Eid-al-Azha and Sacrifice Of Some Individual Muslims In India
By
Syed Ali Mujtaba, New Age Islam
2 July 2023
There are
two festivals in India when Muslim killings invariably take place each year
under the current political dispensation. First is Rama Navami, a Hindu
religious festival and second is Eid-al-Azha or Baqreed, the Muslim festival
when domesticated animals are sacrificed as a part of religious rituals.
While the
story of the killing of the Muslims during Rama Navami is a bit old now and
will probably be repeated next year, the fresh incidents are related to the
Baqreed killings of the Indian Muslims.
Muhammad
Zahiruddin a 55-year-old Muslim truck driver was lynched to death in Bihar by a
Hindu extremist mob despite the police being present at the site. This happened
just days before the Muslim festival of Eid ul Azha. The truck was carrying
cattle bones to a factory that makes medicinal ingredients to be used to make
gelatin for the pharmaceutical industry.
While
others in the truck were able to flee the Hindutva mob, Zahiruddin was unable
to run due to a previous fracture in his leg, that necessitated a metal rod and
he could not run to escape the mob and was lynched.
The mob
blamed the truck driver for being a Muslim and doing the business of bones and
flesh ahead of Eid-al-Adha. Some onlookers said the local police arrived at the
trouble spot but they did not intervene in the ensuing dispute.
Earlier,
Affan Abdul Ansari, a 32-year-old was beaten to death by a brutal Hindu
extremist mob in Maharashtra over suspicions of carrying cow meat. In another
incident in the same state, a 23-year-old Muslim man named Luqman Suleiman
Ansari was lynched to death by a Hindutva extremist mob, the newspaper
reported.
Hindutva
militant mobs have increasingly been targeting Muslims over baseless
accusations of transporting cattle ahead of the Eid-ul Adha festival. These
mobs, also known as cow vigilantes, are known for attacking and often lynching
Muslims accusing them of transporting cattle or consuming beef with impunity.
Recently a
Muslim couple was attacked by Hindu extremists for bringing home goats for Eid
ul Adha. The Muslim couple was called “terrorists” and attacked by a mob of
Hindu extremists in Mumbai city after they brought goats meant for sacrifice
into their housing complex.
The couple
Mohsin Khan and Yasmin Khan told the media that “If bringing the goats inside
the housing colony was against the law, then they should have filed a police
complaint against us. “We were assaulted, molested, and mentally harassed by
the mob that gathered to protest against us.”
Yasmin Khan
said; “They started manhandling us… During the scuffle they also tore my
clothes, forcing me to call the police.”
“They did not allow us to enter the [housing] society and called us
terrorists… and said “we should not be allowed to stay in the society,” she
reported.
This
'Baqreed' Muslims in Uttarakhand were barred from offering Eid prayers and told
to pray 25 miles away. Muslim from Badrinath town in Uttarakhand were
instructed by police to not hold Eid prayers inside the town. They were ordered
to offer Eid prayers in Joshimath, a neighbouring town, nearly 25 miles away
from Badrinath.
Muslim
residents of Badrinath are mostly migrant labourers working on reconstruction
projects at temples. A meeting with
members of the minority community, priests, and contractors engaged in the
projects was held with the police where they were asked to offer the ‘Namaz’ of
Baqreed in Joshimath and not in Badrinath.”
Hindu
militants in Uttarakhand state have called for mass expulsion of Muslims and
ethnic cleansing over the past few weeks. In Uttarakhand, there is an “alarming
rise of hate speech, vigilantism, and targeted communal violence against the
Muslim community.
In Uttarakhand
local Hindutva groups are openly inciting religious hatred and hostility and
violence against Muslims. This is to instigate fear among the Muslims so that
they can run away from there.
Muslims’ homes and shops are marked with an
‘X’, and residents are forced to vacate the place. Many very old-time residents
including BJP Minority Cell leader Mohammed Zaid, have fled their homes along
with other Muslim members due to the threat of violence.
Newspapers
have reported that a letter has been sent by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to the
Tehri District Magistrate giving an ultimatum to members of the Muslims
Community to leave the Jaunpur valley and in particular the towns of Nainbagh,
Jakhar, Nagtibba, Thatyur, Saklana, Damta, Purola, Barkot, and Uttarkashi.
If they
don’t respond to their ultimatum of leaving the areas themselves, the Hindu
organizations will go on to forcibly evict the Muslims.
The
government, the judiciary, administration and the media have not intervened in
this matter in any proactive manner to prevent violent attacks from taking
place against Muslims in Uttarakhand or Bihar and Maharashtra, etc.
Recently,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington denied that discrimination against
Indian Muslims exists under his government. He was speaking during a press
conference with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on June 3.
Asked at
the press conference what steps he was willing to take to “improve the rights
of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech,”
Modi answered; they did not need to be improved. The benefits of the Indian
government’s policies are accessible to everyone, Modi said.
“Our
Constitution and our government, and we have proved democracy can deliver. When
I say deliver – caste, creed, religion, gender, there is no space for any
discrimination (in my government),” Modi told reporters.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in
Chennai.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/eid-azha-sacrifice-individual-muslims-india/d/130117