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What to know about India’s Prophet Mohammed controversy
The United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Oman, and Iraq are amongst no less than 15 Muslim-majority nations to have condemned the remarks, which have been described as “Islamophobic,” with a number of international locations summoning India’s ambassadors.
The incident sparked protests in neighboring Pakistan and prompted calls from across the area to boycott Indian items.
India’s Hindu nationalist ruling Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) disciplined the 2 officers concerned, however the firestorm involving India’s main Arab commerce companions is but to die down.
This is what it is advisable know.
What’s inflicting the backlash?
On the middle of the controversy is Nupur Sharma, now suspended nationwide spokesperson for the BJP — the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Could 26, Sharma made feedback throughout a televised debate on an Indian information channel concerning the Prophet Mohammed that have been broadly deemed offensive and Islamophobic.
Most Indian information shops haven’t straight quoted Sharma’s authentic feedback.
“If my phrases have triggered discomfort or harm non secular emotions of anybody in any respect, I hereby unconditionally withdraw my assertion,” she mentioned.
One other BJP spokesperson, Naveen Jindal, who has since been expelled, had additionally made feedback concerning the Prophet on social media.
Repercussions
The BJP mentioned on June 5 it had suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal from the occasion.
“The Bharatiya Janata Social gathering can be strongly towards any ideology which insults or demeans any sect or faith. The BJP doesn’t promote such individuals or philosophy,” the occasion mentioned in a press release on June 5 with out straight referring to the feedback from Sharma or Jindal.
Police within the Indian capital Delhi have additionally registered instances towards Sharma and several other others accused of disrupting public tranquility and incitement, based on a tweet from the Delhi police’s official Twitter account.
A criticism was additionally earlier filed in Mumbai towards Sharma for her inflammatory feedback.
On June 8, Indian police mentioned they’d arrested a former BJP native youth chief within the northern metropolis of Kanpur for posting inflammatory content material on social media about Prophet Mohammed.
The incident has led to protests among the many nation’s Muslim minority in a number of states. In Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur on Friday, no less than 54 individuals have been arrested in reference to the protests, senior Kanpur police official Pramod Kumar instructed CNN.
World reactions
The BJP’s transfer to droop its spokesperson did not cease the controversy escalating past India’s borders.
Qatar, Kuwait and Iran summoned India’s ambassadors, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Group of Islamic Cooperation issued statements of condemnation. Malaysia was the newest nation to sentence the remarks. Its Ministry of International Affairs summoned the Excessive Commissioner of India to Malaysia on Tuesday to convey their “complete repudiation over this incident.”
Protesters within the Pakistani metropolis of Lahore referred to as on Indian Prime Minister Modi to subject an apology. And a few shops in Kuwait have eliminated Indian merchandise from their cabinets following related requires a boycott.
The hashtag “Anybody however the Prophet, oh Modi” has been trending on Twitter in all six Gulf international locations, and as distant as Algeria. Oman’s outspoken Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Al-Khalili, the chief non secular determine within the nation, referred to as Sharma’s feedback “a warfare on all Muslims” and a matter that “requires all Muslims to rise as one nation.”
CNN has reached out to India’s House Affairs Ministry for remark.
Threats from al-Qaeda within the Indian Subcontinent
However Mohammed Sinan Siyech, a non-resident fellow at Observer Analysis Basis, a world assume tank based mostly in Delhi, mentioned that such threats are extra of a recruitment technique than a strong plan.
“In some methods that is them attempting to publicize their views fairly than taking motion,” Siyech mentioned.
AQIS had not recruited many individuals since forming within the subcontinent in 2014 so won’t have the capability to hold out such an assault, he mentioned.
In 2015, Islamist militants attacked the workplaces of French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo, which had printed cartoons of the Prophet, and a Jewish grocery store in Paris, killing 17 individuals.
Angle to Muslims at dwelling
For a lot of of India’s 200 million Muslims, Sharma’s feedback weren’t an remoted incident.
And in December 2020, Uttar Pradesh enacted a controversial anti-conversion regulation, making it tougher for interfaith {couples} to marry or for individuals to transform to Islam or Christianity.
All of this, analysts say, is proof that Modi and his BJP occasion have pushed an agenda of Hindu nationalism onto secular India, a rustic of 1.3 billion individuals.
What the BJP’s response says about India’s relationship to Gulf states
Analysts mentioned Modi has walked a tightrope between retaining his Muslim worldwide allies completely happy whereas pushing his occasion’s Hindu nationalist agenda at dwelling.
“Modi has tried very arduous to forestall his occasion’s home political agenda from spilling over and poisoning India’s relations with the Gulf states,” mentioned Hasan Alhasan, a Bahrain-based fellow on the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research who researches Indian international coverage within the Gulf.
“The extent to which Sharma’s feedback have clouded India’s relations with the Gulf states is unprecedented, and that is after all as a result of she is, or was, the spokesperson of the BJP.”
India, the world’s third-biggest importer of oil, appears to be like to the Center East for 65% of its crude. The South Asian nation additionally sends to the Gulf states tens of millions of staff who ship dwelling billions of {dollars} in remittances every year. And the UAE has singled out India amongst seven different nations as its future financial accomplice.
The Gulf states are key sources of India’s oil and fuel imports, with bilateral commerce price greater than $100 billion, based on Alhasan.
An earlier model of this story incorrectly said the place Mohammed Sinan Siyech works. He’s a non-resident fellow at Observer Analysis Basis.
CNN’s Abbas Al Lawati, Manveena Suri, Kunal Sehgal, Rhea Mogul, Nadeen Ebrahim, Swati Gupta and Akanksha Sharma contributed reporting.