Q&A with Afreen Fatima about the rising injustices against Muslims in India and the hijab ban protests in Karnataka. Continue reading Islamophobia and the Hijab Ban in India: Q&A with Afreen Fatima
eveloped in light of various Dharm Sansads (religious conferences) organized in several Indian cities by Hindu religious leaders, who called upon Hindus to arm themselves for the wholesale massacre of Muslims. This is no recent development: the agenda for genocide has been gaining traction for a long time now. Most people mistakenly believe Hindu nationalism is the sole proprietorship of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In reality, however, Islamophobia is embedded within India’s dominant political lingua franca, including the nation’s opposition parties. Hence, it is not surprising that in the latest attack against Muslims (regarding hijab and niqab in colleges and educational institutions) not a single united front of support has emerged from the majority community. Continue reading Muslim Women vs. the Hindutva Project
Muslims under the rule of the Indian state are perhaps facing their worst crisis in the seven decades of the country’s existence. India has not only failed to put an end to massacres of it’s religious minorities, it has doubled down and democratically awarded a pogromist with the most powerful office in the land. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in the summer of 2014, dozens of Muslim men have been lynched. Laws and policies that threaten the statehood of Muslims have been enacted (National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act). In addition, abolition of article 35 (a) has enabled settler-colonialism in the Muslim-majority Kashmir, part of a UN-recognized disputed region. Continue reading Why the Likes of Naseeruddin Shah Are in the Wrong
India has witnessed another two murders of Muslim men in a week. Asif Khan, a gym trainer from India’s Haryana state was lynched by a Hindutva mob while returning home after buying medicine. A week later, 17-year-old Mohammad Faisal died in police custody, sustaining heavy injuries after he was arrested for allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions. The incident took place while he was selling vegetables outside his home in the Uttar Pradesh district. These men are some of the hundreds of innocent men lynched or burned to death by a Hindu mob. As a victim of this hate, Faisal is the face of Hindutva state violence on Muslims. These killings have become normalized in a highly radicalized society, which often hails the murderers as “heroes.” [1] Continue reading Will ‘Hindutva’ Only Yield Oppression and Genocide?
In an age of unprecedented anti-Muslim lynching and violence against minorities in India, Islamophobic bigotry extends its arms into modern Indian State figures. Continue reading Hindu Nationalism: History, Ideology, Nation
India is globally known as a diverse country. Diversity is its chief characteristic. Thousands of languages, countless cultures and practices, different religions and faiths; every state and every district in the country boasts its uniqueness. Continue reading Minority Educational Issues in India
The Shari’ah is best distinguished from Islamic law. Islamic law, usul-al-fiqh, consists of four separate sources: the Qur’an, Hadith, the consensus of the Islamic community and analogical reasoning. Continue reading Mughal India: The Role of Law in Life
Human rights might have universal affectations, but a closer look reveals that they are bound (quite tightly) by space and time. They are adopted by a variety of political actors who render them, frequently in different ways, palatable to indigenous sensibilities. Continue reading The BJP’s Right to Dominate Kashmir
Traversing Tradition 