The founder of Genocide Watch, Dr Gregory Stanton, who had predicted a genocide in Rwanda years before it took place in 1994 has warned of an impending genocide of Muslims in India, comparing the situation of the country under the Narendra Modi government to events in Myanmar and Rwanda.

Formed in 1999, Genocide Watch is a global organisation dedicated to the prevention of genocide. Dr Stanton is a former research professor in genocide studies and prevention at the George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States.

Dr Stanton made these remarks during a congressional briefing titled 'Call For Genocide of Indian Muslims', organised by the Indian American Muslim Council. He was part of a five-member panel invited to speak at the session.

In his video address, Dr Stanton began with highlighting that Genocide Watch had been warning of a genocide in India since 2002, "when riots and massacres in Gujarat occurred that killed over a thousand Muslims".

"At that time, the chief minister of Gujarat was Narendra Modi, and he did nothing. In fact, there is a lot of evidence that he actually encouraged those massacres," he said, adding that Modi, now the prime minister of India, had used "anti-Muslim, Islamophobic rhetoric" to build his political base.

Dr Stanton said the two ways Modi went about this was by revoking the special autonomous status of Indian- occupied Kashmir in 2019 and passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act the same year.

He explained that the revocation of the of occupied Kashmir's special autonomy was "largely aimed at restoring Hindu domination" in the valley, which had Muslim majority. Moreover, he added, the enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was especially "aimed at Muslims".

"It gave [a] specific favourable status to refugees who had come from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who were of certain religious groups. But the one group that was excluded was Muslims," he said. "This act was specifically ... aimed at the Muslims who had fled Bangladesh during the Bangladesh genocide and civil war in 1971 and had settled in Assam," he continued.

Dr Stanton said there were around three million such people, mostly Muslims, who had fled to India and "has settled down" as "regular citizens of India".

But the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, he said, required people to prove through documentation that they had been the citizens of India before 1971 as part of a census that was to be overseen by the Indian supreme court.

"Now a lot of people don't have that kind of documentation, of course," he pointed out, adding that "the idea [behind the Act] is to essentially declare them (people who had fled to India from Bangladesh in 1971) foreigners, and therefore, to allow their deportation."

He said this was "exactly was the Myanmar government did to the Rohingya Muslims" in 2017. The Myanmar government, he said, first declared Rohingya non-citizens through a legislation and and then expelled them through violence and genocide.

In this regard, he also highlighted that the UN Genocide Convention — an international treaty that criminalises genocide — not just "covers genocides in whole. It also covers genocides in part".

"It is specifically aimed at the destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, and that is exactly what the Myanmar government did in Myanmar against Rohingya," he said. "What we are now facing is a very similar kind of a plot, if you will," he added, referring to India.

Dr Stanton said the Indian government's aim was to extend the census under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act across the country and the "victims will be 200 milion Muslims in India".

He further said that the "idea of India as a Hindu nation, which is the Hindutva movement, is contrary to the history of India and the Indian constitution".

The Indian constitution, he said, was devised "to make India a secular country", and that the secularity it promised was secured in the first years of India's existence under the Congress party.

"What we have now though, an actual member of the RSS ( Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) — this extremist, Hindutva-oriented group — Mr Modi as [the] prime minister of India. So what we have here is an extremist who has taken over the government," he continued.

Dr Stanton then went on to explain that genocide was not an event but a process, and that there were early "signs and processes" of genocide in the Indian state of Assam and occupied Kashmir.

He referred to a conclave held by Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand from December 17 to 19 in Uttarakhand's pilgrimage city of Haridwar, where multiple calls to kill minorities and attack their religious spaces were made, saying that the event was aimed at inciting genocide.

He said there were laws in India that could be enforced against such practices, "but Mr Modi has not spoken out against that violence".

Dr Stanton said Modi, as the prime minister of India, had a moral obligation to denounce this kind of hatred and hate-speech, that specifically calls for the killing of Muslims.

He said the language used against Muslim in the Haridwar meeting, which was also used by the Indian government, was actually "polarisation", which led to genocide.

"So we are warning that genocide could very well happening in India."

He also likened the circumstances in India to the events in Rwanda, where a genocide had taken place in 1994.

Dr Stanton said he had predicted the genocide in Rwanda, keeping in view the situation in the country at the time.

He said he had warned the then-Rwandan president that "if you don't do something to prevent genocide in your country, there is going to be a genocide here within five years. That was in 1989. The genocide developed, the hate-speech developed, all the early warning signs developed. And as we know, 800,000 Tutsis and other Rwandans were murdered in 1994".

"We cannot let that happen in India," he concluded./ dawn

Hard-line Hindu saints gathered last month for a Dharm Sansad, or religious congregation, in Haridwar, a religious town.

An organizer who has gained prominence in recent years, Yati Narsinghanand, called for attacks against Muslims and their places of worship.

"Muslims won't be killed by swords now. You have to defeat them in technique. Swords look good on stage only. This battle will be won by those with better weapons. More and more kids and better weapons, only these can save you," he said.

Another organizer called for Hindus to replicate what happened in Myanmar, calling for a genocide of Muslims.

Police reluctantly filed a report following outrage after videos of the meeting went viral.

On the eve of World Religious Freedom Day to be observed Sunday, experts and human rights activists said that it is a new normal in India and had the religious identities of the accused been different, police may have treated them differently.

"Everyone knows what's going on here. We are being stopped from offering Namaz (prayers) and our religious rights granted by the Constitution are being violated every second day," said Niyaz Farooqui, secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, India's largest socio-religious Muslim organization.

"Now you cannot expect any action from the government against these people who are openly threatening the minorities," said Farooqui, adding that if Muslims reach the courts, the attitude of the courts is often lackadaisical and cases get delayed.

"Police do not investigate such cases properly and they often try to shield the accused persons," he told Anadolu Agency.

Niyaz Farooqui, however, said there is still a large number of non-Muslims who do not believe in all of the things that Hindus do and they stand with minorities.

In Gurugram, a satellite town adjacent to the national capital of New Delhi, Hindu groups have continuously disrupted Friday prayers that are organized in the open.

Lack of space has forced Muslims to offer prayers in government-owned lands with the permission of the administration.

At least five complaints were lodged by Muslims against the disruptions but not a single case has been registered by Gurugram police.

"This shows that now we are being treated as second-class citizens in a country where we have grown up and celebrated festivals with people from different religions," said Ehtesham Hashmi, a Supreme Court lawyer who is fighting cases of atrocities against Muslims.

"People are now being treated differently based on their religion," he told Anadolu Agency.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its World Report 2022 that was released Thursday said attacks against religious minorities were carried out with impunity under the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Hindu nationalist government.

In 2021, Munawar Faruqui, a Muslim comedian, spent 35 days in jail in India for a joke he had not cracked.

He was accused of "insulting" Hindu religious sentiments in jokes that he had allegedly prepared, although the jokes did not appear in his public program.

"The hate mongers and bigots are enjoying the protection in BJP-ruled states. The state government is not only protecting but promoting them. They either get a post in the (political) party (BJP) or are fielded in the elections by the party," added Hashmi.

Christian community also under attack

Another minority community, Christians, came under attack in India during Christmas celebrations. As many as six attacks were reported by the media in different parts of the country.

"The current state of religious freedom is dipping day by day and it is not limited to any particular state or government but it is like a wildfire spreading across the nation dividing the people on the basis of religion," said Shibu Thomas, founder of Persecution Relief, which monitors violence against Christians in India.

"I personally feel that political leaders of all the parties should take strict actions to stop it because the biggest worry is the youth population. Their mind should not get corrupted," said Thomas.

The minority population comprises nearly 20% of India's 1.4 billion. Hindus still form nearly 80% of the population.

Meanwhile, an official with the ruling BJP has denied that his government is targeting minorities.

"It is more a propaganda by international organizations against India. Our government doesn't discriminate on the basis of religion," said Kailash Vijayvargiya, national general secretary of BJP.

The man who authorities say held hostages inside a Texas synagogue on Saturday demanded the release of a Pakistani woman who is imprisoned nearby on charges of trying to kill American service members in Afghanistan.

The hostage incident ended Saturday night with the hostages safe and the man holding them dead, authorities said.

The woman whose freedom was sought, Aafia Siddiqui, is serving an 86-year prison sentence after being convicted in Manhattan in 2010 on charges that she sought to shoot U.S. military officers while being detained in Afghanistan two years earlier.

WHO IS AAFIA SIDDIQUI?

She's a Pakistani neuroscientist who studied in the United States at prestigious institutions -- Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She attracted the attention of American law enforcement in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks. Top FBI and Justice Department described her as an "al-Qaida operative and facilitator" at a May 2004 news conference in which they warned of intelligence showing al-Qaida planned an attack in the coming months.

In 2008, she was detained by authorities in Afghanistan. American officials said they found in her possession handwritten notes that discussed the construction of so-called dirty bombs and that listed various locations in the U.S. that could be targeted in a "mass casualty attack."

Inside an interview room at an Afghan police compound, authorities say, she grabbed the M-4 rifle of a U.S. Army officer and opened fire on members of the U.S. team assigned to interrogate her.

She was convicted in 2010 on charges including attempting to kill U.S. nationals outside the United States. At her sentencing hearing, she gave rambling statements in which she delivered a message of world peace -- and also forgave the judge. She expressed frustration at arguments from her own lawyers who said she deserved leniency because she was mentally ill.

"I'm not paranoid," she said at one point. "I don't agree with that."

WHAT WAS THE REACTION?

Pakistani officials immediately decried the punishment, which prompted protests in multiple cities and criticism in the media.

The prime minister at the time, Yousuf Raza Gilani, called her the "daughter of the nation" and vowed to campaign for her release from jail.

In the years since, Pakistani leaders have openly floated the idea of swaps or deals that could result in her release.

Faizan Syed, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the group considers Siddiqui to have been "caught in the war on terror" as well as a political prisoner who was wrongly accused through flawed evidence. He nonetheless strongly condemned the hostage-taking, calling it wrong, heinous, and "something that is completely undermining our efforts to get Dr. Aaifa released."

She has also garnered support from accused militants in the United States. An Ohio man who admitted he plotted to kill U.S. military members after receiving training in Syria also planned to fly to Texas and attack the federal prison where Siddiqui is being held in an attempt to free her. The man, Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, was sentenced in 2018 to 22 years in prison.

WHAT'S THE LATEST ON SIDDIQUI'S IMPRISONMENT?

Siddiqui is being held at a federal prison in Fort Worth. She was attacked in July by another inmate at the facility and suffered serious injuries, according to court documents.

In a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons, Siddiqui's lawyers said another inmate "smashed a coffee mug filled with scalding hot liquid" into her face. When Siddiqui curled herself into a fetal position, the other woman began to punch and kick her, leaving her with injuries so severe that she needed to be taken by wheelchair to the prison's medical unit, the suit says.

Siddiqui was left with burns around her eyes and a three-inch scar near her left eye, the lawsuit says. She also suffered bruises on her arms and legs and an injury to her cheek.

The attack prompted protests by human rights activists and religious groups and calls for improved prison conditions. The activists have also called on the Pakistani government to fight for her release from U.S. custody./nbcdfw

What’s happening

Over the past three years, dozens of cities across the country have banned natural gas hookups in newly constructed buildings as part of a growing campaign to reduce carbon emissions from homes. The movement scored a major victory last month, when New York City’s outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a ban on gas hookups in new buildings.

Though new laws apply to the entire home, the policy debate often focuses on one room in particular: the kitchen. Gas stoves account for a relatively small share of the emissions released by a typical household, but they’ve become a proxy for a larger fight over how far efforts to curb at-home natural gas consumption in the name of fighting climate change should go.

Natural gas consumption accounts for 80 percent of fossil fuel emissions from residential and commercial buildings, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. One study estimated that New York’s ban on its own would create an emissions reduction comparable to taking 450,000 cars off the road. But the movement has met significant pushback. About 35 percent of U.S. homes use gas for cooking, and surveys show that many people are resistant to switching to an electric or induction range. The gas industry has also launched a massive lobbying campaign that has helped convince 19 Republican-led states to preemptively bar local governments from imposing bans on natural gas.

Beyond the climate implications of natural gas in general, there is also a movement to phase out gas stoves because of the harmful pollutants they release inside the home. Cooking on a gas stove releases nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, chemicals that have been connected with negative health conditions like asthma, with particular risk to children. One study found that gas stoves can create levels of nitrogen dioxide indoors exceeding the legal limits for outdoor air.

Why there’s debate

The debate over gas stoves is really a two-part conversation, with one element focusing on the environmental harms of at-home natural gas consumption in general, and the other specifically on the indoor pollution that gas cooktops create.

Climate change activists see gas bans as a powerful way to reduce the greenhouse gases created by buildings, which account for about 13 percent of total U.S. emissions. They argue that — unlike burgeoning technologies like a green power grid and electric vehicles — clean alternatives to gas heaters, appliances and stoves are readily available to most consumers. Critics of the bans, on the other hand, are skeptical of how much they’ll really reduce emissions, worry about increasing costs for homeowners and argue that market-based solutions will be most effective at promoting a transition to electrified homes.

When it comes to health, advocates say gas stoves are simply too toxic to be installed in new homes. They call for governments to create financial incentives to help homeowners switch to electric or induction stoves, an expense they argue will ultimately save money relative to the cost of potential health problems.

The gas industry makes the case that with proper ventilation, gas stoves can be safe. Conservatives also take issue with the idea of the government limiting individual choice. Others argue that focusing on gas stoves, a product many people have an intense loyalty to, will only increase resistance to electrification as a whole.

What’s next

The list of cities to ban gas hookups in new construction appears primed to grow in the coming years, and opposition is likely to ramp up in response. So far, no statewide bans have been put in place. California has come the closest. Starting next year, all homes built in the state may be required to be wired so they’re “electric ready” even if they have gas appliances installed. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a statewide ban as part of a multipronged initiative to combat climate change.

Perspectives

Supporters

Gas bans are the only way to meaningfully reduce emissions from the home

“For the individual homeowner, as for society at large, managing harmful pollution eventually starts to seem a little silly when equally effective, affordable, and pollution-free alternatives are available. It’s time to start making new buildings all-electric and switching out all those existing gas appliances, including gas stoves, for electric alternatives.” — David Roberts, Vox

Gas stoves are a great entry point for the broader effort to electrify homes

“The humble stove may seem like a tiny part of a big problem — but it’s one of our most personal, immediate and tangible. It’s also one of the easiest to change.” — Brady Seals, Guardian

A combination of legal limits and financial incentives could supercharge a shift away from gas

“The government could speed things up mightily with subsidies and regulation. If the state provided a big credit for property owners to replace their gas stoves, with particular attention on older stoves in apartment buildings (they often leak or burn very inefficiently), and set up new regulations on the amount of air pollution appliances could produce that would gradually tighten over time, gas cooking could be replaced entirely.” — Ryan Cooper, the Week

Gas stoves are toxic to our health

“Cooking is the No. 1 way you’re polluting your home. It is causing respiratory and cardiovascular health problems; it can exacerbate flu and asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in children. … You’re basically living in this toxic soup.” — Shelly Miller, environmental engineer, to Mother Jones

Electrification of homes is one of the few climate transitions that’s possible right now

“Real estate developers already have most of the technology to replace furnaces with heat pumps, hot water heaters with electric boilers, and gas stoves with induction cooktops. And because cities and towns control building and energy codes, it’s one of the few areas where they have the power to push through deep emission cuts.” — Ysabelle Kempe, Grist

Climate change is too important to leave up to the free market

“The pursuit of market-based solutions … as a pathway to addressing the energy transition in low-income and disadvantaged communities is likely infeasible, and also ethically dubious. Market-based solutions have not achieved their desired goals, thus new ways of thinking need to emerge.” — Multiple authors, the Appeal

Opponents

Gas bans rob consumers of their freedom to choose what to have in their homes

“As for the gas stove, it’s the next target for elimination, because it uses gas. The Left, if they get control of everything, would ban it from new manufacture nationwide and then ban its replacement and ownership. … If someone in Montana or Florida or Seattle says, ‘But I prefer gas,’ you can only roll your eyes.” — James Lileks, National Review

The free market will be much more effective at promoting a transition from gas

“With respect to the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there would be no need to mandate building electrification if it were already cheaper than the fossil fuel alternatives for heat, hot water, and cooking. … In other words, the adoption of electric home heating has been proceeding expeditiously without mandates.” — Ronald Bailey, Reason

Attacking gas stoves is a great way to turn people off from electrification in general

“Home kitchens thus account for about 0.4% of U.S. natural gas use. … That’s not a lot! Gas cooking does, however, seem likely to be the biggest obstacle to the effort to electrify the American home in the name of slowing climate change. Why’s that? Mainly because people (myself included) like cooking with gas! It’s one of the few energy uses that inspires brand loyalty to the fuel consumed.” — Justin Fox, Bloomberg

Gas bans will actually increase emissions without a green energy grid

“It has evolved into the transitional fuel of our time, allowing the U.S. to quickly ditch coal while giving renewables time to expand to the scale needed to power the entire electricity-hungry country. Once those renewables have reached that scale, banning natural gas in residential construction starts making environmental sense. Until then, these proposals are ultimately increasing our carbon footprint.” — Ognjen Miljanić, The Hill

Gas stoves aren’t ideal, but aren’t as harmful as critics make them out to be

“It’s a good choice to avoid gas if you’re replacing your stove anyway. … But if you’re looking for personal ways to protect the environment and your health right now, you have much bigger fish to fry. Electrifying your space- and water-heating systems, or your car, will have a massively larger impact, as will ventilating your kitchen.” — Liam McCabe, New York Times

South Africa has no place for religious intolerance or discrimination despite growing Islamophobia and hate across the globe, activists told Anadolu Agency ahead of World Religious Freedom Day.

“The uniqueness of South Africa post-1994 (after the end of the apartheid era) is the fact that racism and bigotry are not tolerated,” Iqbal Jassat, an executive member of the Johannesburg-based Media Review Network think tank, told Anadolu Agency.

Jassat said anti-Muslim hate was inherent during the apartheid era but after the country attained democracy in 1994, that conduct is not allowed or tolerated.

“A number of factors have made a positive contribution to South Africa's unique position, which regrettably does not exist in Europe, America and elsewhere,” he said.

Jassat said the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, a bill of rights plus a range of organizations have been set up to ensure human dignity for all.

He said Muslims, like other religions, participated in the struggle against apartheid, going into the trenches to fight the oppressors. Muslims were also detained for their role in fighting apartheid and others fled into exile.

“Entrenched within the liberation movement, many Muslims played a pivotal role in the freedom struggle and in shaping the future,” said Jassat. “Today an active and vibrant collective of Muslim civil society organizations are involved in a whole range of activities ranging from humanitarian to human rights.”

It is rare to find in South Africans fighting about religious differences, unlike in the West where Islamophobia manifests in individual attitudes and behaviors, and the policies and practices of organizations and institutions.

Oppression united religions

The president of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa, Mametlwe Sebei, told Anadolu Agency that religions in South Africa faced oppression during the apartheid era and that caused them to unite.

“The struggle against apartheid cemented the unity of a culture of tolerance which is part of the Constitution and part of the post-apartheid consciousness, especially across the working class and the poor,” he said.

Sebei said despite missionaries who came to Africa as “advanced guards of colonial forces,” converting Black Africans into Christians, the population still faced oppression. He said all regions faced oppression, which is reflected in the current level of tolerance and co-existence.

Saber Ahmed Jazbhay, a leading South African lawyer and political commentator, believes religious groups were able to find cohesion because of colonialism and apartheid.

“Very often between 1950 and 1970 all the denominations held fast against the excesses committed at the height of apartheid,” he said, adding that he believes it is responsible for the current religious tolerance.

But Jazbhay acknowledged that Islamophobia exists on a low level and was imposed on South Africa by foreign Indian nationalist groups that have found a foothold in the country.

“It’s happening but not in the majority. Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling party, gained power, there has been an export of Islamophobia all over the world where Muslims and Hindus subsisted and maintained an entente cordiale as minorities building on finding common purpose,” he said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa told parliament in November 2020 that the country has no place for religious intolerance, saying the Constitution is clear that no person may be discriminated against based on religion, conscience, belief, culture or language.

Ramaphosa’s response followed a question on allegations that there is a rise in “Islamic extremists” in parts of the country./aa

Almost half of Afghanistan's factories have ceased operations caused by raw materials shortage, an inadequate banking system, and a lack of market for their products in the country.

Mohammad Karim Azimi, executive director of the Afghan Chamber of Industries and Mines, told reporters on Thursday that the country's economic crisis has had a severe impact on the production sector.

Azimi stated that the suspension of manufacturing activities resulted in the layoff of hundreds of workers due to a lack of market for their products, restrictions on banking transactions, and frequent power outages.

Shirbaz Keminzade, the chamber's chairman, noted that half of its manufacturing units have suspended operations due to a shortage of raw materials in the country, as well as a dysfunctional banking system.

Last December, 5,000 Afghan industries were forced to close due to a severe shortage of raw materials.

Economic crisis in Afghanistan

Many donors and organizations, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, have withheld payments since the Taliban swept into power on Aug. 15 last year. The US government blocked $9.4 billion of the central bank's reserves soon after withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan on Aug. 31.

Last December, UNICEF reported that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating.

In the country, unemployment, poverty, and hunger have reached catastrophic levels.

According to UN data, it is estimated that 22.8 million people, or more than half of the Afghan population, will face acute food shortages this winter./aa

The UN on Friday said it is "deeply concerned" by recent incidents in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia that saw individuals glorifying war crimes and convicted war criminals, triggering anxiety and tensions in communities.

Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a UN news conference that the incidents target specific communities with hate speech and, in some cases, directly incite violence coming in a year both countries have elections scheduled.

“These acts, which happened amid religious holidays last weekend, included large groups of people chanting the name of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic during torchlight processions or singing nationalistic songs,” said the UN official.

Throssell said the songs call for the takeover of some locations in the former Yugoslavia, and in one incident, individuals fired shots into the air as they drove past a mosque.

The acts took place in several locations in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Bijeljina, Prijedor, Foca, Gacko, Visegrad, as well as in the Brcko District, and Priboj and Novi Pazar in Serbia.

“This is a year when elections are due in Serbia in April, and then in October in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the political environment is already extremely tense,” said Throssell.

The UN rights office official said some of the incidents were in locations that saw large-scale atrocity crimes during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as Prijedor and Foca.

Fueling anxiety

Throssell said the failure to prevent and sanction such acts, which fuel extreme anxiety, fear, and insecurity in some communities, is a significant obstacle to trust-building and reconciliation.

“The rise in hate speech, the denial of genocide and other atrocity crimes, and the glorification of war criminals in the Western Balkans highlight the failure to address the past comprehensively,” she said.

The UN rights office stressed that the authorities in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina must abide by their international human rights obligations to ensure the rights to truth, justice, and reparation.

“We call on them to condemn and refrain from any advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred,” said Throssell.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic had said Wednesday the country would show no mercy to those who violate peace, alluding to a recent nationalist incident in the southwestern Serbian town of Priboj that he visited following some anti-Bosniak incidents.

“All those responsible for causing trouble will be sanctioned, and we must teach our children how to live together,” said Vucic.

“Priboj is a test whether we are humans or not, and it must not happen that children sing to someone about shooting at mosques,” Vucic said, adding: "As we respect our churches, icons, and monasteries, we must respect our Muslim neighbors.”/aa

Denmark will not send an official diplomatic delegation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics due to human rights issues in the host country, Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said on Friday.

"It is no secret that we from the Danish side are very concerned about the human rights situation in China," Kofod said. "The government has decided that we will not attend the Winter Olympics in China."

The decision comes after EU countries failed to agree a common stance at a meeting in Brest this week.

A U.S. boycott to protest against China's human rights record has been joined by Australia, Britain, Canada and Japan.

The Netherlands will also not send an official diplomatic delegation nL1N2TU1UX to the Olympics because of COVID-19 restrictions, a foreign ministry spokesperson said earlier on Friday.

China denies rights abuses and has condemned the boycott as betraying Olympic principles.

Experts from Amnesty International USA and Genocide Watch, leading global human rights watchdogs, have warned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Islamophobic policies and tolerance of open incitement by Hindu extremists for a genocide of Muslims are pushing India towards mass violence against and massacres of Muslims.

Because of Modi’s failure to condemn and act against anti-Muslim bigotry, hate speeches by leading religious and political figures had proliferated in recent weeks specifically aimed at inciting such mass violence against Muslims, the experts said at a Congressional Briefing organised in Washington, D.C.

A gathering of saffron-robed Hindu monks held last month at the north Indian Hardiwar city “was exactly aimed at inciting the genocide of Muslims,” said Dr. Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch. “As the leader of India he has an obligation to denounce this genocidal speech… Yet Modi has not spoken against it.”

“That the participants [at the gathering] would openly urge Hindus to emulate the violence against Rohingya Muslims and boast about it in the days afterwards in the media is illustrative of the atmosphere of bigotry that pervades these groups,” added Govind Achayra, India/Kashmir Specialist with Amnesty International USA. “The calls to large-scale massacres of Muslims [aim] to institute Hindu supremacy over India.”

The fact that Keshav Prasad Maurya, a leader of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, had this week defended the “open incitement and hate from the dharma sansad in an interview to the BBC speaks to the current atmosphere” of peak hatred and bigotry against India’s Muslims, Acharya said.

At the Haridwar event a top religious leader of the Hindu Mahasabha openly called for raising an “army” of Hindus to “kill two million Muslims.” At another event held in New Delhi, hundreds of participants took a public oath to kill in order to protect Hinduism. Elsewhere, schoolchildren were recorded taking similar oaths to “kill and die” to create a Hindu nation. Politicians have defended the right to incite violence against Muslims.

Cautioning that “genocide is not an event” but “a process,” Dr. Stanton noted that the Indian leader had a long history of presiding over mass violence against Muslims, beginning with the Gujarat pogroms of 2002.

“Under the [Bharatiya Janata Party’s] policies, Modi has used anti-Muslim, Islamophobic rhetoric to build his political base,” he said. Stressing that the UN Genocide Convention covered genocides specifically “aimed at the destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, religious, or racial group,” he said that was “exactly what the Myanmar government did against the Rohingya” and “we’re now facing [in India] a very similar kind of plot… and the victims are the 200 million Muslims who live in India.”

Genocide Watch has been warning of what it calls an “impending genocide” in India since 2002, when anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat occurred.

Upon becoming the prime minister, he has “used anti-Muslim Islamophobic” policies such as the revocation of Kashmir’s autonomous status and the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act that excludes Muslims, “to build his political base, Dr Stanton said.

“The idea of India as a Hindu Nation, which is the Hindutva movement, is contrary to the history of India and to the Indian constitution. The Indian constitution is specifically set up to make India a secular country to allow for equality between all religions. It was not aimed at making a Hindu Nation,” he stressed.

The Genocide Watch President warned: “The ten processes of genocide begin with classification by “trying to exclude people from citizenship. Dehumanisation involves calling people terrorists, separatists and criminals. This language is used by the Government against the Muslims. Polarisation leads to hatred for all Muslims, and preparation for genocide is what “we are seeing right now.”

Added Govind Acharya of Amnesty: “This bigoted law specifically discriminates against Muslims seeking citizenship. When you combine it with the CAA, the NRC is weaponized against Muslims in India. Because of the bigotry of these laws, India stands to create the biggest statelessness crisis in the world which will create unimaginable suffering. And of course the vast majority of those affected would be Muslims.”

“Once an organisation has the support of the state machinery, or if the state machinery is willing to look away, it does not remain a fringe organization,” said Anas Tanwir, a lawyer for the Indian Supreme Court and founder of the Indian Civil Liberties Union.

“The speeches made in Haridwar are an explicit call for genocide against Muslims by religious leaders who are close to the ruling party, the government,” said Sunita Viswanath, Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights.

“According to research from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, India is at a high risk – number two in the world – for a genocide… We call on all of you to recognize that the hatred being expressed in India is at a very serious level. We can’t let the Biden Administration repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Also speaking at the briefing was Amina Kausar, an IT entrepreneur who was one of the many victims of Bulli Bai, an app that was designed by Hindu extremists to “auction” and harass vocal Muslim women.

“The sheer humiliation of being put up for ‘sale,’ and called a ‘Bulli Bai,’ a vulgar slang phrase implying a woman is a prostitute, is hard to describe in words,” she said. “Being objectified, being reduced to a virus, normalising the abuse, is one of the decisive stages of genocide… These online abusers are not fringe elements. Many of them are backed by none other than the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. I urge US government to take note of the systemic violence that Indian Muslim women are subjected to.”

The briefing was cosponsored by a group of 17 human rights and interfaith organisations, including the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Amnesty International USA, Hindus for Human Rights, Genocide Watch, 21Wilberforce, International Christian Concern, Jubilee Campaign, Dalit Solidarity Forum, New York State Council of Churches, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America, India Civil Watch International, Students Against Hindutva Ideology, Center for Pluralism, American Muslim Institution, International Society for Peace and Justice, Association of Indian Muslims of America, and the Humanism Project.

IAMC, the leading advocacy organisaiton of Indian Muslims in US, is committed to working with human rights advocates in the US and in India to safeguard India’s pluralism and religious freedom for people of all faiths./KMS

Srinagar: Kashmiri human rights activist Mohammad Ahsan Untoo, who is also the chairman of the International Forum for Justice and Human Rights Jammu and Kashmir (IFJHRJK), was arrested on Friday as police claimed he was “inciting violence through social media platforms”.

“It was reliably learned that Mohd Ahsan Untoo, son of Late Ghulam Hassan Untoo, a resident of Diver Lolab Kupwara, A/P Kursoo Rajbagh, a proactive secessionist is an active participant and speaker at Twitter spaces titled “Radio Resistance Kashmir” led by two known secessionists namely Muzammil Ayyub Thakur and Dr. Asif Dar,” a police spokesman said in a statement.

He said these “known secessionists, who are accused in several cases along with Ahsan Untoo are actively spreading hatred against the Union of India on the social media platform.”

“By spreading false propaganda, disinformation campaign and hate speech through these social media spaces, Ahsan Untoo is not only threatening to disturb the prevailing peaceful atmosphere of UT of J&K but spreads disaffection, ill-will and disharmony against the Union of India,” the spokesman said, adding, “He is also actively spreading the terrorist secessionist agenda and is thus inciting youth to resort to violence and indulge in unlawful activities.”

The activities by Ahsan Untoo, he said, “amounts to commission of the cognizable offense by him.” “Accordingly Srinagar Police while taking the cognizance matter registered a case against him under relevant sections of the law,” the spokesman said, adding, “The investigation into the matter has been initiated and accused has been arrested who is on Police remand.  Further action under law shall follow.”/ freepresskashmir