India’s Citizenship Amendment Act, the coronavirus, and Muslim defiance By Shubham Sharma

Anti CAA Protests

Jihad Watch : It has now been some time since the coronavirus has been dubbed a pandemic, an imminent threat to human society.

All countries and their citizens are coping with the virus as best they can, and trying to defeat it at any cost. To minimise the peril, most countries have imposed a lockdown or restricted the public from venturing out to social gatherings. Most people are adjusting to these measures, as the positive cases around the world are proliferating rapidly. Affluent countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States are working hard to mitigate the efficacy of the virus.

In Asia, fortunately, India is one of the few countries that is coping well with the fear. The strict steps of the government have given India the opportunity to overcome the situation. The government ordered the shutdown of schools and colleges for a month; employees are working from home; and public transportation is being sanitised regularly. Indians are much aware of their incompetent health care system and the scarcity of hospital beds. It was estimated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that there is less than one hospital bed available for every 1000 people in India. So it becomes more necessary for Indians to avoid social gatherings and act according to the situation.

Yet despite all these steps and regular requests of the government to heed sweeping confinement measures, Muslims are defying the lockdown in the name of justice. Alas, they are making the threat worse for humanity.

Indian Muslims have been protesting for the last two months against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was recently passed by the Indian Parliament. The Act provides citizenship to the persecuted minorities of the neighbouring Muslim nations. This sparked indefensible demonstrations across the country by Indian Muslims, who are enraged that the Act did not include Muslim living in neighboring countries.

Many political pundits regard the Act as so completely unacceptable to the Muslims, giving them new cause to show their rage not only over this, but against the Babri Masjid demolition verdict and the abolition of Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. This spurred the violence in the national capital of the Delhi, where Muslims clashed with the Hindus. Many local reports suggest that the illegal occupation of the roads by the Indian Muslims to show their superiority over the Hindus eventually resulted in a deadly riot.

The concept of Muslim brotherhood is prevailing over humanity and national security. A report unveiled by the Youth for Equality, a nation-building organisation, reveals that Pakistan and some Islamic jihadist groups are funding this carnage to push India into a civil war. This organisation has shown the official resolution passed by the Pakistani parliament, describing how to drive India to the wilderness.

The same script which was written in that document is now being performed by these demonstrators. Furthermore, one organiser of these protests, Sharjil Imam, was caught last month by the police for subverting the state. His video went viral for the wrong reasons; in it, he incited Muslims to wage war against Indian sovereignty.

Now, in the time of coronavirus outbreak, they have increased their gatherings on the ground. Thousands of Indian Muslims are creating mayhem and refusing to go home in order to accomplish their ends. Their outlandish actions at the time of this deadly outbreak are plunging India into uncertainty. These demonstrations are simply spoiling the efforts of the government, which are widely supported by the Indian public, to contain the virus.

Besides these demonstrations, Indian Muslims have also refused to close Islamic shrines. Also, many of the clerics are downplaying the fear of the virus to support this unrest, which ends up in sowing confusion and cost lives. Nevertheless, they will find that the pandemic cannot be palmed off as a conspiracy by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Zee News.

This time, government officials have to decide how to deal with this shambolic jamat (group of Muslims). Political leaders also have to consider how to defeat these insurgents. They are now threatening the Asian continent, as the Islamic State did in the Middle East.

Shubham Sharma is an author at Asia Times. He is a Delhi based journalist mostly reports on foreign affairs and international relations. He has also been worked for the Courier International, Modern Diplomacy, and Foreign Policy Times. Follow him on twitter @ShubhamSharm11