ARAB BACKLASH AGAINST HINDUS, TWITTER HATE ANGERS PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS

Mukesh Devrari

Arab backlash cannot be ignored as Pakistani or Muslim propaganda against India. It can be described as a genuine reaction against the rising hatred in India. First of all, unlike Pakistanis, Arabs are not negatively disposed towards India or Hindus. They have no reason to hate India. Neither Indians know much about Arabs, except the ones who have travelled to the Middle East for work.

PM Narendra Modi and his party failed in governing the country. Rather than focusing on economic development in the last six years, BJP made the country hotbed for religious unrest and chaos. BJP leaders focused more on divisive issues than on development. It was one of their ploy to hide their failures, critics argue.

In the latest development, Arabs public intellectuals have started outlining how Indians are criticizing Islam and Muslims while living in Arab countries. Although there is nothing wrong in criticizing the religion and religious practices but intent must not be to spread violence and hate against the entire community. Twitter is a place where people can stoop low to any extent. It’s full of threats, abuses, fake pictures, videos, quotes, out of context references and so on.  

It is a very dangerous trend. It will have long term repercussions for India. Once it is established in Middle-Eastern countries that India is a Hindu majority state and Muslims are being exploited by Hindus. India will become another Israel. It will be perceived as an enemy. Then, it will reflect on other places as well. Till now, Pakistan has tried to create a parallel between Palestine conflict and Kashmir dispute, but could not succeed in creating a rift between the Muslim world and India beyond routine OIC statements. 

Next time, Pakistani PM Minister Imran Khan or their citizens settled abroad will make any allegations of human violations on India while raising the Kashmir issue, Arab Muslims will be more receptive and inclined towards believing their lies. It means more money and support to Kashmiri separatists and Indian civil society groups who are least bothered whether India stays as one unit or splits into many countries.

Pakistan has launched a concerted effort all over the globe to demonize Hindus and India. It openly describes PM Narendra Modi as fascist and Hitler. Indian Muslims also tried to attract the attention of President Donald Trump by indulging in riots in New Delhi during his trip to India. In this toxic atmosphere which is created by BJP leaders, Indians are losing their respect and prestige all over the globe. 

Indians who have never travelled outside India must understand that if you keep aside India & China, most people on this planet either follow Islam or Christian. It does not make any sense to confuse Pakistan with Islam. At the time of partition, the Muslim population in India was around 10 per cent. Now it is around 14 per cent. As the population of Muslims are more than 200 million. Each one of them is a soldier and will fight back against the Hindu extremists. If BJP persisted with its divisive policies, India will soon face a civil war.  

All Muslim public intellectuals in the non-Muslim countries stood up against the PM Modi. The entire western media have written critical articles about Narendra Modi and India. Still, it is not too late. This perception will be corrected in no time, but there is another danger of Arab backlash on twitter. Most members of the royal family, who are likely to rule the country in the coming decades in various capacities will carry hate for India. They will start looking at India as a place which hates their religion. That will be an extremely unfair view of the nation which allowed almost all religions of the world to thrive within its boundaries.  

Second, it can have long term impact on the well being of millions of Indians living in the Arab Countries. First, many of the Indians are misinformed and arrogant. They fail to recognize that moving to Arab Countries and asking for a job is not their birthright. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and others are not the United States or Europe. They cannot be compared to western democracies. Indians can work in the Middle East, only if the government allows. If they decided to throw all Hindus out, no one will be able to stop it.

If the entire Arab population will develop a notion that Hindus abuse their religion and god, it will affect their judgement and decision about recruiting people, meaning Hindus, from India. It will be a grave injustice to the aspiration of thousands of people who are looking for a livelihood in the Arab countries, as India is facing a recession due to the failures of the Modi government. Coronavirus will give them an excuse though. 

So far, Arab countries never bothered to look at the religion of people seeking a job. There is no doubt there are many cases of exploitation and harassment by employers like the confiscation of passports, bullying and exploitation, but employers in India in the private sector are also not angels. Then can be worse than Arabs employers. 

The only way to solve this problem in the short is by bringing Twitter under regulatory laws. Make people accountable to their posts and compel twitter to delete twits spreading hate and anger. India must not underestimate the ability of social media sites to destabilize immature and developing nations.   

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