Dear friends across India,
In a few days, India will delete as many as 7 million Muslims in Assam State from its master list of “citizens” because they speak the wrong language and worship the wrong God.
Husbands, wives, and children could be torn apart and left to rot in prison camps.
This is how genocides begin – how the nightmare of the Rohingya began. But it’s all unfolding quietly — if we raise a massive alarm calling for the UN Secretary-General and key governments to intervene – we can stop this horror on our doorstep before it starts:
The Assam government has already begun quietly building another new prison camp and deploying troops.
Like the Burmese regime that attacked the Rohingya, the government claims they’re acting against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. But the vast majority of the people targeted are just poor, illiterate Muslim citizens without “proper” documentation. They’ve never needed it before!
António Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, has pledged to fight on behalf of those who can’t: “I will raise my voice. I will take action. I will use my rights to stand up for your rights.” We need to hold him to those words because right now the Bengali Muslims in India have no one to speak for them on the global stage — except us. Sign the petition below and together we can stop a road to genocide in Assam:
The rise of virulent Hindu nationalism is behind this aggressive move to render millions of Muslim people in India stateless and vulnerable. History teaches us that these movements know no limits except the ones citizens set for them. Let’s draw a line in Assam, and send a message to governments everywhere – we’re watching.
With hope and determination,
Sign the petition here
Emma, Nate, Ricken, Antonia, Flora, Alice, Wissam, Danny and the entire Avaaz team
Related Articles:
Pregnant and Helpless in a Detention Camp (cjp.org.in)
Bengali Hindu labeled “Bangladeshi”, found dead in Assam Detention Camp (cjp.org.in)
NRC leads to ‘othering’ of minorities in Assam (cjp.org.in)
Nearly five million in India’s Assam at risk of citizenship loss (Al Jazeera)
Stateless in Assam (The Indian Express)
Assam CM: No fundamental rights for those failing NRC tests (Times of India)
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