India’s Muslim leaders to unite against growing anti-Muslim persecution
New Delhi: India’s leading Muslim religious organizations, scholars and political leaders will gather in New Delhi next week to formulate a joint strategy against the growing persecution of Muslims, including mob lynchings, bulldozer demolitions, attacks on Islamic institutions and discriminatory government actions.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the meeting, scheduled for July 24, will bring together representatives of some of India’s most influential Muslim organizations, including Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadith and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. Opposition leaders, including AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid and Member of Parliament Mohibullah Nadvi, are also expected to attend.
Syed Sarwar Chishti, spiritual head and custodian of the Ajmer Sharif Sufi shrine, said the meeting had been called in response to years of injustice against Muslims in India. He said attacks on mosques, madrasas, Sufi shrines and Muslim educational institutions, along with bulldozer demolitions of Muslim homes and mob lynchings and police actions against Muslim youths, have created deep anger anxiety and insecurity within the community.
Chishti said Muslim leaders believe the time has come to move beyond reacting to individual incidents and instead adopt a coordinated national approach. He said the participants would discuss practical legal, political and social measures to safeguard the constitutional rights of Muslims while promoting national unity and communal harmony.
The meeting is expected to deliberate on issues including vigilante violence by Hindutva groups, demolitions of Muslim properties, disputes involving mosques, madrasas and Sufi shrines, police action against Muslim youths and growing discrimination against Muslims in different spheres of public life.
Organizers said the gathering would conclude with the adoption of a joint resolution and a national roadmap outlining future legal, social and public advocacy initiatives aimed at protecting the rights of India’s more than 200 million Muslims.
The meeting comes amid sustained criticism from UN human rights experts and international rights organizations, which have documented increasing anti-Muslim hate speech, vigilante violence and punitive demolitions in India in recent years, concerns that the Indian government has repeatedly rejected.
