According to the analysis, fake news spreads misinformation about changing demography by implicitly showing that the Muslim population is fast-rising. The tone of media has been so anti-Muslim that 87 per cent of the fact-checked contents, out of 211 stories, were related to religious groups and it targeted Muslims.

Shockingly, the recent brute military exercise of Israel against the impoverished Palestinians was also used by the Indian media to spread anti-Muslim sentiments. Fake and doctored graphics and videos have been shown by the media to create an impression that Muslims are “violent” and they are a threat to “peace” and “democracy”. In several doctored videos, the beheading of the children and execution of the prisoners have been shown.

In other contexts, the media used videos imported from outside India to depict Indian Muslims. The aim was to malign the image of Muslims and create a ground for anti-Muslim sentiments. They all contributed to keeping the fire of the Islamophobic narrative aflame.

It is feared that India is emerging as one of the centres producing Islamophobic content. Even in some videos, the story of Rohingya Muslims was spread in which it was claimed that these Rohingya Muslims were pretending to be “Hindus”. But the Book Live fact check found the whole story misleading and malicious in its approach.

Those who have so far denied the prevalence of hate news and the rising Islamophobia in India, should seriously read Boom’s report. Not to talk of so-called communal media, even a large number of “reputed” mainstream media with wider reach have been found guilty of spreading hatred and misinformation about Muslims. Apart from these, they were in the habit of publishing content in favour of the establishment.

Even a pure matter of science and technology was used to spread hatred against Muslims. For example, when the Chandrayaan-3 satellite was successfully sent onto the moon, contents targeting Muslims were widely disseminated. Propaganda was made that Muslims were “anti-science”, “religious” and “fanatic” in outlook, which is responsible for their “backwardness”. It was also an occasion to question the “patriotism” of the Indian Muslims. For example, a fact-checked story of the Boom Live shows that fake news was spread in which the media showed Kashmiri students beating other students who were celebrating the success of Chandrayaan-3. However, the true story was that a fight among the students broke out over the issue of violating the queue in the university canteen at Mewar University and not over the satellite.

To sum up, the contents of the news stories analysed by Boom Live have again been found to be spreading misinformation, sensationalism, communalism, and anti-Muslim hatred. Such contents contribute to promoting Islamophobia.

To understand Islamophobic discourse, Jewish-born scholar Edward Said can be a great help. Former professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University and Palestinian Arab Edward Said wrote the path breaking book “Orientalism” (1978). In his work, he was right to argue that the Western media and knowledge system had been in the habit of misrepresenting Arab Muslims.

According to Said, the Western media distorted the reality of the Arabs. The Arab Muslims were shown to be “the perversion” of the people living in the West. According to the Western binary, Arab Muslims were shown to be “barbaric”, “fanatic”, “religious”, “cowardly”, “anti-modern”, and “anti-secular” while those living in the West were praised as “liberal”, “rational”, “scientific”, “brave”, and “modern”.

During the 1973 Arab-Israel war, Edward Said was shocked to see the way the Western media spread misinformation, sensationalism, and misinformation about Arab Muslims. Since he had a lived experience of growing up in the Arab region, he was not able to accept the images and stereotypes produced by the powerful Western media about Muslim Arabs.

This was the immediate context when Edward Said began seriously engaging with the question of the representation of Arab Muslims and the East in Western media and scholarship. Soon, he was able to give a concept of “Orientalism”, which, according to him, is a systematic way of misrepresenting and violating the reality, image, and whole history of the Occident by Western scholars.

Three years later in 1981, Said wrote another important book “Covering Islam”. The subtitle of the book is self-explanatory: “How the media and the experts determine how we see the rest of the world. Following the Iranian Revolution (1979), Said began to look deeply into the way the Western media covered the Arab and Islamic world. Soo Said concluded: “The coverage of Islam by the Western media is misleading and inaccurate, characterized by ethnocentrism, cultural and even racial hatred, deep yet paradoxically free-floating hostility” (ibid, p. li).

The framework that Edward Said gave to study the Arab and Muslim world, can be extended in India to explore how the Muslim minority is being misrepresented by Indian media. While the Orientalist discourse has projected the East as the “another” of the West, similarly the minority community is demonized as “alien” of the mainstream society by the communal media.

There is strong evidence to show that the communal discourse within India heavily borrows Orientalist tools. The communal media, like Orientalist discourse, is in the habit of creating a binary between the majority Hindu community and the minority Muslim community. It ignores history and presents a monolithic picture. It bypasses social and economic conflicts within cultural diversity.

Given the similarity, I would like to place before you the term “internal Orientalism” to explain the phenomenon of the misrepresentation of the minority within a nation-state. The content analysis of Boom Live over the years shows a persistent atmosphere of anti-Muslim discourse created and maintained by the Indian media and state-sponsored scholars.

Like the Orientalist discourse, internal Orientalist discourse creates a similar binary in India in which the majority Hindu community is shown to be “liberal”, “progressive”, “law-abiding”, “nationalist”, and “peace-loving”, while the minority Muslims are demonized as “backward”, “fanatic”, and “anti-national”, “violent”, “cruel”, “anti-women”, “lustful” and “untrustworthy”, who works as a burden for the nation. The concept of “internal Orientalism”, therefore, needs to be explored further to capture the rising anti-minority venom and launch a democratic struggle to counter it.

(The author is a Delhi-based journalist. He has taught political sciences at NCWEB Centres of Delhi University.)

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Wasim Rizvi, the former chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board, is in the news once again for his deeply communal and Islamophobic diatribe, this time published in his book titled Muhammad, purportedly on the life of the Prophet Mohammed, one of the most revered figures in Islam.

One could have gauged the contents of the book from the book launch ceremony itself where Rizvi was seen in the company of fellow hate offender Yati Narsinghanand. The head priest of the Dasna temple has cultivated quite an ecosystem of hate, with his followers feeling empowered to spew hate with impunity. The Wire, that has examined a copy of the book, reported that Rizvi has virtually attempted to defame Prophet Mohammed as a womaniser and murderer.

Wasim Rizvi is not new to controversy. In the past too he has made multiple attempts to create communal tension.

In September 2017, Rizvi had met Mahant Suresh Das, one of the parties advocating the construction of Ram Temple, to show the UP Shia Waqf Board’s support for the construction of the Ram temple. He had also advocated for the construction of the mosque some distance away from Ramjanmabhoomi in a Muslim neighbourhood. This had helped him score major brownie points from Hindutva leaders and groups. However, the comments were ill timed as the matter was still sub-judice and extremely communally sensitive, especially given the violence surrounding the Babri Masjid demolition in December 1992 and a spate of violence that ensued in its aftermath.

Then in January 2018, Rizvi alleged that country’s madrasas “produced more terrorists than civil servants” in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Incensed at the accusations made by Rizvi, the Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, sent a defamation notice to Rizvi. Apart from the Rs 20 crore defamation suit, the notice also demanded Rizvi to submit an unconditional apology.

On March 11, 2021, Rizvi had moved Supreme Court with a plea seeking the “removal” of certain verses from the Quran that according to him “promoted violence.” This prompted the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to seek an unconditional apology from him for his “highly provocative, objectionable and malicious” statements that the NCM claims, were delivered “with intent to outrage the religious feelings of a particular community and to insult the particular religion.”

Recently while promoting his book, in a viral video interview to right-wing Youtuber Niraj Atri, Rizvi said, “Mohammed declared himself to be a Prophet, and used Allah’s name to share false teachings in a bid to become influential. This influence grew so much that we now see Islamic terrorism threatening the world. The foundation for all this was laid in Arabia 1,400 years ago.”

It is noteworthy that the Shia community and Rizvi’s own family have virtually disowned him. His latest book, is therefore perhaps, a desperate attempt to hold on to the last few shreds of dignity and forge stronger alliances with Hindutva leaders.

Related:

Shia Waqf Board meets Hindu parties involved in Ayodhya case, reiterates support for Ram Mandir
Jamiat slaps Rs 20 crore defamation suit against UP Shia Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi
Withdraw comments against Quran, apologise: National Commission for Minorities tells Waseem Rizvi
What will Waseem Rizvi gain by antagonising the Muslim community?

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The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has responded to CJP’s complaint against RSS leader Kamalendu Sarkar and written to Guwahati’s Director General of Police (DGP), requesting for a detailed report within three weeks on the matter.

CJP’s complaint dated December 21, 2020 to the esteemed commission highlighted the hate speech delivered by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Kamalendu Sarkar at a Public function in Sonitpur  on December 13,   that offended and hurt the sentiments of the members of the Muslim community.

The speech endorsed unverified and false allegations against the Prophet Mohammad alleging that he was a rapist and that this is what the Quran says, insinuating that Muslim women are ill-treated.

Our complaint incorporated the intervention of various unions and organisations in Tezpur, like the All-Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU), Maszid Committee, the Tezpur Muslim Kabarsthan Committee, Polofield Masjid Committee, Bara Masjid Managing Committee, Tezpur Dhakowali Panchayat that wrote to the appropriate authorities to take necessary steps to preserve harmonious existence between the different communities.

As allegations of police inaction and non-registration of FIR started floating, CJP listed down the consequences of delay in registering the FIR as mandated under the law for the Commission to take cognisance of. Besides this, the complaint had also stated the several violations of the Indian Penal Code, requesting the National Commission for Minorities to take cognisance of the incident, directing the Assam Police to submit an Action Taken Report and give updates in this regard.

CJP’s key prayer was accepted by the NCM via their communication dated March 8 and once the detailed report from Assam Police is received, the Commission will take the matter further.

Related:

CJP petitions the National Commission for Minorities against RSS leader

Facebook refuses to act on CJP’s complaints against Ragini Tiwari

#CJPWednesdays: CJP’s Hate Hatao Campaign Against Hatred and Hate Speech

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Developments in Israel, Indonesia and Germany suggest renewed nationalism and populism is in some cases redefining how states perceive concepts of national interest and purpose and how religious and ethnic communities seek to shield themselves against discrimination, persecution and/or extremism.

The redefinition was no more evident than when Israel, founded as a safe haven for Jews irrespective of creed, sect or political belief, sided against its own ambassador with authoritarian Hungarian President Victor Orban, a proponent of Christianity rather than multi-culturalism as the glue of European society, in denouncing billionaire left-wing philanthropist George Soros, a survivor of the Holocaust.

In doing so, Israel, founded on the belief that Jews needed a state to shield themselves against discrimination and persecution rooted in anti-Semitic prejudice and racism that has been endemic in Christian culture, sided not only with a Christian nationalist leader in Hungary but with a global right-wing trend that sees Mr. Soros as the mastermind of a globalist movement, determined to subvert the established order and dilute the white, Christian nature of societies through immigration.

Israel’s acknowledgement of the redefinition of its raison d’etre came in response to a Facebook posting by Yossi Amrani, the Jewish state’s representative in Hungary. Responding to anti-immigration billboards depicting a smiling Mr. Soros with the slogan, ‘Let’s not let Soros have the last laugh,’ Mr. Amrani, backed by Hungarian Jewish leaders, warned that they evoked “sad memories, but also sow hatred and fear.”

Israel’s foreign ministry, days before a visit to Hungary by prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu, rather than taking a firm stand on rising anti-Semitism, effectively defined the Jewish state’s interest as joining Mr. Orban in denouncing a Jew.

As a result, Israel, despite seeing itself as the fulfilment of the Biblical prophecies of the Ingathering of the Exiles and the protector of Jewish rights, opted for denouncing a Jew together with a leader whose policies prompted the European parliament to pursue unprecedented disciplinary action against Hungary over alleged breaches of the European Union’s core values, including minority rights.

“In no way was the (ambassador’s) statement meant to delegitimize criticism of George Soros, who continuously undermines Israel’s democratically elected governments by funding organizations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself,” the ministry said.

The implicit message, like Israel’s decision to bar entry to its Jewish critics despite its law of return that grants anyone who is Jewish a right to citizenship, was that Israel rather than being the potential home of all Jews was a home only to those who support the government’s policies.

Mr. Netanyahu’s alignment of Israel with right-wing nationalist and populist forces like his support for ultra-orthodox Jewish groups that deny equal rights for less stringent religious trends in Judaism on issues such as marriage, divorce, conversion and prayer at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, are likely to drive a wedge between the Jewish state and world Jewry, particularly in the United States.

The wedge, that puts Israel at odds with the Jewish Diaspora, could be deepened by this week’s Democratic Party success in regaining a majority in the US House of Representatives. Jews historically tend to vote Democratic in the US, a stark contrast with Mr. Netanyahu’s growing alliance with right-wing evangelists who support Israel because they believe the Messiah will only return to a Holy Land controlled by Jews.

Many evangelists, however, also believe that Jews will not be saved on the Day of Judgement without first converting to Christianity.

Israel’s divisive approach to World Jewry is not without its supporters in the Jewish Diaspora. Anti-Muslim and anti-migration sentiments have prompted some Jews to form their own group within Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party.

The notion that bigotry and prejudice are the best defense against rising anti-Semitism has meant that AfD Jews have little compunction about joining a party whose members favour abandoning Germany’s culture of remembrance and atonement for its Nazi past.
One AfD leader, Alexander Gauland, described Nazism as a “speck of bird poop in more than 1,000 years of successful German history.”

To be fair, the issue of rising prejudice and bigotry is not the exclusive perch of right-wing nationalist and populists. Britain’s Labour Party, traditionally a home for Jewish voters and activists, has been plagued by charges of anti-Semitism and reluctance to put its own house in order.

Moreover, the emergence of strange bedfellows in a world in which ideological affinity replaces defense of a community’s minority rights is not uniquely Israeli or Jewish.
Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Islamic movements with some 94 million members in Indonesia, in a bid to reform Islam and counter all political expressions of the faith, risks being tainted by its potential tactical association with Islamophobes and Christian fundamentalists who would project their alliance as Muslim justification of their perception of the evils of Islam.

Nahdlatul Ulama is not alone in the Muslim world’s opportunistic engagement with the Christian right.

Saudi rulers, who long aligned themselves with a supremacist, intolerant interpretation of Islam that viewed Christians as swine and Jews as apes have discovered that they share with evangelists and fundamentalist Christians, a significant voting bloc in the United States and part of President Donald J. Trump’s support base, conservative family values as well as political interests.

In a first, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, last week met with a delegation of US evangelists that included Reverend Johnnie Moore, Israel-based evangelical political strategist-turned-novelist Joel Rosenberg, former congresswoman Michele Bachmann; and prominent religious broadcasters.

The jury is out on whether the fallout of the rise of nationalism, populism and extremism heralds a new world in which bigotry and prejudice are legitimized as a defense strategy against discrimination, racism and persecution and an anti-dote to radicalism – a world that would likely prove to be far more divided and polarized and likely increasingly unsafe for minorities on the receiving end.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast. James is the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog, a book with the same title and a co-authored volume, Comparative Political Transitions between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa as well as Shifting Sands, Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa and just published China and the Middle East: Venturing into the Maelstrom

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org
 

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