Islamophobia In India

 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Islamophobia means "Intense dislike or fear of Islam, esp. as a political force; hostility or prejudice towards Muslims".

Phobia in itself means an irrational fear. So in simples words Islamophobia should mean an irrational fear of Islam.

Now to check whether the fear of Islam in India is an irrational one or not lets look at some recent cases.

Case 1:

Recently Karnataka High Court gave an order that continued a ban on Hijab in Schools. The judges that gave the order were given a Y category security because leader of a radical fringe group publicly threatened the judges for making “anti-Muslim” judgement.

Here are the details:

In a video from a protest at Goripalayam in Madurai on March 17, two days after the Karnataka High Court verdict, TNTJ leader Covai R Rahmatullah is hearing saying, “Have you forgotten the incident of last August in Jharkhand, where a judge on a morning walk was murdered for giving an anti-people judgment? Two people surrendered in the case after two days. Do you remember? Do not even think that Karnataka Muslims have accepted your judgment. If untoward things happen, let me clarify that the judges alone will be responsible.”

Few members of TNTJ were booked by TN police after this speech.

Now what according to you reader is Islamophobia here:

a. Giving Y-category security.

b. Arresting TNTJ members.

according to me none, because both a and b were done due to a rational fear of followers of Islam.

Case 2:

Film director Vivek Agnihotri was given Y- Category security as he received threats from certain community that was offended by his movie.

Now what according to you reader is Islamophobia here:

a. Making a movie on some real incident that puts muslims in a bad light.

b.Giving security to the director that made such a movie.

according to me none, because a is director’s right to freedom of expression and b is done due to a rational fear of followers of Islam.

Conclusively:

You see In India hatred between various communities do exist. It is very normal for two entities in a society to develop some kind of animosity for each other due to one reason or the other.

But to say that Indians are Islamophobic is an exaggeration.

On the other hand from the above two cases one can see that those who have a fear of Islam in India certainly have some rationality behind their fear.

High status individuals like judges and movie directors are being threatened publicly by the followers of Islam. Then this fear of Islam cant be called as Islamophobia (irrational fear of Islam).

We Need You. Contribute to Indo Defence Talks:Click on the button below.