The witch hunt against Indians in the Gulf countries has now taken an ugly turn as Pakistanis, quite possibly backed by the ISI, are now pretending to be Arabs on social media while ‘complaining’ to Prime Minister Modi of ‘Islamophobia’. An article in Organiser states that after the relentless anti-India campaign launched by some Indian Muslims in response to passing of Citizenship Amendment Act, the Islamists in the west have taken this opportunity to spew venom against the Indians in Gulf countries.
As per the report, Kerala-based Islamic extremists pioneered the hate campaign urging Arabs and law authorities to take action against the Hindus working in the Gulf as they ‘kill Muslims in India’. Various fake handles on social media have been created just with the purpose of spreading falsehood against India.
https://twitter.com/hate_nri/status/1252221111997272065?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwIt is a fact that the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi has contributed to as many as 30% of total coronavirus patients in India. The anger of general public is also due to the fact that many of these have hidden their travel history and also misbehaved with healthcare workers including molesting nurses and pelting stones at doctors and healthcare workers.
Indians turning on Indians
As per the report, various Islamic organisations based in Kerala used leading businessmen and religious leaders to influence the Arabs and fed them with fake narrative against India. Media platforms based out of gulf countries like GulfNews, Al Jazeera, Khaleej Times were used to spread misinformation about India and treatment of Muslims in India.
Pakistan joining hands with disgruntled Indian Muslims
A 2016 policy of Pakistan titled “Policy guidelines in view of the latest situation developing between India and Pakistan” had recommended having a ‘media coordination committee’ with select Journalists as members to “counter Indian propaganda” and specifically promote a media strategy. The policy also stressed on the need to hire International lobbyists and strategic communication firms to “change global narrative”. The policy document called for highlighting the “fault-lines” in the Indian society. They specifically mention Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Dalits as “alienated” sections about whom narrative should be built. The Policy also called to target Modi and RSS ideology, and suggests reaching out to those in India who are “opposed to Modi’s extremism”. Policy specifically talked about reaching out to people in political parties, media, and civil society.
Hence, it does not come as much of a surprise that the “India is against Muslims” propaganda and narrative finds its support in Pakistan.
Alert netizens pointed out that in past few days, various Twitter users changed their handles to sound more Arabic and tweet against India ‘condemning’ the ‘hate’ against Muslims.
https://twitter.com/NetajiBond/status/1252816090456920066?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAs can be seen above, Twitter account by th ename “H. H. Mona bint Fahad al Said” with a flag of Oman next to her name was earlier ‘pak__fauj’.
https://twitter.com/pokershash/status/1252654825864658945?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwMany such Twitter handles have sprung up in past few days.
https://twitter.com/pokershash/status/1252638637960900615?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwLike one Kahlown Yasin pretending to be an Arab on Twitter is quite possibly from Pakistan. As Twitter detective @PokerShash discovered, Yasin is not a Sheikh but some random person from Pakistan working in the Gulf.
https://twitter.com/pokershash/status/1252636688440086528?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwMany also changed their profile handles and pictures to that of a woman and pretended to be a Muslim woman condemning ‘atrocities against Muslims’ in India.
https://twitter.com/pokershash/status/1252642546037161985?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwTargeted attack on Indians, especially Hindus
Organiser report states that few NRIs had said that the attack against Indians, especially Hindus, in West Asia started much sooner but intensified during anti-CAA protests. Citing a migrant worker from Kerala, Organiser says that the cadres of Islamic outfits like PFI and Jamaat-e-Islami regularly target Indians in UAE, Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar, etc. In December 2019, an Indian doctor was reportedly expelled from Qatar hospital after a bunch of Islamists convinced the authorities that his support to CAA was anti-Muslim and communal.
Now, many are facing trouble because of expressing anger against Tablighi Jamaat members’ negligence and misbehaviour. That’s not it, Indians, especially Indian Muslims have been at the forefront of ‘hunting down’ so to say Hindus who are working in the gulf countries and having even slightly critical view about the Muslims.
https://twitter.com/TheAngryLord/status/1252459175927443456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/imMAK02/status/1252629340874895360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Some Islamists also cheered the attack on Indians. https://twitter.com/OpusOfAli/status/1252658510787010560?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwMany Indians, especially journalists, seem to have taken it upon themselves to make lives of fellow Indians difficult just because they could.
Tablighi is a subsect of one school of thought in Islam. Defending them or indulging in whataboutery over their behaviour does more harm than good to Indian Muslims, most of whom do not even belong to this subsect.