

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vsplusonline · 4 years

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View: India under assault from virus symbiosis

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/view-india-under-assault-from-virus-symbiosis/

View: India under assault from virus symbiosis

The symbiosis The Prime Minister mused on the reimagined workplace post-Covid-19, in an article posted on Linked-In, on how India’s youth could reimagine work while combating the virus. He concluded with an appeal for unity, saying we are all in it together, because the virus does not distinguish between class, caste, religion, race or nationality. This is a sentiment that should be drilled into the heads of a large number of people busy bashing Muslims in the midst of the pandemic, many of them ardent followers of the Prime Minister.

The Tablighi Jamaat displayed criminal irresponsibility in going ahead with its planned international gathering to which delegates were scheduled to come from countries where Covid-19 was already entrenched, even after it was clear that the disease was a pandemic that had induced Saudi Arabia to cancel a holy pilgrimage. That cavalier disregard for this-worldly well-being called for condemnation of the Tablighis and an inquiry into why the Delhi Police allowed the gathering to proceed, although it violated the Delhi government’s directive then in force against gatherings larger than 200 people. It did not call for launching a smear campaign against Muslims in general, complete with innuendos of bio-jihad.

A strong strand of public discourse has, for some time, sought to brand Muslims as being anti-national, a kind of Pak fifth column. The campaign around the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act had sought to create insecurity among Muslims, especially the poor, about their right to live in this country and enjoy the rights to liberty, equality, non-discrimination, livelihood and dignity that non-Muslims enjoy, at least in theory. Riots in northeast Delhi, widely perceived to have been the result of instigation by a BJP leader promising to crush protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, only served to strengthen the sense of insecurity.

It is in this background that the Covid-19-related, Tablighi-centred hate campaign began and Muslim vendors started being chased away from localities.

Recently, I came across an email message from an organisation called Indian Muslims for Progress and Reforms, which describes some vicious misinformation being spread among Muslims and seeking help to counter this propaganda. Specifically, Muslims are being told that:

There are instructions from the top that healthy Muslim men will be injected with the corona virus in hospitals; quarantine centres are actually detention centres, being created on a large scale, which will later be made permanent centres; healthy Muslim men are being taken to hospitals to show a higher number of corona infected cases among Muslims; and Muslim patients are being discriminated against, beaten and mistreated by the staff at hospitals with separate facilities, and negative test results held back.

If such claims strike many Muslims as being entirely plausible, blame the discourse that demonises them on television channels, Whatsapp groups and other social media, and the gathering practices of social exclusion, such as boycott of Muslim traders. If Muslims buy into this propaganda, and seek to avoid the organised management of the pandemic that is underway, it would hamper the fight against the virus, badly.

Fighting a pandemic is not so much a medical challenge as a social challenge, of coordination, collective discipline, sharing and solidarity. That needed coherence is being corroded by the hate being spewed against Muslims.

The communal virus, in other words, feeds the corona virus, just as the corona virus rode the pious garb of the Tablighis to reach wherever they went. Thus, we see perfect symbiosis between the corona virus and the communal virus, at the expense of the host, this nation we call India.

Even those who see little virtue in not being sectarian in itself should see that being secular is an essential part of fighting the corona virus. It is not just Hindu communalists who have to cease and desist. Muslim leadership must seek responsible conduct from members of their community. It must seek cooperation with the authorities in combating the virus. That would include strictly following the injunction against communal prayer. Even during the holy month of Ramzan. Even if Pakistan has foolishly allowed such prayers.

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krishnaprasad-blog · 4 years

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The communalisation of the #Coronavirus pandemic in the media, just when the humanitarian crisis sparked by Narendra Modi‘s imposition of the 21-day “lockdown” with a 4-hour notice on March 25 was taking shape, is much too much of a coincidence.

As the sight and plight of thousands of migrants walking back home from the big cities (once again) showcased the inept planning that preceded such a major announcement a la demonetisation, #CoronaJihad became the “trending” hashtag from around March 28.

***

# On brain-dead TV “news” channels, “shows” titled Corona Jihad se desh bachao (save India from Corona jihad), and Dharm ke naam per jan leva adharm (threatening life in the name of religion, above), appeared with predictable venom.

# On April 3, Time magazine quoted a report by a digital human rights group that since March 28, tweets with the hashtag #CoronaJihad had appeared nearly 300,000 times and had potentially been seen by 165 million people on Twitter.

Overnight, the script for distracting attention from the migration crisis by communalising the pandemic seemed to have been magically readied.

Tablighi Jamaat, a religious missionary group, had held its annual meeting in Nizamuddin in Delhi from March 8-10. It was attended by delegates from across India and South East Asia. Some of them, it turned out, were carrying Coronavirus.

By imputation, many attendees carried the virus back home, spreading it to many more.

By inference, the Islamic event was the principal cause for the disease to spread in India.

“Almost 60 per cent of new Coronavirus cases linked to Tablighi Jamaat event,” was the headline of a sad, revealing graphic in India Today (above), with a tell-tale skull cap around the head of a mask-wearing figure.

Short hand for, Muslims did it.

But as an analysis by Shoaib Daniyal on the website Scroll showed, the higher discovery of Tabhlighi-related cases was only because of greater testing of Tabhlighi meeting attendees.

Then, again, the Jamaat meet was from March 8-10. Who can forget that historic PTI tweet of March 13, quoting an unnamed official, that there was no threat to India from #Coronavirus?

***

Whilst the role of television media and social media in mainstreaming such Islamophobia in the time of a pandemic is painfully obvious, how did newspapers fare in perpetuating it for posterity?

The Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, once the world’s largest read daily, with close ties to the sangh parivar, ran an incredible 171 stories and pieces with the words “Tabhlighi Jamaat’, ‘Jamaat’, ‘Jamaati’, ‘Markaz’, and ‘Nizamuddin’ in its headline over a 15-day period.

More than 10 reminders a day, on average, of the six key words.

A purely quantitative analysis of the headlines of the 171 stories and pieces in the Delhi edition of the newspaper from March 28 to April 11, shows those six key words appearing and re-appearing with remarkable regularity.

Broadly, this is the break up of the news stories.

49 single-column items

51 double-column stories

19 three-column stories

16 four-column stories

8 five-column stories

8 six-column stories

5 seven-column stories

In addition, in the same 15-day period, Dainik Jagran ran eight editorials on the Tabhlighi Jamaat topic, five editorial cartoons, and two opinion pieces. On one day, a whole page was devoted to the issue (in picture, below) with the headline ‘Virus ki jamaat’.

Many of the Jagran headlines are for, for sure, legitimate news stories which also appear in other newspapers, about the hunt for attendees, the number of patients and such. But some of the paper’s headlines, with the benefit of hindsight, are plain dog-whistling.

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The snide, insinuatory tone of some of the Jagran headlines (loosely translated) do not leave much for the imagination:

# Women who attended the meeting can spread the pandemic

# SIM cards purchased by Jamaat attendees in the name of Hindus

# “Call for Jamaat patients to be housed in jails”

# Jamaatis distributed sweets on bus

# Jamaatis demand medicines, biryani, and fruits

# Tabhligi Jamaat had made Varanasi its “base camp”

# Nine foreigners hiding with 11 Jamaatis in mosques

# R&AW to help in tracing Tabhligis who went to Gujarat

# Pakistan too troubled by Tabhligi Jamaatis

# Support for Tabhligi Jamaat in JNU poster

***

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The headlines for the Jagran editorials range from Badi laparvahi (big negligence), to Gambhir laparvahi (serious negligence), to Deshghaati laparvahi (anti-national negligence).

***

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The Jagran editorial cartoons appearing on the editorial page and clearly dictated by in-house editorial demand, unabashedly confuses the requirements of legitimate journalism with the needs of ideological propaganda.

***

Not surprisingly, the sangh parivar’s relief efforts get prominent display. There are two stories on one page on a single day (above).

Among other sangh-friendly headlines is of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad demanding restrictions on Jamaat; another is of RSS leader Manmohan Vaidya warning of a high death toll and contamination by Tabhligi Jamaat attendees.

***

In the welter of words about the Tablighi Jamaat incident, there is nearly no effort made by Dainik Jagran that even remotely suggests that the newspaper knows anything called the other side of the story.

The four Muslim intellectuals it rounds up on the issue are unanimous in their condemnation of the Jamaat, facts notwithstanding.

***

Obviously, newspapers are enterprises run by human beings. Mistakes are made in the speed of things, especially at times like these, and a post-facto analysis of even the most thoughtful newspapers will reveal gaping holes and errors of judgement.

Equally, Dainik Jagran can make the claim that it was doing only what any good newspaper will do which is to “flood the zone”, as in cover all bases and leave no stone unturned, when an issue like Tabhlighi Jamaat crops up.

It can also say this is what its esteemed readers want.

But is it too much to expect anything that approximates to responsible coverage from an influential newspaper at whose 75th anniversary prime minister Narendra Modi was the chief guest (above)?

Is it too much to expect balanced journalism from a newspaper with wide circulation in the communal tinderbox, Uttar Pradesh? Whose former editor Narendra Mohan Gupta was a BJP MP? Whose current editor and managing director Sanjay Gupta was nominated director of Indian Institute of Management in Amritsar by the Modi regime?

***

Even if none of Dainik Jagran‘s 171 stories and pieces fail to explain its motivation, just one cartoon published on the paper’s edit page should convey whose cause the newspaper was espousing in l’affaire Tabhlighi.

***

Also read: Why Indian journalists need to read up on Article 51 (a) (h)

How Hindi newspapers lent legitimacy to Narendra Modi’s #9pm9minutes

How language newspaper owners “advised” Narendra Modi COVID

156 stories, eight editorials, and five cartoons over 15 days: how ‘Dainik Jagran’ kept up the constant Islamophobic dog-whistling on ‘Tabhlighi Jamaat’, as if India would be free from #Coronavirus if only… The communalisation of the #Coronavirus pandemic in the media, just when the humanitarian crisis sparked by

#Churumuri #Coronavirus #Dainik Jagran #IJR #India Today #Indian Journalism Review #Narendra Modi #Sanjay Gupta #Sans Serif #Scroll #Shoaib Daniyal #Tabhlighi Jamaat #Time

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