NEW
DELHI, Sep 14 (IslamOnline) - Leaders of Muslim organisations have
condemned and expressed dismay at the continuing hate campaign against
minorities (Muslims and Christians) launched by Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) in strife-torn Gujarat state.
The
Muslim organisations have taken serious note of Gujarat chief minister
Narendra Modi’s remarks at his pre-election rallies against Muslims.
Earlier this week, he told a rally that relief camps for anti-Muslim
pogrom survivors should be closed down because “these camps are being
used as factories to produce children.”
Modi,
who is seen as a perpetrator of the carnage, was reported to have told
the gathering that people multiplying themselves like that (the
reference being to Muslims “using relief camps as factories to produce
children”) “should be taught a lesson”.
A
member of the Hindu nationalist BJP, the party that rules Gujarat and
some other states besides heading the ruling coalition at Centre, Modi
also reiterated the common BJP falsehood that Muslim men were having
four wives each, while Hindus had only one.
Making
a dig at Muslims, Modi is reported to have said that the national family
planning slogan was “We two, Ours two”, but “these people say
‘We five, Ours twenty five’”. The official Indian family planning
logo shows a married couple with two children (“We two, Ours two”).
By “We five, Ours twenty five” BJP, and Modi, suggest that each
Muslim man is taking four wives and producing twenty five children.
This
attack has opened old wounds. Besides, this malicious fabrication does
not conform to polygamy statistics. As per statistics, the highest
percentage of polygamists are among high-caste Hindus (BJP support
base), followed by Dalits and tribals. Muslims come at the lower end of
the list of polygamists. However, hate-mongers are the least concerned
about statistics and facts.
In
New York, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said Friday, September 14,
wherever he went in the U.S. people mentioned Gujarat. “A situation
should not be created at home which forces us to bow our heads in shame
before others,” he said at a reception hosted by the Indian
ambassador.
Senior
Muslim leader Maulana Ahmad Ali Qasmi, general secretary of the Muslim
Majlis-e-Mushawarat (Qasmi Group), has demanded the arrest of Modi under
the Prevention of Terrorism Act, because left alone he could destroy the
country’s unity.
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Hapless
inmates who are accused by Modi to use relief camps to multiply
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Maulana
Mufti Mohammad Mukarram Ahmad, imam of Jama Masjid Fatehpuri in
Delhi, said the prime minister should resign because he himself was
responsible for allowing the fellow BJP leader Modi to continue as chief
minister of Gujarat despite his role in the anti-Muslim carnage. It was
the patronage of the prime minister that had emboldened Modi to add
insult to injury of Muslims, he said.
Islamic
Education Trust (New Delhi) secretary general Mufti Mahfoozur Rahman
Usmani said in a statement that Modi should be dismissed and arrested
for his seditious speech.
Daily
Awam editor and Samajwadi Party general
secretary Shahid Siddiqi said no civilised country would allow such open
hate-mongering against its own people. In any other country, Modi would
have been arrested by now. Amazingly, he has been allowed to continue
his “pride march” program in which he makes slanderous speeches.
The
president of United Muslim Front, Dr Basir Ahmad. has also demanded
Modi’s arrest.
Meanwhile,
Modi continues his “pride march” program under which he tours
different areas of Gujarat state, making fiery speeches before large
gatherings, rallying support for BJP in coming elections. Invariably, he
launches tirades against Muslims and Christians with a view to maintain
the level of communal polarisation achieved through the anti-Muslim
pogroms in the state.
Alarmed
by Modi’s fascist tactics, the National Commission for Minorities
(NCM) has demanded audio and video tapes of his speeches from the state
government, which has been trying to wriggle out of the sticky situation
on one pretext or the other.
The
scandalous conduct of Modi has embarrassed the prime minister, who is in
New York to participate in programs marking September 11 incidents and
attend the UN General Assembly. Through his special envoy, a minister
attached to Prime Minister’s Office, Vajpayee has cautioned Modi to be
circumspect in his future speeches.
Such
circumspection would not be out of any contrition on part of BJP. It
would only be a strategy to avoid coming in conflict with the law of the
land and embarrassment in international fora. Otherwise, BJP is united
in rousing anti-Muslim, anti-Christian feelings to garner Hindu majority
votes
