India’s Hindu extremists have looted and burnt down Muslim shops during the recent religious holidays in a fresh round of Islamophobic attacks on the religious minority in the South Asian country.
Media reports said street celebrations for a Hindu festival in India descended into Islamophobic attacks as Hindu extremists burnt down Muslim businesses and ransacked shops in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
Such attacks have been taking place across India for weeks as religious celebrations turn into communal violence with mosques being attacked, Muslims assaulted and then arrested when they defend themselves.
The latest violence comes as anti-Muslim sentiments have affected major aspects of India’s socio-political system, with vigilantes killing Muslims by lynching and police busy providing extra-judicial action against them and bulldozing their properties.
Ramesh Bidhuri, a senior lawmaker from India’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), sparked outrage during a parliament session last month and hurled Islamophobic profanities, slurs, and swear words at a Muslim MP.
Overstepping all limits of bigotry and hate, Bidhuri set a new low with his vile verbal Islamophobic attack against Muslim MP Danish Ali and called him an “extremist” and a “terrorist” in the parliament session.
“If this has happened to me in Parliament, imagine what is happening to ordinary Muslims all over the country,” Ali said.
Muslims across India are falling victim to government-sanctioned harassment and hate crimes by extremist Hindu elements as well as discriminatory regulatory policies.
Since its rise to power in 2014, the BJP has emboldened extremist groups that view India as a Hindu nation and consider its 200-million-strong Muslim minority as a foreign threat.
The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics, and its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. It has close ideological and organizational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary, volunteer, and allegedly militant organization.
Hate crimes against Muslims have cast fear and despair among the Muslim community in India.
