The Leftist propaganda website The Wire, after lying about Kamlesh Tiwari even after he was hacked by Islamists, has now interviewed Umar Khalid, accused in a sedition case and son of terrorist organisation SIMI member, to whitewash the Kamlesh Tiwari murder altogether.
Umar Khalid, while pontificating about how Muslims are peaceful victims being vilified by Hindus after the Kamlesh Tiwari murder, categorically said during the interview that the Muslim community cannot ignore an insult against the Prophet of Islam just because the insult did not result in physical harm. To him, an insult to the Prophet of Islam is the same as a physical attack. He further said that Muslims need to fight for their self-respect because an insult against the Prophet of Islam is an attack on the Muslim self-respect and while today it is just an insult, tomorrow it will turn into a physical assault on Muslims.
While waxing eloquent about how this is to be achieved peacefully, Umar Khalid, who is the son of the founder of SIMI, a designated terror organisation, peddles the same narrative that was used by the people who murdered Kamlesh Tiwari because he had “insulted” the Prophet of Islam. It is exactly this logic that is used time and again to kill, threaten and issue death warrants when someone dares to exercise their freedom of speech. The ones who killed Kamlesh Tiwari also considered his speech to be an assault on their ‘self-respect’ and considered it a grave enough offence to stab him 15 times and plant a bullet in his skull.
This was not the only problematic statement made during the 30-minute session. Extremely erroneous statements were made both by the anchor of the show, and Umar Khalid who was being interviewed.
The Wire video opens with the anchor Apoorvanand saying the what has happened in the past few days has distressed Muslims. What has happened in the past few days is the Kamlesh Tiwari murder by Islamists. After the brutal murder of Kamlesh Tiwari, several enraged people on social media ‘trended’ a certain hashtag against the Prophet of Islam as a mark of protest. In turn, Muslims and their sympathisers trended a counter-hashtag that spoke of the glories of Islam. While the trend from the side outraged about Kamlesh Tiwari being hacked by Islamists was a reaction to the grotesque murder, The Wire anchor turned it around and branded it hateful without proving adequate context.
In fact, he went a step ahead and even called Kamlesh Tiwari hateful. He said that Kamlesh Tiwari had a history of spewing hate against Muslims, but even such hateful people’s murder should be condemned. One should thank their lucky stars that The Wire hasn’t issued a fatwa against “hateful Hindus” yet.
The Wire journalist doesn’t just stop there. He goes on to claim that Kamlesh Tiwari’s death is still a mystery because the police is working on a different angle and the family is claiming something completely different. While the mother has expressed anguish over the quantum of compensation, she did come on record to say that she was satisfied with the investigation and demands the death penalty for those who have been arrested. The UP police along with Gujarat ATS arrested several people in the case by busting a Jihadi network in Gujarat.
A day after the murder, the Gujarat ATS had nabbed the main conspirators named Rashid Pathan, Faizan Pathan and a Maulvi named Mohsin Sheikh from Surat. They had confessed after an interrogation that they had planned Tiwari’s murder for his 2015 comments on Prophet Muhammad’s sexuality which they considered was ‘blasphemous’.
On October 22, four days after the murder, a team of Gujarat ATS led by DIG ATS Himanshu Shukla nabbed Ashfaq and Moinuddin, the two prime accused in the case from the Gujarat-Rajasthan border.
8 persons have been arrested so far by the Gujarat ATS and UP Police in the Kamlesh Tiwari murder case. A Delhi-based lawyer named Mohammad Naved Siddiqui was arrested too for allegedly providing logistical support and helping the murderers hide.
Despite 8 arrests and the revelation that the Jihadis were in touch with 72 other fellow Jihadis on WhatsApp, The Wire journalist claims that the Kamlesh Tiwari murder is still a “mystery”.
After giving a clean chit to Jihadis who murdered Kamlesh Tiwari, The Wire journalist and Umar Khalid proceed to demonise Hindus and shield the Muslim community.
Two days after Hindu activist Kamlesh Tiwari was brutally murdered by Jihadis for blaspheming against the prophet of Islam, far-left atheist Umar Khalid has come out as a devout Muslim on social media. In a long Twitter thread, the former ‘apostate’ Umar Khalid preached the glory of Islam. One section raised questions about why a former Murtad, a communist atheist was suddenly turning into a pious Muslims. It was a legitimate question to be asked, considering when his antecedents were questioned after the JNU fiasco, the media had painted him as an atheist who was being wrongly called an Islamist by the “Hindutva brigade”. Another section raised questions on him branding him an Islamist for singing praises of Islam while in the name of the religion, Kamlesh Tiwari had been brutally hacked only two days ago.
Responded to this criticism, Umar Khalid lies further and said that he is used to this “mainstreaming of hate” and that he is often reduced to his identity, which is Muslim. He also said that neither the constitution of India nor Islam requires him to disclose his relationship with God. This too is an outright lie by Umar Khalid. Islam does require him to disclose his relationship with God considering the penalty for apostasy in Islam is death. However, Umar used this trope to duck legitimate questions raised about his sudden change of heart right after the Kamlesh Tiwari murder with the active help and support of The Wire anchor.
There were two other extremely problematic statements made in The Wire interview of Umar Khalid.
The Wire anchor, in a shocking statement, asks Umar Khalid what he has to say about certain people accusing him of watering down the anger that was building up amongst Muslims. The anchor says that Umar was “accused” of watering down the anger of Muslims after the “attack on Muslims” by participating in the “ProphetForCompassion” hashtag.
What the anchor essentially does here is firstly, it completely washes away the fact that it was Muslims and radical Islamists who murdered Kamlesh Tiwari. Secondly, he also paints Umar Khalid as a messiah of peace when, in fact, he is still an accused in a sedition case and has time and again proven his unbridled hatred for Hindus.
The answer that Umar Khalid gives to The Wire anchor’s question is even more shocking. While Umar Khalid waxes eloquent about how the answer to “hate” can only be “love”, he completely forgets that while he is talking about “answering hate with love” for a mere hashtag, the very inspiration for that “hate” or “love-filled” hashtag was the brutal murder of Kamlesh Tiwari for what he said. Umar then said that he agrees that Muslims should “rise in rage” because they are being marginalised and are frustrated at that prospect.
While he first says that Muslims should “rise in rage” and make both the ruling class and the “secular opposition” realise that they want equal economic rights etc, he then sneakily says that they should “rise in rage” fighting for the self respect too. If one recalls, Umar has alreadt defined what the “Muslim self respect” means. He had earlier said that an insult to the Prophet of Islam is an “insult to the self respect of Muslims” and cannot be tolerated. Interestingly, amidst of the platitude about “love” when it comes to a hashtag, Umar repeatedly furthered the very hate that the Islamists who hacked Kamlesh Tiwari to death harboured.
Read: Let Kamlesh Tiwari’s death not go waste, can we do one of these two things?
Umar Khalid then says that there is a lot of frustration amongst the Muslim population since even if they vote for “secular” parties, they do so out of compulsion to keep the BJP at bay. And this frustration needs to be “tapped” to create a political movement. He then says that Muslims have to “mobilise” not just for their economic rights but also for their “self respect”. Since Umar has only used the term “self respect” in respect to the Prophet of Islam being “insulted”, one certainly does wonder if he wanted Muslims to “mobilise” to ensure nobody speaks against Islam itself.
