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THE DISAPPEARING DUALITY OF INDIAN-MUSLIM IDENTITY

Many Indian Muslim who migrated out of India for better economic opportunities. Some of them even took foreign citizenship, but all of them are well connected with their mother land.

One such Indian who shared their experience of Muslim massacre in Gujarat under the watch of Narendra Modi.

A ‘report that Muslims had set fire to a train carriage’ began circulating; a claim that would be later proven baseless, but its consequences disastrous.

Overnight the state of Gujarat had become embroiled in a violent feud after a train boarded by Hindu pilgrims went up in flames.

It was 2002 in Northern India, and an Islamophobic police force backed by then Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, meant protection was determined by religion, Hindus were given free hand to attack Muslims.

Bloodshed ensued as Muslim men were hunted and slain in the streets, while women were raped, gutted, and then set alight as they took their last breaths in generational homes.

For two months, mass graves would await the bodies of the thousands who fell. It set a precedent for Islam in India; to find peace would be rare, and the threat of political displacement or death to those indigenous would continue to loom.   

 

Twenty years on as we mark two decades without justice, I sit down with my mother and hear the story out loud for the first time.

She begins by telling me how she called the British Embassy for help the night the riots started. Only to be told she and my father would have to find a way to travel to the airport undetected, with their three small children, and a bomb siren blaring through the streets.

The only road to the airport was directly through the massacre, patrolled by a corrupt police force who were shooting Muslims point blank. The same officers were also standing in the hotel lobby downstairs.

This was after all a native homeland he knew so well, and that night we were made fortunate to the consistency of a corrupt government and the undeniable privilege given to us by a British passport.

Modi, now Prime Minister, has continued his regime to further perpetuate Islamic hate, with his rallies evoking the same racial divide reminiscent of the Trump era. His Islamophobic propaganda and supremacist ideologies have been nothing short of horrifying and fit to induce an ethnic cleansing.

Across the country, reports confirm a growing fear of Muslim persecution. As Hindu leaders are recorded issuing ‘direct calls for genocide,’ mobs are seen ‘smashing beer bottles inside the mosque,’ as well as the creation of a fake auction site listing Muslim-female journalists and activists for sale, all of whom are prominent critics of the BJP.

The bodies of Indian Muslims are piling high and we don’t get to look away.

As a British citizen now, I watch the bloodbath continue from behind a TV screen and ache for my family back home, who continue to spend their lives defending their right to remain in their native land.

Islam has existed in India prehistorically and will continue to do so; it is Modi’s idea of the nation that begins to place Muslims elsewhere.

The Western world is finally turning its eyes to a genocide that has been ongoing for decades, it is time for to other Muslims to wake-up and identify the situation of Islam in India and fulfill your responsibility.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the original authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect or endorsed by the management, committee, donors or other partners of 12ummah.com
 
Source:  Al Arabi Uk

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