Thousands of Muslims have rallied across the South Asia nations of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan over derogatory remarks on Prophet Muhammad by two officials from India’s ruling party that has triggered a diplomatic backlash against New Delhi.
Anger has been growing in India and Muslim-majority nations across the world since last week, when two BJP officials – spokeswoman Nupur Sharma and Delhi media cell head Naveen Kumar Jindal – made comments seen as insulting Islam’s prophet and his wife Aisha.
The BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal, saying it denounces insults of religious figures. The right-wing party also asked its spokespersons to be “extremely cautious” on religious matters in primetime “debates” on Indian news channels.
Police in New Delhi on Thursday filed cases against the two BJP members and others – including a Muslim parliamentarian and journalist – for “inciting hatred” and other charges.
But India’s Muslims, who are facing a sharp rise in Islamophobia and attacks on them since Modi came to power in 2014, say those actions are not enough.
Several parts of India Occupied Kashmir on Friday observed a spontaneous shutdown to protest the derogatory remarks by the two BJP officials leaders against Prophet Muhammad.
Authorities in the disputed region suspended mobile internet services and deployed additional security forces in some areas as precautionary measures to quell popular protests.
Protests after the Friday prayers were also reported from several districts in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous with 204 million residents, more than 19 percent of them Muslims.
In New Delhi, a large number of people gathered outside the Mughal-era Jama Masjid in the old quarters of the capital, and raised slogans against the BJP-led government. Similar protests were reported from other Indian states, including West Bengal and Telangana.
Speakers at the protest also called for a boycott of Indian products until the country abandons its anti-Muslim policies.
Thousands of people also rallied in Pakistan on Thursday and briefly scuffled with police in Pakistan’s capital, urging Muslim countries to cut diplomatic ties with New Delhi over the remarks by two BJP officials that were derogatory to the Prophet Muhammad.
