Indonesia, Malaysia protest Indian officials’ comments insulting Prophet Mohammed

Indonesia and Malaysia summoned their Indian ambassadors over comments made by two Modi government officials insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Egyptian scholar Omar Abdelkafy urged viewers of his popular YouTube channel this week to boycott Indian products.

Indonesia and Malaysia are the latest Muslim-majority countries to summon their Indian ambassadors over comments made by two Modi government officials insulting the Prophet Mohammed, as the fallout over the issue continues across the Islamic world.

Anger is spreading over the highly incendiary remarks made by a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party who has since been suspended, while ­another senior party media chief who posted a tweet about the comments has been expelled.

The BJP also issued a statement saying it “strongly denounces insults of any religious personalities of any religion (and) is against any ideology which ­insults or demeans any sect or ­religion. The BJP does not promote such people or philosophy”.

But that may not be enough given the sharp rise in anti-Islamic hate speech and attacks on Muslims since the Hindu nationalist BJP came to power in 2014.

Qatar has demanded a public apology with its Deputy Foreign Minister, Lolwah al-Khater, warning; “Islamophobic discourse has reached dangerous levels in a country long known for its diversity and coexistence”.

Kuwaiti and Qatari supermarkets have been removing Indian products from their shelves while some Islamic scholars have called for a total boycott of Indian goods and products.

Egyptian scholar Omar ­Abdelkafy urged viewers of his popular YouTube channel this week to “hit them in what they worship, which is money”. “Boycott their products. Boycott their stores. Boycott the goods they ­export to us,” he said.

At least 15 countries, including critical trading partners such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, and UAE, have lodged protests with India over the comments, raising fears the issue could damage ­bilateral ties.

Trade between India and Gulf Co-operation Council countries is worth at least $US87bn a year. India relies heavily on Qatar for natural gas, and on Saudi Arabia and Iraq for oil.

India’s ambassador to Jakarta, Manoj Kumar Bharti, was summoned this week by the Indonesian foreign ministry, which issued a statement strongly condemning the “unacceptable derogatory remarks”, while the Indonesian Ulema Council urged Jakarta to convene bilateral interfaith talks to address religious ­intolerance in India.

Malaysia said it too “unreservedly condemns the derogatory ­remarks” and had conveyed its “total repudiation” to India’s envoy. “Malaysia calls upon India to work together in ending the ­Islamophobia and cease any provocative acts in the interest of peace and stability,” it said.

BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma made the remarks about the Prophet and his wife Aisha during a heated television debate last month over a demand by Hindu nationalists to be allowed to pray at the Gyanyapi mosque in the holy city of Varanasi, which they claim is built on the remains of a 16th-century Hindu shrine.

The campaign has raised fears of a repeat of the deadly 1992 communal riots triggered by a Hindu mob’s destruction of the 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya in which 2000 people were killed.

Ms Sharma has since claimed she was responding to insults made against the Hindu god Shiva, though her anti-Muslim comments are hardly the first in India – a country increasingly divided along religious lines.

Many blame the BJP for championing Hindu primacy and stoking intolerance of its minority Muslim community which, at more than 200 million, is still one of the world’s largest.

India’s foreign ministry has hit back at comments by the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation that the remarks were made in a “context of intensifying hatred and abuse toward Islam in India and systematic practices against Muslims”.

Yet in recent years Indian Muslims have found themselves the target of heightened attacks, including lynch mobs targeting suspected cow smugglers and meat vendors, online trolling of Muslim women – some of whom have been put up for sale in fake auctions – and a campaign against so-called love-jihad inter-religious marriages.

In 2018, Interior Minister Amit Shah said Bangladeshi citizens who had entered India illegally were “infiltrators” who had “eaten our country like termites”.