Safa Ahmed is the associate director of media and communications for the Indian American Muslim Council.
Today marks 16 years since Hindu supremacists bombed a marketplace in Malegaon, India, in an anti-Muslim terror attack. The killers were linked to the RSS paramilitary group — but they still haven’t been brought to justice.
Since reaching power, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has jailed political critics using bogus terrorism and incitement charges. But an electoral setback for his party offers hope of change in India and a crack in his authoritarian Hindutva order.
Narendra Modi was head of Gujarat state when Hindu militants committed one of the worst anti-Muslim massacres in modern Indian history. Now he’s Indian prime minister — and his US allies are busily ensuring the Hindutva leader’s impunity.
In India, Muslim women who dare to criticize Narendra Modi’s government routinely meet with vile sexual harassment. Far from just nasty words, it’s part of a culture of often violent attacks on minority women, defended by the far-right ruling party.
Israel’s war has no keener defenders than far-right Hindus spreading fake news on Twitter/X. But their dogged support for Israel isn’t just a matter of inflammatory posts — it goes hand in hand with rising repression against Muslims in India itself.