ISLAMABAD - The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission of the Organi­zation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) yesterday showed great concern on the increasing incidents of system­atic violence, mob attacks, public lynching and dehumanising political tirade against Muslims across differ­ent parts of India. 

The gruesome footage of ghoul­ish stomping by a journalist over the body of a Muslim villager in Assam, who was killed by Police at a point-blank range, has shook the world for its sheer insensitivity, depravity and impunity, said an OIC-IPHRC state­ment. Ironically, the Muslim villag­ers were peacefully protesting the forced eviction from their lands that the government wants to give to Hin­dus, it said. The Commission strong­ly condemns the rising wave of Is­lamophobia, hate speech and hate crimes motivated by the Hindu su­premacist ‘Hindutva’ ideology with tacit complicity of the Bhartiya Jana­ta Party-led Indian government. 

In Assam, Muslims are subjected to highly discriminatory ‘citizen ver­ification’ drive in which nearly two million people, mainly Muslims, have been disenfranchised in the same manner as the mass disenfranchise­ment of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Similar measures are also being contemplated in the neigh­bouring States of Bihar and Bengal. 

Rising wave of Islamophobia, hate speech condemned

The introduction of laws against ‘love jihad’ anti-conversion law in India’s most populous state Ut­tar Pradesh, misuse of regulations against slaughter of cows and open calls for boycott of Muslim business­es are stoking religious divide, dehu­manising Muslims and encouraging vigilantism by the Hindu extremist groups are telltale signs of an impend­ing genocide, the Commission added.

The Commission welcomed the unequivocal condemnation and out­rage expressed by the OIC, inter­national human rights community, and even various progressive voices within India over the hate-monger­ing and violence carried out against Muslims which violate the right of minorities ‘to enjoy their own cul­ture, and to profess and practice their own religion’ as provided in IC­CPR Article 27. 

The ultra-right wing political par­ties and extreme nationalists are using hate speech to demonise and promote discrimination against minorities for narrow political gains, which of­ten leads to violence against targeted groups, while seriously undermining the socio-cultural foundations of their respective societies, it added. 

It, accordingly, urged the Indian government to fulfil its internation­al human rights obligations by en­suring the safety and security of the Muslims, protecting the rights of its Muslim minority to practice their re­ligion, free from any coercion or dis­crimination and bringing to justice the perpetrators of the heinous hate crimes without impunity. The Com­mission also urged: “(a) Muslim com­munity and human rights organi­zations within India to exhaust all available domestic remedies includ­ing domestic courts for redressal of grievances and repeal of discrimi­natory laws and sensitize media for creating awareness; and (b) interna­tional community to engage with In­dian authorities to ensure account­ability of those involved in violence, hate speech, incitement to hatred and populist propaganda against Muslims in accordance with the in­ternational human rights law.”