AMP Report - June 26, 2019
Hindu mob lynched Indian Muslim over refusal to praise Hindu gods
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Yet in another instance of Hindutva terrorism, a mob in the Indian state of Jharkhand thrashed and lynched a Muslim man for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram” (hail the deity Ram) and “Jai Hanuman” (hail the deity Hanuman).
24-year Tabrez Ansari, a victim of the mob lynching that took place in Jharkhand on June 18, died on June 22 after he succumbed to his injuries in Seraikela Jail.
A graphic video of the lynching was shared on social media, which enraged online users.
Tweep @imMAK02 shared a video of the incident with the caption: “One more mob lynching, Jharkhand. Tabrez Ansari aka Sonu was brutally thrashed by a mob in suspicion of theft. When he told his name to the mob, then mob beat him up brutally. Yesterday he died … Welcome to … Hindu Rashtra 2.0.”
In the video, Ansari was seen on the floor, surrounded by a mob, as a man thrashed him with a stick and other heavy objects.
Another video was uploaded by @imMAK02 where Ansari is seen with his hands behind his back, being forced to say Hindu phrases like “Jai Shri Ram” (hail the deity Ram) and “Jai Hanuman” (hail the deity Hanuman).
According to Police, the mob tortured the young man for 12 hours before turning him in. When Ansari was finally brought to police, those who handed him over claimed he had injured himself falling off a roof during an attempted burglary. After being refused immediate medical care, he later died as a result of his injuries.
Tabrez Ansari worked in Pune as a welder and a laborer and had come to his village in Jharkhand’s Kharsawan district to celebrate Eid with his family. His family had also arranged his wedding during his visit.
Police arrested 11 people on Monday in connection to the lynching after the victim’s family showed them the video of the incident that was already spreading rapidly online. The disturbing 10-minute-long clip shows 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari being beaten with sticks by at least a dozen people while tied to a pole.
Two other incidents
Embolden by the landslide victory of the Hindu rightist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in recent elections, Hindu extremist groups are attacking Muslims and other minority communities.
Besides the brutal lynching of Tabrez, two other incidents were reported this week where Hindu extremists tried to force Muslims to chant Jai Shri Ram.
Hafeez Sahrukh Haldar, 26-year-old madrasa teacher told India tomorrow that he was beaten up and pushed off a moving train by a group for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram” on the afternoon of June 20 on his travel from Canning in South 24 Parganas district to Hooghly in Bengal.
“I was travelling to Hooghly when a group of people were chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ inside the compartment. They asked me to chant the same. When I refused, they started to beat me, nobody came to my rescue. The incident took place while the train was between Dhakuria and Park Circus stations. They pushed me off the train at Park Circus station. Some locals helped me,” Haldar said. The police said the teacher had escaped with minor injuries.
In another incident on the same day (June 20), a Delhi-based madrasa teacher was deliberately hit by a car in Rohini area when he was returning home from a mosque.
The incident took place last Thursday evening (June 20) around 6:45 PM. Maulana Mohammad Momin said that he was asked to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by three men aged around 30-35 years. When he refused to do so, they hit him with the car they were travelling in and ran away.
Momin said, “I was returning home from the nearby mosque around 6:45 PM. Three persons met me on the way. They were in a white car. They asked me to say ‘Jai Shri Ram’. I refused to do so moved forward on my way. They hit me with the side of the car and ran away. I fell down on the road and became unconscious. People rushed to help me. They made a call to the police. Then I was rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital where I got medical aid”.
Tabrez Ansari killing 11th hate crime in 2019
The killing of Tabrez Ansari from Jharkhand is not the first hate crime that has occurred in 2019. Data from the website Factchecker.in reveals that this is the 11th case of hate crime this year. So far, 22 people have been injured and four have been killed in mob violence, according to the Logical Indian. .
297 hate crimes have taken place all over India, since 2009. 98 people have died and 722 people were injured.
Data shows a rise in incidents of mob violence over the last few years. Compared to just six incidents from 2012 to 2014, 121 incidents of mob violence over cattle theft or slaughter have taken place since 2015.
According to the overall data from 2009 to 2019, the victims were Muslims in 59% cases. 28% of the incidents were related to alleged cattle theft or slaughter.
Data also indicates that while 16% of cases took place in the Congress-ruled states, 66% of cases occurred in the BJP-ruled states.
US report on attacks against minorities by Hindu extremist groups
The brutal lynching of Tabrez Ansari came days after a US report about attacks on Christians, Muslims and other minorities by the extremist Hindu groups.
The US State Department in its annual 2018 International Religious Freedom Report says Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, continued in India in 2018, amid rumors that victims had traded or killed cows for beef and the authorities often protected perpetrators from prosecution.
The US report also said that some senior officials of the ruling BJP made inflammatory speeches against the minority communities.
Mandated by the Congress, the State Department in its voluminous report gives its assessment of the status of religious freedom in almost all the countries and territories of the world.
In the India section, it said that there were reports by nongovernmental organizations that the government sometimes failed to act on mob attacks on religious minorities, marginalized communities and critics of the government.
The report also said that the central and state governments and members of political parties took steps that affected Muslim practices and institutions.
A Modi victory puts 200 million Indian Muslims in danger
In May 2019, The Nation published an article titled: "A Modi Victory Puts India's 200 Million Muslims in Danger." Writer of the article is Ruchira Gupta. She is a visiting professor at New York University and founder of the Indian anti-sex-trafficking organization, Apne Aap Women Worldwide. Ruchira Gupta writes:
"Thursday, India will announce election results that could put the country's 200 million Muslims in danger". Human Rights Watch reports that between May 2015 and December 2018, cow vigilantes lynched at least 44 people-including 36 Muslims-suspected of eating beef or trading in cattle.
In one case in 2016, a group beat to death a Muslim cattle trader and a 12-year-old boy traveling to an animal fair in Jharkhand. Their badly bruised bodies were found hanging from a tree with their hands tied behind them.
Instead of trying to keep Muslims safe, the government announced a national commission to protect cows in February 2019. Police often stalled prosecutions of the attackers, while several BJP politicians publicly justified the attacks. Commentators accuse Modi of normalizing bigotry by refusing to condemn such acts. The Pew Research Center has ranked India the fourth-worst country in the world for religious intolerance-after Syria, Nigeria, and Iraq."
About the growing extremism under Modi, Ruchira Gupta writes:
"One candidate for Parliament in particular illustrates the growing extremism of the BJP. In Bhopal, a city of 1.8 million people, Modi personally endorsed Pragya Singh Thakur, who is out on bail after almost nine years in jail for alleged involvement in a terrorist bombing that killed six Muslims."
Pragya Thakur's main election plank appears to be revenge against Indian Muslims for 400-year-old humiliations. At her campaign launch, she boasted that 27 years ago she helped demolish a 16th-century (Babri) mosque in northern India:
"I climbed atop the structure and broke it, and I feel extremely proud that God gave me this opportunity."
Thakur, like Modi, is a proponent of a far-right militant ideology called Hindutva, which was invented in the 1920s by an all-male vigilante group called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Its founders corresponded with Adolf Hitler and met with Benito Mussolini in 1929 to model their party along fascist lines. A member of the group assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.
On the campaign trail, Thakur said Gandhi's assassin "was a patriot, is a patriot, and will remain a patriot."
By nominating an alleged terrorist as a lawmaker, Modi has made his party's agenda clear. He's shifted his rhetoric from fighting corruption to generating hate.
Thakur defeated her opponent, Digvijaya Singh, a two-term chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state and a senior member of the main opposition Congress party.
Hundreds of Dalits embrace Buddhism saying there is "No Equality in Hinduism"
Not surprisingly, hundreds of Dalits rembraced Buddhism in Karnataka on Tuesday (June 25) after a youth from the community was assaulted.
Members of the Dalit community took out a rally against the attack on youth from the community and embraced Buddhism, stating that “there is no love, compassion and equality in Hinduism”, The New Indian Express reported
The Dalits took a pledge to join Buddhism as Buddhist monks Gjana Sheela and Bodiraksha read out Panchshil of Buddha, considered to be basic code of ethics to be a follower and practitioner of Buddha, at Kebbekatte Shanimahathma temple in Mysuru.
While pledging that they firmly believe in the dharma (religion) of Buddha, they said they “don’t want to remain Hindus where there is no equality, mutual trust and respect”, quoted The New Indian Express.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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