New Delhi: The Georgetown University in the US had prepared a report early this year on “Muslim genocide in India”, which was part of “The Bridge Initiative” — a Saudi Funded Centre since 1993. Not surprisingly, it was revealed by a pro-India group that almost all members of the Bridge Initiative were of Pakistani Origin.
The Bridge Initiative is a multi-year research project on Islamophobia housed in Georgetown University. It aims to disseminate original and accessible research, offers engaging analysis and commentary on contemporary issues, and hosts a wide repository of educational resources to inform the general public about Islamophobia.
The research is authored by Mobashra Tazamal, a product of SOAS.
The other eminent members of the initiative are Arsalan Iftikher, Senior Researcher also of Pakistani origin. He is infamous for his racist comments against former Lousiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
Also involved is Fared Hafez who was raided by the Austrian agencies under Operation Luxor on suspicion of terror funding and association with Muslim Brotherhood.
This report finds that the process of genocide of Muslims is underway in India. From classification of religious groups to the targeting and criminalization of Muslim identity, the threat of mass violence is imminent.
Islamophobia is central to this process, which is occurring at both a top-down and bottom-up level, as Hindu nationalists across the country have been emboldened by the right-wing BJP-led government, both share the same goals of remaking India as a homeland exclusively for Hindus, the report said.
Ultimately, genocides are political projects and take place because of decisions made by those in power. Along with Stanton’s warning of an impending genocide in India, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide released a 2021 report ranking India as being at the second-highest risk of a new mass killing, noting that “Hindu nationalist-led government’s systematic discrimination against the country’s Muslim minority has intensified”.
This report has outlined how the current climate in India has the hallmarks and identifiers of the first 7 stages of genocide outlined by Stanton. The country is teetering at the persecution stage with indicators of stage 9 (extermination) becoming more and more visible, the report said.
India’s secular republic is under threat as once seemingly fringe voices have infiltrated the mainstream, strengthened and supported by the BJP-led government, which drinks from the same ideological fountain as militant Hindu nationalists. This case study of India demonstrates that the BJP government has made Islamophobia, religious polarization, and communalism a central component of its policies. In effect, the report said.
The Georgetown University report said in the past few years, Indian Muslims have faced widespread political and social disenfranchisement along with economic and social boycotts; a situation which also resembles the makings of an apartheid state as communities that have previously harmoniously lived alongside one other are forced to self-segregate due to fears of riots, communal attacks, and mob violence. The Hindu nationalist government has marginalized Muslims through structural and institutional policies that have rendered them second-class citizens. This includes being denied the use of public space, government restrictions over their culinary diets and dress, violent campaigns against their places of worship, and countless other examples.
The aim is to “expel all Muslim symbols from public spaces” in the country: it’s a process of erasure.
–IANS