Around 100 people gathered at Mira-Bhayandar, Mumbai on June 16, 2022 to decry the right politics both within and outside the Muslim community. Organised by local rights organisation Haq Hai, the gathering appealed to the community not to fall victim to the enmity spread by right-wing elements.
Haq Hai is a citizens’ collective at Mira Road-Bhayandarthat seeks to defend the constitution and the idea of India. Following the June 10 protests by the Muslim community, many anti-CAA-NPR activists in Uttar Pradesh were listed in a ‘demolition list’ created by the Allahabad administration.
According to Haq Hai leader Sadiq Basha, Haq Hai supported people’s right to condemn the hate speech against Prophet Mohammad and Islam. However, he denounced the administration for targeting dissenters in such a manner.
“This threat of a bulldozer is against the constitution. That too by the state. The police knows how to crowd control and deal with stone-pelters. So, the police should do so,” said Basha in condemning the most recent and widely covered demolition of Allahabad activist Javed Mohammad.
He warned of a regime where the state government became the judge, jury and prosecutor. At the same time, Haq Hai said it had observed certain right-wing Muslim groups trying to justify stone-pelting. Basha said that people become easily susceptible to such manipulation even though Islam itself calls for peace. For this reason, he felt it was important to fight the right-politics. His call on Wednesday night was a call for the assertion of peace.
Fortunately, this call was answered by the Muslim women and youth in Mira-Bhayandar. Although the organisation had gained prior permission from the police, officials refused to allow the protest in a Muslim-dominated area. Still, protesters observed a silent protest before starting rallying to another location.
As the event was intended to be a music programme, videos with audio background were also circulated later on.
“There is an undercurrent of hate within the Muslim community. It is important to channelise the dissent in a peaceful manner to channelise the anger otherwise, it will go elsewhere,” said Basha.
The group also discussed the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and how the current regime is manipulating their ordeal to push their own agendas. Overall, the event was a solidarity call for struggles in different areas rather than a protest.
The event went on for two hours from 8 PM to 10 PM. Haq Hai said that it planned to identify those groups in Mira-Bhayandar that attempted to spread hate. This will help the community flag manipulative content rather than wait for the police to do something. In line with Citizens for Justice and Peace’s (CJP) call for mohalla committees, Haq Hai said it intended to start such groups in the region to do away with hate completely and isolate right-wing majority and right-wing elements in the Muslim community.
“We need to address the right politics. It is important that people understand we protest calmly and not with hate. However, even yesterday, we could see that people are gradually becoming more emotional,” said Basha.
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