Rising intolerance in India against Muslims

People across the world, including Pakistan, hailed Muskan Khan, a resident of India’s Karnataka state, for braving threats and heckling by a far-right Hindu mob outside her college. 

Many leading voices expressed concerns over the rising intolerance in the Indian society against minorities, especially against Muslims .  

Talking to BOL News, The Institute of Business Administration’s (IBA) Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts Dr Huma Baqai said: “Hijab is a choice, it should neither be imposed nor taken away by force.”

Dr Baqai has been consistently speaking about victimisation in India and has been vocal about it on social networking sites, as well.

“I think India is on a slippery slope and Hindutva is now dismantling Indian secularism, Indian constitutionalism, and Indian democratic norms,” she added.

“It is now high time that the Indian think tanks give a pushback to this toxicity, which is going to do the damage that would be irreversible,” she warned.

Dr Baqai said that the Indian state is committed to a toxic ideology that endorses genocide of the Muslims, caste system, and religious exclusivity.

Former ambassador and the author of the best-seller book “Nation Building Paradoxes in India and Pakistan” Syed Hasan Javed said: “Please ask Modi Ji and Yoginath to read history and do not act like Americans, for they are not stronger than either the Soviet Union or the Americans.”

“Delusions are leading them to the dark alley!” he added.

Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person to Prime Minister Imran Khan, posted on the social media: “The so-called liberal crowd who labels hijab as a sign of oppression have not uttered a word today when a girl wearing burqa has become the symbol of resistance to the extremists promoting hate.”

Speaking about the role being played by the institutions in India, Dr Baqai maintained that there is state patronage for such acts, which emboldens these people.

“We have seen consistently that the state actually protects and encourages this behaviour,” she lamented.

Commending Muskan and her heroic act, she said: “A teenager, a young girl chose to give a pushback and this pushback is because they are struggling in Kashmir and they are struggling with several other insurgencies.”

Pakistani activist for women education and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousufzai also spoke on the Hijab controversy.

She said: “Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more, Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women.”

For Javed, the BJP is destroying all the milestones India achieved so far.

“BJP is turning millions of educated unemployed youth into religious warrior/extremist brigades to destroy itself,” he said, adding: “India is just entering the dark era of extremism, fascism and terrorism, which Pakistan is leaving behind,” he said.

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