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At least 7 FIRs were filed by the followers of Islam against Indian journalist Amish Devgan as he mistakenly confused Sufi leader Chisti with Khilji, and called him ‘invader’. Supreme Court has refused to quash the FIRs. The courts are not much to be blamed. India has stringent blasphemy laws that are selectively applied to protect the ‘sentiments’ of one violent minority, while Hindus do not seem to be protected by the same law when Bollywood repeatedly mocks Hindu gods, be it in the movie PK or more recently in Ludo.

Allowing such FIRs and not quashing them hold significance because of the narrative they set. The silence of the Modi govt on such matters further ensures that no one is capable of tackling the problem of intolerant Islam in India. The violent minority ensures that Kamlesh Tiwaris are beheaded for questioning Islam, Nikita Tomars are slaughtered in daylight for refusing to convert to Islam, and journalists are threatened with FIRs for inadvertently confusing a Sufi Chisti with Khilji. The system further emboldens the violent minority.

When France was recently attacked in the name of Islam, their left liberal government went all out to identify Islamic fundamentalism as the root cause of the problem. President Macron goes on record to say “France was attacked because we defended free speech…I will never take away this freedom….We are allowed to criticize any religion in France, whichever religion. We have criticized Catholicism, much more than Islam”. Macron’s statements give confidence to the French that their government will prioritize their freedom over the misplaced sensitivities of their violent minority.

In India though, Modi and his whole cabinet maintain silence in calling out Islamic fundamentalism as a problem that has enabled the violent minority to kill and file FIRs with impunity. All this despite the fact that it’s Hinduism which continues to be criticized and attacked more than Islam in India. If Prime Minister can call out the cow vigilantes who resorted to violence for protecting their cattle when the state failed to do so, then what stops him from calling out Islamists for burning down Bangalore because they were offended by a Facebook post.

An average Indian is scared but law-abiding. Hence, they chose the democratic route to elect a government that they believed would ensure zero appeasement. But to their surprise, the elected leaders go on record to absolve Islamists for their religiously motivated crimes, by repeating the clichés such as terrorism has no religion. Prime Minister Modi, on another occasion, claimed that Sufism is the voice of peace, co-existence, compassion, and equality; whereas in reality, Sufism had a recorded history of violence, oppression, and cruelty against Hindus of Kashmir¹ during their quest to propagate Islam.

It is important to not marginalize the whole community, but unless the motivation of Islamist violence is called out, we will not be able to even identify the problem, forget about solving it. The average Indians trusted Modi to ensure their safety from the violent minority but now wake up only to see their walls painted with threat messages, such as ‘Gustak e rasool ki ek hi saza, sar tan se juda” (Only one punishment for offending the prophet, that is to cut the head off the body). Ignoring these deeply religiously motivated attacks will not make the problem go away, but would definitely make an average Indian feel betrayed.

A decent response from the Modi government towards a just and equitable society, after Kamlesh Tiwari was beheaded or FIRs were filed against Amish Devgan, would have been to call out the intolerance of Islamists, and to push the conversation around scrapping the section 295A, the blasphemy law which has become a tool in the hands of one community to stifle the freedom of non-believers or ‘kafirs’, as they call us.

A group that prides itself on being the descendants of invaders, and refuses to recognize and respect the rights of indigenous people of India, should not be mollycoddled in the garb of protecting their ‘sensitivities’. Modi’s silence on Islamists and selective celebration of Sufism further emboldens the violent minority and does not contribute towards the long term peace in the subcontinent.

1. Hassan, Tarikh-i-Kashmir, A 17^th century Persian chronicle.