'Muslims and pets not allowed': Indian journalist slams 'apartheid' post on Facebook

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October 24, 2020

Rana Ayyub laments post notifying availability of a flat in Mumbai which makes clear Muslims are not invited to apply

Demonstrators hold the national flag of India as they attend a protest against a new citizenship law, after Friday prayers at Jama Masjid in the old quarters of Delhi, India. — Reuters/Files

Indian journalist Rana Ayyub on Saturday slammed a person for a Facebook post where he had notified the availability on lease of an apartment in Mumbai. The post had made clear that Muslims and pets aren't allowed.

Ayyub, who is an opinion columnist for Washington Post, in a tweet, said: "Muslims and Pets not allowed. This is 20th century India. This is one of the most posh addresses in Mumbai, Bandra."

"Remind me we are not a communal nation, tell me this is not apartheid?" she asked.

Read more: Indian doctor shows Islamophobia in hate speech against Muslims over coronavirus

Violence against Muslims on the rise

Violence and hate speech against Muslims is becoming increasingly common in India with several people belonging to the faith even tortured and killed.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, addressing the United Nations General Assembly last month had said the RSS has been directing its hate at the Muslims, just like the Nazis' were with Jews.

"While the Nazis' hate was directed at the Jews, the RSS directs it at the Muslims, and to a lesser extent, the Christians," he said, adding that the extremist ideologists believe that India is exclusively for Hindus and others are not equal citizens.

Read more: Modi 'emboldened' by the West in his anti-Muslim agenda, says human rights chief

"The secularism of Gandhi and Nehru has been replaced by the dream of creating a Hindu Rashtra, by subjugating, even cleansing India's 200 million Muslims and other minorities," he said.

Muslims blamed for coronavirus spread

The outbreak of coronavirus in India had also triggered a series of attacks against Muslims across the country, with the health ministry of the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that Muslims are spreading the virus.

Read more: Indian court acquits all 32 accused in controversial verdict on Babri Masjid case

“Young Muslim men who were passing out food to the poor were assaulted with cricket bats,” The New York Times hadsaid in a New Delhi-datelined report.

“Other Muslims have been beaten up, nearly lynched, run out of their neighborhoods or attacked in mosques, branded as virus spreaders,” the paper said, highlighting that Hindu extremists were scapegoating the country’s entire Muslim population for deliberately spreading the virus through “corona jihad”.

Sikh temples in Punjab State, it added, were urging people not to purchase milk from Muslim dairy farmers because it is allegedly infected with the coronavirus.

Read more: India using TTP, JUA to carry out attacks against military, civilian targets in Pakistan

The paper said the rising anti-Muslim attacks came after the government claimed that more than a third of the country’s 8,000-plus coronavirus cases were connected to Muslims.



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