How Practical is the Secular Democracy of India? Curbing of Religious Freedom in Kashmir

Even while a right-wing Hindu nationalist government is ruling India for the past 8 years now, India still professes to be a secular democracy. The constitutional grounds for India’s secularism have been carefully accommodating religious freedom. However, the past 8 years have been witnessing a shrinking of sorts for the religious freedom of Muslims. The Indian government seems to be particularly adamant about curbing the religious freedom of Kashmiri Muslims.

In 2022, the Indian authorities arrested prominent religious clerics across Kashmir under PSA (Public Safety Act). After that, the Indian government banned schools run by FAT (Falah-e-Aam Trust ). FAT is an affiliate of the banned Islamist organization Jama’at-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir (Jama’at). Another incident followed with the circulation of a video of Kashmiri students. The video showed students being forced to chant Hindu hymns sparked controversy over social media. However, these are not isolated incidents that reveal the curbing of religious freedom in Kashmir.  

Curbing Religious Freedom in Muharram

Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar is one of the holiest months for Shite Muslims worldwide. During this month, Shia mourners gather together to hold a procession. They recite eulogies, and chant slogans to mourn the martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson Hussain.

However, since 1989, the Indian government has prohibited some of the major Muharram processions in Kashmir. The government issues an order each year prohibiting Muharram processions due to “security reasons”. Kashmiris claim that the Indian state has been curbing their religious rights on the pretext of “security concerns”. Kashmiri Muslims have a history of raising their voices against the curbing of their religious rights by the Indian government. Nonetheless, this history of resistance against religious inequality has always been violent for the Kashmiris. Every year, Shia mourners face police thrashings, beatings, and arrests while trying to take out Muharram processions.

Since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the police arrested 15 Shia mourners. They also arrested a well-known preacher named Manzoor Ahmed Malik. The police charged them under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act). According to the police, they allegedly chanted free Kashmir Slogans during Muharram processions.

While talking to the Wire, Arshid Ahmad, a Shia mourner told The Wire “In contemporary times, the ‘step-motherly’ treatment of Muslims is unacceptable and the government should reconsider the decision on Muharram bans. This minority bears the brunt of the repression, even though other religious pilgrimages are permitted with full security and pomp,”.

“We are protesting and condemning this ban but no one is listening to us. If the government can allow other religions to perform their religious rites, why ban the Muharram procession?” Muzzafar, another mourner asked.

Most mourners who talked with the media brought up the Amarnath Yatra, a 40-day pilgrimage. They questioned why the government couldn’t guarantee protection for the Muharram parade for one day.

Janmashtami Procession held by Kashmiri Pandits Amid Police and Army Security

Days after Muharram, Kashmiri pandits staged processions throughout Srinagar to celebrate the birth of the Hindu god Krishna. The government allowed Hindu devotees to take out the religious procession and provided them with tight police and army security.  

Amid massive spectacle and show, the government supervised and safeguarded the religious procession. National news outlets in India were hailing this incident as “signifying a perceptible improvement in the situation in the strife-ridden Valley”. However, none of the Indian media called out the hypocrisy of the Indian government that has been curbing the religious freedom in Kashmir for Muslims for decades.

The Grand Mosque in Kashmir Closed For Friday Prayers For Three Years

The Jamia Masjid or the grand mosque in the heart of Srinagar city is a 600-year-old that has been cherished and venerated by Kashmiris for centuries and is of historic and religious significance. On important religious occasions throughout the year, thousands of Muslim worshippers have been visiting the grand mosque. Friday is considered the holy day of the week for Muslims and congregational prayers are of utmost importance. Yet, Kashmiris haven’t been allowed to offer prayers in Jamia Masjid for three consecutive years now.

Additionally, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Hurriyat leader, and the mosque’s chief preacher has been kept under constant house arrest and is not permitted to give Friday sermons. Recently, the Lieutenant Governor of Kashmir Manoj Sinha disputed reports of Mirwaiz being under house arrest, yet a few days later, the Hurriyat leader was denied permission to deliver the Friday sermon at Jamia Masjid. In attempts to deny the claim of “prolonged closure, of the Jamia Masjid” the LG declared that it had only been in effect on three Fridays this year. However, the mosque’s administration made it explicit that this year, prayers have been prohibited for 14 Fridays so far by the enforced presence of the CRPF and J&K Police.   

To Kashmiris, the prolonged closure of the Jamia masjid serves as a bitter reminder of their helplessness. And the attempts of psychological warfare. This is yet another incident that speaks of the curbing of religious freedom in Kashmir.

Religious Freedom Vanishing From The Largest Democracy In The World

India prides itself internationally as the world’s largest democracy. According to the Indian constitution, the government “will not discriminate, patronize, or meddle in the exercise of any religion.” Its constitution guarantees religious freedom, which entails that individuals should be able to adhere to and freely practice their religious views. However, the religious freedom and claims of secularism mentioned in the Indian Constitution are utterly absent when it comes to Muslims and particularly when it comes to Kashmir.

Christians must not dance with Israeli apartheid under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism

It has been revealed that major Christian Churches in the UK succeeded in forcing former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, to reconsider earlier thoughts of moving the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

According to news reports, the Church of England, the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church strongly urged Truss to reconsider her ideas in this regard.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, reportedly sent a letter to Truss warning her against moving the British Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which, according to international law, is considered an occupied territory.

Cardinal Nichols probably reflected the views of his fellow clerics when he warned that the relocation of the embassy would seriously damage British interests throughout the Muslim world: “A relocation of the UK Embassy would be seriously damaging to any possibility of lasting peace in the region and to the international reputation of the United Kingdom.”

Moreover, the chief cleric in the Church of England, Justine Welby, expressed a similar attitude in a newspaper interview.

Predictably, Israeli leaders reacted furiously, accusing Christian leaders of ignorance and adopting an immoral stance toward the apartheid Israeli entity.

Furthermore, one right-wing Israeli writer lambasted the three Churches which objected to the idea of relocating the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, claiming that the churches didn’t represent Christians around the world. He hinted that a Christian cannot be a true Christian unless he or she embraces the Israeli apartheid regime in the West Bank where non-Jews, e.g. Christians and Muslims, are treated as children of a lesser God, or using the biblical terms, as water-carriers and wood-hewers!

Interestingly, most extremist Israeli leaders subscribe to the silly concept that the only authentic Christians are the evangelical groups, or the so-called Christian Zionists, who believe that the creation of Israel in Palestine in 1948 was a fulfilment of Biblical Prophecy and a precedent to the second advent of Jesus.

The Hitler of Bethlehem

By the way, it might be appropriate to remind readers on this occasion that the Israeli government which claims to tend to and protect Christian interests in Palestine is the very same government that pays hundreds of millions of Shekels to vehemently anti-Christian Talmudic colleges (Yishivot) that teach the filthiest possible hate literature, like Hesronot Shas, against Jesus Christ. I am not going to mention passages from this filth out of veneration for Jesus himself and as a gesture of respect for Christian brothers and sisters around the world. My ultimate goal behind these stunning revelations is not to incite Christians to hate Jews. In the final analysis, truth, not hate is my craft.

Before leaving this thread, I want to remind readers of an incident that occurred several years ago. Then I met an ostensibly moderate and respectable rabbi. And as we were speaking about monotheistic religions and the common grounds between them, the rabbi surprised me when he referred to Jesus, a figure I love so much as every other Muslim does, as “The Hitler of Bethlehem.”  The repulsive remark shocked me from head to toe, to say he very least.

Noticing my reaction, the rabbi said: I know that you Muslims venerate and sanctify Jesus, I am sorry if I have inadvertently caused you any offense.

Venomous anti-Christian Hostility

Nonetheless, not all rabbis, especially in the West, are as honest as my interlocutor mentioned above. In fact, Zionist rabbis and other manifestly dishonest propagandists hysterically strive to distract attention from this colossal shame.

Hence, they concoct all sorts of lies and disinformation about an alleged persecution in the Holy Land of Christians by Muslims and even by the unreligious Palestinian Authority (PA), which is absolutely and completely at Israel’s beck and call.

The truth of the matter is that the apartheid Israeli entity and Talmudic Jewish circles (the Pharisees of our time) are the only sources of harassment and persecution of al Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike.

This unceasing persecution assumes many forms, including:

1. Seizing land and real estate belonging to the churches, either by coercion or through suspicious purchase deals.
2. Routinly harassing Christian clergymen in the streets of East Jerusalem by spitting on them,  verbally abusing them or even bad-mouthing Jesus.
3. Denying Palestinian Christians in the Gaza Strip access to Christian Holy places in the West Bank such as The Nativity Church in Bethlehem and the church of Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
4. Occasionally vandalizing and setting churches on fire by anti-Christian Talmudic fanatics who often act on instructions from their government-paid rabbis.
5. Constantly seeking to stir Muslim-Christian tension, using Shen Bet agents to carry out this filthy feat. Fortunately, 99% of these toxic efforts have utterly failed, due to the exemplary vigilance of the Palestinian community.

An Australian Blow

A few days before the resignation of Liz Truss, the Australian government decided to reconsider its erstwhile decision to relocate Australia’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The decision was warmly welcomed by the Palestinians and the PA, which described it as consistent with the rule of international law.  However, the Australian decision drew much anger and consternation from the Israeli government and jingoistic media, with former Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu blaming current Prime Minister Yair Lapid for the reversal of Australian policy.

Conclusion

Nonetheless, Christians are expected to show some justice toward the tormented Palestinians.

We all know that thanks to the grossly unethical and illegal western policy toward the Palestinian question, Israel has been given a carte blanch to murder, torment, savage and dispossess the Palestinian people. This utterly unfair and unjust policy by western governments, particularly the U.S. and UK, effectively condemned the Palestinian people to an unenviable situation that is similar to those proverbial orphan kids, sitting for dinner around the table of the cruel and the mean.

Hence, the gesture of the three churches in England is highly appreciated. We also sincerely hope that Church leaders will continue to raise their influential voices in defence of the virtually abandoned Palestinians. This would be consistent with the lofty Christian ideals of siding with the oppressed. 

Iran is certainly not Garden of Eden for Human Rights, but the West is absolutely hypocritical

The ongoing sustained propaganda war by the U.S., Britain and other Western countries against Iran for violating the human and civil rights of women is not altruistic. Quite the contrary, this vitriolic campaign is highly hypocritical, morally duplicitous and politically motivated since its main goal is to destabilize Iran and put an end to the hard-line Shiite regime there.

I am not a fan of the Iranian regime which I repeatedly criticized in my articles, especially its criminal embrace of the murderous regime of Bashar Assad in Damascus.  Just to refresh readers’ memories, that regime murdered half a million Syrians, forced 50% of the Syrian people into exile, and destroyed over 70% of Syria’s towns and villages, in order to remain in power.

Moreover, the regime has been employing excessive lethal force against the large Sunni minority as happened in Zahidan, in south-eastern Iran, where trigger-happy Iranian soldiers killed as many as 90 protestors on 30 September, as reported by some human rights groups.

Nonetheless, as Muslims, we are supposed to be fair and just in judging others, even though we may not like them.

Western hypocrisy is clarion

To begin with, the tragic and lamentable  death of a Kurdish woman activist in Iran several weeks ago was by no means the most gargantuan and obscene crime committed in Iran or in the Middle East..  In 2018, the de facto Saudi leader Muhammed ibn Salman (MBS) ordered the murder of  Saudi journalist Jamal Khashogji inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.  However, despite some  regurgitated rhetoric from Western capitals, especially Washington and London, most Western leaders eventually hastened to grovel at the tyrant’s feet. 

The dramatic turnabout in Western attitudes toward MBS didn’t reflect a sudden awakening of a dormant love for the  moody Saudi prince. It rather demonstrated that Israel’s regional interests as well as  the multi-billion dollars arms deals with the corrupt House of Saud were far more important for the West than the  secondary subject of human rights in one of the world’s worst dictatorships.   A few days ago, President Biden admitted that the single most important reason behind his visit to Saudi Arabia more than four months ago was to secure Israel’s interests.

Moreover, grave human rights violations are routine occurrences in countries like Egypt, UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, which rely for their very survival, on Western, especially American backing. However, the West keeps reticent lest any pressure on these tyrannical regimes prompt the masses to revolt against them, which is not in Israel’s interests.

The West  betrays human rights everywhere

The callous betrayal of the cause of human rights in places like Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa is a conspicuous feature of western policies toward Muslims. This means that the West, along with the venomous snake, called Israel, is Democracy’s number-1 enemy in the Middle East, especially the Arab region.

Don’t you dare tell me that the rampancy of tyranny, despotism and harsh dictatorship throughout the region occurred by coincidence or is related to Islam! Such a logic would be utterly unconvincing and unacceptable to say the least.

The starkness of American and British hypocrisy on human rights is nowhere more brazen than in occupied Palestine. There Israel is carrying out real massacres of innocent Palestinians nearly on a daily basis,  and all we hear from Washington is the same scandalous remarks we have been hearing ad nauseam for many years, like “Israel has the right to defend herself” and “we call on both sides to exercise self-restraint,” which only encourage Israel to perpetrate more atrocities.

Moral inconsistency

I am quite sure that the bulk of Iranians have no iota of appreciation for American and British criticisms of the Iranian regime’s suppression of protests triggered by the regrettable death of Mahsa Amini. True, many Iranians are fed up with the regime over its harsh tactics toward dissidents. Nonetheless, most Iranians still remember the 28 Mordad coup d’eta when the CIA toppled the democratically- elected Mussadeq regime in 1953 and installed Shah Muhammed Reza Pahlavi as King of Persia.

Israel Firsters rule Washington unopposed

In addition to what has been said, I would like to make two points:  First, the popular indignation at the  Mullahs should never be understood to mean or imply support for or identification with America’s imperialistic designs for `the country.

The U.S., irrespective of which administration in the White House, is hell-bent on turning Iran into a pliant banana republic, very much like Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the despotic Gulf Sheikhdoms, which Washington bullied to sign the treacherous Abraham Accords with the hateful Israeli apartheid entity.

I think this bleak and ghoulish prospect is very unlikely to happen in Iran under existing circumstances. But the U.S. is trying and is unlikely to stop trying as long Zionist circles and Israel Firsters continue to tightly dominate the U.S. government and Congress.

Which brings us to the second point. There is no doubt in this writer’s mind that the central reason behind America’s unmitigated hostility to Iran has nothing to do with Iran’s human rights record or even with Tehran’s criminal embrace of the Syrian regime. The real reason has to do with the Zionist entity and its strategic designs, namely the imposition of its strategic supremacy over the entire Arab-Islamic region. Powerful Muslim countries like Pakistan, Turkey and Iran currently pose a real challenge to the grand Zionist design. 

Hence, The U.S., which is always at Israel’s beck and call, is trying to neutralize this Muslim challenge for Israel’s benefit. The full weight of the American empire is always utilized to serve and expedite Israel expansionistic goals, military and strategic aggrandizement, mainly at the expense of Muslims.

More to the point, the US efforts to trigger an insurrection against the Iranian regime is apparently aimed at effecting a regime change in the hope that a new pro-Western regime would dismantle the country’s vital nuclear program, widely considered as the second most important strategic foreign policy headache facing Washington now after the Ukrainian crisis. Moreover, the growing military cooperation between Russia and Iran, including the reported planned sale of Iranian-made missiles to Russia, is likely to further aggravate American concerns.

The U.S. has paid 17 billion dollars to Ukraine so far to repulse the Russian invasion.  However, it is highly likely that Washington would be willing to pay ten-times or twenty-times that much to serve Israeli interests and strategic ambitions, including spreading its hegemony over the entire Middle East.

Muslims must never trust America

Biden’s frank admission that the main reason behind his visit to Saudi Arabia was serving Israel’s interests should serve as a real eye-opener for Arabs and Muslims everywhere.  I know there are many willfully stupid Arabs who would rather bury their heads in the sand of the desert than facing the truth.  These are the bastards of history and no Muslim on earth would shed a tear for their bleak fate.

But there are hundreds of millions of Muslims who must make sure that they won’t be bamboozled again by Washington’s sweet but deceptive words.  To these people I solemnly say: Disregard, disobey and never trust America if you wish to have a bright future for yourselves and your children.