Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has threatened to carry out suicide attacks in different Indian states in the wake of derogatory remarks made by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
In a threating letter dated June 6, the AQIS said it would launch suicide attacks to “fight for the honour of the Prophet (PBUH)”.
“A few days ago, the propagators and flag bearers of Hindutva – a system and philosophy hostile to the religion and Shariah of Allah – insulted and slandered the purest of beings, the most honourable after God himself, Muhammad al Mustafa, Ahmad al Mujtaba, and his noble and pure wife, the mother of the believers, Sayyidah Ayesha bint Abu Bakr as Siddeeq in the most vile and evil manner on an Indian TV channel. In response to this affront, the hearts of Muslim[s] all over the world are bleeding and are filled with feelings of revenge and retribution,” the letter said.
“We warn every audacious and impudent foul mouth of the world, especially the Hindutva terrorists occupying India that we should fight for the dignity of our Prophet (PBUH), we should urge others to fight and die for the honour of our Prophet (PBUH), we should kill those who affront our Prophet (PBUH) and we should bind explosives with our bodies and the bodies of our children to blow away the ranks of those who dare to dishonour our Prophet (PBUH),” the letter warned.“The saffron terrorists should now await their end in Delhi, Bombay, UP and Gujarat. They should find refuge neither in their homes nor in their fortified army cantonments,” the letter stated.
India tightens security
A federal home ministry official in India said that intelligence agencies were checking the authenticity of the threats issued by the AQIS.
"We have also ordered state police to ensure public gatherings or protests are not allowed as they could be targeted by the militant group," a senior home ministry official in New Delhi said.
The security threat surfaced days after a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP made the blasphemous comments during a TV debate.
BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma's remarks sparked uproar among Muslims in India and triggered diplomatic protests from Islamic countries demanding an apology from the Indian government.
Police in northern India arrested a BJP youth leader for posting anti-Musli comments on social media, along with 50 other people who took part in sporadic unrest among minority Muslims in parts of India last week over Sharma's remarks.
India's foreign ministry said on Monday the offensive tweets and comments did not in any way reflect the government's views.
Instructions have been issued to several senior members of the BJP to be "extremely cautious" when talking about religion on public platforms.
But domestic outrage gained fresh momentum after leaders from Islamic nations including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran and Afghanistan demanded apologies from New Delhi and summoned diplomats to protest against the insulting remarks.
The influential 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said in a statement that the insults came in the context of an increasingly intense atmosphere of hatred towards Islam in India and systematic harassment of Muslims.
India's minority Muslims have felt more pressure on everything from freedom of worship to hijab head scarves under BJP rule. There were Hindu-Muslim clashes during religious processions recently, following deadly riots in 2019-20.
The new controversy has become a diplomatic challenge for Modi who in recent years has cemented strong relations with energy-rich Islamic nations.
Islamic rights groups in India said that it was the first time influential foreign leaders had spoken out against what they called humiliations experienced by the minority community.
"Our voices have finally been heard, only world leaders can nudge Modi's government and his party to change their attitude towards Muslims," said Ali Asghar Mohammed, who runs a voluntary rights group for Muslims in India's commercial capital Mumbai.
Indonesia and Malaysia summoned India’s envoys on Tuesday to protest over derogatory remarks made about the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) by two members of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The move came as anger spread across the Muslim world, with various Middle Eastern nations summoning New Delhi’s envoys and a Kuwaiti supermarket removing Indian products.
Remarks by a spokeswoman for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who has since been suspended, sparked the furore.
Another official, the party’s media chief for Delhi, posted a tweet last week about the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) that was later deleted.Indonesian foreign ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said India’s ambassador in Jakarta, Manoj Kumar Bharti, was summoned, with the government lodging a complaint about anti-Muslim rhetoric.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the ministry said Indonesia -- the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country -- “strongly condemns unacceptable derogatory rely marks” made by two Indian politicians against the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).
The tweet did not mention the officials by name, but was an apparent reference to BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma and the party’s Delhi media chief Naveen Jindal, who was expelled from the BJP, according to Indian media reports.
Malaysia’s foreign ministry said it “unreservedly condemns the derogatory remarks” by Indian politicians, adding that it had conveyed its “total repudiation” to the Indian ambassador.
“Malaysia calls upon India to work together in ending Islamophobia and cease any provocative acts in the interest of peace and stability,” it said.
BJP admonishes members
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has instructed its members to be “extremely cautious” when talking about religion on public platforms after derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) drew protests from Muslim nations.
Muslims across India have felt more pressure on everything from freedom of worship to hijab during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule. There were Hindu-Muslim clashes during processions recently, following deadly riots in 2019-20.
Two BJP leaders said the verbal instructions were given to over 30 senior officials and some federal ministers who are authorised to take part in debates hosted by Indian news channels.
“We don’t want party officials to speak in a way that hurts the religious sentiments of any community...They must ensure the party’s doctrine gets shared in a sophisticated manner,” said a senior BJP leader and federal minister in New Delhi.
With about 110 million members, mainly Hindus, the BJP is the world’s largest political party, while Muslims comprise around 13 per cent of India’s 1.35 billion population.
Last week the BJP suspended the spokeswoman and expelled another official after Muslim nations sought apologies from the Indian government and summoned diplomats to protest remarks made during a TV debate.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Iran were among the nations that made their complaints public.
