On the 11th of August, when Hindus of the country celebrated Janmashtami, a Muslim mob indulged in violence in Bengaluru after being offended by a Facebook post that was allegedly against the Prophet of Islam. The violence led to over 60 police officials being injured and left 3 dead. The Muslim mob hit the streets near DJ Halli and KG Halli police station areas on Tuesday evening and attacked a Congress MLA’s house after one of his relatives had allegedly made a derogatory Facebook post. Amidst chants of Allah hu Akbar and Nara e Taqbeer, the Muslim mob also set the police station on fire and attacked the police personnel. However, as per Wikipedia, there is not enough evidence to conclude that the violent mob was Muslim.

The Wikipedia page, in the introductory paragraph terms this unbridled and one-sided violence as a “clash”. A communal “clash” would essentially mean that two mobs, in most cases one would consist of people belonging to the Hindu community and the other, would consist of rioters belonging to the Muslim community. However, in this case, to term it a “clash” would only mean that the author of the post, editors, in the case of Wikipedia, are trying to water down the violence unleashed by the Muslim mob.

So far, there has been no report of any retaliation from the Hindu side. The violence was unleashed by the Muslim mob because they were offended, which they often are, after a Facebook post that allegedly insulted their Prophet. Even from the videos that were uploaded by media, one could hear chants of Allah Hu Akbar and Nara e Taqbeer while the mob pelted stones, burnt down the Congress leaders’ house and torched the police station.

Interestingly, the Wikipedia page on the Bengaluru violence also does not mention that one of the main accused of instigating the violence was Kaleem Pasha, who has now been arrested. Kaleem Pasha is the husband of Irshad Begum, a BBMP corporator from Nagavara ward. He was arrested by Bengaluru police on Thursday along with 60 others for instigating the August 11 violence in the city. So far, the Bengaluru police have arrested 206 accused of their involvement in the violence. 

The Bengaluru police have named Kaleem Pasha as 7th accused in the FIR. According to the police, Kaleem Pasha is also one of the key conspirators behind the deadly violence that took place on Tuesday night.

Kaleem Pasha, who is a former corporator of Nagavara ward, reportedly has close links with the Congress leadership in the state and is known to be an associate of former Karnataka Home Minister and senior Congress leader KJ George. Pasha was booked by Bengaluru police along with local SDPI leader Muzammil Pasha for orchestrating the Bengaluru violence. While Muzammil Pasha was already arrested, Kaleem Pasha had escaped.

If all of this was not enough, the ‘Talk’ page of the Wikipedia article reveals the dangerous mindset of its editors even further.

The ‘Talk’ page of the Wikipedia article essentially has the editors saying that while the Delhi Riots 2020 Wikipedia page can identify, wrongly, Hindus as going on a rampage, the Bengaluru violence page will not identify all rioters as Muslims since “multiple third parties” have not done so.

The individual taking exception to that says that most Media has a pronounced Left bias and hence, that is never likely to happen. However, it is a fact that Muslims indulged in violence because they were offended by a Facebook post allegedly about the Prophet of Islam. The person taking exception to the bias of the page also mentions that he will try to get references if anyone has reported it since the ones reporting it (OpIndia) have been blocked by Wikipedia.

It is pertinent to note here that in the Delhi Riots 2020 Wikipedia page, the Leftist editors have only mentioned Tahir Hussain once, to say that he has been arrested for his role in the murder of Ankit Sharma. None of the shocking revelations made by him in his disclosure statement have been added. In fact, even shocking details of his involvement, as made by the police, have not been added to the page.

Coming back to the Bengaluru violence page, after a user takes objection to their bias, the Editor, keeping true to form, warns him of violating Wikipedia norms.

The Bengaluru violence – when Muslim mob ran rampage

A Muslim mob went on a rampage and unleashed extreme violence in Bengaluru on Tuesday evening over a Facebook post that was allegedly derogatory to Prophet Mohammad. 

According to the reports, the Muslim mob hit the streets near DJ Halli and KG Halli police station areas on Tuesday evening and attacked a Congress MLA’s house after one of his relatives had allegedly made a derogatory Facebook post. 

Over a 100 people had gathered around the residence of Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasamurthy around 7:00 PM on Tuesday. Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasamurthy represents Pulikeshinagar constituency which is reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC). The Muslim mob, armed with sticks, iron rods, sharp metal objects and other weapons, went berserk and barged into the house of the MLA. 

The angry Muslim pelted stones and began to torch vehicles, ATMs, shops near the locality while protesting against the alleged derogatory post made by one of the relatives of Dalit Congress MLA Akhanda Shrinivasamurthy. Social media posts of few people involved in the mob violence indicate that the riots could have been pre-planned as calls for the mobilisation of Muslims were allegedly made on social media platforms on Tuesday evening. 

Soon, the situation took an ugly turn after two separate Muslim mobs gathered in front of KG Halli and DJ Halli police stations. The Muslim mobs locked the gates from outside and pelted stones at the police station. At least 10 vehicles, including Innovas of two DCPs, were damaged in front of the stations. The mob also set fire to the vehicles in front of the DJ Halli police station. 

In what seems to be a pre-planned attack by the Muslim mob, the Muslim mob, carrying petrol and other weapons, also barged into the nearest police quarters and attack the premises. 

The Muslim mob was seen raising Islamic slogans like ‘Allah-hu-Akbar’ and ‘Nara-e-Taqbeer’ outside the police station. 

The bias of Wikipedia 

Wikipedia has long shown their Left bias when it comes to important issues. 

The Wikipedia article titled North East Delhi riots was created on 25th February by a senior Wikipedia editor that goes by the username DBigXray. When one visits the page, the first image one sees is the photo of BJP leader Kapil Mishra, not an image of the riots. Kapil Mishra gets a separate section titled ‘incitement’ in the article, where he has been blamed for starting the riots.

Interestingly, some people had reference to AAP leader Amanatullah Khan for his provocative speeches during anti-CAA riots earlier in Delhi and UP. But this was also removed by the moderators, claiming that although cases have been filed against Khan, those are not related to the North East Delhi riots. On the 24^th, one anti-CAA protester had brandished a pistol and fired 8 shots towards pro-CAA protesters, who was identified as Mohammad Shahrukh. The Wiki page merely mentions him as a shooter and does not even mention that he is from an anti-CAA mob.

After the image of Shahrukh, the firing had gone viral, anti-CAA activists had claimed he is pro-CAA, despite journalists on the ground who had posted videos and images saying he was anti-CAA. Later, high-resolution images had shown he was part of a mob that had several persons in skull caps. When other users wanted to include this information in the Wikipedia article, they were shot down by the moderator. The senior editor, who is supposed to be politically neutral while editing and moderating content on Wikipedia, commented that if the man was a Hindu, media would not have focused on him, and there is no need to include more detail on the incident.

The article mentions the attack on a mosque in Ashok Nagar and shouting of “Jai Shri Ram” and “Hinduon ka Hindustan” slogans by the mobs, but have absolutely no reference to any attack by Muslims and anti-CAA mobs. On the other hand, while there are videos showing mob shouting “Nara e Taqbeer” and “Allahu Akbar”, they find no place on the page.

Although Wikipedia articles can be edited by anybody, the online encyclopedia has provisions for locking down specific articles to check vandalism, etc. The article on North East Delhi riots has been made semi-protected, which means only confirmed registered users can make edits to it. As a result, ordinary users are having to request user DBigXray for making changes, and user DBigXray, who has special privileges as a Master Editor III, decides what information is included and what is not on the page.

OpIndia detailed investigation about the bias of Wikipedia after the Delhi Riots can be read here and here. 

There are several other cases where it was evident just how vulnerable Wikipedia is to peddling absolute lies which can be severely detrimental in the long run. An Islamist user had vandalised the RSS page to call it a terrorist organisation. The user who did so had a long history of anti-Hindu edits. Wikipedia had also deleted the article on Tablighi Jamaat after the spread of Coronavirus citing that it was “Islamophobic”. Further, though the edits were reverted later, an “editor” of Wikipedia had also replaced Hindus with Muslims to show that it was actually the Muslims who suffered at the hands of Hindus during the Naokhali Riots and not the other way around. 

The bias of Wikipedia is further evidenced by the fact the co-founder of Wikipedia, Larry Senger, had quit Wikipedia citing that the Left bias of the platform is too strong to overcome and that the platform had lost its way.