Anger at India over comments by a senior official deemed “Islamophobic”
New Delhi is trying to contain the damage, but the diplomatic storm is raging. The list of Muslim countries condemning a spokeswoman for India’s ruling party against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad is growing. The Gulf monarchies, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives: at least fifteen countries have already reacted to statements by Nupur Sharma, which was suspended on June 5 by the Bharatiya Janata Party – the Indian People’s Party (BJP) – of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to intelligence agencies, Al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent (AQSI) is threatening suicide bombings in Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat in a letter dated 6 June as part of the ‘struggle for the Prophet’s honor’.
The Gulf countries were the first to be outraged by these comments, which concerned the relationship between the prophet and his youngest wife, Aisha. Qatar and Kuwait summoned ambassadors from India on Sunday. Iran followed suit. Doha even called on the “Indian government to issue a public apology and immediately condemn Islamophobic remarks.” The controversy has grown in the Gulf at the very moment that Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was visiting Qatar to strengthen ties between the two countries.
The protests come amid a visit by Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to Doha to boost trade ties between India and Qatar, where 1 million of the country’s 2.8 million people are Indians.
A wave of Islamophobia is sweeping India. In recent months, numerous punitive operations against Muslims have been carried out by Hindu extremists and encouraged by members of the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party.
At the heart of this violence is the Hindutva, a supremacist ideology that aims to make India a Hindu nation at the expense of other minorities, especially Muslims. The latter represent 14 per cent of the country’s population, or about 200 million people.
