Thousands of Muslims have gathered in the South Asian nations of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the face of derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad by two ruling party officials in India that have provoked a diplomatic backlash against Nova. Delhi.
Protests erupted on Friday from several Indian cities, including the capital New Delhi, as Muslims marched after the afternoon congregation prayers, raising slogans against the government and demanding the arrest of Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party members. of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Anger has been growing in India and Muslim-majority countries around the world since last week when two BJP officials – Nupur Sharma spokeswoman and Delhi media cell leader Naveen Kumar Jindal- made comments considered an insult to the Prophet of Islam and his wife Aisha.
The BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal, saying he was denouncing insults from religious figures. The right-wing party also called on its spokesmen to be “extremely cautious” on religious issues in the “debates” at prime time on Indian news channels.
New Delhi police on Thursday filed charges against two members of the BJP and others, including a Muslim parliamentarian and journalist, for “inciting hatred” and other charges.
But Muslims in India, who are facing a sharp rise in Islamophobia and attacks against them since Modi came to power in 2014, say such actions are not enough.
People hold placards during a protest calling for the arrest of Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal for their comments on the prophet in front of a Bombay mosque [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters]
Several parts of India-administered Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority region in the country, observed a spontaneous closure on Friday to protest the contemptuous statements of the two BJP leaders against the Prophet Muhammad.
Authorities in the disputed region suspended mobile Internet services and deployed additional security forces in some areas as a precautionary measure to quell popular protests.
“The problem is outrageous for any Muslim in the world. The BJP has been selling hatred against Muslims, but they should know that insulting our prophet will not be tolerated,” Mehraj Ud Din, a shopkeeper in Al Jazeera, told Al Jazeera. the main city of Srinagar.
Protests were also reported after Friday prayers from various districts in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous with 204 million residents, more than 19 percent of them Muslims.
In New Delhi, a large number of people gathered outside the Mughal-era Jama Masjid in the capital’s old quarters and raised slogans against the BJP-led government. Similar protests were reported from other Indian states, such as West Bengal and Telangana.
In a report from New Delhi, Al Jazeera’s Pavni Mittal said there was “immense anger on the streets of India” over comments made by BJP officials against the Prophet Muhammad.
He said the protests had turned violent in some places, with police batons charging protesters and firing tear gas.
“Protesters are demanding that former BJP spokesman Nupur Sharma be arrested for blasphemous comments,” he said.
Mittal said the BJP acting against Sharma and Jindal, according to critics, was “too little, too late a response.” “They (the critics) have blamed the BJP for fueling anti-minority and anti-Muslim sentiments in India,” he said.
Anger in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, thousands of people protested in front of Dhaka’s main mosque, Baitul Mukarram, after Friday prayers, chanting slogans such as “Boycott Indian products” and “Hang those who insult our prophet.”
Muslims take part in procession after Friday prayers to protest blasphemous comments on Prophet Muhammad by BJP members in Dhaka, Bangladesh [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]
Small processions from other parts of the capital were also reported against the statements of the Hindu nationalist party official against the Prophet.
The protests were jointly organized by Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh and Islami Oikya Jote.
While India is struggling to contain a diplomatic storm in many Arab and Muslim-majority countries over anti-Islam statements, the government of Bangladesh, home to the world’s fourth largest Muslim population, has not yet condemned the Modi government. .
This silence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been criticized by opposition parties and the people.
Asif Nazrul, a law professor at Dhaka University, told Al Jazeera that the Bangladesh government did not speak because it did not want to “antagonize India at any cost, even if it involves the honor of the prophet of Islam. “.
“Sheikh Hasina’s government remains in power without the popular mandate and a large part of the people of Bangladesh believe that India has a role to play. So naturally the Hasina administration would do nothing to ‘take the wrath of the Modi government,’ he said.
Feelings against India in Bangladesh over the treatment of India’s Muslim minority have grown since Modi came to power in 2014.
On Thursday, Bangladesh’s largest non-political Muslim platform, Hefazat-e-Islam, held a large rally in Dhaka in protest of comments on the prophet by BJP officials and called on the government to send a formal message of condemnation to the Indian authorities.
Protesters also called for a boycott of Indian products until the country abandons its anti-Muslim policies.
Demonstrations in Pakistan
Thousands also gathered in Pakistan on Thursday and briefly clashed with police in the Pakistani capital, urging Muslim countries to cut off diplomatic relations with New Delhi over statements by two BJP officials who were contemptuous of the Prophet Muhammad. .
Protesters burn Indian flag during demonstration to condemn contemptuous references to Islam and Prophet Muhammad by BJP members in Lahore [K M Chaudary/AP]
Fighting between protesters in the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan party and police erupted as protesters tried to march on the Indian embassy in Islamabad, but were stopped by police.
In Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, dozens of people took to the streets demanding the government shut down India’s high commission and a boycott of Indian products.
“The government must close the Indian High Commission in Pakistan and boycott India economically,” said protester Shabana Ummul Hasnain.
Protesters also burned India’s national flags and images of Modi and Sharma.
Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations. Since gaining independence from British rule in 1947, nuclear-weapon nations have fought in two of their three wars over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between them but claimed by both in its entirety.
Faisal Mahmud contributed to this report from Dhaka, Bangladesh.