DUBAI: An advisory body of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) bloc on Sunday condemned the Islamophobic campaign targeting Muslims for the spread of Covid and urged the Indian government to take urgent steps to stop the growing tide of Islamophobia in India.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also spoke on the “deliberate and violent targeting” of Muslims in India by the Modi government to “divert the backlash over its Covid policy, which has left thousands stranded and hungry”.
Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC), which made the observations, is an expert body with advisory capacity established by OIC. Pakistan is a founder-member of the OIC and sources said it must have been disappointed that the statement did not come from its more influential organs such as the Contact Group of Foreign Ministers or the OIC itself.
The Commission also spoke against the alleged negative profiling of Muslim in the Indian media and subjecting them to discrimination and violence.
This particular department of OIC had also weighed on the change in domicile status in J&K by terming it as an attempt to alter its demographic and geographic status.
It had also commented on the Delhi riots in February which it described as “organised violence” and had last year invited the “PoK President” Sardar Masood Khan to attend its regular session.
However, in this case, the Commission may be reflecting the growing number of voices on the social media from the Gulf countries expressing concern over the repeated cornering of Muslims in India with some hotheads threatening expatriate Hindus working in Arab countries with expulsion if Muslim targeting continued.
Princess Hend Al Qassimi from UAE has been especially vocal, sharply putting down Indian expatriates taking to Islamophobia. In a social media post today, she welcomed India sending HCQ tablets. But she also quoted Gandhi in another social media post and said, “he won my heart and I believe in his peaceful approach to handling hatred”.