In October this month, The Bridge Initiative under Georgetown University in the US published a report claiming that Muslims are in the 8^th stage of genocide in India. Echoing the claims of Islamists and left-liberals alleging persecution of Muslims in India, the report titled “Is a Genocide of Muslims underway in India?” concludes that “the process of genocide of Muslims is underway in India”.

“Islamophobia is central to this process, which is occurring at both a top-down and bottom-up level, as Hindu nationalists across the country have been emboldened by the right-wing BJP-led government— both share the same goals of remaking India as a homeland exclusively for Hindus,” the report claims.

The 40-page report alleges that India has experienced a dangerous rise in Islamophobia over the past decade. “The rise in this bigotry has largely come into being with the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right-wing Hindu nationalist party,” it says.

The report says that it has examined the situation in India using “Gregory Stanton’s 10 stages of genocide, and finds that examples of the first 8 stages of genocide are present in India.” It claims that the first 8 stages are prevalent, and the ninth stage has started to emerge.

The entire report is based on such baseless and frivolous arguments to claim that India is seeing serious genocide of Muslims, which is allegedly on the 8^th stage in a 10-stage scale. According to Gregory Stanton’s 10 stages of genocide, the eighth stage includes expropriation, forced displacement, ghettos, and concentration camps. The 9^th stage is mass killing, so the report claims India is entering the stage of mass killing of Muslims, which is a dangerous lie designed to trigger anti-India feelings among Muslims across the world.

Initiative run by Islamists

While anti-India reports targeting the Modi government published by left-liberal think tanks in the west is nothing new, this report by the Georgetown University groups has a particular aspect, a direct link with Pakistan and Islamists. This report seems to be authored by Pakistani and Islamist elements, not by typical left-liberals.

The Bridge Initiative is described as a “multi-year research project on Islamophobia”, and it functions under the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at Georgetown University in Washington DC. The ACMCU was set up with a donation of $20 million by Saudi Arabian billionaire businessman Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud in 2005.

Alwaleed has been a controversial businessman and was arrested on corruption charges.

The Bridge Initiative focuses exclusively on alleged Islamophobia and has published reports alleging that anti-Muslim hatred is on the rise in various countries. After Donald Trump became the US president, the group published several similar reports, alleging that anti-Muslim views were mainstreamed by the Trump campaign and administration. The Initiative had also hosted a panel discussion about “Islamophobia” in the Trump era.

Now coming to the report on India, the lead researcher mentioned in the report is Mobashra Tazamal, a Pakistan-origin researcher who has done her Master’s degree in Islamic Societies & Cultures. Her profile on the Georgetown University website states that “her current research centers on global Islamophobia with a particular focus on China’s campaign targeting Uighur Muslims and its use of surveillance technology, the rise of ethno-nationalism, and the financial and trans-Atlantic connections of the Islamophobia ‘industry’.” She is the associate director at the Initiative.

Other prominent members of The Bridge Initiative include Arsalan Iftikhar, another Pakistan-origin researcher. Arsalan Iftikhar is infamous for his racist comments against American politician Bobby Jindal, when Jindal was Louisiana’s governor. Appearing on MSNBC, Iftikhar had said about Jindal, “He might be trying to, you know, scrub some of the brown off his skin as he runs to the right in a Republican presidential exploratory bid.” This remark had triggered massive outrage, and MSNBC had announced that Iftikhar won’t be appearing on the channel again.

Another member of the Initiative is Farid Hafez, who was investigated by Austria for suspected terror funding and association with Muslim Brotherhood. The Austrian authorities raided his Vienna house in 2020 and questioned him after monitoring him for years under Operation Luxor.

John L. Esposito, the director of Bridge Initiate, although a Christian, has written extensively on Islam. In his books and articles, he keeps claiming that anti-Islam sentiment is rising in the world.

Another member of the group, Susan L. Douglass, is an American Muslim, who did MA in Arab Studies. Jordan Denari Duffner is the other member of the Initiative, who is “a leading Catholic voice on Muslim-Christian relations.”

The Bridge Initiative of Georgetown University is not a neutral group, it is a group of Islamists who accuse the world of Islamophobia. Among the 6 members of the initiative including the director, four are Muslims, two of them from Pakistan.

Therefore, there is no wonder that they have authored a completely Hinduphobic report accusing Hindus in India of being Islamophobic.

Baseless allegations

Moreover, the report is filled with baseless allegations against India, repeating the familiar false arguments already made by Islamists and left-liberals against the Modi government. It cites the CAA as an anti-Muslim policy of the Modi government, where the fact is that the CAA only accelerates granting citizenship to persecuted minorities in neighbouring countries. CAA does not deny citizenship to Muslims, it just does not accelerate the process for them, but foreign Muslims can become Indian citizens under normal procedure.

The report also cites NRC in Assam as another anti-Muslim step, whereas the fact is that every country has right to identify and deport illegal immigrants. In fact, the NRC of 1951 was updated in Assam on the orders of the Supreme Court.

Using another familiar anti-Hindu and anti-BJP argument, the report says the ban on hijab in schools in Karnataka is anti-Muslim. The government’s decision has been accepted by the High Court, and neither the government nor the court bans Muslim women from wearing hijabs or even Burkha. The rule is only applicable to schools where uniforms are mandatory. Only a handful of Muslim girls are fighting to break the Uniform rule, and the Georgetown University group thinks enforcing uniforms in schools, a globally accepted practice, is Islamophobic.

The report cites the Ram Janmabhoomi judgement, the ongoing case over Gyanvyapi, and other such cases as anti-Muslim. They fail to mention that it is well known that these Islamic structures were constructed after demolishing ancient Hindu temples, and Hindus are fighting to restore those heritage temples.