Anti-Muslim Hysteria Fast Peaking To A Crescendo As A Railway Policeman Kills Three Men On A Train
By
New Age Islam Staff Writer
5 August
2023
The
Attack Was Clearly A Lone Wolf Attack By A Terrorist
Main
Points:
1. The attacker
killed a scheduled caste Hindu and three Muslims.
2. The attacks
were apparently his reaction to a political debate with his senior.
3. Chetan Singh
was radicalised by Hindutva hate campaign.
4. He mentioned
media channels as his inspiration.
5. Passengers
may avoid travelling in trains after this incident.
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Citizens
hold placards during a silent protest " Not in My Name " against the
targeted lynching, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Credit: PTI/Shahbaz Khan
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For the
last few years Islamophobia in India has seen a fast and dangerous rise. Mob
lynching, violence during Shobha Yatras (religious processions by
Hindus), a new trend among Hindus as a reaction to the rise of
Juloos-e-Mohammadi by Muslims have become more recurrent. Every religious
procession (Shobha Yatra) more or less results in a communal clash. Since
Yatras comprise participants from outside, the resident Muslims bear the brunt
of the police and the administration. They are arrested for taking part in the
violence and booked under various section of the law. Nowadays, they are not
only booked by rioting but also their houses are demolished by with the help of
bulldozers. Since the participants in the Shobha Yatra are outsiders,
they are not identified and go scot free. This has also been the pattern of
government action against the rioters in Haryana.
But apart
from this organised violence against Muslims in India, there is a new trend of
communal violence against India. The slaughter of three Muslim by an armed
railway policeman on a train near Mumbai is indicative of a new trend of hate
and violence against unarmed, innocent and unsuspecting Muslims. The policeman
named Chetan Singh openly announced his ideological affiliation to the Hindutva
ideology which preaches hate and violence against Muslims, Christians and other
minorities. He also.mentions the Indian media channels as his inspiration and
the source of information about how Indian Muslims operate or from where they
get instructions.
The scene
of Hindu passengers chanting Hanuman Chalisa to disturb the Namaz of a co-passenger
on a train by general Hindus demonstrates how the Hindu society has been
radicalised. They are filled with hate of Muslims thanks to the round the clock
hate campaign run by the media channels. It was not very long ago that a
procession with the national flag was taken out in support of the rapists of 8
year old Kathua girl and the Hindu lawyer had got gang rape threats for
fighting the victim's case. This shows what degree of moral degradation the
majority Indian society has sunk in. Now a crime, no matter how heinous it may
be, is not considered a crime against Muslims, Dalits and Christians. Apart
from violence, immoral acts by Indians on airplanes like urinating on women
passengers have become normal.
To what
degree this malady of Hindutva ideology has affected and influenced the thought
process of even the highly educated class of India can be gauged from the fact
that a few days ago, a judge of Kolkata High Court, Justice Abhijit
Gangopadhyay, while hearing a petition filed by a woman against illegal
construction by the local goons, said to the authorities of Kolkata Municipal
Corporation that the Mamata government should hire a bulldozer from the
government of Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh. Though he made this remark in
jest, it raises an alarm over the rising criminal mentality among the Indian
intelligentsia. The bulldozer has been used to illegally demolish the houses of
accused in crimes not related to property disputes. In Madhya Pradesh, the
house of a Muslim was reportedly demolished with bulldozer for allegedly
spitting on a Hindu procession, though there was no evidence of the
reported
crime. In Khargone, the houses of Muslims, including the house of a widow was
demolished for allegedly pelting stones at a Shobha Yatra. If a judge of
a High court glorifies this illegal practice of bulldozed justice, what hope is
left for minorities in India.
A few years
ago, a radicalised Muslim youth of Bangladesh had admitted that he was
influenced and inspired by Zakir Naik 's ideology on his Television channel.
His channel was banned and cases were registered against Zakir Naik. Here
Chetan Singh announces in a loud voice that he is inspired by the Indian media
channels and two political leaders, he is presented as unstable. Shouldn't the
media channels be banned for radicalising Hindu youth?
Two years
ago, the youth belonging to a particular Hindutva brigade surrounded a Muslim girl
Muskan Khan and chanted 'Jai Shri Ram' to which she chanted Allah o Akbar. This
has turned the Indian society into a virtual battleground of communal
ideologies which, if allowed to continue, may well turn into a civil war.
Apoorvanand,
in his article, has expressed same apprehensions over the growing Islamophobia
in India. He is more worried over the fact that now the general Hindus nurture
hatred of Muslims and do not hesitate to demonstrate their hate in public. If a
Muslim arranges Namaz for the Muslims of his neighbourhood in his private land,
the neighbourhood Hindus object to it. Now this hatred has not remained limited
to the members of religious organisations. Now even children of Hindu families
talk of shooting Muslims on trains. This has compelled many Muslims to avoid
jour ey by train. But how long will they take other means of transport. If the
hate keeps rising, someday some one may shoot Muslims on board a bus.
The most
unfortunate part of this development, Apoorvanand laments, is that neither the
government apparatus nor the middle class intelligentsia has shown any concern.
The reason is that they think that this is all happening against them; it's all
happening against Muslims and Christians of the country. But they forget that
when moral degradation becomes a psychological disease, it does not
differentiate among people, It turns backwards. The example of Pakistan is
before us. Muslim women are raped by Muslims; Muslim protesters are molested
and raped in jails; Muslims are slaughtered by Muslims on political, sectarian
and ethnic grounds. In India, Dalit women are raped and paraded naked by upper
caste Hindus. Dalit boys are killed by upper caste Hindu teachers for drinking
water from pitchers meant only for upper caste teachers. Examples galore.
Therefore, if this campaign of hate and violence is not halted, it will not
only harm minorities, but also damage the Hindu society and culture in the long
run.
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Muslim Life in India Has Become Dangerously Uncertain
By
Apoorvanand
03/AUG/2023
The news of
a police constable shooting his senior, a Hindu from the ST community and then
proceeding to shoot three others, all visibly Muslims in a moving train is
scarier than the news of a mob attack. We do not yet know what was the trigger
for this police officer to go on a shooting spree. Is it a coincidence that all
three murdered by him after he killed his senior, a Hindu, happen to be Muslims
and could be identified as Muslims from their ‘clothes’? Did their appearance
betray them and trigger the policeman?
How do we explain his angry and cold sermon to those whom he had killed
to vote for Modi and Yogi? Can we see a connection between the identity of his
targets and his apparent loyalty to Modi and Yogi?
In normal
times, such questions will be asked and we would expect those who have the
skill and resources to investigate such crimes to find the motives behind them.
In normal times and normal societies too, such murders take place. Or, we can
even say that there is in fact no normal. Abnormalities abound in overtly
normal situations. But we can hope to get the right answer to the questions
after such horror in those societies. Can we say the same about India, our
land? We know the answer.
Were such a
crime to happen in a country like the USA, which is the desired destination of
many Indians, or in any other country in the West, the head of the state would
appear on TV and make a public statement. Especially when the murderer invokes
his name as a cover for his crime. The head of state would have denounced it
and distanced herself from the murderer. But here in India, neither the chief
minister of Uttar Pradesh nor the Prime Minister of India have stirred. What
should we conclude from their silence?
That the
rulers do not feel responsible for the action of one of their people or do not
feel accountable to those whom they are supposed to protect? No remorse even
for that? They do not deserve even a word of condolence? Should not the railway
minister apologise to those killed by his man? What should be the response from
the chief of the Railway Protection Force, whose man has committed four
murders? His act has now created a feeling of insecurity among all railway
passengers. Would not the sight of a policeman with a firearm make travellers
uneasy and fearful? Would they not lose their sleep when they see armed police
personnel sitting in their coach?
After all,
the seniors of the constable accepted that he was a man of unstable nature.
Despite that, they entrusted him with the job of looking after the security of
the passengers. How responsible have they been? Do they have no sense of
repentance? Why do we see no expression of it?
A
sleeper coach of the Indian Railways. Photo: Draconian Rain/Flickr CC BY NC 2.0
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Should not
the state have shown that it feels accountable by announcing extraordinary
compensation for the lives lost due to its carelessness, if we accept the
claims of the officials that the murderer was mentally unstable? Should not the
railway officials have the courtesy, at the minimum, to accompany the dead to
their families?
The absence
of remorse, shame, or repentance in the state apparatus should worry us. For
the murdered passengers, the police officer was the State. He was not a private
citizen. He had the power of violence. Which was used against unarmed,
non-violent, unsuspecting citizens he was supposed to protect. The State has to
take responsibility.
Respected
news platforms have censured his words of allegiance to the BJP leaders. They
are digging into his past to establish that a psychiatric disorder and not
politics should be held responsible for the murders. Why did they edit out the
uncomfortable part of the story, which exposes the political ideology behind
the slaughter?
Can we say
that the constable tried to cover up the murder of his senior by killing three
Muslims? Because now, murdering Muslims is seen as normal in India. It is
perfectly normal for Hindus to get offended by a Muslim’s very appearance. How
do we explain that persons with no criminal history get provoked by visible
Muslim-ness?
Just before
the circulation of the video of these murders, we watched another video in
which a Muslim man is surrounded by Hindus. We are informed that he was
silently offering Namaz. The sight of a Muslim performing Namaz provoked the
Hindus so much that they opened their mobiles and read aloud Hanuman Chalisa
from their devices, in responding to his Namaz! One can say that these two
incidents are not related. But we know they are. The Namaz, a Muslim act, or
the beard or cap or burqa, can now trigger perfectly normal Hindus of a loving
nature. It must be the fault of the Muslims who provoke non-violent, ever
tolerant Hindus to resort to what they would never do normally: hate and
violence.
It was
again a coincidence that the news of these murders came with more news of
violence from the Mewat region of Haryana. A VHP procession was stopped by a
group of Muslims and pelted with stones.
The procession was not religious. It was taken out after violent anti-Muslim
announcements by the organisers. It was also announced that Monu Manesar, who
is the main accused in the murders of two Muslim youths Nasir and Junaid a
couple of months ago, would be part of the procession. It was meant to anger
Muslims. A man who openly announces his desire to eliminate Muslims, who is a
murder accused, who is wanted by the Rajasthan police, was to participate,
which is nothing but open humiliation of Muslims.
Why was
this procession allowed? Why is a person accused of the murder of two Muslims
allowed to hide in the open by the Haryana government? Why has it not handed
him over to the Rajasthan police? Would people committing violence against
Muslims not be considered criminals anymore?
All these
incidents are related. The murder of Muslims in the train would not have been
possible if Monu Manesar was apprehended and brought to justice. It would not
have happened if the Prime Minister had not asked Hindus to identify those who
oppose the government by their clothes. It would not have happened if the
killers of Mohsin Sheikh were not let off by the courts with the explanation
that it was his appearance which invited the attack on him.
What does
this attack do to us? Who is affected by it? Definitely Muslims who have
already been feeling that public spaces are not safe for them. Now, even in
crowded spaces like a moving train, they would feel more vulnerable. They have
to keep guessing who among the co-passengers would get provoked by what. What
caution do they have to exercise to remain safe?
I recall a
note written by a Muslim woman three to four years ago. Travelling on a train,
a child asked her husband if he was a Muslim. When he said, yes, the child said
that he should be shot. The Muslim woman wrote that after that they almost gave
up travelling by train. It was costly for them but they changed their mode of
travel.
This
incident has shown two things: Muslim life in India has become dangerously
uncertain and Hindus have been radicalised to such an extent that now you do
not need organised violence. Violence against Muslims and Christians has become
part of Hindu life. People would object to the generalisation but is it not a
fact now?
Hindu
society will have to reverse this trend to save itself. It is the most urgent
task it cannot ignore or delay.
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Source: Muslim Life in India Has Become
Dangerously Uncertain
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/anti-muslim-hysteria-railway-policeman/d/130389
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