Fraternity Movement of India urges everyone to acknowledge the plummeting law and order situation in this country under the BJP government
Fraternity Movement of India urges everyone to acknowledge the plummeting law and order situation in this country under the BJP government which has led to unprecedented hostility against the Muslim community. Unfortunately we see that Indian law enforcement forces have become the greatest threat to Muslims in India, with all institutions categorically failing to safeguard the rights of the largest minority, or even any ‘undesirable’ person, groups or communities for the ruling party in the country.
After Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party’s second term in 2019, incidents of hate speech have increased at an alarming rate. In this year alone dozens of Dharm Sansads (religious congregations) have been organised by extremist Hindu outfits openly calling for ethnic cleansing, mass murders, and genocide of more than 200 million Muslim citizens of India. The speakers in these genocidal calls have been enjoying an unparalleled amount of impunity from the state at a time when hundreds of scholars, activists and human rights’ defenders languish behind bars for speaking up against government policies.
As a result of this unprecedented flow of hate speeches and deeply derogatory rhetoric against Muslims, India’s political vocabulary has taken a dangerous shift. Elected officials and members of the ruling BJP no less than Chief Ministers have normalised demonising the Muslims in their speeches. Much of these hateful rhetorics against the Muslim community are said in television news debates.
In one such debate, BJP’s national spokesperson and leader Nupur Sharma made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad. Muslim activists, community leaders and other organizations demanded criminal proceedings against Sharma and Naveed Jindal, another BJP functionary who repeated Sharma’s statements on his social media. In the next few days, governments of Arab nations heavily criticised the comments and called upon the Indian government to take action against the accused. These kind of remarks had become a norm in India and it became a major foreign policy issue for the government. With India facing immense pressure from the Arab world, the ruling BJP government was forced to issue clarifications and had to eventually suspend Sharma and Jindal from the party’s primary membership.
In the days followed Muslims staged protests in different parts of the country demanding the arrests of the two BJP leaders. However, these peaceful protests were met with an unprecedented police crackdown. The ruling party decided to take vengeance on the Muslims for its humiliation abroad. Two Muslim teenagers were killed, hundreds were illegally detained and several dozens of Muslim-owned houses were demolished. Several chilling videos of police officials brutally assaulting Muslim protestors were documented and reported by media organisations. Thousands of Muslim youths were arrested under serious, non-bailable charges while Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal were offered security by the state.
One such crackdown happened in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj where police have booked among others, the federal working committee member of Welfare party of India Mr Javed Muhammad. Javed’s daughter and Fraternity Movement national secretary Afreen Fatima who in a letter written to the National Commission for Women (NCW) alleged that her father was been illegally detained by the police.
Several hours later, in the middle of the night, Afreen’s mother and younger sister were also detained. The police forced the remaining residents of the house to evict the property and threatened demolition at dawn. On Sunday morning the house was illegally demolished. Javed Muhammad, her father, was named as the mastermind of the clashes and sent to jail.
We stand with Afreen Fatima and her family who are enduring a difficult phase. We see the arrest of Javed Mohammed as part of a new trend of silencing Muslim leaders to create dispair to the people of that community. We demand an impartial judicial enquiry into the demolition of Javed Mohammed’s house among other houses razed down as a collective punishment, as gloated by government officials and ruling party leaders.
Sarah Ahmed Siddiqui, president of Fraternity Movement Allahabad is also targeted and vilified by right-wing news channels. Reports suggest that she is named as a conspirator of the protest on 10 June in Allahabad. We condemn the media trial and extend unconditional solidarity to Sarah and her family.
We urge people, the core of the country’s democracy, to hold officials accountable for their anti-Muslim atrocities.
Speakers
Shamseer Ibrahim (National president, Fraternity Movement)
Afreen Fatima (National secretary, Fraternity Movement)
Mohammed Asim Khan (National general secretary, Fraternity Movement)
Abul Ala Subhani (National vice president, Fraternity Movement)
Fawas Shaheen (National secretary, sio of India)
Ladeeda Farzana (Student activist)
Kawalpreet Kaur (Student activist)
Raniya Zulaikha (Student activist)
Fraternity stand firm with our leader Afreen Fatima and her family
Hundreds were arrested, Muslim homes were raided and 2 including a minor died after Police used brutal force in protests condemning the hate remarks on Prophet Muhammad. While the hatemonger Nupur Sharma and Navin Jindal roam free many including the family of Fraternity leader Afreen Fatima were detained by the Police at midnight yesterday. Her father and Welfare Party leader Javed Muhammed have been arrested and other family members are still in detention.
We declare our solidarity with all who got detained or arrested by the UP police.
We stand firm with our leader Afreen Fatima and her family.
We demand an impartial probe into the Ranch police firing incident. The victims must be compensated and the accountable police officers must be punished.
Fraternity Movement National Secretariat member Waseem R S visited Jahangirpuri area of Delhi.
Fraternity Movement National Secretariat member Waseem R S, Delhi University student leaders Ashfaq Shahid, Muhsin Wadood and Hasna Hassan visited Jahangirpuri where the state machineries have demolished Muslim houses and shopes after Hanuman jayanti celebration. The demolition continued even after an order from the Supreme court to maintain status- quo. The state machineries are very evidently acting as a facilitator for the genocide against Muslims in India. This is highly condemnable. The hate crimes and anti Muslim violence by the Hindu nationalists backed by the fascist government must stop. Fraternity Movement stands in solidarity with the victims and has ensured them legal support in the fight ahead.
Karnataka High Court verdict banning hijab is unjust and discriminatory.
The Karnataka High Court in it’s verdict on the hijab-ban in Karnataka Colleges has upheld the hijab ban forcing young Muslim women to choose their faith or education, both of which are fundamental rights. Religious practices of Muslims cannot be suspended.
The court also commented that “Hijab is not an essential religious practice”. Judiciary cannot interpret religion. It is not for the court to comment on whether a religious practice is essential or not to a religion.
The verdict and it’s impact is going to be grave and massive. We fear a mass exclusion of Muslim women will follow this unjust verdict. The verdict has legalized religious exclusion and apartheid against Muslim students.
Fraternity Movement finds the Karnataka High Court verdict banning hijab unacceptable, unconstitutional, and an alarming precedence. We stand in absolute solidarity with the Muslim girls fighting the hijab ban. We offer all our support, emotional, physical, and legal, to fight this battle for education, religious freedom, and dignity.
Fraternity Movement.
Revoke Hijab Ban; stop dehumanization of Muslim women
In the light of the ban on Hijab in classrooms and college campuses that started in coastal Karnataka, a delegation of the Fraternity Movement travelled from 25-28 February across Karnataka state collecting testaments and taking stock of the situation after the statewide hijab ban and subsequent violence. The ban is a targeted hate crime aimed to disempower young Muslim women and segregate students on lines of religion.
We have found that hundreds of Muslim women are expelled from attending classes in the southern state, following the court interim order, in prima facia violation of human rights. The interim order is not only problematic to the beliefs and practices of the Muslim community but infact enabling apartheid against Muslim women. In the name of uniformity and law & order, they are being humiliated and dehumanized.
We travelled to Virajpet, Madikeri, Mangalore, Udupi, Kundapura, Bhatkal and Mandya talking and interacting with the young Muslim women who are being put in an unfortunate position to make a choice between pursuing their education or professing their faith- both of which are basic human rights. The brave students are unwilling to compromise on either. They are concerned that they are or will be missing their exams which is adding on the anxieties and insecurities that surround them. These are teenage students who are burdened to brave this herculean fight for identity and dignity. Many Muslim male students we met, are being physically harassed and attacked by their classmates affiliated with Hindu right wing groups. They are asked to wear saffron stoles and shout “Jai Shree Ram”. A non-Muslim student who refused to wear the saffron stole was stabbed. The way students associated with ABVP and other right wing outfits are attacking without any checks is deeply concerning and unsettling. We all saw the video where Muskan was heckled by 30-40 odd Hindu students radicalized by the RSS donning saffron stoles that surfaced from Mandya, Karnataka. As everyone moves on from the incident we want to stress that the situation is all the more tense and serious.
The whole issue escalated only after members of the ABVP and other right wing outfits started a mobilization against hijab distributing saffron stoles and invoking Hindu supremacy. This incident is an example of the patterned way in which these organizations work.The apathy of the Karnataka government and the appalling statements by BJP Karnataka ministers is furthering hate and islamophobia. BJP Karnataka is trying to turn this rights issue into “international conspiracy” which is the Hathras gang rape model repeating. Karnataka home minister ordered an investigation to “probe their links” with “terrorism groups”. The stereotypical suspicion that surrounds Muslims is being invoked to rob the marginalized off its humanity and dignity.
Local and regional media channels are further harassing and intimidating the affected Muslim students. They are violating not only media ethics but all moral ethics. Saffron television channels are using this incident to demonize and stereotype Muslims to manufacture a collective apathy that will further normalize attacks on Muslims and their religious practices.
We found out that incidents of violence and physical assault in several districts especially in Shimoga are directly unleashed at the members of the Muslim community. The affected areas have been barricaded by police and section 144 has been imposed making it impossible to monitor the situation and intensity of violence. Several videos that came out are evidence that the police was silent onlooker of the attacks.
We met community organizations and leaders who are concerned with the way the situation is unfolding and is being capitalized on by Sangh Parivar organizations. They are trying to provide all necessary reliefs; academic, legal, and emotional to the affected Muslim students.
Major concerns after the visit are:-
-Teenagers burdened with Anxieties and mental trauma
– Increasing insecurity with the nearing of examinations
– Security of the Muslim community especially Muslim women- The inappropriate and unethical media response
– Increasing incidents of physical violence
– Tense situation is many districts.
Fraternity Movement of India Demands:
– The hijab ban be immediately and unconditionally revoked. The discriminatory interim order that has become instrumental in furthering apartheid should taken back.
– Government should direct CDC and College administrations to ensure that students are allowed to appear for exams that they have missed or that may be missed because of the ban.
– Law enforcement should arrange for the safe and dignified return of Muslim students. – All FIRs on protesting Muslim students be taken back immediately.
– Right wing outfits involved in communalizing the issue and students who are heckling and intimidating Muslim women should face police action.
– The violence that is unleashed in Shimoga and other areas should be impartially investigated, culprits should be punished and those who have incurred property loss should be compensated.
Fraternity Movement National General Secretary Abu Jafar Molla and West Bengal State General Secretary Mujahid Rahman visited Anish’s home and interacted with Salem Khan (father) and Sabir Khan (brother).
Fraternity Movement believes the SIT report on the incident is concocted and fabricated, prepared to mislead the investigation and hide the real culprits. Fraternity Movement reiterates its demand of CBI probe into the case and immediate arrest of the real culprits.
Religious intolerance in Government College, Muslim women denied entry for wear hijab
After PU College in Udupi, Karnataka, young Hijab wearing Muslim women are being denied entry in Kundapur Govt College after members of ABVP protested against Hijab by wearing saffron shawls in Kundapur and Badravathi college in Karanatka.
This is an alarming and rising trend of Islamophobia and anti-muslim hatred directed at Muslim women. Denying education because of faith is a violation of freedoms guaranteed by the constitution.
Fraternity Movement stands in solidarity with the young female students and supports their right to practice their religion. We demand strict action against college authorities for religious discrimination of Muslim female students.
Press Conference organised by Fraternity Movement West Bengal on education, unemployment and Hate Crime Against Muslim Women
Press Conference organised by Fraternity Movement West Bengal on education, unemployment and Hate Crime Against Muslim Women. National General Secretary Abu Jafar Molla, State President Arman Ali and State General Secretary Mujahidur Rahman Addressed the media.
A press meet held at Calicut Press Club demanding immediate action against perpetrators behind the Bulli Bhai app and Sulli deal, web apps targeting Muslim women
Fraternity Movement National Secretary Aysha Renna, student activists Ladeeda Farzana and Nidha Parveen, Fraternity Movement Kerala state secretary Nujaim PK and Fraternity Movement National executive committee member Lubaib Basheer were present at the press meet.
Online hate crimes can never silence the high spirits of Muslim women
As a clear manifestation of gendered Islamophobia and sexualisation of Muslim women, another web application has surfaced online targeting about a hundred Muslim women profiles who are vocal against the Hindutva regime. The new application is a parody of Sulli deals, an Islamophobic online auction application using Muslim women profiles. Police and other state apparatus have miserably failed to uphold the sense of security among Muslim women by their inaction against the previous perpetrators.
The negligence of law enforcement agencies contribute to reenacting these hate crime. The rise of Muslim women have always bothered India’s right-wing groups. The obvious intention of perpetrators is to silence the assertive Muslim women leadership.
Fraternity Movement condemns in strong words this continuous misogynist online campaign and demands the police to take appropriate action against the perpetrators. We won’t let this practice be the new normal for assertive Muslim women. Such hate crime can never silence the high spirits of Muslim women, fighting against injustices in this country. Fraternity Movement stands in complete solidarity with the targeted Muslim women and pledges to fight against the perpetrators.
Protest Gathering organised infront of Uttarakhand Bhavan demanding the Arrest of organisers of ‘Dharma Sansad’ in Haridwar
Haridwar Dharam Sansad was attended by numerous Hindu religious leaders and monks. Yati Narasinghanand has already informed that the kind of hate assembly will be organised in many other states also. No arrests yet means the police and the governments are in total support of the anti-Muslim hate assemblies. This is sheer lawlessness.
Leaders and activists of Fraternity Movement including National President Shamseer Ibrahim, National Secretary Waseem RS, Executive Member Rahil Mobood and others gathered today in front of Utharakhand Sadan to register our protest and to demand immediate arrest of Hindu monks and Hindutva leaders behind Haridwar anti-Muslim hate assembly.
Fraternity Movement demands action against the open call of genocide given by Hindu monks and Hindutva leaders in Haridwar.
At a three day conference named “Dharma Sansad” (Religious Parliament) held at Haridwar between Dec 17 to 19, videos emerged of popular Hindu religious leaders, BJP leaders, right-wing activists, Hindutva militants and several organizations taking an oath to “fight, die for and if need be, kill, to make this country a Hindu Rashtra”, amid other calls for genocide against Muslims in India. Alluding to a Nazi-esque ‘final solution’ against minorities, Hindu extremist leader Swami Prabodhanand Giri, among other BJP aides, is seen making extremely dangerous and provocative statements like, “…you prepare to die now, or get ready to kill, there’s no other way. This is why, like in Myanmar, the police here, the politicians here, the army and every Hindu must pick up weapons and we will have to conduct this cleanliness drive (safai abhiyan). There is no solution apart from this.” This event is an alarming sign of a brewing genocide of Muslims in India facilitated and encouraged by the state. The Uttarakhand police have not made any arrests or taken any stringent action against leaders and monks openly calling for religious violence. This ignorance and irresponsibility on the part of the police show the impunity granted to these proprietors of hate. This should be considered a direct attack on religious minorities, and a threat to their lives and dignity.Fraternity Movement demands immediate arrests and swift judicial punishments against the organizers and attendees of the event. The movement stands rigidly and firmly against the agenda of genocide against religious minorities, perpetrated by some Hindu monks and Hindutva leaders.
Fraternity Movement condemns the killing of civilians in Nagaland and stand in complete solidarity with the families of the deceased
At least 13 civilians were shot dead by the armed forces in Nagaland. The civilians were returning from work when the armed forces ambushed their vehicle and killed six people on the spot, seven died later. Eleven others are battling injuries while two civilians are missing.
These incidents of absolute violence against people happen because of the impunity enjoyed by the Army through laws like the AFSPA which grants the Army special powers in certain regions. In Kashmir and the North-Eastern states laws like this enable the forces to commit crimes against civilians and get away with it easily.
Fraternity Movement condemns the killing of civilians in Nagaland and stand in complete solidarity with the families of the deceased. We demand immediate action to be taken against those involved in the killing. We also demand the revocation of Acts like AFSPA which gives the Army immense power over civilians.
Resist state-sponsored police Brutality in Assam
Assam has a history of alienating and dehumanising Muslims in the state particularly the bangla speaking Muslims. With the enactment of NRC in the state, ethnonationalism has taken form of ethnofascism.
In the past few days, thousands of Muslims have been displaced in the Dholpur area in Darrang. State government and it’s Media allies are calling the peasant residents of the area illegal immigrants and encroachers to justify the illegal land grab.
What has unravelled is serious of brutal police action. Atleast 3 have been killed by Assam police but there are speculations of a higher death toll. Moinul Hoque, Saddam Hussain, and Sheikh Farid, have been martyred but their names will remain and haunt the supremacist enthonationals.
Bengali Muslims in Assam have been dehumanised to the extent that we see Bijay Shankar Baniya, a camraman present at the site, kicking and jumping on the dead body of Moinul Hoque exhibiting anti-Muslim hate and ethnic pride.
CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and his brother SP of Darrang, Sushanta Biswa Sharma together unleashed horrors. Nothing can justify the police action and killings. This is going to set an extremely blooy precedent and has to be challenged and resisting. Fraternity Movement demands an end to police brutality and state-sponsored terrorism. We also demand an impartial probe and that SP Sushanta Biswa Sharma be suspended.
Fraternity Movement believes that no Human is illegal and stands in solidarity with the Muslims in Assam.
DEATH THREATS CAN’T STOP US
There have been repeated attempts from the Hindutva forces to intimidate Fraternity Movement and it’s leaders.
Sharjeel Usmani, national secretariat member and Haider SK, office secretary have been repeatedly receiving death threats and abusive phonecalls from unknown international numbers. We have filed a complaint with Delhi Police regarding the same on 13 August.
We stand, shoulder to shoulder, with our leaders. Let this be heard and known, these tactics of terrorizing and intimidating only strengthens our resolve to stand up for justice and dignified existence.
FRATERNITY MOVEMENT
Fraternity Movement vehemently opposes these actions meant to intimidate, threaten, and mobilize hate crimes against Muslims.
New Delhi: Large anti-muslim rallies were held in Delhi at Dwarka and Jantar Mantar with thousands of participants from the right wing Hindutva groups calling for a genocide of Muslims. These kinds of hateful gatherings and calls for genocide has to not just be condemned but fought with on grounds. Anti-muslim terror crimes have become a common occurrence and there is no contestation from the opposition.
Two separate incidents within a week in India’s capital have reaffirmed the secondary citizenship of Muslims in the country, with the situation worsening every day. The first incident surface due to the allocation of funds for the Huj House in Dwarka. The All Dwarka Residents Federation, in a letter signed on 3rd August 2021 by its secretary Advocate BP Vaishnav, said that the construction of the Huj House will cause disturbance in the “brotherhood, harmony, and peace in the society apart from the law and order” and cited “every possibility of riots, migration of Hindu and repetition of situation like Shaheen Bagh, Jaffrabad, and Kashmir”. Notwithstanding the fallacies in the examples where targets and victims were and have been Muslims themselves, various Hindutva groups organized a “Mahapanchayat” on Friday where Hindu men could be seen asking to raise Shastra (arms) and Shaastra (Holy Texts) to oppose the move lest “terrorists” take over the country.
The second incident occurred on Sunday, 8th August 2021, barely minutes away from the Parliament, where a gathering of about 5000 people openly called for the genocide of Muslims. Called by Supreme Court lawyer and former spokesperson of the Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party Ashwini Upadhyay, “Jab mulle kaate jayenge, Ram-Ram chillayenge [Muslims will chant Ram-Ram when they will be slaughtered],” were among the various Islamophobic slogans shouted during the event.
Despite visual evidence of hatred and blatant flouting of covid guidelines, there has been no direct action from the police or executive against the organisers of these rallies. Registering an FIR against “unknown people” when the real perpetrators are known is nothing less than rendering institutional support to genocide enablers.
From anti-Muslim rallies to lynchings to pogroms, the Hindu supremacists enjoy impunity and state support, and complicit and implicit approval from the collective society. These vitriolic incidents are not, and should not be deemed to be, the doings of a fringe group or a subsection of Hindutva. These are the reflections of the society we are living in, where Muslims are at risk of losing their liberty, their rights, and their lives. The Islamophobia is propagated by those who either actively call for genocide, or passively lend support in the form of silence.
Fraternity Movement vehemently opposes these actions meant to intimidate, threaten, and mobilize hate crimes against Muslims, and calls for every authority, including the police, the judiciary, the civil society groups to raise their voice against blatant Islamophobia and calls for violence. We demand immediate legal action against Ashwini Upadhyay, Narsinghanand Saraswati, Gajendra Chauhan and Hindu terror mob for calling for Muslim Genocide in National Capital.
Fraternity Movement JNU unit convention held at JNUSU office and elected new leaders. National president Shamseer Ibrahim, secretariat member Lubaib Basheer addressed the students. The convention condemned the recent bulldozing of Muslim spaces and political vendetta of UP government against protesters. Declared support and solidarity to national secretary Afreen Fatima, who was also the elected SL- councillor of JNU.
Fraternity Movement Organised a protest rally in Kolkata against the state government’s huge scam in SSC exam
Fraternity Movement Organised a protest rally in Kolkata against the state government’s huge scam in SSC exam, through which school teachers are unauthorisedly recruited and made a demand to fill all the vacancies expediately.
Police of Mamata Banerjee have arrested our cadres from Santragachi
Demanding the University Authority to take notice of the issue faced by four female PhD. students, listen to their plights and take required actions as soon as possible
This statement is issued by Fraternity Movement, Central University of Kerala Unit to bring immediate attention of the University on the ongoing issue faced by four of CUK’s PhD students.
Two years ago, four female PhD students from the Department of English and Comparative Literature were emotionally and sexually targeted by a professor at CUK. In the complaint stated, the students alleged that the professor had traumatized them and harshly intervened in their academics. Heeding to the issue and on proving, the professor was expelled by the University.
But to a great shock, it is revealed that the University has readmitted the professor back to the University, which has caused the assaults to continue for a second time. This has greatly affected their mental health as well as the academics. The students have filed several complaints regarding this to the University but of no avail yet.
The silence on part of the University is too unfortunate. Primely, we demand that the University takes notice of the issue and listen to the plight of the students and take immediate actions to rectify. Our second demand is for an enquiry on the reappointment of the professor when such serious allegations have been proven against him.
If the concerned matter is not attended timely and justly, and ensure safe and secure learning atmosphere for these students, Fraternity Movement hereby deaclare that we will organize strong protests against the insensitive approach of the University.
Fraternity Movement
Central University of Kerala
Shamseer Ibrahim, National President visited jahangirpuri and interacted with the residents. Extended solidarity and support in their fight ahead.
Fraternity Movement JMI protested against the Jahangirpuri demolition
Joint Protest organized at Jamia Millia Islamia against the Jahangirpuri demolition.
Fraternity Movement Rajasthan State president Mohammed Hashim visited karauli
Fraternity Movement Rajasthan State president Mohammed Hashim visited riot-affected area of karauli, Rajasthan.