Amid Backlash Over Sexist, Islamophobic Posts, Union Minister Says India Heaven For Muslims
Tejasvi Surya, BJP MP from Bengaluru South has been in the eye of the storm for the past few days for a now-deleted tweet that has alleged Islamophobic and sexist overtones.
In the 2015 tweet, Surya had quoted Pakistani Canadian writer Tarek Fatah and said that: "95% Arab women have never had an orgasm in the last few hundred years! Every mother has produced kids as act of sex and not love:@TarekFatah."
The five-year-old tweet snowballed into a massive political controversy after several prominent figures from the middle east shared the screenshot of it.?
Dubai-based businesswoman Noora AlGhurair, who said she ¡°pitied his upbringing that has taught him to disrespect women¡±. She also warned him against ¡°travelling to Arab lands if he is ever bestowed a foreign ministry¡±?
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This had come at a time when several social media users of Indian origin living and working in the middle east have been called out for their offensive social media posts.Many of them had landed in trouble for linking Muslims with the spread of COVID-19 in India following the Tablgi Jamaat event in Delhi.
Recently, Princess Hend al Qassimi of the Sharjah Royal Family, warned a Twitter user after he put out several tweets targeting Muslims over the COVID-19 pandemic. "Your ridicule will not go unnoticed," she wrote.?
On Monday, Indian ambassador to the UAE, Pavan Kapoor, tweeted: ¡°India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this.¡±
The alleged harassment of Muslims accusing them of spreading COIVD-19 had also raised concerns from several corners including the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday urged India to take "urgent steps" to protect the rights of its minority Muslim community and stop the incidents of "Islamophobia" in the country.
Reacting to the allegation, minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday said Muslims are prosperous in the country and those trying to vitiate the atmosphere cannot be their friends. "We are doing our job with conviction. The prime minister whenever he speaks, he talks about the rights and welfare of 130 crore Indians."?
"If somebody cannot see this, then it is their problem. India's Muslims, its minorities, all its sections, are prosperous and those people trying to vitiate this atmosphere of prosperity, they cannot be friends of Indian Muslims," he told reporters.The minority affairs minister asserted "secularism and harmony¡± is not a "political fashion", but a "perfect passion" for India and Indians.
