Last week, northeast Delhi has witnessed horrific violence targeting mostly Muslims and their houses continuously for four days under the police watch. The brutality of the mobs’ organized attacks in Muslim localities could not still be gauged as reports about the loss of lives and properties is continued coming in. According to people who visited the affected area, there are many unreported burnt houses and murdered people. There are people who are going around to search for their loved ones who are missing. The death toll has since been increasing every day as it has now reached 47.
The violence has been carried out by mobs comprising hundreds of people who were roaming around Jefferabad areas to kill people and set their properties on fire. The mob who was baying blood for the innocent people did not come into existence out of blue. They have been prepared by the Hindutva forces by feeding them Islamopobhia, fake informations and hatred for Muslims.
They are fed with Islamophobia to awaken hatred for Muslims in them by misquoting Islamic texts related to the holy Quran and the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him). They attribute wrong pieces of information to the holy Quran and Prophet Mohammed and spread it widely on social media in their circles. Or they quote them out of context to convince people that Muslims are the biggest threat to the country and world. There are some pages on social media which constantly spread misinformation, fake news and hate-filled informations about Muslims and Islam. These pieces of misinformation, disinformation, misquoting and hate-filled information are made valid by quoting some of the scholars who were critical to Islam.
This is how a sinister factory of Islamophobia is created to manufacture hate about Muslims. This factory is very deep and sinister. These Islamophobic informations cater to simmering internal hatred which sometimes reflects in the behaviors and forced the people to act too. A number of times we have witnessed some extremist Hindus refused to engage with Muslims and do business with them only because of their religious identity. Some taxi driver refused to ferry Muslim passengers due to their religious identity. These actions are the reflection of deep-seated hatred against Muslims and Islam. The BJP supporters and their leaders very casually mouths Islamophobia in their conversations and on social media.
One of the prime way to spread Islamobhobia is manufacturing fake news and information and peddling them through social media. Through Islamobhobia, a hateful and demonish pictures are created in the minds of people about Muslims which are not real. The Hindutva groups manufacture fake news and information about Muslims and Islam to justify their hatred for them and to show others that what they believe about them is not illusion but a fact. These reports of fake news, misinformation are widely peddled by the BJP supporters and their leaders. There are some right-wing news websites like OpIndia and Swarajya which have been misreporting about Muslims to show them in bad light. BJP spokespersons like Sambit Patra, Amit Malvia and the BJP supporters like Madhu Kishwar, Tarek Fateh and Vivek Agnihotri have been spreading fake information and misinformation for long on Twitter.
While hatred is manufactured through Islamophobia and fake news, hate speeches are made by the BJP leaders to instigate people to act violently against Muslims. The people who already nurses deep-seated hatred get worked up when their leaders makes provocative speeches. Hindutva mobs’ confrontation with the anti-CAA protesters happened after a series of provocative speeches made by the BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra, Pravesh Verma, union minister Anurag Thakur and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
During Delhi’s election campaign and before that, the BJP leaders had been making hate speeches against the anti-CAA protesters which mostly comprise Muslims. The protesters have been intimidated, dehumanized, delegitimized and called by their names like traitors, Pakistanis, sold out. Pravesh Verma said that the Shaheen Bagh protesters will rape women by entering people’s house. Yogi Adityanath said that he feeds these protesters with bullets in his states. Anuragh Thakur instigated people to shoot these traitors. Kapil Mishra, who chanted provocative slogans many times, made provocative speech the day when the violence broke out.
After these statements, Hindutva supporters had been making their plans to confront with the Muslims who were protesting against the CAA. These statements made a conducive atmosphere for violent action against the anti-CAA protesters. The already simmering hatred manufactured through Islamophobia got push from the hate speeches which resulted in the organized violence against Muslims by Hindutva mob. The Central government not only allowed it happen but also sponsored it.
