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March 9, 2002
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Saturday
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Zilhaj 24, 1422
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Where is world conscience?
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Where is world conscience?
THE number of dead in the communal riots in India has crossed 1,000, but a mysterious silence seems to have descended on the world capitals. The way New Delhi condoned, by its inaction, the handling of the slaughter in Gujarat by that state’s extreme rightwing government is shocking. The death toll in Ahmadabad alone crossed the 300 mark within 72 hours of the Godhra train-burning incident, for which Muslims were dubiously blamed. Instigated by their leaders, Hindu mobs then went on a rampage, looting, killing and raping Muslim victims, and destroying mosques, while the police stood by and watched. The dead included a Muslim ex-MP and 19 members of his family, who were burnt alive. Independent media reports now confirm that the Gujarat government did nothing to control the situation, which resulted in the loss of so many innocent lives. No wonder, the international media raised questions about the secular credentials of Indian democracy and focused on the Hindutva politics unabashedly pursued by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its Hindu fundamentalist coalition partners.
Regretfully, except Pakistan and Bangladesh, no other government or international organization has so much as raised eyebrows over the appalling loss of life and the barbarities committed on Indian Muslims. A solitary and somewhat warped statement issued by the US State Department showed a lack of sense of proportion when it condemned “senseless acts of violence” lumping together the widespread violence in Gujarat and the attack on a mosque in Rawalpindi, as if the two were linked. The European Union, the United Nations, the Commonwealth, Amnesty International and other human rights groups around the world seem to have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the victims. Despite the widespread coverage the violence received in the international media, relief agencies, such as the Red Cross, have not made their presence felt in any of the shelters where Muslim survivors of the carnage had sought refuge by the thousands.
The case of the Muslim minority in India is not much different from that of the white minority in Zimbabwe, where Mr Mugabe’s government is accused of condoning the black majority’s pillage of the minority community’s property and of endangering white lives. Though the number of white Zimbabwean victims has been far less than that of the Muslim victims in India, the recently-concluded Commonwealth summit in Australia minced no words in condemning the former. The EU and the US have also added their voice to Britain’s indictment of the Zimbabwean government’s policies. Unfortunately, they have not shown the same concerns when it came to the riots in India.
The Indian Muslims by and large form part of India’s economically depressed and backward multitude. The fact that they are a minority within the voiceless millions of India further compounds their mise
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