Backlash grows in UAE against rising tide of Islamophobia in India

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come under increased pressure in recent weeks as Gulf countries lash out at Delhi for failing to control far-right Hindu extremist groups that have been widely held responsible for violence against Muslims. reported TRT World on Tuesday.

Islamophobic comments made by Indian nationals working for the UAE have created a perfect political storm, leading some top Emirati figures to issue a warning to the South Asian professionals in the Gulf’s rich Muslim country.

“The ruling family is friends with Indians, but as a royal your rudeness is not welcome,” wrote Princess Hend Al Qassimi, a member of the UAE royal family, on Twitter, referring to both the countries’ warm relations and Islamophobic attacks.

“All employees are paid to work, no one comes for free. You make your bread and butter from this land which you scorn and your ridicule will not go unnoticed,” the Princess warned.

The Princess’ tweet came as a response to Islamophobic social media posts by an Indian-origin employee in the UAE. The Princess also expressed her dismay over changing social reality in India, where the Hindu-majority has been pitted against Muslims, who are in a minority, intensifying the climate of hatred.

India’s Muslim minority had been on the streets until the deadly outbreak hit the country alongside fellow Indians of other faiths, protesting the country’s controversial citizenship law, which eased the citizenship path to those other than Muslims living in countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Prominent Kuwaiti Lawyer and Director of International Human Rights Mejbel Al Sharika has announced to voluntarily take the case of Indian Muslims to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. He has asked Indian Muslims to help him document the evidence of violence against them.

Modi responds to criticism

Feeling the political heat, Modi tried to calm things out, playing the diversity card to distract India's critics in the Gulf. “COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood. We are in this together,” wrote Modi on Twitter on Sunday.

Indian journalist Rana Ayyub said the tweet was in response to the pressure being exerted on the Modi government by Islamic countries to clamp down on Hindu supremacist groups that have run rampage in several parts of the country in recent months.

The Modi government also received condemnations from the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for increasing Islamophobic attacks in the country, where some Hindu nationalists have continued to blame Muslims for the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

“[We] urge the Indian Govt to take urgent steps to stop the growing tide of Islamophobia in India and protect the rights of its persecuted Muslim minority as per its obligations under international Human Rights law,” urged OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission in a statement.