Table of Contents for A Hindu Critiques Islam:
- Chapters 1-3: Doctrinal Failings, Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta Critique, What “Islamophobia” Shields
- Chapter 4: Social Status and Genocide Denial
- Chapter 5: Neoliberalism Empowers Islamism
- Chapter 6: Did the British Partition of 1947 Gradually Decline the UK and Bolster India?
- Chapter 7: Islamic Terrorism’s 1st-Generation was Al Qaeda, 2nd-Generation was ISIS, and a 3rd-Generation’s making a Digital Caliphate from “Islamophobia” Censorship
- Chapter 8: The Partition of Free Speech
- Chapters 9 and 10: Follies of Islam Repurposed and Islamism Always Creates Failed States
Extras: Islam’s 200-years of Mass Genocide of Iran, Islam’s 500-years of Mass Genocide of India, and judging from Wikipedia, Islamic Terrorism makes-up 58% of all Terror incidents in India between 1980 – 2024 and that’s lowballing it.
8/26/2025 Update: Updated the parts about CAA, as India has already added a fast-tracking of Christians since it was initially enacted back in 2019. My sincerest apologies for that blunder.
Source: Tharoor, Shashi, et al. “Shashi Tharoor versus Christopher Hitchens, Free Speech Debate at Hay Festival on Saturday 27 May 2006 and Chaired by Joan Bakewell.” YouTube, Hay Festival, 30 Dec. 2011, youtu.be/jw3dDbc1BHE.
Those who purport the argument that it is bigoted to say Islam is incompatible with democratic rules and values are ignorant of its history in South Asia. In US grade school, I was fed the lie that the Partition of 1947 happened due to mutual religious bigotry between Hindus and Muslims. What these claims originating from British historical narratives, the anti-Hinduism arguments in the US and Western corporate news media, and the general US and European ignorance omit are the difference in ideals that led to the Two-Nation theory which gradually led to the British Partition of India in 1947. On March 12th, 2015, an article titled “Salmaan Taseer murder case harks back to 1929 killing of Hindu publisher” by journalist Jon Boone was published on The Guardian. It gives a brief summary explaining the main cause of disunity between Hindus and Muslims during British colonial rule that led to the Two-Nation theory and subsequent British Partition of India on August 14th, 1947:
Salmaan Taseer murder case harks back to 1929 killing of Hindu publisher
Many Pakistanis argue Mumtaz Qadri should be regarded as a national hero like Ilm-Deen, who knifed the publisher of a commentary on the life of prophet Muhammad
Mudassir Khan visits the tomb of Ghazi Shaheed Ilm-Deen every day to add to the heap of flower petals on top of his grave and sing a tearful prayer to the illiterate carpenter’s apprentice who killed to protect the honour of his faith.
Like hundreds of others who come daily to the gaudily decorated enclosure in the middle of Lahore’s main graveyard, the restaurant owner reveres the 20-year-old executed for his crime more than 85 years ago.
“In the other shrines you have to pray for half an hour,” Khan said. “But here God answers our prayers in minutes.”
In a country bursting with shrines of saints honoured for their wisdom or righteousness, Ilm-Deen’s tomb is perhaps the only one where a framed copy of a murder charge takes pride of place next to the tomb.
It relates to events that happened before Pakistan came into existence but still resonate with many people who see parallels with the contemporary case of Mumtaz Qadri, the former police bodyguard who murdered one of Pakistan’s best-known politicians in the name of blasphemy in 2011.
The charge sheet details how on 6 April 1929, Ilm-Deen “brutally attacked” with a knife the Lahore-based publisher of Rangeela Rasool, a book that had enraged many Muslims with its scurrilous commentary on the life of the prophet Muhammad.
The “first investigation report” on the wall of the shrine says Mahashay Rajpal, the Hindu victim, had tried to defend himself by throwing piles of books at Ilm-Deen, who was soon arrested, still holding the murder weapon.
The killing turned the young man into a hero, earning him the honorifics Ghazi and Shaheed and ensuring he remained famous almost a century later, in part thanks to a popular film celebrating the incident.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the lawyer who would found the new state of Pakistan 18 years later, travelled from Mumbai, then known as Bombay, to Lahore to defend Ilm-Deen in his appeal hearing but was unable to save him from being hanged by the colonial government.
His funeral was attended by tens of thousands, including Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan’s national poet, who gave a graveside eulogy.
The saga has particular resonance today among hardline Barelvis, Pakistan’s largest grouping of Sunni Muslims, not just because devotion to the prophet is central to their faith, but because they argue Qadri should also be regarded as a national hero.
This week Qadri took a step closer to becoming a modern day Ilm-Deen when Islamabad’s high court upheld his conviction for murder, a decision that predictably outraged the hundreds of demonstrators who have gathered outside the courthouse for each appeal hearing.
“In 1929 we could not stop the execution of the lover of the prophet because the British were in power and Muslims were a minority,” said Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a mullah who made the journey from Lahore just to protest. “Now there is a Muslim government in Pakistan and we will not obey our leaders if they execute Qadri.”
Qadri enjoys widespread support for his murder of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, because of the outrage Taseer sparked by his campaign to win a pardon for Asia Bibi, a poor Christian woman sentenced to death under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws.
Although at least one popular mosque has been named after Qadri, he has a long way to go to match Ilm-Deen, whose name has been given to parks, roads, hospitals and even a government guesthouse in Islamabad.
Both the Ilm-Deen and Qadri cases touch on Pakistan’s perennial, and increasingly bitter, debate about the role of Islam in national affairs.
Abdul Majeed, a retired soldier turned mullah who runs a mosque near Ilm-Deen’s shrine, claimed the saga was one of the inspirations for the “two nation theory” later used to justify the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
“It was one of the reasons for the Hindu-Muslim divide,” said Majeed, who has written a short history of Ilm-Deen called The Flower Who Sent a Blasphemer to Hell. “It made us realise we are separate nations.”
Liberal lawyer and historian Yasser Latif Hamdani said Jinnah only acted on the “cab-rank rule” to take a case for which, as one of India’s top barristers, he was paid a handsome fee.
But Hamdani conceded the involvement of educated members of the Muslim elite, such as Jinnah and Iqbal, was “a major failing”.
“It has allowed basically half-educated lawyers to get up and say Jinnah appeared in this case and now we’re doing this,” he said. “Pakistan has to divorce itself from this history because a society that makes heroes out of Ilm-Deen is likely to end up with murderers like Qadri.”
In an extraordinary twist the two killings span the generations of one family: Salmaan Taseer’s father, the celebrated Urdu poet Muhammad Din Taseer, was among Ilm-Deen’s supporters, helping raise funds for his defence and donating the shroud in which the carpenter was buried.
Almost a century later, his grandson, the artist Shaan Taseer, has emerged as a leading voice against religious extremism and formally petitioned the Islamabad high court to uphold the death sentence for his father’s killer.
He argues that the historical context of Qadri’s case is different from that of Ilm-Deen, who Taseer said was a rallying point for Muslim pride and Muslim interests in the late colonial period.
“Defending the interests of the Muslim community of India is not the same as fighting for Islam,” he said.[1]
[1] Boone, Jon. “Salmaan Taseer Murder Case Harks Back to 1929 Killing of Hindu Publisher.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Mar. 2015, www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/12/salmaan-taseer-case-harks-back-to-1929-killing-of-hindu-publisher.
I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand how genuinely stupid pro-neoliberal British policymakers were to have had all the information available about this history that happened under their rule, which is part of their own history too, and then decided to import people who literally broke apart and created their own country because they have full, unyielding faith that Islam is incompatible with the democratic norms and values of Free Speech. The British committed the Partition of 1947 themselves; yet, they are shocked and confused by Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs and Muslims protesting to stamp out Free Speech in Britain, just like they did in India. This is how ignorant the version of British colonial history leaves people and how useless it is in the utility of understanding how to deal with Islamic terrorists in South Asia and beyond that exist today. Hindus of India were telling us all this for decades and the US Corporate media circus all thought that Hindus of India were just being backwards and regressive. They clearly don’t have much of an education on basic information regarding the political systems of South Asia or its history, they don’t understand that Islamists really want to regress all civilizations to 7th century standards, and the Corporate news media’s actions have wholeheartedly proven it with their selective headlines. They destroyed their own credibility to protect people who genuinely want to regress their civilizations to 7th century living standards.
What most who don’t research or try to learn anything about Islam’s violent history fail to understand is that the majority of Muslims across the world today are serious about regressing all non-Muslim societies to 7th century living standards due to their absolute faith in the Abrahamic God. The majority of Muslims are serious about murdering anyone who hurts their feelings regarding Islam and it has no relation to terrorism or any form of supposed radicalism whatsoever. It has to do with Islam’s theology itself. I think most people are sufficiently aware of how the Quran promotes and sanctifies murder as a religious duty that is incumbent upon Muslims towards all non-Muslims such as Quran 8:12-14, 8:39, 8:67, the theological concept of Jihad, and many more internal issues. How strongly is the belief in bid’ah though? Without getting too pedantic, an article published on May 9th, 1998 under the supervisory of Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid on his website Islamqa.info, titled “Bid’ah Hasanah (“Good Innovations”)” (PDF) explained the theological problems of accepting any change in Islam:
It should be clear from the above, with no room for doubt, that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was not allowing innovation in matters of deen (religion), nor was he opening the door to what some people call “bid’ah hasanah,” for the following reasons:
- The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stated repeatedly that: “Every newly-invented thing is a bid’ah (innovation), every bid’ah is a going astray, and every going astray will be in the Fire.” (Reported by An-Nasa’i in al-Sunan, Salaat al-‘Eedayn, Baab kayfa al-Khutbah). Reports with the same meaning were narrated via Jaabir (may Allah be pleased with him) by Ahmad, via al-‘Irbaad ibn Saariyah by Abu Dawud and via Ibn Mas’ood (may Allah be pleased with him) by Ibn Maajah.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to say, when beginning a khutbah (sermon): ” The best of speech is the Book of Allah and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. The worst of things are those which are newly-invented, and every innovation is a going astray” (reported by Muslim, no. 867)
If every bid’ah is a going astray, how can some people then say that there is such a thing in Islam as “bid’ah hasanah”? By Allah, this is an obvious contradiction of the statement and warning of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
- The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stated that whoever innovates something new in the deen (religion) will have his deed rejected, and Allah will not accept it, as is stated in the hadith narrated by ‘Aa’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Whoever innovates something in this matter of ours that is not a part of it will have it rejected.'” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, Fath al-Baari, no. 2697). How can anybody then say that bid’ah is acceptable and it is permitted to follow it?
- When a person innovates something and adds to the deen something that does not belong to it, he is implying a number of bad things, each worse than the last, for example:
- That the religion is lacking, that Allah did not complete and perfect it, and that there is room for improvement. This clearly contradicts the statement in the Quran (interpretation of the meaning): ” This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion” [al-Maa’idah 5:3]
- That the religion remained imperfect from the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) until the time when this innovator came along and completed it with his own ideas.
- That the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was “guilty” of either of two things: either he was ignorant of this “good innovation,” or he knew about it but concealed it, thus letting his ummah down by not conveying it.
- That the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), his Companions and the righteous salaf (early generations) missed out on the reward of this “good innovation” – until this innovator came along and earned it for himself, despite the fact that he should say to himself, “If it was truly good, they would have been the first to do it.”
- Opening the door to bid’ah leads to changing the deen (religion) and opens the way for personal whims and opinions, because every innovator implies that what he is introducing is something good, so whose opinion are we supposed to follow, and which of them should we take as a leader?
- Following bid’ah leads to the cancelling out of sunnah practices and the ways of the salaf. Real life bears witness that whenever a bid’ah is followed, a sunnah practice dies out; the reverse is also true.
We ask Allah to save us from the misguidance of personal whims and from all trials whether they are open or secret. And Allah knows best.[1]
[1] “Bid’Ah Hasanah (‘Good Innovations’) – Islam Question & Answer.” Edited by Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid, Islamqa.Info, Islam Question & Answer, 9 May 1998, islamqa.info/en/answers/864/bid-ah-hasanah-(%22good-innovations%22).
They attempted to claim it has nothing to do with technology, but that’s not true when you read information about Islam’s Day of Resurrection, whereby it is believed that weaponry will regress back to swords, bows, and arrows when the Mahdi fights against Satan and the Anti-Messiah until Jesus Christ comes to rescue the true believing Muslims.[1] This is honestly what Islamists kill people for. Pew Research Center published a survey on the beliefs of the majority of Muslims worldwide on April 30th, 2013. While the information may seem a bit dated, it is still very useful and many Muslim countries like Iraq have regressed instead of progressed due to the theological underpinning of bid’ah in Islam. On May 7th, 2013, Pew Research added full details of the sample sizes used on the front page of the report. Here are full sample sizes and dates when they were conducted before going further:
And their self-reported beliefs across the Islamic world:
Source: “Chapter 1: Beliefs about Sharia.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/.
Source: “Chapter 3: Morality.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-morality/.
Source: “Chapter 4: Women in Society.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-women-in-society/.
Source: “Chapter 5: Relations among Muslims.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-relationship-among-muslims/.
Source: “Chapter 6: Interfaith Relations.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-interfaith-relations/.
Source: “Chapter 7: Religion, Science and Popular Culture.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-science-and-popular-culture/.
It may sound bigoted, but it is simply the truth that the majority of Muslims in the world don’t want their living standards to increase unless they can forcibly reconstruct and squeeze it into being consistent with 7th century Arab fundamentalism. While it may be too hard for most Muslims in the world to dismiss modern conveniences, the majority make no secret that they want to erase all social value systems outside of Islam like women’s rights, legal penalizations of child rape, children’s rights to avoid molestation and rape, LGBT rights, and all advancements of other cultures such as Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and other scientific advancements. I know how insane that sounds because it is so out of the norm of our expectations within more advanced cultures, but the self-reported survey data, the theology of Islam itself, and the behavior of the majority of Muslims across the world are all consistent on these issues. It really is the majority of Muslims across the world who hold such views. This is the painful reality of the world we live in and the true reason why US policymakers kept failing, they didn’t offer any ideals to counter Islam or allow open criticism of Islam when Iraq and Afghanistan were under occupation. The fact remains that Islam and democratic norms and values are incompatible; worse than that for non-Muslims, everyone has been making excuses for the behavior of Islamists even when they murder people on the basis of defending Islam. It simply can’t get any more explicit or barbarous than that. Saying not all Muslims or applauding when Muslims act like every other person in a situation and don’t choose to murder is simply praising them for doing the bare minimum of human decency; the pernicious argument is that having respect for others human rights just like everyone else is an accomplishment for Muslims. Are all non-Muslims thereby expected to jeopardize their own lives just to give Muslims chance after chance when the majority of Muslims argue they want to live within 7th century Arab fundamentalist standards everywhere? Are we supposed to constantly jeopardize our own lives, and are parents constantly required to jeopardize the lives of their daughters, due to religious tolerance – the belief that all mythology everywhere in the world leads to the same behavioral outcomes?
Has Anything Truly Changed between Islam’s Past and Present?
The main reason US policymakers failed in Afghanistan was that by not truly understanding history, they merely became another victim to it in Islam’s long history of victories. Liberals in the US and the West are too focused on narratives of White Supremacy and ignore 7th century Arab Supremacy that has been given a theological veneer to their detriment. Right-wing Christian groups refuse to acknowledge or accept that Muslims believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah of Islam, because it makes them feel uncomfortable in their faith in Christianity. The final reason is that, due to the falsehoods of Neoliberal economic beliefs about progress, the majority of the US and Western economists wrongly believe that there’s a slow movement towards economic progress and that everyone would find this economic progress desirable in modern times. The truth is that Islamists reject modern value systems and view themselves as entitled to enter into other countries in order to impose Islamism upon them. They view the failures as the calculated conspiracy theories of other groups trying to oppress Muslims. For the most part, they merely hide the behavior better or threaten violence if people offend them to scare others into silence. This is why the most logical outcome for Europe for the importing of so many Islamic immigrants will likely lead to breakaway Islamic States that partition from their respective European countries in the coming 60 years or so; because every single time there is a push to support initiatives like pro-Islamophobia campaigns, Islamists can more freely or discretely continue their conversion tactics, rape crimes against young girls via rape conversions, and many other despicable acts while presenting themselves as an aggrieved minority. These are real behaviors that Islamists do. The dreams of higher GDPs by Neoliberals who behave politically correct towards all religious values will likely lead to the future partitions of Europe once Islamic populations become large enough. For what it’s worth, I hope I am wrong and that people can laugh at this belief I have in sixty or so years from now and view me as a fool for having it.
This leads to a crucial question: what has actually changed about Islam from its nascent history to now? What reforms have actually happened? It seems to me that not much has changed among Muslims globally judging from the current data, past history, and the contemporary political issues. I cannot write a list of all historical Islamic atrocities upon other cultures, but what I can do is highlight some examples that Islamists want removed from history and have largely succeeded in removing, specifically because it would make their fellow Muslims doubt their faith. For India’s history, thanks to US, Indian, and Western Indologists like Wendy Doniger, Sheldon Pollock, Audrey Truschke, Cynthia Talbot, Romila Thapar, and Andrew Nicholson using academic freedom as a shield for their vehement support for both cultural and physical genocide, Hindus are vilified as conspiracy theorists when talking about these issues with Religious Studies departments who mostly have no knowledge of India’s history and especially lack knowledge of Islamic theology; at the same time, history departments in the US and the West quietly mention or keep this history in mind when in passing so as not to offend Muslim feelings with historical facts. When reading more into history, I’ve learned it isn’t just the case that those who ignore it are doomed to repeat it, but those who are left ignorant because people like those US, Western, and Indian Indologists willfully lie and keep others purposefully ignorant about Islam’s theology, their lies confuse the majority of non-experts and they protect the malicious activities like Islamic theology’s support for the capture and rape of young girls, which continues unimpeded. For me, the most shocking part of historian Kishori Saran Lal’s truthful account of India’s history in his out-of-print magnum opus, Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, was that the slave system imposed on Indian women by Muslim warlords by putting them in cages repeated itself with ISIS’s Sabaya / Slave system upon young Yazidi girls.[1][2][3] When I recognized the disturbing comparison . . . I genuinely wonder how many lives could have been saved had the US, Western European, and the Indian Indologists who supported them like Romila Thapar had simply been honest about Islam’s history in India. That question honestly keeps bothering me every time I read the descriptions and footnotes of K.S. Lal’s explanation of the slave markets and Islamic conversions through a slave system and the NY Times article on the suffering of young Yazidi girls who were caged, raped, and killed.[4][5][6]
Details of how ubiquitous the capture and enslavement of women and their children were in Medieval India by Sultans and their Islamic military forces can be found in historian Kishori Saran Lal’s works in which he cites Muslim geographers, travelers, and court officials. In both the “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India” on pages 113 – 116 of Chapter 10: AD 1200 – 1400 in the subsection “Conversion during Wars” and in another of his books, “Indian Muslims: Who Are They?” on pages 23 – 27 of “Chapter 2: Rise of Muslims under the Sultanate” he gives the same thorough information:
Cultural Genocide
Both the Islamist regime of Iran and the Western Indologists have whitewashed Islam’s brutality from the history books. Most Iranians have probably heard of the two-hundred years of genocide that Arab conquerors committed to support the Islamic colonization of Iran, but they don’t seem to know the specifics of what happened to their ancestors.
Unfortunately, cultural genocide is the norm of Islamic conquest and imposing Islamic values in a society. From historian Kishori Saran Lal’s Part III, chapter seven of Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India in response to the disturbing amount of genocide denial in India’s domestic educational institutions:
- It is re-asserted that a strict watch was kept on Hindu thought and expression. Hindu learning in general was suppressed since Hindu and Buddhist schools were attached to temples and monasteries. These were regularly destroyed from the very beginning and with them schools of learning. Qutbuddin Aibak razed the Sanskrit College of Vishaldeva at Ajmer and in its place built a mosque called Arhai din ka Jhonpra. In the east Ikhtiyauddin Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked the Buddhist university centres in Bihar like Odantapuri, Nalanda and Vikramshila between 1197-1202. There, according to the contemporary chronicler Minhaj Siraj, “the greater number of the inhabitants of the place were Brahmans, and the whole of those Brahmans had their heads shaven (probably Buddhist monks mistaken for Brahmans) and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there; and the Musalmans… summoned a number of Hindus that they might give them information respecting the import of these books; but the whole of the Hindus had been killed.” All that the invader could learn was that “the whole of the fortress was a college and in the Hindi tongue, they call a college (madrasa) Bihar.”2 During this period there were large numbers of centres of learning spread all over India. B. P. Mazumdar has listed some of these centres in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as existing in Northern India. In Bihar they were Nalanda, Vikramshila, Odantapuri and Phullahari near Monghyr. In North and Eastern Bengal they were Jagaddala, Somapura and Devikota in North Bengal, Vikrampuri in Dacca, Pattikeraka in Comilla, and Panditavihara in Chittagong. Minor viharas were in existence at Gaya and Valabhi and Bundelkhand.
Hieun Tsang, in the seventh century, had noted that monasteries existed in all parts of the country. Many of these continued to flourish in the eleventh-twelfth centuries. Hiuen Tsang’s list included “Nagarkot, Udyana, Jalandhar, Sthanesvara, Srughna Matipura, Brahmapura, Govisana, Ahichchatra, Samkasya, Kanauj, Navadevakula, Ayodhya, Hayamuka, Prayag, Visoka, Kapilvastu, Banaras, Ramagrama, Ghazipur, Tilosika, Gunamati, Silabhadra near Gaya, Kajangala, Pundravardhana, Kamarupa, Samatata, Orissa, Berar, Malwa, Valabhi, Anandapura, Surat, Ujjayini and Chitor.” The adventurer Ikhtiayaruddin Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked Bihar during sultan Aibak’s reign, and centres of learning were specially sacked. So thorough was the massacre by the Khalji warrior in Bihar and later on by others in other places that those who could read ancient inscriptions became rare if not extinct. So that when Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (fourteenth century) shifted two Ashokan pillars from Khizrabad and Meerut to Delhi and installed them there, he called some learned Brahmans to read the inscriptions engraved in Ashokan Brahmi script on the pillars; they failed to read the script. Some of them tried to please the Sultan with funny stories by saying that it was recorded in the inscriptions that no one would be able to remove the monoliths till the advent of Firoz.3
Demolition of schools and temples was continued by most Muslim rulers right up to the time of Aurangzeb, both at the centre and in the provinces. Aurangzeb was one of the enthusiastic sort in this respect, although he was no exception.
The Maasir-i-Alamgiri records that in April 1669, “It reached the ears of his Majesty, the protector of the faith, that in the province of Thatta, Multan, and Banaras, but especially in the latter, foolish Brahmans were in the habit of expounding frivolous books in their schools, and that students and learners, Muslims as well as Hindus went there, even from long distances, led by the desire to become acquainted with the wicked sciences they taught. The Director of the Faith, consequently issued orders to all governors of provinces to destroy with a willing band the schools and temples of the infidels. In obedience of this order the temple of Bishnath at Banaras was destroyed.”4 With such evidences on hand, Jackson is forced to concede that “some limited degree of repression may have been feasible in Delhi or in the vicinity of the sultan’s itinerant court; it was surely impractical in the provincial centres, still more so in the countryside”. I have resided in Delhi, Bhopal and Hyderabad (Deccan) for many years. In all these places I could hardly locate any temples left of the medieval period. Hindu learning was dependent on schools and Brahman teachers, and both were attached to temples mostly in urban areas. And all the three – schools, teachers and temples – were systematically destroyed. Muslim rulers in general and Firoz Tuglaq and Sikandar Lodi in particular considered the Brahmans as ‘the very keys of chambers of idolatry” and treated them with great severity.5 The level of education in the countryside is not known. But the credit for whatever could be- saved of Hindu education goes to the freedom fighters of medieval India and not to the indulgence of the Muslim government.[1]
[1] Lal, Kishori Saran. “Part III: Reposte on Reviews: VII A Riposte on Reviews: 7.1 The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India.” Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India, 2020th ed., Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, Delhi, 1999, pp. 324–327.
For this next one, I want it to be made clear that this professor and her colleagues point to political self-interest and not religion as the primary cause. When I examined the broader context of Islamic history, what the perpetrators state their motives are, and the underpinnings of Islam’s theology itself; I would argue the primary cause is definitely Islam, but they do not argue or believe that and I want that to be clear because I’m not trying to take their words out of context.
Art historian Kavita Singh, a professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics of Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, details the historic and contemporary examples of cultural genocide of Afghanistan in chapter 8 “When Peace Is Defeat, Reconstruction Is Damage: “Rebuilding” Heritage in Post-conflict Sri Lanka and Afghanistan” of the free online book “Cultural Heritage and Mass Atrocities” sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Trust philanthropic institute:
Afghanistan too has suffered greatly in the past half century. Its economy, society, and polity have been shattered by seemingly endless strife. The era of Taliban rule, from 1996 to 2001, was a particularly low point in its difficult history. This was a brutal government that committed countless atrocities against its own people while supporting the international terrorist organization al-Qaeda, which committed acts of terrorism abroad. The Taliban outlawed most kinds of music, art, and education for Afghans; even chess and soccer were forbidden, and women were no longer allowed to study or to work. All of this was well-known to the international community. But the acts that excited the greatest attention to and condemnation of the Taliban from the outside world were acts directed not against the Afghan people directly, but against works of art.
Prior to the arrival of Islam, Buddhism had been the dominant faith in Afghanistan, and many sites and museum collections were rich with artifacts in the Gandharan style that flourished from the first to the seventh century and that fused Buddhist iconography with a Hellenistic and Roman style. In 2001, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar issued a fatwa that called for the destruction of all pre-Islamic statues and sanctuaries in the land. “These statues have been and remain shrines of unbelievers,” he said. “God Almighty is the only real shrine and all fake idols should be destroyed.”9 Within weeks, Taliban forces destroyed thousands of artworks, many of which were in the Kabul Museum. Their most prominent targets, however, were the giant Buddhas of the Bamiyan Valley.
A hundred and fifty miles west of Kabul, the Bamiyan Valley is a broad, fertile basin watered by the Bamiyan River and bordered by rocky cliffs of the Hindu Kush mountains. Here, carved directly into the cliff face, was a 175-foot-tall relief sculpture that was the largest Buddha sculpture in the world. A second sculpture, at 120 feet, was small only in comparison to its colossal neighbor. Other Buddhas, seated and recumbent, were once ranged along the mountainside, and their bodies were covered in brilliant frescoes. Hundreds of artificial caves were dug into the rock to provide cells for meditation and prayer for Buddhist monks. In its heyday the valley housed an enormous monastery and a giant stupa that would have been as eye-catching as the Buddhas.
This extraordinary cluster of Buddhist monuments was mostly built in the sixth and seventh centuries, when Bamiyan was an important node in the ancient Silk Road. As a rare oasis in harsh mountainous terrain it attracted merchants and missionaries and became a prosperous center for religion and trade. From the eighth century Islam began to supplant Buddhism in the region. Buddhist sites fell out of worship, the stupa crumbled, and the vast monastery disappeared, but apart from an attack by a passing conqueror in the twelfth century, when the Buddhas probably lost their faces, the giant sculptures remained relatively intact.
In 2001, as the Taliban tried to destroy the Buddhas, they found it was not an easy task. They first attacked the statues with guns, antiaircraft missiles, and tanks. When these did not suffice, the Taliban brought in explosives experts from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. On their advice, workers rappelled down the cliff with jackhammers, blasting holes in the sculptures and packing these with dynamite that was detonated in timed explosions. A journalist from the al-Jazeera media network was allowed to film the final stage of the Buddhas’ destruction, and shortly afterward a contingent of twenty international journalists was brought in to observe the now-empty niches.
The Taliban’s determined assault on the Buddhas went forward even as global leaders pleaded with Mullah Omar to spare them. Governments of Islamic countries including Egypt and Qatar tried to reason with the Afghan leaders, and a delegation of clerics led by the mufti of the al-Azhar seminary in Cairo, the most prestigious Sunni for the study of Islamic law, was flown to the Taliban’s de facto capital of Kandahar to dissuade Mullah Omar from destroying the statues.
Why, then, did the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas become a prestige project for the Afghan leader, a task to be “implemented at all costs”?10 Why, despite the pressure applied by global leaders, did the Taliban invest so much time, labor, and expense in the difficult task of demolition and in ensuring that it was broadcast to the rest of the world? And why was Mullah Omar so determined to destroy the Buddhas two years after he had solemnly promised to protect them? In 1999 he had declared that as there were no Buddhists remaining in Afghanistan, the Buddhas were not idols under worship, and there was no religious reason to attack them. Instead, he said his government considered them “a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamiyan shall not be destroyed but protected.”11 What accounts for the Taliban’s volte-face, in which a religious motivation, earlier dismissed as irrelevant, was used to now justify the attack?[1]
[1] Singh, Kavita. “When Peace Is Defeat, Reconstruction Is Damage: ‘Rebuilding’ Heritage in Postconflict Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.” Www.Getty.Edu, J. Paul Getty Trust, 13 July 2022, www.getty.edu/publications/cultural-heritage-mass-atrocities/downloads/pages/CunoWeiss_CHMA_part-2-08-singh.pdf. For Reference: pages 157 – 159.
A reminder to the bloodthirsty members of the religion of peace: Professor Singh is well-meaning and does not attribute the cause to Islam like I do. If necessary, I can give you the definition of the word “not” so you can better understand modern language with your 7th century Arab fundamentalist belief system while you shout “ooga booga” or is it “Allahu Akbar”? Please remind me, I can hardly tell the difference between the two shouts. In any case, it is clear that the reason was Islam. While I don’t know enough about Qatar to judge, Egypt knows from approximately five-hundred years of Western Europe vandalizing the tombs of their Egyptian Pharaohs and imposing White Supremacy on their cultural history what it is like to suffer cultural genocide, but that is beyond the focus of this book. In any case, there’s more than sufficient historic and contemporary evidence and the statements of the Taliban perpetrators themselves to determine the primary cause. On March 3rd, 2001, Amir Shah of The Independent Asia quoted Taliban Information Minister Quadratullah Jamal who reiterated the following about their motives for destroying the massive Buddhas of Bamiyan statues: “Our Ulema (clerics) have given an edict. It cannot be taken back. There is no place for statues in an Islamic country,”[1]
While the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan were the most notorious act of cultural genocide by Islamists in contemporary history, they were obviously not the most recent. On February 13th, 2012, NY Times journalist Vikas Bajaj published an article titled “Vandalism at Maldives Museum Stirs Fears of Extremism” which details yet another example of cultural genocide of Dharmic heritage by Islamists:
MALE, Maldives — The broken glass from an attack by vandals on the National Museum here has been swept away, and the remnants of the Buddhist statues they destroyed — nearly 30 of them, some dating to the sixth century — have been locked away. But officials say the loss to this island nation’s archaeological legacy can never be recouped.
In the midst of the political turmoil racking this tiny Indian Ocean nation of 1,200 islands, a half-dozen men stormed into the museum last Tuesday and ransacked a collection of coral and lime figures, including a six-faced coral statue and a 1 1/2-foot-wide representation of the Buddha’s head. Officials said the men attacked the figures because they believed they were idols and therefore illegal under Islamic and national laws.
The vandalism was reminiscent of the Taliban’s demolition of the great carved Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in early 2001, and it has raised fears here that extremists are gaining ground in the Maldives, a Sunni Muslim country that historians say converted from Buddhism to Islam in the 12th century. The country has incorporated elements of Islamic law into its jurisprudence for years. Idols cannot be brought into the country, for example, and alcohol and pork products are allowed only at resorts that cater to foreigners.
The statues were destroyed on the same day that Mohamed Nasheed, who won the presidency in 2008 in the country’s first democratic election, resigned his office. Mr. Nasheed said he was forced to do so in what amounted to a coup; his opponents say he went voluntarily. For nearly a month leading up to his resignation, Islamic and other opposition political parties staged protests. Some of them criticized Mr. Nasheed for not cracking down on brothels that masquerade as massage parlors and for proposing that hotels be allowed to serve alcohol on islands where Maldivians live; under current law, alcohol can be served only at the airport or on resort islands with no native population.
Ali Waheed, the director of the National Museum, which was built by China as a gift to the country, said on Monday that officials might be able to restore two or three of the damaged statues, but that the rest were beyond repair. “The collection was totally, totally smashed,” Mr. Waheed said. “The whole pre-Islamic history is gone.”
There were conflicting reports on Monday about whether suspects had been arrested in the case. Mr. Waheed said five men were caught at the museum, but a spokesman for the police, Ahmed Shiyam, said on Monday that investigators were still collecting evidence and had not made arrests.
Naseema Mohamed, a historian who retired from the museum last year, said the loss was particularly devastating because many of the country’s ancient artifacts, dispersed across the archipelago, had been lost or destroyed over the years by local people and rulers. “There was very little left,” she said.
Mr. Waheed said that typically, two or three artifacts of the country’s Buddhist heritage are discovered a year, generally during construction of homes and other buildings.
Both Ms. Mohamed and Mr. Waheed said that in recent years, some conservative Muslims had suggested removing the statues from the museum, but that there had never been any threats made over the statues. Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari, who was minister of Islamic affairs for the Maldives until last week, said that the country’s laws specifically exempt ancient figures from the regulations governing idols. “This is our heritage, and it has to be protected for future generations,” he said.
Officials of Adhaalath, an Islamist political party that took part in protests against the Nasheed administration, condemned the vandalism of the statues. Though the party has criticized what it called Mr. Nasheed’s anti-Islamic policies, it said it had never objected to the presence of the statues in the museum.
“We are very concerned about it,” Mohamed Iaad Hameed, president of the party’s trade and economic development committee, said in an interview on Monday. “And we as a party are fully against extremism.”
Mr. Waheed, the museum director, said scholars and museums in a number of countries had already offered help in restoring the damaged statues.
Sruthi Gottipati contributed reporting from New Delhi.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 14, 2012, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Amid Political Upheaval, Vandalism of Maldives Museum’s Treasures Stirs Fears.[1]
[1] Bajaj, Vikas. “Vandalism at Maldives Museum Stirs Fears of Extremism.” NYTimes.Com, The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2012, web.archive.org/web/20120221170512/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/world/asia/political-turmoil-threatens-archaeological-treasures-in-maldives.html.
There are too many that were done by ISIS in the 2010s that it has its own Wikipedia page specifically because the devastation to archeological and cultural heritage sites in the Middle East were so numerous under the territories they had briefly conquered and ruled. I was particularly saddened by the destruction of the heritage sites in Palmyra such as the destruction of the Temple of Bel.[1] Journalist Will Worley of The Independent published an article titled “Full Extent of Isis Destruction of Palmyra Revealed in Devastating before and after Photos.” on April 2nd, 2016 which depicted several images of the cultural genocide that ISIS had wrought.
Persecution and Slaughter of Real or Perceived Atheists
One of the many great failings of the Atheists of modern times is their willful ignorance of history and their unabashed online mockery campaigns. Many Atheists may mention how Atheists of the past were the most persecuted in history, but how much of the details do they know? Not much, judging from what I’ve observed. Moreover, a question for Atheists who engage in surface-level mockery campaigns such as Quran burnings: who does this convince? If anything, why wouldn’t this make religious people more hardened in their faith traditions and more willing to view Atheists as bigots; just as Islamists and other religious groups have vilified Atheists to be? To be clear, mockery is a form of free expression and it can be a critique, but my argument is that there is generally a difference in the style of mockery that actually delves into the theology of a religion that most people are unaware of and that which is surface-level like Quran burnings. Quran burnings don’t convince anyone of anything just like Christian extremists burning Harry Potter books didn’t convince Harry Potter fans to stop reading the series back in the 1990s in the US. If anything, it may have had the opposite effect. When you engage and criticize the theology, you’re showing respect for other people’s intelligence; when you just burn something to cause offense, it is an act of anti-intellectualism. I’m not arguing that people can’t or shouldn’t do it, they’re free to do what they want. What I’m suggesting is that it probably has the opposite intended effect and doesn’t convince religious people to change their minds about what you’re criticizing. When Ex-Muslim Atheist Armin Navabi was criticizing Islam’s theology in college campus tours on panel discussions with Ex-Muslims of North America, he was doing far more damage to Islam than his short Youtube video where he burned a Quran or suggested that he record himself peeing on a Quran.[1]
Intellectual critique isn’t just about respect, it causes religious people to engage with the arguments and it causes them to question their reasons for why they believe their religion is true. In short, a rational critique spreads doubt about a faith tradition, insulting mockery campaigns spreads stronger feelings of affirmation towards a faith tradition.
Western European and some US Atheists are generally uncomfortable with the idea that Atheism isn’t unique to the Western traditions, because of their ignorance of other cultures and unfortunately due to views of racial differences. Many White Atheists and especially White Christians conflate terms like “Western values” and “Enlightenment values” to mean “White values” and refuse to believe non-Whites in ancient times were capable of atheism, even when I give them historical evidence cited by one of the foremost historians like Will Durant about Charvaka Atheists of India or share English translation of Hinduism’s Samkhya theology. Even the historical Buddha being agnostic to the question of a God’s existence and allowing followers to believe whatever they wanted about supernatural beliefs in the Theravada tradition seems to unsettle some White Atheists. They can’t seem to accept that not all theology is bound by the notion of revealed wisdom like in Christianity, which is what most of them are familiar with. Ex-Muslim Atheists and some religious Liberals of India are uncomfortable with Hindus having Atheist traditions, I can only give my best guesses as to why. I think for Ex-Muslim Atheists, it probably means their historic and cultural loss from Islamic imperialism was far worse than they could have imagined, but I’m confused as to why that should come as a surprise when the Prophet Mohammad is notorious for being illiterate. For left-leaning Hindus of India, there seems to be a shame inherited from Christian and Islamic bigotry about consistency in theology, so they don’t want to admit that Atheist darshanas (viewpoints) exist in Hinduism. This is backwards thinking though, because the consistency with Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammad is actually a weakness in the Abrahamic faith traditions; they have to reduce their thinking faculties to follow the instructions of their respective 1st and 7th century individuals who are long dead. The simplistic idea that anything that agrees with either Jesus Christ or the Prophet Mohammad is morally good and that anything which disagrees with them is morally bad means that these religions are just glorified cosplay of the ancient individual themselves. For example, what is the difference between saying a devout Muslim is following the Prophet Mohammad’s moral values and cosplaying as the Prophet Mohammad himself? In contrast, Hinduism and Judaism both have lengthy traditions of debate and I’d argue they’re actually stronger for it and it may have been the reason why there was never any violence between Hindus and Jews for over 2400 years. Questioning and debating truths is a strength within a culture.
Even if people would like to argue that it was scant, which I don’t believe is true for the history of the Charvakas of northern India given that they dominated for approximately one-hundred years in 600 BCE within what is modern Bihar today[2], there are several problems with denying the ancient world’s history of Atheism to the point that I honestly find it shocking that Western Ex-Muslim Atheists didn’t realize the obvious when they ignored the evidence I sent them via social media. Here are four reasons:
- Recognizing the history of Atheism throughout different parts of the ancient world can be used as a political campaign strategy to more effectively normalize and reduce violence and persecution of Atheists in Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere. False perceptions in the Middle East of Atheism being a mental illness or an unnatural aberration would be significantly reduced in influence.
- In the case of Iran and India, Muslims in those societies would be forced to confront the historic fact that Atheism isn’t some foreign concept originating from Western Science or Marxism that would make them feel lesser as people, but that it is indigenous to their own cultural heritage and Islam stole it from them through violence. Many Muslims in India seem to actually have this issue already, because India is a Republic and tries to maintain a balance with Free Expression and protecting Muslims’ feelings. Iranians of the US leave Islam, because the US allows them to freely explore their buried history unlike if they were living under Iran’s Islamist regime.
- Islamists would be less able to confuse nominal Muslims that those ancient Atheists “weren’t really Atheists” because they don’t subscribe to modern criteria outside of lack of faith in a God or the supernatural more generally. There would possibly be less shame associated in being Atheist in Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere.
- The most salient reason for me is that if people continue believing the falsehood that Atheism wasn’t more common and held actual political influence in countries like Medieval Iran and Ancient India, then that means the Islamists of the Medieval period succeeded in the completion of their genocide so that nobody remembers these specific victims of Islamism. Not recognizing Atheism in ancient India because it feels humiliating that this is what Islam stole from Ex-Muslim Atheists is no different from validating to Islamists that genocide is successful, genocide is desirable, and that Islamists can continue getting away with it over and over throughout modern times, because they succeeded in the past. The refusal to acknowledge the historic past in honest terms is an absolute victory for Islamism. It’s how Islam won in the Medieval period and it is why Islam is winning now.
Of course, given this broader historical context, this means from near its inception to right now in modern-day, the persecutions and assassinations of Atheists by Islamists has never stopped. It has never once abated in Islamic societies. The Charvakas of Medieval India mysteriously vanished from history under Islamic rule; given the context of how brutal and sadistic the murders of Zindiqs of Medieval Iran were, and the similar sadistic brutality of Islamic rulers like Aurangzeb, we now have a clearer understanding of what likely happened to them too. The persecution and murder of Atheists does deserve its own subsection because it is a persecution that has gone on for far too long and it is abundantly clear that most religious people around the world don’t care about their lives at all. If you consider how long Islam has actually been persecuting Atheists, they might credibly be among the most persecuted people on earth due to Islam; I think it is plausible to say that only Jewish people have been persecuted more than Atheists in world history in terms of the length of history when you factor what Islam did to Atheists. Unfortunately, there is also the problem of Muslims faking being Ex-Muslim Atheists in order to get refugee status into superior non-Islamic cultures, but that shouldn’t mean lack of sympathy for when Atheists are genuinely persecuted and murdered in modern times. I can’t highlight every single murder of Atheists by Islamists, but I can highlight some anecdotes in the absence of any reliable survey research data.
The first Ex-Muslim Atheist suffering persecution I’d ever heard of was Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, who at the time of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, posted a nude picture of herself to protest the misogyny and violence against women in Islamic culture.[1] I recall an English translated message from Aliaa Magda Elmahdy where she condemned the fact that young Egyptian girls were beaten up for not having their hijabs worn properly. Under the dictator Hosni Mubarak, women were subjected to virginity tests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.[2] Unfortunately, this act of nude feminist protest led to her being abandoned by the liberal political groups to appease the social conservative sentiments of Islamists in Egypt. Aliaa Magda Elmahdy received death threats and was even kidnapped at one point.[3] I recall an old article mentioning how the kidnapper threw misogynistic slurs at her and it may have been a rape attempt. She fled to Sweden for asylum[4] and revealed she had become an atheist at age 16 once she was safe from being killed for apostasy in Islam. On August 27th, 2014, Jillian Steinhauer published an article titled “Feminist Activists Bleed and Defecate on Islamic State Flag #NSFW” on Aliaa Magda Elmahdy’s Free Speech protest photo against the Islamic State with Aliaa Magda Elmahdy’s work with the Ukrainian feminist group, Femen. Details from the article are as follows:
Egyptian feminist activist Aliaa Magda Elmahdy made a statement against the Islamic State (IS) this past weekend with the release of an explicit photograph on her Facebook page. The picture shows Elmahdy naked and menstruating on the flag of IS, while alongside her a woman dressed in a black hijab flicks off the camera and defecates on the flag too. The letters IS are painted on both women’s bodies. According to LiveLeak, “Arab media across the Middle East avoided publishing the photo, since the words ‘there is no God but Allah’ are printed on the desecrated flag.”
For the photo, Elmahdy was working in tandem with Femen, the controversial Ukrainian feminist group known for its nude and topless protests. Elmahdy linked up with the group in the wake of her first foray into public nudity, in 2011, when the then-20-year-old posted photos of herself wearing only stocking and red shoes on her blog. The pictures sparked a huge uproar in Egypt, and Elmahdy says she was charged by the state and briefly kidnapped because of them. She received political asylum in Sweden, where she continues to live. It was there that she met and participated in naked protests with members of Femen.
Elmahdy is not talking to the media about the new photo targeted at IS, but Vice discussed it with Inna Shevchenko, founder of Femen — whose logo, two circles with a vertical line between them, is also painted on one of the women in the IS photo. Shevchenko explains that the picture was a direct response to the video showing the murder of journalist James Foley: “With our photo message we propose our own ‘way of execution’ of Islamic State ideas,” she said. “Our caption to the photo reads: ‘Animals, our execution of your ideas looks like that! Watch it well! We don’t demand ransoms, we don’t threaten you with new killings, we just SHIT ON YOU, ISIS!’”
Shevchenko continues:
“With the picture we want to criticize the killings, rapes, and public executions by Islamic fascists, who are breaking news. This is what the Islamic State wants. They want the world to obey their ideas. Spreading their video messages of executions and sharing their speeches, we do a good job for them, we serve the Islamic State. Instead we should spread our message to them. Enough of tolerance! Don’t be scared to offend. Let’s hit them back with our answers, instead of giving them more space. The world is in fear, exactly as the Islamic State wants. We call not to fear them, but to resist them.”
Although she’s not speaking to the press, Elmahdy continues to post on her blog, A Rebel’s Diary, and has been consistently tweeting and posting on Facebook the dizzying number of death and other threats she’s received in response to the photo.[1]
[1] Steinhauer, Jillian. “Feminist Activists Bleed and Defecate on Islamic State Flag #NSFW.” Hyperallergic, Hyperallergic, 27 Aug. 2014, hyperallergic.com/145768/feminist-activists-bleed-and-shit-on-islamic-state-flag-nsfw/.
On August 7th, 2015, BBC journalist Mukul Devichand reported the numerous targeted murders of atheists in Bangladesh by Islamists in his article titled “‘Nowhere is safe’: Behind the Bangladesh blogger murders” which begins as follows:
Bangladesh’s small community of online atheists is in shock after the murder of another blogger. Many are focusing on one detail of the latest killing – its location.
The men who hacked Niloy Neel to death with machetes seemed to be following a gory pattern that we have already seen three times this year.
Just like Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman and Ananta Bijoy Das – all killed recently – the victim was known to internet users as an atheist. They form a community who, for several years, used blog posts to challenge the existence of God, and to argue with Islamic and other religious and political ideas.
Islamic extremists have been blamed by authorities for the spate of murders of atheists.
There was one crucial difference this time, however: Neel was attacked in his own home, whereas the others were attacked in public.
Last week I was in Dhaka, speaking to bloggers and Islamic groups, and broadcasting a special hour-long edition of BBC Trending on World Service radio. We met several atheist and secular bloggers who were extremely cautious in public but felt it was safe to talk to us at home – at least at that point.
The ‘list’
So far, two madrassa students have been arrested for Rahman’s killing, and an online Islamist who called for Roy’s murder has been detained – though no one has yet been charged.
All four men killed were on a list of 84 “atheist bloggers”. The list was drawn up by Islamic groups in 2013 and has been widely circulated. It was originally submitted to the government with the aim of having these bloggers arrested, and tried for blasphemy.
The large Islamic groups who initially wanted bloggers arrested told us they have no knowledge of who is killing them. Online, many pro-Islamic voices condemn the killings but also criticise secular and atheist bloggers.
“They were making fun of Allah, in a really bad way,” Trivuz Alam, a conservative blogger, told BBC Trending.
Talukder Shaheb (not his real name), a young blogger associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami political party, also condemned the murders but defended those who want the bloggers arrested.
“In Bangladesh you can get arrested for criticising the prime minister,” he said. “Then why not criticising God, because God is much higher than the prime minister, right?”[1]
[1] Devichand, Mukul. “‘Nowhere Is Safe’: Behind the Bangladesh Blogger Murders.” BBC News, BBC, 7 Aug. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33822674.
Unfortunately, parts of the article try to conflate Atheism and secular-leanings in order to argue the age-old and uniquely Western bigotry that Atheists aren’t really atheist before continuing on with relevant information:
They accuse the authorities not only of failing to protect them – but of arresting atheist bloggers to appease Islamic groups.
Six have been arrested and bailed on charges of hurting religious sentiment.
Sarah Hossain, a human rights lawyer who represented several arrested bloggers, told us: “The concern that many of us have is that while you cannot hurt religious sentiment, you can hurt secular sentiment as much as you want.”
The government has been accused of suppressing freedom of speech for religious and secular voices alike, including through the arrests of opposition figures.
But Mr Inu defended government actions. “We have certain laws that say you shouldn’t use religion in the wrong manner,” he said. “If you incite somebody or you incite disorder, then you are supposed to be arrested and face trial,”
He denied freedom of speech was under threat in Bangladesh.
“If you look at the mass media and social media, everybody is criticising the loopholes of the government or the misuse of power, or corruption,” he said.
‘Open prison’
The mood among atheist and secular bloggers, after the latest murder, is a mixture of fear and defiance.
“Bloggers [and] progressive-minded members of society are fuming with rage,” blogger Arif Rahman tells BBC Trending. “Bloggers are no longer afraid. The anger towards the government is now the main theme.”
But others seem more cautious. One tells us the whole country has become an “open prison” for him and his young family, and he has been scared into censoring some of what he writes.
This morning, he says he is even more terrified. “There isn’t an inch of safe space in Bangladesh,” he says. With a blogger now killed at home, he asks: “How can I think my house is safe?”
Additional reporting by Estelle Doyle[1]
[1] Devichand, Mukul. “‘Nowhere Is Safe’: Behind the Bangladesh Blogger Murders.” BBC News, BBC, 7 Aug. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33822674.
On September 25th, 2016 an English translation of The Independent’s article titled “Alleged killer who shot atheist Jordanian writer identified” in reference to the murder of Jordanian Atheist and cartoonist, Nahed Hattar. The original writer of the article was apparently journalist Bethan McKernan. Unfortunately, while attempting to portray itself as a Middle-ground position, the article’s information at the end is yet another in a long history of Islam’s dehumanization of Atheists as a way of justifying the killing. The journalist likely wanted to appease Islamic sensibilities, so that Islamists could feel validated that Hattar’s life had no value in their minds. It seems to omit the fact that ISIS was persecuting and slaughtering Christians in Syria and I think it is plausible that Nahed Hattar may have simply thought that Bashar al-Assad was the lesser of two evils because Hattar may have been concerned for the Syrian Christian communities, since he came from a Christian background himself:
Alleged killer who shot atheist Jordanian writer identified
Controversial writer Nahed Hatter’s arrest was ordered by Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki for posting a cartoon depicting the image of God on social media
A man who shot a Jordanian writer dead outside the Supreme Court in Amman has been identified as a local imam in his late 40s.
Jordanian media reported the alleged shooter’s name and picture on Sunday, which was supplied to them by a police officer under condition of anonymity. The reports said Riad Abdullah is from Hashi, a poor neighbourhood of the Jordanian capital, and had recently returned from a trip abroad. No further details were given.
Nahed Hattar, a prominent atheist Jordanian writer, turned himself into the authorities after a police investigation was launched into a cartoon he shared on Facebook. It depicted God in paradise, being treated as a servant by a bearded Arab man, who is smoking in bed with two women and calling for wine.
Relatives said the cartoon was meant to illustrate what Hattar saw as the twisted religious views of Isis extremists.
All physical depictions of God or the Prophet Muhammad, even respectful ones, are forbidden under mainstream Islamic tradition, and are illegal in deeply conservative Jordan.
Witnesses and police said Hattar, 56, was preparing to enter the courthouse for a hearing on Sunday morning when the gunman shot him three times at close range. The shooter was arrested at the scene.
Government spokesperson Mohammad Momani condemned the killing as a “heinous crime.”
But Hattar’s family criticised the government’s response. “The prime minister was the first one who incited against Nahed when he ordered his arrest and put him on trial for sharing the cartoon, and that ignited the public against him and led to his killing,“ said Saad Hattar, a cousin of the writer. “Many fanatics wrote on social media calling for his killing and lynching, and the government did nothing against them,” a family statement said.
Hattar has long been a controversial figure in Jordan.
While born a Christian, he considered himself an atheist. He was a strong supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad and an outspoken critic of Isis and Al-Qaeda.
His shooting was the latest in a string of deadly security lapses in Jordan.[1]
[1] McKernan, Bethan. “Alleged Killer Who Shot Atheist Jordanian Writer Outside Supreme Court Identified.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 25 Sept. 2016, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/alleged-killer-who-shot-atheist-jordanian-writer-charged-with-offensive-facebook-post-identified-a7329391.html.
Here is an English translated version of the cartoon mocking the Abrahamic God of ISIS that Nahed Hattar was killed for:
On April 26th, 2017, journalist Bethan McKernan published an article on The Independent titled “Man ‘sentenced to death for atheism’ in Saudi Arabia” which contained the following:
Man ‘sentenced to death for atheism’ in Saudi Arabia
Man identified by local media as Ahmad Al-Shamri, in his 20s, lost two appeals after being arrested on charges of blasphemy for social media videos in which he denounced the Prophet Mohammed
A man in Saudi Arabia has reportedly been sentenced to death on charges of apostasy after losing two appeals.
Several local media reports identified the man as Ahmad Al Shamri, in his 20s, from the town of Hafar al-Batin, who first came to the authorities’ attention in 2014 after allegedly uploading videos to social media in which he renounced Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.
He was arrested on charges of atheism and blasphemy and held in prison before being convicted by a local court and sentenced to death in February 2015.
At the time Mr Shamri’s defence entered an insanity plea, adding that his client was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of making the videos.
He reportedly lost an Appeals Court case, and a Supreme Court ruled against him earlier this week.
While news stories in the last few years consistently identify Mr Shamri, his identity or sentencing has not been verified by the Saudi authorities.
The Independent’s requests for comment from Saudi government representatives were not immediately answered.
Under Saudi Arabia’s strict religious laws, leaving Islam can be punishable by harsh prison sentences and corporeal punishment – and a 2014 string of royal decrees under the late King Abdullah re-defined atheists as terrorists, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
Last year, a citizen was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing atheistic sentiment in hundreds of social media posts.
Mr Shamri’s name and hometown have trended on Arabic-speaking Twitter in the last few days. Some users have even celebrated his sentencing.
“If you’re a lowkey atheist that’s fine. But once you talk in public & criticize God or religion, then you shall be punished,” one such post read.
“I wish there could be live streaming when you cut his head off,” said another.[1]
[1] McKernan, Bethan. “A Man Has Been ‘sentenced to Death’ in Saudi Arabia for Being an Atheist.” The Independent, The Independent World, 26 Apr. 2017, web.archive.org/web/20170426142501/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-man-sentenced-death-atheism-ahmad-al-shamri-hafar-al-batin-appeal-denied-a7703161.html.
There exists a plethora of anecdotes about the struggles of Ex-Muslim Atheists and far too many for me to list in a single chapter. It would probably require its own book. Ex-Muslim Atheist Rana Ahmad fleeing from her family due to her brother trying to kill her and even trying to hire an assassin to kill her in the European country that she eventually received amnesty in.[1][2] I generally do not trust Human Rights Watch due to their explicitly Anti-Hindu bigotry on repeated occasions from using a book that had no credibility and thrown out of the Indian court system[3][4], to blaming Hindus for a tragic massacre by arguing that it was due to Hindus practicing their faith[5], and then to vilifying Hindu terms for Third-Gender because it wasn’t in a strictly Western lexicon parroting their Eurocentric views by using the term LGBT as a shield instead of recognizing cultural terms like Third-Gender[6]; all of which are shamefully bigoted and ignorant of Human Rights Watch, but in the absence of any other organization covering this, I thought it best to mention it: on January 2021 a Yemeni man named Ali Abu Luhum was sentenced to fifteen years for blasphemy against Islam in Saudi Arabia due to expressing Atheist viewpoints.[7] The are so many more cases throughout the Middle East and among Muslim families within Western Europe and Canada.
Some may question why I bothered highlighting obvious examples like Saudi Arabia. When I looked at the historical context of the persecution of Atheists after reading major parts of the English translation of Two Centuries of Silence back in 2018, a few disturbing realizations dawned on me when I compared it to contemporary Ex-Muslim human rights issues. Please think about this: consider the banality of Atheist deaths in Muslim-majority countries and how little all of these so-called human rights groups, international institutions, and governments like the United States even concern themselves with such deaths. It is only recently that it has gained much criticism at all. Atheist lives are never going to matter when it comes to international trade discussions the same way that other religious groups will at least get a passing mention. When the US Corporate media circus discusses Saudi Arabia’s economic improvements, there’ll be reasonable discussions on the rights of women – as there should – but do any of them really care that Atheists are going to be publicly beheaded and that large populations of Saudis take sadistic pleasure in this fact when they talk about Saudi Arabia’s so-called progress under Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud? No, because the lives of Ex-Muslim Atheists are categorically inconvenient when discussing issues about the Middle East. Do any of them care that Ex-Muslim Atheists live with threats that their own families will murder them or that Ex-Muslim Atheists grow suicidal because they’re forced to keep silent due to legitimate threats to their lives? Only if it won’t negatively harm economic interests at the convenience of other countries. The truth is that nobody cares about them; nobody is going to go the extra mile to give them amnesty unless they themselves risk their lives to fight for it, everyone will turn a blind eye if they’re tortured or executed when other people’s economic interests are put at risk, and nobody sees any intrinsic value in their lives because they don’t believe in the supernatural – even when such supernatural beliefs are literally the reason they’re going to be put to death. Of course, Ex-Muslim Atheists – unlike Ex-Muslim Hindus or Ex-Muslim Christians – are some of the most obnoxious and bigoted people on the planet who also dehumanize Hindus just like most Muslims do. They cannot let go of their attachment to a community that wants to murder them, because that’s where their family remains. They still try to see the love and goodness in family members who want to kill them. They don’t seem to understand that such behavior is obviously not love; if someone threatens to kill you for leaving a religion, then that person only saw you as an object to further their own interests and not an individual deserving of equal respect and value. If nothing else, it seems that Islam’s contribution to India beyond just putting women in cages during the Medieval period to sell them and their children at slave auctions, the mass murder and persecution of Hindus and other Dharmic followers, and the regression of Dharmic civilization with the inability to practice Free Expression; it seems we must now add social stigma against Atheists after they likely slaughtered every Atheist – especially Dharmic followers who were Atheist – that they could find, just like what happened in Medieval Iran. There’s honestly no reason to doubt this, because they still persecute and slaughter Atheists in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. Islam has committed and continues to conduct the longest, systemic genocide in human history against all atheists throughout the entire world.
Two final issues to consider: the attack on Ex-Muslim Atheist Salman Rushdie, who has lived under threat of Iran issuing a fatwa to assassinate him for his fantasy novel known as The Satanic Verses, was stabbed repeatedly on August 12th, 2022 at a speaking event about how the US is a safe haven for exiled writers in New York.[8] The attack was clearly an Islamist political statement about how any critic of Islam is not safe in the United States and that they should expect their lives to be in danger for criticizing Islam. While Liberal Americans were screaming Islamophobia, people swept this very disturbing political message under the rug or they were otherwise too stupid to see it clearly. What has happened since then? Salwan Momika, an Ex-Christian Atheist known for his Free Speech political activism of burning the Quran, was murdered on January 29th, 2025 earlier this year in his own apartment complex after the EU deported him back to Sweden when he tried to leave for his own safety back around April 2024.[9][10] Nobody in Western Europe seems to have thought over the fact that the EU’s laws and labeling his Free Speech activism as “far-right” for criticizing Islam effectively killed this man and that Muslims in Sweden and across the world took sadistic delight and laughed about his murder online arguing it was justified that he was killed.[11] Democratic norms and values are regressing right before our eyes and these incompetent policymakers in power don’t see or understand the danger around them.
Dehumanization and Assassinations of Hindus and Other Dharmic followers
Union of India – Section
Section 295A in The Indian Penal Code, 1860
295A. Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.—
Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.[1]
Definition of IPC 153A:
Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.
Classification :
This section is Non-bailable, Cognizable and Non-compoundable.
Triable By :
Any Magistrate of the first class.
Punishment :
According to Para 1 – Imprisonment for 3 years, or fine, or both.
According to para 2 – Imprisonment for 5 years and fine.[2]
[1] “Section 295A in the Indian Penal Code, 1860.” Indiankanoon.Org, Indian Kanoon, indiankanoon.org/doc/1803184/. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
[2] “Chapter 8: IPC 153A.” The Indian Penal Code (IPC), The Indian Penal Code (IPC), 14 Jan. 2014, www.indianpenalcode.in/ipc-153a/.
Hindus in India continue to suffer dehumanization and murders because of the legacy of Islamic imperialism and then British imperialism’s effort to stamp out Free Speech. The majority of India is still lied to about their own history of what the Islamic conquests had wrought upon India, Marxism vilifies Hindus as backwards[1] and supported British imperial policy even when the British were torturing and murdering Hindus, and the US Corporate media fails to use any logical thinking faculties when talking about India while pretending Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh aren’t going to be the result of what India becomes, if it became a Muslim-majority country.
I originally wanted to do what I thought would be a balanced perspective, but the truth is that even those on Left-leaning Indian political spheres have lied to themselves about the pernicious problems within Islam and how it teaches Muslims to behave. Take scholar Dilip Simeon’s attempt to criticize Islamic rioters in India on February 12th, 2015 in his article for The Indian Express titled “The tyranny of hurt sentiment” which begins with the following:
Shirin Dalvi, the editor of the Mumbai edition of Urdu newspaper Avadhnama, has become the latest victim of the running saga over cartoons. Since mid-January, when she unwittingly published a Charlie Hebdo cover, she has been slapped with criminal charges, her newspaper shut down, its employees rendered jobless, and she herself forced underground. Vicious threats are sent to her via social media. All this is happening despite her printed apology. The police have opposed anticipatory bail on the ground that it would cause a law and order problem (aren’t they paid to deal with such matters?).
The man who filed the complaint heads an Urdu journalists’ body. He is cited as saying, “I filed a case against her and I am happy that she was arrested. If she was in an Islamic state, she would have been beheaded as per law.”
That the freedom of speech could be so flagrantly attacked in the name of religion is by now a common experience. Self-appointed guardians of faith have attacked our minds with relentless aggression for years. But that someone could wish a horrible death to another human being is itself highly offensive to many of us — and this person thinks it earns him merit in the eyes of Allah. I have no access to the mind of the Almighty, but I can venture to suggest that Allah is more considerate than some of his followers.[1]
[1] Simeon, Dilip. “The Tyranny of Hurt Sentiment.” The Indian Express, The Indian Express, 11 Feb. 2015, web.archive.org/web/20220726090225/https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-tyranny-of-hurt-sentiment/.
The rest of his article attempts to talk about “vulnerable religious minorities” and how the State is somehow responsible for this failure, while trying to credit a scant few Muslims from other countries for doing the bare minimum of human decency with not supporting murder.[1] The truth is, he is among many examples of people trying to give credit to a 7th century Arab fundamentalist ideology that doesn’t support the human rights of anyone outside the Muslim faith. Even trying to appeal to their god demonstrates that he and others with his leanings clearly do not want to accept the fact that these hateful, violent teachings come right from the Quran itself. When thinking about it logically . . . I realized that only Hindutva political groups were honest about everything related to the problems of Islamism harming a society. That can sound extreme, if you haven’t actually read their perspective on the issues and simply dehumanized them for being Hindu. For example, Islamist slogans in India often chant: “Gustakhe Nabi ki ek saza, Sar tan se juda” which translates to “A punishment for disrespecting the prophet, head separated from body” whenever their sentiments are hurt.[2] Why was this information was hidden from Americans by the US Corporate media circus, Christian non-governmental organizations, and Western European news organizations? Why are US and European corporate media organizations, Western Christian groups like Christian NGOs, and Leftists constantly supporting Islamist violence and terror campaigns in India?
One of the issues bothering me when commenting on this is . . . do I have any right to speak on behalf of other Hindus as a born and raised US citizen living comfortably without the fear of having my head chopped off for criticizing Islam like in India and France? Here is the most honest, but negative view of the issue of Free Speech from a Hindu perspective from the Editor-in-Chief of OpIndia, Nupur J. Sharma in her June 28th, 2022 article titled “Of Free Speech and 295A: Why I partially agree and wholly disagree with the arguments of Prof Anand Ranganathan” which reads as follows:
Of Free Speech and 295A: Why I partially agree and wholly disagree with the arguments of Prof Anand Ranganathan
In the quest for empty, unrealistic, pedantic principles, Hindus cannot be made sacrificial lambs.
On the 27th of June 2022, Mohammad Zubair, the co-founder of AltNews was arrested by the Delhi Police was his tweets that incited hate. One of the sections applied against him was 295A of the IPC, besides Section 153. Soon, the “right-wing” (for the lack of a better defining phrase) celebrated the arrest of this hate monger who had painted a target on the backs of Hindus for as long as one could remember. The Left, of course, bemoaned the death of everything – from democracy to freedom of speech, expression, press and liberty.
Amidst the cacophony, an old argument was rekindled. Professor Anand Ranganathan tweeted that he supported Zubair against his arrest because he believes that 295A is a draconian law that has no place in a moral, just and civilised society. Moreover, he is a strong proponent of absolute freedom of speech and expression, which essentially means that he might not like what Zubair said, but he will defend his right to say it.
Zubair wanted people arrested for offending religious sensibilities, and today he has been arrested for offending religious sensibilities.
I do not want, nor have I ever wanted, anyone arrested for offending religious sensibilities. I stand with Zubair.
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) June 27, 2022
Prof Ranganathan received substantial backlash from the ‘right wing’ for his absolutist stand. The general tone of the responses ranged from mocking the tweet to asking him to not support someone who has habitually dog-whistled against Hindus, lied, tried to whitewash Islamist terrorists and terrorism and overall, has been a termite that has been gnawing at the existence of Hindus.
To be fair to Anand Ranganathan, he did clarify, multiple times during his Twitter Spaces that he detested what Zubair stands for as much as any of us. His argument was limited to the application of 295A and how, it was a redundant law that should not be used against the critics of any religion – Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Scientology or the Church of Satan – I don’t believe Anand cares which religion is being criticised per se.
During his Twitter Spaces, one has to admit that he made some compelling points. First and foremost, he spoke about the morality of having different standards for different folks, depending on where on the ideological spectrum the “victim” of this law lies.
Anand Ranganathan says (and I am paraphrasing) that society must strive for absolute freedom of speech and until a few years ago, I would have agreed with him not just partially but wholly. Ranganathan essentially says that as far as personal liberty goes, nobody can be locked up merely for hurt feelings because the extent and context of that hurt can hardly be controlled. A Hindu can be offended if you by an innocuous comment about his deities while a Muslim can be offended if you merely quote his texts. Where a Salman Rushdie exists, an MF Hussain exists as well. According to Ranganathan, we will see a time when the misuse of 295A would reach a position where nobody would be able to say anything about any religion because it would attract a prison sentence. He has also claimed that those of us who are not firmly against 295A are accepting that we are ok with collateral damage when thousands of Hindus are arrested for saying something remotely offensive. Further, we also seem to be ok with giving up our right to criticise a predatory religion (given that he believes the law itself is a slide to that eventuality).
The foundation of the arguments made by Prof Ranganathan can be divided into the following points:
- Nobody should be jailed for their speech. Freedom of speech must be absolute.
- If you are ok with Zubair’s arrest, you have to be ok with Nupur Sharma being arrested – otherwise – you are a raging hypocrite.
- The law itself is colonial and draconian, open to misuse, and criminalises what should otherwise be acceptable in a civilised society.
- Sooner or later, the law will come back to bite Hindus since what it would do is outlaw all criticism of religion, therefore, you would lose your right to criticise a traditionally predatory religion such as Islam.
In principle, to a limited extent, I agree with Anand. The fact that I am ok with Islam being mocked and not Hinduism does make me seem like a raging hypocrite and that society must strive for absolute freedom of expression is also a principle I cannot disagree with. In an ideal world, should we be able to get along without any punitive action against those who offend religious sensibilities? Perhaps. Do we live in an ideal world where moral absolutism, essentially saying that certain moral values have universal applicability and the context of that value has no relevance, is a functional model? I think not.
But let us address each point of contention that Prof Ranganathan brings up often (one has to give it to him – he has long held his position on 295A).
Nobody should be jailed for their speech. Freedom of speech must be absolute.
In my headline, I categorically say that I partially agree with Prof Ranganathan. Up until a few years ago, and maybe somewhere deep down in my heart today, I do believe that nobody should be jailed for their speech. Not just me, I think every Hindu who today argues with the good professor at some point in time believed that freedom of speech and expression should be absolute. But what changed? First and foremost, one has to acknowledge that freedom of speech is not truly free anywhere in the world. During his Twitter Space last night, Ranganathan mentioned the United States of America and claimed that the criticism of Islam is perhaps the highest there, however, they don’t have laws like 295A, given that they value freedom of expression, however, that notion is misplaced.
Nowhere in the world is freedom of speech an absolute right. Maybe in law, but the reality is far from it. In the USA today, you can get fired for merely saying that an individual who has a penis, hormones and the physical attributes of a man cannot claim to be a woman and compete in a women’s sports event. You can be cancelled, and lose your job, your reputation and your life. It is a reality of our times that certain sections, even in the USA, have a greater right to freedom of speech and expression than some others – the only difference is that perhaps their dual standards come from different societal aspects like race and gender, while ours come from religion and culture. In France, a nation hailed as a haven for absolute free speech, Eric Zemmour was convicted for hate speech against migrants. Several “dissidents” have been jailed for glorifying terrorism and even abusing the police force – this included the questioning of an 8-year-old boy who said he “supported terrorism”, later admitting that he did not really know what terrorism meant.
The two most liberal nations as far as freedom of speech is concerned are jailing, beating down, hounding, and setting strict standards for speech – legally or otherwise – whether we agree with it or not. Therefore, to live under the illusion that speech is free anywhere is just that – a convenient illusion.
As far as India is concerned, one has to wonder how far can the absolutism of free speech go. In a multi-cultural, diverse nation, with a high concentration of radicals, one has to admit that Hindus are not particularly playing on a level playing field. We can certainly idealistically demand that free speech must be absolute, however, the ramifications for one kind of speech and the ramifications for another kind of speech are not equal and have never been. In short, when Teesta Setalvad tweeted an image equating Maa Kali with an ISIS terrorist, she deleted her tweet after Hindus tweeted angrily at her and apologised – the matter ended. Most of you would not even remember that she had tweeted an image like that. But when Kamlesh Tiwari made a statement, he was beheaded 4 years after he came out of jail on bail.
But the truth remains that the rules of the game do not place Hindus at the same level, forget giving them an advantage in the only land they can possibly call their own. Under those circumstances, the demand for absolute freedom of speech for everyone becomes redundant. We could, principally, demand absolute freedom of speech or want to strive for it, however, with or without the law, Hindus would get the short end of the stick because Islamists don’t need a law to avenge the hurt caused to them. They need a sword. A sharp one. They have plenty of those and are certainly not morally adverse to using them.
If you are ok with Zubair’s arrest, you have to be ok with Nupur Sharma being arrested – otherwise – you are a raging hypocrite.
There are multiple problems with this statement. Firstly, let’s focus on facts. Nupur Sharma responded to her faith being mocked relentlessly, by Islamists, after the Shivling was discovered at the disputed Gyanvapi structure and therefore, it is safe to assume that she did not set out to mock Islam or Prophet Muhammad. In fact, even as a response, she said “what if she were to mock Islam” – she did not actually mock them and whatever she said are “facts” mentioned in the Islamic Hadiths. Zubair on the other hand has harboured hatred for Hindus, painted a target on their back, cost them their jobs, sent a bloodthirsty mob against Hindus and has a long history of doing just this – mocking Hindus, justifying their murder, inciting hate and shielding Islamists. The two individuals, by no stretch of the imagination, are the same.
But this argument is moot since Prof Ranganathan would say that these are emotional arguments and according to the law, they both hurt religious sentiments and therefore, they should both be arrested – either that or 295A should be scrapped.
Two fundamental questions form the basis of Ranganathan’s argument. Firstly, all religious offence is the same and by extension, all religions are the same (Ranganathan does not claim all religions are the same but if we consider all offence to be the same, then we must consider all religions to be the same as well). And secondly, we must all be moral absolutists and any form of relativism in this case is hypocritical.
Those who believe in moral absolutism and universal principles do so at the cost of realism and pragmatism.
Personally, I have no problem acknowledging the fact that Metaethical Moral Relativism is far more appropriate for the day and age we live in. The truth or falsity of moral judgments, or their justification, is not absolute or universal but is relative to the traditions, convictions, or practices of a group of persons. I concede that this might be a rather Liberal prism to look at the world, but when playing by their rules, one has to learn and use their tools to fight for our own survival. Therefore, in a civilisational state where Hinduism forms the very basis of the nation’s existence, one should have no qualms in admitting that an insult to Hinduism is far more problematic than an insult to Islam.
As a Hindu, the need for survival cannot possibly be termed as collective hypocrisy when it comes to insulting faith. One can say that being ok with Islam being desecrated/mocked cannot be accepted if Hindus start getting offended when their faith meets the same fate, however, realistically, the cultural context of why Hindus are ok with Islam being mocked and their own faith has to be considered.
For thousands of years, Hindus have been subjugated by the Islamist invaders who have raped Hindu women, beheaded our kings, and murdered our children all for the ultimate goal of the establishment of the Caliphate. There are countless tales of how the Islamic invaders murdered Hindus and kept their wives, mothers and daughters as slaves – the spoils of war.
The barbarity was so perverse, that Hindu women often chose to jump into the fire and give up their lives after Hindus were defeated in war, lest they were taken slaves by Islamic invaders. You might wonder why they didn’t simply slit their wrists instead of stepping into the burning fire – well – they did not want their corpse to be desecrated by the followers of Islam who had laid siege on their land.
The brutality is not just limited to Islamic invaders. In the modern political landscape of India, Hindus were humiliated during the partition as well. One recalls how the Khilafat movement claimed the lives of countless Hindus during the Moplah massacres by Islamists and even the Direct Action Day, spearheaded by Jinnah. After the countless deaths of Hindus, our own, MK Gandhi, asked Hindus to simply lay down their lives if the Islamists chose to claim it.
During the partition, Hindus were mutilated and their women raped. At the altar of ‘secularism’, which the Atheists love to espouse, India decided to not conduct a full exchange of population, a suggestion that was made by various luminaries at the time including Dr B.R. Ambedkar, and thus, began another cycle of subjugation in modern India. This year itself, we saw riots by sections of the Muslim community and aided by the Left against the Hindus.
The saga of brutality continues to this day not just in India, but also, against the minority Hindus of Pakistan and when India decided that the minority Hindus could take refuge in India, their natural home post-partition, the Islamists ran riots yet again. They stabbed a Hindu over 50 times simply because he was Hindu and chopped off the arms and legs of another before burning him alive.
Given this context, it would be naive to expect Hindus to take offence to Islam being mocked with the same intensity that they may take offence to their own faith being mocked. It is akin to wondering why the Jews are ok with Nazis being mocked and not their own persecution being made light of.
Further, the fact that Ranganathan believes in moral absolutism and that all offence is the same, he will have to then concede that he also believes that all religions are equal – he said he did not, but that is again a logical fallacy that he will have to reconcile in his argument.
When we say that all religions need to coexist without taking offence to each other, we are essentially saying that one of the most important tenets of survival in a multi-cultural nation like India is religious pluralism.
Religious Pluralism essentially says that firstly, all religions must acknowledge that certain truths exist in other religions as well, thereby declaring that it is not only their own religion that is the ‘only truth’. Further, it says that all religions must acknowledge that every religion teaches basic universal truths that have been taught since before the advent of religion itself.
When one delves into the principles of religious pluralism as a construct that can enable religions to co-exist without sectarian violence, it becomes important to ensure that all religions are brought down to the same surface level and hence, the claim that all religions are the same takes a beastly proportion where cultural context is often lost. When one tries to do that, it becomes remarkably clear that Islam and Hinduism are not the same. While Islam wants to annihilate Hinduism, Hinduism prescribes no such thing. Islam wants to convert or murder the Kafir, subjugate heathens and establish their Dar-ul-Islam because the Dar-ul-Harb is haraam. When dealing with a traditionally hostile faith, one cannot say that the faith that they are hostile and violent towards is the same as the said faith. Islam, if allowed, sanctions taking offence to the very existence of Kafirs and submits to no law of the land other than that of the God they believe in. It is true that Islam has a strict legal and political foundation to it. Hence, to essentially say that all religions are equal and aspire toward the same universal truths is a fallacious statement that is made by the people who either harbour malice, or ignorance.
It is also pertinent to mention here that the higher the intolerance of a community, the more important it is for that community to be mocked, so the intolerance threshold is breached and that offence is normalised. Islamists have to be desensitised to criticism of their faith to a large extent because no other community is today taking to the streets demanding ‘sar tan se juda’ at the slightest ‘provocation’. Hindus, on the other hand, would have traditionally been more than happy to agree with Professor Ranganathan, had they not been beaten, mocked, insulted and humiliated by the very Islamists who are crying victims today.
When the two religions are not the same (one being hostile and the other being the victim of that hostility), they don’t aspire towards the same universal truths, and when one religion is theologically opposed to the other’s very existence, to say that Hindus must be equally offended when Islam is mocked is an expectation that far divorced from reality. One has to acknowledge that Hindus are powerless globally. While Islam has the support of the Ummah, Hindus are usually the recipient of hostility not just from the Ummah, but the global Christian cabal, the Leftist, the Communists, and so on and so forth. The powerless community needs a law that they can turn to when they are repeatedly mocked and harassed. Take that away from them and you essentially tell them that the only recourse they have is to become as intolerant as the “sar tan se juda” gang. Would that be better than a legal provision? One would think not.
The law itself is colonial and draconian, open to misuse
295A is not a very complicated law. It simply says that any deliberate and malicious attempt to hurt religious feelings shall be prosecuted by the law. One can argue that it does not particularly define what religious hurt is, the extent of hurt caused and what words should be considered offensive, however, the law, on its own, is as open to misuse as any other law.
This situation could perhaps be compared to the SC/ST law, given that Hindus are a powerless lot globally, underprivileged and the target of predatory proselytisation. Hindus need laws to protect them, much like Scheduled Castes and Tribes need a law to protect their rights. Being a global minority and dealing with predatory faiths, Hindus universally need to be protected and the only way you can possibly disagree with this argument is if you also disagree with SCs and STs don’t particularly need a separate law for protection after they have been historically persecuted.
The SC/ST Act, while necessary, also has a propensity to be misused. Several cases have been documented where individuals belonging to these communities have misused the law to settle personal scores. One can safely argue that just as in the case of the SC/ST Act, in the case of 295A also, there have to be special provisions made against misuse, in the former, against Brahmins and “upper castes” and in the latter, against Hindus overall. However, demanding that the law itself be scrapped is like throwing the baby out with the bath water.
One has to consider that laws are formulated to bring order and peace to society and are subject to the ever-changing reality of a nation. The reality of our nation today is that Hindus are liable to be beheaded, much like Kamlesh Tiwari, when they comment on Islam while Islamists get the support of their global cabal when they insult Hinduism. In an unequal battle, this law is the only recourse that Hindus have and Hindus need protection from this law being misused to persecute them further.
Sooner or later, the law will come back to bite Hindus since what it would do is outlaw all criticism of religion, therefore, you would lose your right to criticise a traditionally predatory religion such as Islam.
To answer this, we need to delve into how 295A came into existence. It all started with the case of Mahashay Rajpal, who published Rangeela Rasool and was ultimately assassinated for it. We mostly hear that Mahashay Rajpal was assassinated for publishing satirical work on Prophet Muhammad called Rangeela Rasool, but we seldom hear why he chose to publish the book. In 1923, Muslims published two particularly offensive books to Hindus. “Krishna teri geeta jalani padegi” used derogatory and vulgar language against Shri Krishna and other Hindu deities and “Uniseevi sadi ka maharshi” which contained derogatory remarks on Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayanand Saraswati (incidentally written by an Ahmadi).
In response to this provocation by Islamists, Pandit Chamupati Lal, a close friend of Mahashay Rajpal, wrote a short biography of the Islamic Prophet, Mohammed. “Rangeela Rasool” was a short pamphlet which satirised the life of the Prophet of Islam. Pandit Chamupati made Mahashay Rajpal promise that he would never reveal the name of the author – he knew the consequences of it. Anonymously published under the name “doodh ka doodh aur panee ka panee”, the book enraged Muslims.
Staying true to the values of one-way brotherhood, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wrote in his pamphlet “Young India”, condemning Rangeela Rasool. While Gandhi ignored the provocation by Muslims, by the end of June 1924, the colonial government banned the book. The Muslim community, partly emboldened by MK Gandhi’s endorsement of their hurt sentiments and whitewashing of the provocation against Hindus, filed multiple cases against the book under 153A. In May 1927, Mahashay Rajpal, who published the book, was acquitted of all charges with the court observing that commentary based on facts on historical figures, including the prophet of Islam, cannot be said to promote enmity between groups. As soon as the verdict was delivered, Muslim mobs went into a frenzy. They rioted and demanded the head of Mahashay Rajpal. They were chants about how the murder of Rajpal was acceptable because, under Sharia, the punishment for blasphemy is death.
With the Muslim mobs going on a rampage, 295A was passed to assuage the feelings of the mobs and in the same year, there were two unsuccessful attempts at Mahashay Rajpal’s life.
On April 6th, 1929 a 19-year-old carpenter named Ilm ud din stabbed Mahashay Rajpal on his chest eight times while he was seated in the outer verandah of his shop.
Now, one has to bear in mind that when Rangeela Rasool was published, 295A did not exist. However, the Muslim community back then went on a rampage demanding that Mahashay Rajpal be taught a lesson. Even in the absence of the law, there were two attempts on his life and ultimately, the third attempt was successful.
Given what we know about history, we have to ask ourselves – what would change for Hindus if 295A was indeed scrapped?
As we have seen in the case of Mahashay Rajpal, Kishan Bharwad, Kamlesh Tiwari, Samuel Patty and hundreds across the world and specifically in India, the Islamists don’t need a law to extract their pound of flesh when they are offended and their religious sentiments are hurt. They have, ever so often, taken matters into their own hands and exercised their street veto liberally across the world. Hindus on the other hand, have been left powerless to deal with the onslaught of global Hinduphobia. With 295A gone, the only community that would be left with no tools to address insults to their faith would be Hindus and the message that would be sent to Hindus is that they can only be respected if they become as violent and intolerant as those who take to the streets and execute those whose words they don’t like.
The ground reality for Hindus, as far as the treatment they get at the hand of Islamists would not change. “Blasphemy” would still exist since the threat of getting beheaded for criticism of Islam would certainly not be tackled by the scrapping of 295A.
Therefore, with the law gone, we would see Hindus left with no recourse when they are insulted while Islamists would still enforce their street veto against Hindus whenever their feelings are hurt.
The truth of the matter is that the law itself is not particularly unjust. It is its application that leaves a lot to be desired and that is where the Judiciary and the society come into play. More than the existence of the law, we should be offended at the normalisation of its unjust application – where DU professor Ratan Lal gets bail for insulting Hinduism and Hindus are arrested regularly, left to rot in jail, when they make comments against Islam. We should be offended that the myopic judiciary, the malicious academia and the deracinated, blinded society have normalised Hindus being hunted while others getting a free pass.
In the quest for empty, unrealistic, pedantic principles, Hindus cannot be made sacrificial lambs.[1]
[1] Sharma, Nupur J. “Of Free Speech and 295A: Why I Partially Agree and Wholly Disagree with the Arguments of Prof Anand Ranganathan.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 28 June 2022, www.opindia.com/2022/06/free-speech-295a-disagree-arguments-prof-anand-ranganathan/.
One question has bothered me in all of this discussion on Islam’s impact in India that everyone seems to ignore except Hindutva groups: How exactly are people who will murder others for feelings of offense an aggrieved minority? How can anyone who condones murder for hurt sentiments ever an aggrieved minority population? How is any of that rational? How does it logically follow? Why are people chronically ignoring this metaphorical elephant in the room when it comes to discussions of Islam? Why are people stupid enough to make excuses for murder? The vast majority of Muslims across the world have never concerned themselves with the human rights of Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Atheists, and many other religious minorities. So, what exactly are we all doing here, reciprocating human rights laws while they delight in chopping people’s heads off for feelings of offense and shout slogans stating they support beheadings? If violence is always their first response, why are the rest of us pretending human rights is a worthy goal or even a rational goal towards them? Please consider this: what exactly happens to all of us, once their societies and communities grow in power and have control? We already see it in Bangladesh, Pakistan, the entire Middle East, Northern Africa. and Afghanistan. Not to mention people being jailed for offending Islam due to facebook posts in Muslim-majority Island countries. What more proof do we need that we’re weakening ourselves against an unrelenting enemy force that wants to harm all of us? Islamism as a political force literally uses the technological innovations of democracies to continue global terrorist activities to kill as many civilians as humanely possible. This is genuinely what their religion teaches, because following the Quran means following the guidelines of a warlord; that’s why Muslim-majority countries have so many problems. They break apart into warring ethnic tribes because that’s the only way the Quran had functioned during the Prophet Mohammad’s time; the teachings imitating a desert warlord leads to disparate ethnic groups acting as competing desert warlords. What are we doing by pretending this had any viable future for running a country effectively? While China remains protected from Islamic terror violence by putting Uyghurs into education camps that keep the rest of China safe; India has to deal with Islamists chopping people’s heads off, vilified by Middle Eastern dictatorships who are completely silent about Uyghur Muslims put into concentration camps, and India gets blamed for not supporting Free Speech effectively too. How is that not a demonstration that violence is the only language that Islamists understand? While Israel creates a demarcation zone to avoid being massacred by Palestinians and Hamas terrorists; the US, France, and Sweden have to deal with assassination attempts by Islamists. Samuel Paty was beheaded on October 2020 over specious rumors that turned out to be a student lying to her father to avoid the fact that she’d been cutting classes; in other words, Samuel Paty was beheaded in broad daylight over lies and rumors that hurt the sentiments of Muslims.[1][2] After the so-called rallies against Islamic extremism, the subsequent stabbings of French teachers, such as on October 13th, 2023 by a Muslim refugee screaming Allahu Akbar, have been far more muted in nationally in France and internationally among Republics.[3] What are we all doing here? What more proof does there need to be for people to accept that Islam and democratic values are incompatible after so much overwhelming evidence? Let me just give a basic question for everyone reading this: What more proof do you all need that Islam teaches Muslims to murder you?
Will this always be a persistent problem in India when Hindus speak about anything related to Islam? Is this the future of Western Europe and eventually the US due to Islamophobia political campaigns? Is this always going to be a problem for India and the future of other democratic countries? The horrifying details of Kamlesh Tiwari’s murder published on India.com on October 19th, 2019 under the headline “Kamlesh Tiwari Murder: UP CM Yogi Adityanath to Visit Kin of Deceased Hindu Samaj Leader Today” which reads as follows:
New Delhi: Taking stock of the controversial murder, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to meet the family members of Hindu Samaj Party chief Kamlesh Tiwari on Saturday evening.
Speaking on the ‘well-planned’ murder of the leader, CM Adityanath said, “Kamlesh was the President of the Hindu Samaj Party. The assailants came to his house in Lucknow yesterday, sat and had tea with him, and later killed him after sending all security guards out to buy something from the market.”
Adityanath further said that the suspects have been arrested on murder charges. He further ensured that the miscreants will get stringent punishment and that the investigation will be completed within a few hours.
Earlier today, his family stated that they will not cremate the body demanding CM Yogi Adityanath to pay them a visit. The family had also urged the UP Chief Minister for job assurance for two members of the family.
Kamlesh’s wife had even threatened to self immolate if the demands were not met.
CM Yogi Adityanath, who is currently in Maharashtra rallying for the upcoming Assembly Elections, will return to Lucknow on Saturday evening and meet the kins to hear out their grievances.
Kamlesh Tiwari Murder
Former chief of Hindu Mahasabha, Kamlesh Tiwari was found brutally murdered on Friday afternoon in his Lucknow residence in Naka Hindola area. He was shot multiple times and also stabbed by unidentified miscreants in broad daylight in Lucknow.
The three accused arrested have been identified as Maulana Mohsin Sheikh, Faizan, & Khurshid Ahmed Pathan and are being investigated by a joint team of UP and Gujarat police.
The police have said that Tiwari’s “inciting speech” on Prophet Mohammed in 2015 was the reason behind the murder. The police also confirmed based on the information that the murder was committed in a planned manner.
Tiwari had hit the headlines in 2015 when he made a derogatory remark against Prophet Muhammad. Upsetting Muslims all over the country, he had called Prophet Muhammad the first homosexual in the world.
Massive protests broke out in different parts of the country after his speech and Tiwari was booked under the National Security Act for making provocative remarks against the Muslim religious leader. Outraged, around one lakh Muslims had gathered in Muzaffarnagar to demand death penalty for Tiwari.[1]
[1] “Kamlesh Tiwari Murder: Up CM Yogi Adityanath to Visit Kin of Deceased Hindu Samaj Leader Today.” India.Com, India.Com, 19 Oct. 2019, www.india.com/news/india/kamlesh-tiwari-murder-up-cm-yogi-adityanath-to-visit-kin-of-deceased-hindu-samaj-leader-today-3811970/.
On February 7th, 2022, The Indian Express released a news article titled “Dhandhuka murder: 3 accused in police remand for 10 more days” on the murder of Kishan Bharwad, where it was revealed that two imams supplied weapons and convinced the murder suspects to find and murder everyone on a ten-person list that was rumored to have insulted Islam. Do you all see the problem? Let me rephrase and add an emphasis in bold: two imams supplied guns and preached that murder for insulting Islam was justified to convince two Muslim followers to murder a list of ten people who were rumored to have insulted Islam. This is the tyranny of hurt sentiments; not even the difference between evidence that someone else has committed an action and allegations that they have committed an action will matter to people who murder because their feelings were hurt. They base their judgment on the intensity of their emotions instead of verifiable evidence. This is what the US and Western Indologists, the US Corporate media circus who serve Neoliberal economists and CEOs, Christian NGOs that operate in India, and the mostly White Liberals of the US ignore and thereby protect from scrutiny:
Dhandhuka murder: 3 accused in police remand for 10 more days
Bharwad, 30, a Dhandhuka resident, was allegedly shot dead by two bike-borne men in the town on January 25 when he was traveling on a motorcycle.
A magisterial court in Dhandhuka of Ahmedabad Saturday sent three main accused in the Kishan Bharwad murder case to 10 more days in police remand.
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), which is investigating the murder case, claimed that it is probing a list of 10 persons created by the arrested accused who had allegedly insulted Islam in the past.
Bharwad, 30, a Dhandhuka resident, was allegedly shot dead by two bike-borne men in the town on January 25 when he was traveling on a motorcycle. Later, police revealed the murder was carried out allegedly after an objectionable social media post by Bharwad.
So far, ATS has arrested eight accused in the case. Among them, prime accused Sabbir Chopda allegedly fired at Bharwad while Imtiyaz Pathan was riding the motorcycle with Chopda.
According to ATS, arrested cleric Maulana Mohammad Ayyub Javarawala from Jamalpur in Ahmedabad allegedly supplied the weapon to the shooter, while another arrested cleric Maulvi Qamar Gani Usmani of Tahreek Farogh e Islam (TFI) organisation arrested from Delhi had allegedly instigated the shooters.
According to a senior ATS officer, “The eight day police remand of Chopda, Pathan and cleric Javarawala ended on Saturday, after which they were presented again before the magistrate who sent them to another 10-day police remand.”
According to the remand application submitted by the ATS in the Dhandhuka court, they are currently investigating a list of 10 persons who had allegedly insulted Islam in the past.
The names on the list are BS Patel, Pankaj Arya, Pushpendra Kulshreshtha, Mahendrapal Arya, Rahul Arya, Radheshyam Acharya, Updesh Rana, Upasana Arya, Sajan Odedara and RSN Singh. The accused had also collected details about them through various social media channels.
The ATS added that after killing Bharwad, shooters Sabbir Chopda and Imtiyaz Pathan allegedly threw their cell phones into a pond and destroyed three SIM cards.
The ATS also claimed that they seized 1,000 copies of an instigating booklet published by Javarwala named “Jazba E Shahadat”, while another 3,000 copies of the said booklet are missing.
The ATS is also probing call detail records (CDR) of Sabbir Chopda and Maulana Ayyub who allegedly spoke 35 times between June 2021 and January 2022 as well as Sabbir and Usmani who spoke 10 times between June 2021 and September 2021. The ATS is also probing if the accused received any foreign fund for giving “punishment” to those who allegedly insulted Islam in India.[1]
[1] “Dhandhuka Murder: 3 Accused in Police Remand for 10 More Days.” The Indian Express, The Indian Express / Express News Service, 7 Feb. 2022, web.archive.org/web/20220207041105/https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/dhandhuka-murder-accused-police-remand-ahmedabad-7760401/.
Earlier this year, OpIndia’s opinion columnist, Shraddha Pandey, published an article on June 3rd, 2025 titled “‘Loose tongue’ to ‘sentiments were hurt’: From Nupur Sharma to Sharmishta Panoli, how courts are emboldening Islamists and curbing space for free speech” and please note the Nupur Sharma mentioned in the article is not the same person as the Editor-in-Chief of OpIndia. The article reads as follows:
‘Loose tongue’ to ‘sentiments were hurt’: From Nupur Sharma to Sharmishta Panoli, how courts are emboldening Islamists and curbing space for free speech
Sharmishta Panoli, a law student from Symbiosis Law School, Pune, was arrested by Kolkata Police on 30 May 2025 in Gurugram after an online Islamist mob targeted her, issuing rape and death threats—including the infamous “Sar tan se juda” slogan—and demanded her arrest by tagging police online.
India has freedom of speech. Yes, India has freedom of speech as long as you use it to spew venom against Hinduism. India has freedom of speech as long as you berate your own country. This freedom of speech, however, ceases to exist once you intentionally or unintentionally offend the perennially offended ‘minority’ community—Muslims. Once you have offended those who must not be offended, there is no scope for redemption, no apology, no regret, and no law can protect you from wrath of bloodthirsty Islamists. Sharmishta Panoli, 22-year-old girl has come into the radar of Indian Islamists over an Instagram video against Pakistan, which ended up offending ‘Indian Muslims.’
Sharmishta Panoli, a law student from Symbiosis Law School in Pune, was arrested by Kolkata Police on 30th May 2025, from Haryana’s Gurugram. The arrest came after Islamists unleashed an online mob against the Hindu influencer, who issued rape and death threats including the Islamist-favourite ‘Gustakhe Nabi ki ek saza, Sar tan se juda’ threat. The Indian Muslim social media users also began tagging the police, demanding her arrest.
Instead of chasing the Muslim social media users who doxxed and gave ‘Sar Tan se Juda’ threats to the Hindu influencer, the Mamata Banerjee’s police force have arrested Sharmistha instead.
The controversy began on 14th May when a Pakistani Muslim handle attempted to whitewash the massacre of 24 Hindus during the Pahalgam terror attack. Islamic terrorists had confirmed religious identity of the victims before shooting them dead. An enraged Sharmishta mocked the Pakistani Muslim handle for believing that India started a war without any reason and asked if she had heard of Pahalgam and other Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks.
Sharmishta further asked if Indian forces should just sit and do nothing about these terror attacks. The video was taken out of context by Pakistani and Indian Muslims alike to allege insult to Islam and Prophet Muhammad.
The Hindu influencer soon deleted her video and even tendered an unconditional apology. However, Islamists have an undeclared ‘never apologise, never forgive’ rule, which essentially means that when they insult Hindu gods or hurt sentiments of other non-Muslim communities, they are not supposed to apologise, rather, either double down or play victim, on the contrary, if a Hindu or a non-Muslim even criticises Islamic traditions, let alone, making derogatory remarks, then there is no scope for apologise and move on.
But what emboldens Islamists to go after anyone they declare a ‘blasphemer’ or ‘Gustakh-e-Nabi’, so much so, that no action is taken against those who literally issue threats of beheading someone for their words, while accused person, despite apologising, is subjected to harassment of all sorts and is arrested.
As unfortunate and outrageous as it sounds but it is the judiciary, the system and Muslim-appeasing socio-political ecosystem that fuels the intransigence of petulant Islamists.
On 3rd June 2025, the Calcutta High Court rejected the bail plea of Sharmishta Panoli, saying “heavens will not fall” if the ad-interim bail plea is not accepted and the case is heard later for bail.
While hearing a plea against the trial court’s remanding her to 14-day judicial custody, Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee said that the video in question was seen and that sentiments of Muslims were hurt. He added that while the court wants freedom of speech, it does not mean that sentiments of others can be hurt.
“This video was made on social media, it was heard. This incident has led to a section of people’s sentiment being hurt. We have freedom of speech but that doesn’t mean you will go on to hurt others. Our country is diverse, with all persons. We must be cautious. So day after tomorrow. Heavens will not fall,” Justice Chatterjee said as the petitioner’s counsel apprised the court that Sharmishta is a student with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and staying in jail is a problematic for her.
The court deduced that Sharmishta’s video hurt the sentiments of Muslims, however, what about those issuing Sar tan se juda threats to the young girl. What about the rape and death threats she continues to receive? Islamists are most of the time offended, and otherwise ready to get offended, but does that mean a person’s life can be put at risk, or ruined, especially after she has apologised and deleted the video in question? Why is it that courts take sentiments of Muslims unrealistically seriously, however, the same seriousness disappears when Hindu sentiments are hurt?
The Sharmishta Panoli case reminds of the 2022 Nupur Sharma case. In May 2022, Nupur Sharma was one of the panellists on the Time Now show along with Taslim Ahmed Rehmani on the Shivlinga found at the Gyanvapi disputed structure site. During the debate, Rehmani used derogatory language against Bhagwan Shiv that irked then-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Sharma countered her and questioned how would he react if she used the same language for Islam and the Prophet.
Though it was a counter statement, Alt News’ co-founder Mohammed Zubair found it to be the perfect opportunity to ruin Sharma’s life. He cunningly trimmed Rehmani’s remarks that came before Sharma’s counter remarks and presented as if Sharma was insulting Prophet Mohammed. The propaganda against Sharma worked and it sparked an international outrage.
Regardless of the fact that what Sharma said about the Prophet’s marriage to the 9-year-old Ayesha, which is mentioned in multiple Islamic hadiths, Nupur Sharma was branded as a ‘blasphemer’, with Islamic organisations openly declaring that she should be murdered.
Following the witch-hunt against Sharma, there were protests and riots across the country carried out by Sar tan se juda shrieking Islamist mobs. People who supported Sharma were threatened by Islamists online and offline. FIRs were filed not only against Sharma but also against those who supported her.
Not to forget, Kanhaiya Lal, a Hindu tailor from Udaipur, Rajasthan, and Umesh Kolhe, a businessman from Maharashtra’s Amravati, were brutally murdered by Islamists for simply supporting Sharma. Kanhaiyalal was beheaded by two Riaz and Ghous Mohammed, for sharing a post in support of Sharma. The jihadis recorded a video after brutally murdering the Hindu man and raised sar tan se juda slogans while justifying their act. Ironically, the Muslim man who informed the killers about the Hindu tailor’s presence in his shop, was granted bail by Rajasthan High Court last year.
Similarly, bloodthirsty Islamists brutally hacked chemist Umesh Kolhe, 54, to death while he was on his way back home after shutting his store in Maharashtra.
Umesh Kolhe and Kanhaiyalal had not even said or posted anything against any religion but only extended support to Sharma who was at the receiving end of a barrage of rape threats, death threats, Sar tan se juda threats and whatnot.
When Nupur Sharma approached the Supreme Court seeking clubbing of FIRs against her, the two-judge bench that heard the matter seemed to have already formed an opinion against her based on the disinformation and misleading propaganda running in media and on social media. Justice Surya Kant, in his oral observations, blamed Nupur Sharma for what was happening in the country.
Blaming Nupur Sharma for the Islamist mob violence across the country as well as killing of Kanhaiyalal and Umesh Kolhe, for stating something even Muslim scholars and scriptures state, the Supreme Court judge had said, “You have ignited the whole country. You possess a loose tongue. Power has gone to your head. You should apologise to the nation.”
While Sharma had already apologised, much like it is happening in the case of Sharmishta Panoli, her apology, however heartfelt, could not satiate the quench of bloodthirsty Islamists. For Islamists, the only appropriate punishment for those who ‘hurt’ their religious sentiments is when either they do sar tan se juda of the ‘blasphemer’ or the court outrightly orders their hanging, nothing in between.
Although, the Calcutta High Court’s remarks in Sharmishta’s case were not as scathing as the ones made in Nupur Sharma’s case, there is a disturbing pattern. The pattern of advertently or inadvertently justifying Islamist outrage no matter how violent and destructive by outrightly blaming the accused person.
While Islamists mobs cry that since the so-called ‘Gustakh blasphemer’ has displayed the temerity of actually holding an opinion, that person needs to be hanged, the courts also make remarks that suggest that even they agree that the person should be punished and conveniently blame them. This, however, does serve the purpose of upholding the law, rather, it only serves the purpose of lending legitimacy to the street veto of the Islamists. In a nutshell, it is like telling the accused person, “Ab gustakhi karoge, toh ye sab [threats, riots and even killings] to hoga hi”.
This, however, is not confined to one Nupur Sharma or Sharmishta Panoli, there have been numerous cases wherein accusations of offending the ever-offended Muslim sentiments resulted in violence, riots and killings of Hindus. The 2019 Kamlesh Tiwari killing, the 2022 Kishan Bharwad killing are among many such cases wherein Islamists deemed certain comments or social media posts ‘blasphemous’ and resorted to silencing the ‘Gustakh’ and drawing joy from having taught Kafir a lesson.
It is high time, however, for the courts, politicians and general public to understand that Islamists are perennially offended and can resort to violence using any real, imaginary, assumed or trivial excuse to initiate threats and violence against people. Be it Hindu processions passing in front of mosques, Hindus playing bhajans during their festivals, or putting up religious flags or even celebrating a cricket match victory in ‘Muslim area’, or a movie on a Hindu historical figure who endured Islamist barbarism and chose death over conversion to Islam, can offend Islamists enough to resort to stone pelting, arson and killing. All in the name of ‘hurt sentiments’.
While upholding communal harmony and even laying emphasis on protecting religious sentiments is not wrong, however, by validating claims of ‘hurt sentiments’, especially of those who are essentially ready to do mob justice with the accused, if courts fail to punish the person and call for the accused’s beheading, courts only embolden Islamists.
Political parties supporting Islamists to appease their Muslim votebank, as seen in the case of Sharmishta, wherein TMC has gone all out in support of Islamists, courts putting these curbs on speech embolden those who get offended at the drop of a hat and now day by day they are reducing the space for free speech.[1]
[1] Pandey, Shraddha. “From Nupur Sharma to Sharmishta Panoli: How Courts Are Emboldening Islamists and Curbing Space for Free Speech.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 3 June 2025, www.opindia.com/2025/06/nupur-sharma-sharmishta-panoli-courts-emboldening-islamists-curbing-space-for-free-speech/.
I don’t know how useful this will be and I am an outsider looking in with the privilege of never having to fear being beheaded for criticizing Islam; the best I can say is that my views are out of genuine concern for Hindu human rights. One misconception that I’ve noticed both OpIndia and Wikipedia make on the Islamist riots over Nupur Sharma’s comments is that they weren’t rioting over perceived lies about Aisha’s age; she and OpIndia are correct about what the Hadiths say regarding Aisha’s age during her marriage and then subsequent rape by the Prophet Mohammad. It’s almost certainly the reason Muslim grooming gangs that target young girls exist across the world. The Islamists of India were rioting because Islam teaches them that non-Muslims aren’t allowed to have an opinion on Islam. It wasn’t that they believed the information on Aisha’s age was inaccurate, but that a non-Muslim woman gave an opinion on Islam that caused them to violently riot. Islamists and their Imams believe no non-Muslim has any right to an opinion on Islam and they will get violent if you express any opinion on Islam at all. That’s the truth behind those Islamist riots in India and elsewhere.
First, please consider the following: does Indian Penal Code (IPC) 295A and IPC 153A really protect Hindus and other non-Muslims from Islamist violence? The cases of Samuel Paty in France and Kishan Bharwad in India are two concrete examples that unsubstantiated rumors can cause the tyranny of hurt sentiments among Muslims across the world. If their first instinct is to get violently angry and kill you for something you never did anyway, then what use is suggesting that IPC has any legitimacy for either Islamists and Muslims more broadly? The example of IPC 295A being used to arrest Mohammad Zubair seems like a good example at first, but why were Indian government authorities so slow to arrest this man, if he was purposefully sowing enmity and riots as OpIndia’s Nupur S. Sharma explained? This seems more like a failure of the Indian government authorities to properly apprehend this man for deliberately instigating violence on multiple occurrences against Hindus, prior to 295A being used to arrest him. If neither IPC 295A or IPC 153A existed, then why wouldn’t it be the case that Indian authorities could simply arrest him for instigating riots, instead of the possibility of worrying about the hurt sentiments of Islamists and other Muslims for arresting him? As an example, if every other religious group starts having hurt sentiments and rioting over police doing their jobs, then what use are IPC 295A and IPC 153A?
Second, columnists Nupur S. Sharma and Shraddha Pandey’s examination of the problem of hurt sentiments are clearly in contradiction. If as Shraddha says, the law is sometimes selectively used to vilify Hindus specifically, then how are either IPC 295A or IPC 153A protecting Hindus from violence? If Islamists are giving rape threats to female Hindu law students, if Islamists kill chemists for social media posts where the chemist simply voiced support for the human rights of other Hindus, and Islamists threaten beheadings and rioting over a truthful comment about the theology of Islam – and the Islamists repeatedly ignore the national laws due to their hurt sentiments – then how are Hindus being protected at all? In fact, even after Kamlesh Tiwari was arrested, that didn’t stop Islamists from hacking him to death, so how are Hindus protected if Islamists don’t even care when IPC 295A or IPC 153A are implemented in their favor? If a Hindu being arrested doesn’t quell their bloodlust, then what is the point of those laws? If Umesh Kolhe and Kanhaiya Lal were brutally murdered for social media posts that didn’t say anything negative about Islam and they simply voiced support for Nupur Sharma, and Islamists clearly don’t even respect the national laws like IPC 295A and IPC 153A meant to appease them, then how is this protecting Hindus at all? How is it not the case that all IPC 295A and IPC 153A have done is muzzle Hindus from having a voice or giving complaints about how Islam explicitly endorses the murder of all non-Muslims, especially fellow Hindus? It doesn’t seem to me that this is protecting Hindus, it seems rather that Islamic colonization has firmly rooted itself within Hindu minds to never speak-up about double-standards imposed upon Hindus.
Third, this is clearly the worst form of anti-intellectualism in modern times and it is all Islam’s fault. If you live in and believe in India, then I believe you need to hear this. Even for those who hate Hindus and Hinduism, please seriously consider the following: India is committing the worst form of brain-drain in human history within a functioning Republic by allowing IPC 295A and IPC 153A to continue existing. Your country is literally jailing law students, your country is jailing and failing to stop the murder of prominent Indian politicians, your society is turning a blind eye to businesspeople and chemists being brutally hacked to death for their social media posts even when they don’t offend Islam, and all this is to protect the hurt feelings of a group of murderous religious extremists who glorify a 7th century illiterate man and who believe that reducing all modern standards to the 7th century is the perfect way to live. It’s the worst form of brain-drain, because these people glorifying an illiterate man from the 7th century are killing people who have had lengthy, hardworking lives trying to help fellow Indians in their community to improve it; they’ve worked to learn and improve themselves to better help their fellow Indian countrymen by becoming businesspeople, learning STEM fields, studying Indian law, and you’re letting them die because of angry and illiterate mobs? You’re letting all these intelligent, wonderful, and hardworking people who believe in your country, who want to make your country a better place, and who want to do the hard work to improve your country – you’re allowing them all to be imprisoned or to die to appease murderous religious hate? You’re letting this happen to appease a bunch of murderous cultists who want to cosplay as a 7th century illiterate man and who want to regress every aspect of your society back to 7th century social, moral, technological, and cultural standards to await a mythic Day of Resurrection that’ll never happen. You’re placing more value on the hurt feelings of angry, violent, vicious, and illiterate people who make it clear that they enjoy killing Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Atheists, and Christians in order to keep your society permanently regressed into 7th century Arab fundamentalist standards. Their religion teaches them that the Prophet Mohammad was the perfect human being whose standards they should follow, he was also an illiterate man, and therefore illiteracy is seen as more divine than literacy in Islam. This is what your country is letting all these other people be put in prison or to die in order to protect? Consider countries as systems and the current framework of your system is allowing 7th century cultists to prevent you from improving yourselves, it is almost certainly preventing your children from having a real future in many instances, it’s harmful to your economy both intellectually and economically, and you’re all wasting your time cuddling the regressive value system of Islamism which is preventing you from becoming a world power. If you continue privileging 7th century Arab fundamentalist bloodlust that wants to keep you chained to 7th century moral, cultural, and technological standards over the lives and wellbeing of your hard-working law students, STEM researchers, businesspeople, and politicians who want to give your society a real future, then how can you ever hope to become a great power? How can your children have a real future?
Fourth, in the process of thinking about this . . . Hindus clearly have far more compassion and love for Muslims, including the Islamists, than anyone is willing to accept or recognize. Western Europeans and Hindus have more in common than they realize, whereas Americans wouldn’t tolerate this behavior at all. The US and Western European Corporate news media can mock India for supposedly brutal repression of Muslims, but the truth is that if Islamist riots happened in the US, then we Americans know they’d be saying the complete opposite and supporting brutal crackdowns by any means necessary. I think only Western Europe has shown equal restraint and compassion for Muslims, even for Islamists, than most of these worthless US and European Corporate journalists have ever acknowledged or understood with just how hard this problem is. US and Western European Corporate clown shows have never been fair to either Hindus, other non-Muslim Indians, or Western Europeans more broadly about just how difficult and legitimate these problems are. Think about what has happened here: Hindus and all other non-Muslim Indians, Swedes, British, French, and so much more . . . are all willing to suffer bombings, stabbings, mutilation, and physical violence just to show compassion to a bunch of violent, murderous people who threaten to kill over being offended and who want to regress all non-Muslim societies into 7th century standards. The BJP is not altogether different from any Left-leaning party in Western Europe, if people look under the surface enough and consider how much moral restraint everyone is trying to commit towards. Western European and Indian societies are all acting like the ancient Greeks who tried to maintain noble standards while getting spat in the face, except they’re being called bigoted for it. This is while people with extremely regressive views continue to gain privileges and drain everything around them by chronically presenting themselves as perennial victims, even when they kill people or rape little girls. This is like observing Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of Master and Slave morality with visceral examples existing everywhere in the world now between Islamic communities and the host country. For those of you from Muslim backgrounds who do not understand what I mean: if Islamists acted this way in the US such as all the rioting they do in India, then the consequences would be that they would be brutally crushed by the US government if it was ever perceived that their riots would hamper the economic privileges of the One Percent – the privileged elite of US society who are above US laws and who can get away with raping children more effectively than Islamists. There would not be any political party members thrown out of the party for mentioning Aisha’s age like what the BJP did to appease Muslim sentiments and there wouldn’t be attempts at appeasement due to international pressure from Islamic monarchies. The only difference would be that a Republican President would present words of revenge in an attempt to portray strength and a Democratic President would speak of trying to distinguish between peaceful protesters and rioters, but behind the scenes either President would have the US armed forces formulate clear plans to brutalize and crush any armed resistance in as quick and efficient a manner as possible. It would be a bloodbath and the majority of Americans would likely be on the side of the Presidency, no matter who was in charge. Unfortunately, the sexual violence of young girls by Islamists would be swept under the rug just as they have been with registered sex offenders raping Native American women and girls, the entire Jeffrey Epstein case in which who knows how many of the One Percent were involved with their organized rapes of little girls[1], and the White Christian Churches everywhere in the US raping mostly young White boys. Nevertheless, I find it doubtful that there wouldn’t be “shoot first” orders upon any Islamist riots, if they happened in the US with concerns about any supposed human rights taking an immediate backseat against something that would probably be labeled terrorist violence to justify shoot-first orders; this is regardless of if there were tens of thousands or even millions of Islamists rioting. Even if some people believe that’s unrealistic, there would be plenty of law-abiding or illegally purchased gun-toting Americans sweeping into the rioting areas and attempting to kill as many Islamists as humanely possible. The 2002 Gujarat riots and the British riots of 2024 would be happening in every area as an immediate and brutal response, if there were any Islamist rioters who started burning down cars, blowing up shops, or killing people over hurt feelings like they do in India and Western Europe; there would be no restraint because that sort of behavior would be considered unacceptable and deserving the worst forms of punishment imaginable with “enhanced interrogation” against any arrested Islamists. The point being, Islamists really do not understand how much love and compassion is sent their way as they continue complaining about hurt sentiments and wanting to regress everything to 7th century standards. It’s likely a mix of nationalism, religious values, and – for India – the knowledge that some of these people are their own family members. For the EU, it’s probably a commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It seems that the US and Western European Corporate media circus don’t seem to understand they’re killing their own value systems of compassion, every time they punish Hindus, other non-Muslim Indians, and most of Western Europe for trying to show restraint and compassion for a regressive religious faith system that really does teach Muslims to kill other people for hurt sentiments, to rape little girls to save their eternal souls from hell, and to regress all societies to 7th century standards. Honestly, I never thought I’d say this but . . . I’m kind of happy that I live in a police-surveillance state now where I know the government and US Corporate media would thoroughly murder and dehumanize Islamists and then make news stories about regrets after they were completely certain there’d never be any Islamist riot ever again with a thorough and unrelenting US military presence making sure of it after they committed mass bloodshed upon Islamists.
Fifth, the one that is most personal to me, when are the majority of Hindu minds ever truly going to be free? It honestly upsets me that some Hindus now find it normal to apply IPC 295A and IPC 153A to disputes with other groups who “offend” Hinduism because of trivialities like porn videos having Hindu statues in the background. You cannot claim that Hinduism is a religion of free expression and then be offended by the depictions of Hindu deities that upset you. I absolutely hate the fact that not only has IPC 295A given Islamists the power to determine how free and unfree conversations can be for the majority of Hindus, but the majority of Hindus in India are essentially being conditioned into degrading themselves and degrading Hinduism onto the level of 7th century Arab fundamentalism. From the perspective of Advaita Vedanta philosophy, the Shvestashvatara / Svetasvatara Upanishad, and Adi Shankara’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and the Shvestashvatara / Svetasvatara Upanishad; you’re letting the illusion (maya) of sense-objects control your behavior because a bunch of worthless, stupid, bloodthirsty 7th Century Arab fundamentalist killers who worship an illiterate pedophile warlord; they seek to degrade you, to degrade your religious traditions, and to degrade your cultural heritage into absolute shit just because they feel insecure about their worthless farce of a religion. The depiction of Hindu deities in a negative light in fiction is just sense-objects and we as Hindus shouldn’t be controlled by sense-objects. If you find something objectionable, then why can’t fellow Hindus just make positive fictional depictions of Hinduism as a response? What are you all doing when Hindu sensibilities are “offended” like them? The truth is, you are not free to practice Hinduism, because imposing limits on Free Speech and Free Expression was something that none of the ancient Hindu philosophers who debated each other, who debated other Dharmic followers, and who debated the oldest known Atheists in history ever had to deal with. They all ridiculed each other, they could take criticism from each other even with the ridicule, and they gave criticism back through debates. The Charvaka Atheists ridiculing Vedic traditions back around 600 BCE didn’t have to deal with any persecution, or jail time, or fear of their heads being chopped off; they could just say what they wanted and Vedic followers were perfectly willing to criticize back. There were no head-chopping lunatics screaming their cosplay fantasies of an illiterate pedophile warlord to worry about for them. Vedic practitioners debated truth claims peacefully for thousands of years; Free Expression and Free Thought didn’t have to exist as a law in ancient India among ancient Vedic traditions, because everyone was free to speak their minds before Islamic colonization. IPC 295A and IPC 153A are the ultimate degradation and toxic blot upon the Hindu faith that is turning Hinduism into Islam in terms of communal behavior. If you are not free to speak your mind and freely express yourself, just as our ancient ancestors did from approximately 800 BCE prior to Islam ever existing to 1000 AD, then how are you free to practice your faith just like our ancient ancestors did? When are you going to be free from the tyranny of hurt sentiments? To be perfectly frank, the only Hindus who are free to practice their faith are those living in the United States, which has the best Freedom of Expression in modern history, just like ancient India did before the Islamic conquest and colonization and British colonization imposed anti-Free Speech laws that have absolutely, under no uncertain terms, destroyed your ability to freely practice Hinduism. Regardless of what you believe about the other reasons, I firmly believe this one is unequivocally true; you are not free to practice the full depth of Hinduism, if in debates you can’t just use Islam – a religion with nearly two billion adherents – as an example of anything in a debate and have to chronically worry about mobs chopping people’s heads off, whenever anyone mentions anything related to Islam or falsely interprets it to be about Islam. The reference of other religions to present examples when having discussions about truth claims is just normal human behavior to give a clearer understanding of concepts; something ancient Vedic practitioners did for over thousands of years to debate truth claims. When are the majority of Hindus ever truly going to be free?
Sixth, I want to first apologize if this seems like a privileged argument from the safe confines of the United States where I was born and raised, but I believe that Hindus in India should participate in peaceful pro-Free Speech protests demanding the removal of IPC 295A and IPC 153A through demonstrations of civil disobedience. Unfortunately, it is simply a statement of fact that you would all have to risk your heads being chopped off by Islamists and the US and European Corporate news media presenting Islamists as an aggrieved minority after they chop a Hindu’s head off or perhaps even arguing the opposite of the truth happened, as has become the norm from them. I have two suggestions, one is perhaps less threatening, but more expensive than the other. These are just ideas that I can think of, if there are ideas that any of you can think of that are more grounded in reality with safety concerns and more effective as forms of civil disobedience, then please feel free to use that instead. What I would suggest is to make anonymous, concerted Free Speech protests as a form of civil disobedience; whereby you wear masks and put images critical of Islam in public areas. There would suddenly be images criticizing Islam or pictures of the Prophet Mohammad on a billboard in the early mornings. You would have to look out for cameras and where your movements are tracked, but this seems like the simplest idea. Anonymous, concerted Free Speech protests from 5 people, to 10 people, to 100 people, to 200 people, to 500 people, to 1000 people, to 2000 people, to 10,000 people, and so on. This may have to happen regardless of what riots and head chopping that Islamists commit and it is asking more than can be reasonable, due to how Islamists behave. The second, and probably more expensive idea, is recognizing that this is the era of drone technology and you can obtain tools in the modern era that never existed before to stop this 7th century Arab fundamentalist belief system. If you have the means to purchase commercial or private drones, or pool money and resources to purchase commercial or private drones, then you could perhaps use them to spread images more easily and with far less risk to your personal lives and safety, albeit you would probably lose the drone in the process while remaining anonymous. This could be done by just one person in India, if you think about it. The point being that this form of peaceful civil disobedience should be far less risky. For those concerned on what the US and Western Corporate news circus would think: there is no way to spin peaceful Free Speech demonstrations as bigoted without them being seen as racist. They’ll be forced to show their true colors. My other book, Machiavellian Ahimsa, gives suggestions on how to use this as a military strategy that I firmly believe would work on all Islamic countries by any Republic that uses the strategy of mixing the Machiavellian brutality of Western Foreign Policy with the psychological perspective of Vedanta philosophy in Hinduism.
Please think of the consequences if you believe this to be mere bluster on my part. Are we going to have to watch Sharmistha Panoli or Nupur Sharma become victims of rape or murder, the moment the Indian government thinks they can reduce their security detail, just like with Kamlesh Tiwari? How many more people have to die because some ignorant Imam accuses a Hindu of having said or done something that was presumably insulting Islam, but the Hindu is merely killed for unsubstantiated rumors that hurt Muslims’ feelings like what happened to Kishan Bharwad? If they choose to chop heads first before even verifying that a Hindu really did say anything negative about Islam, then how are IPC 295A or IPC 153A protecting Hindu human rights in India at all? What about the rights of others, such as the case of Hari Singh reportedly being crushed by a tractor in the dead of night by Islamists?[2] There appears to be a growing Islamist movement of throwing cow heads or butchering live cows in front of mandirs, in what ways are IPC 295A or IPC 153A acting as a deterrent for Islamists to prevent them from vilifying Hindus and desecrating mandirs in an unyielding display of utter hate?[3] What are you all doing? Furthermore, I want to make it clear that reading what happened to Sharmistha Panoli was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen this year in 2025. She makes a passing comment about Houris which she barely mentioned in her video (which was a true statement. Yet to Islamists, Hindus that say anything about Islam will get threatened with head chopping) and she later gets arrested by the Kolkata police after Muslim Indians join Pakistani Muslims with rape and death threats.[4] They arrest Sharmistha after traveling 1500 kms / 932 miles because the Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee supports vilifying Hindus with the tyranny of hurt sentiments.[5] It did not matter to the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banarjee, that Pakistani and Indian Muslims were giving rape and death threats to Hindu Sharmistha Panoli at all; she instead wanted Sharmistha imprisoned to appease Islamic people giving rape and death threats in both India and to the enemy country, Pakistan, which funds terrorists that committed the Pahalgam atrocity against Hindus; the very subject that Sharmistha Panoli’s deleted video was criticizing. It did not matter to Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee that she had Sharmistha Panoli put in prison for Free Speech over Sharmistha’s sincere patriotic sentiments for India, it did not matter to Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee that Sharmistha Panoli is a hard-working law student who wants to do her part to help her fellow Indians, it did not matter to Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee that the conditions Sharmistha Panoli was put within Alipore women’s correctional home were unhygienic according to Sharmistha’s lawyer Md Samimuddin[6], it did not matter to Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee that Sharmistha Panoli suffered kidney stones[7], and all that mattered to Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee was sending Kolkata police to drive over 900 miles over a Twitter post that Sharmistha Panoli deleted and unreservedly apologized for so that Mamata Banarjee could appease bloodthirsty Islamist mobs who made rape and death threats at Sharmistha Panoli while another set of bloodthirsty Islamist mobs can’t seem to stop rioting in West Bengal’s streets and murdering Hindus – it just always seems to happen every couple of years in Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee’s Indian State of West Bengal; examples range from riots in 2017 and earlier this year in 2025.[8][9] This is a prime example of a brain-drain due to appeasing Islamist sentiments. This is Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee willfully ignoring how she’s imprisoning and harming the health of future generations of her own country to bend over backwards and appease Islamism, even when they make rape and death threats upon India’s future generations. Do Hindu lives matter with such people in charge in your country? If Sharmistha Panoli is killed by Islamists at any point in the future, you should all absolutely blame Mamata Banarjee for legitimizing it. It will be all the fault of Mamata Banarjee for legitimizing hatred, rape threats, and death threats towards a Hindu law student who wants to work hard and improve your country. Thankfully, the Indian court system granted bail and I’m happy to learn they chastised the Kolkata police for the conditions Sharmistha Panoli was put in.[10] If you want to save Hindu lives, I believe you should get rid of IPC 295A and IPC 153A and just speak your truth about Islam. In the long-term, the outcome is surely better than chronically living in fear of violent people who want to regress every iota of your civilization to 7th century Arab fundamentalist standards that’ll lead to yet another Islamic failed state and all you have to do is look to the left at Pakistan or the right at Bangladesh to see how true of a statement that is.
- WE AERONAUTS OF THE INTELLECT.—All those daring birds that soar far and ever farther into space, will somewhere or other be certain to find themselves unable to continue their flight, and they will perch on a mast or some narrow ledge—and will be grateful even for this miserable accommodation! But who could conclude from this that there was not an endless free space stretching far in front of them, and that they had flown as far as they possibly could? In the end, however, all our great teachers and predecessors have come to a standstill, and it is by no means in the noblest or most graceful attitude that their weariness has brought them to a pause: the same thing will happen to you and me! but what does this matter to either of us? Other birds will fly farther! Our minds and hopes vie with them far out and on high; they rise far above our heads and our failures, and from this height they look far into the distant horizon and see hundreds of birds much more powerful than we are, striving whither we ourselves have also striven, and where all is sea, sea, and nothing but sea! And where, then, are we aiming at? Do we wish to cross the sea? whither does this overpowering passion urge us, this passion which we value more highly than any other delight? Why do we fly precisely in this direction, where all the suns of humanity have hitherto set? Is it possible that people may one day say of us that we also steered westward, hoping to reach India—but that it was our fate to be wrecked on the infinite? Or, my brethren? or—? – Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn of the Day / Daybreak, Aphorism 575, translated by J. M. Kennedy.
For those readers who live in Western Europe or the US, ask yourselves this: Why weren’t you ever told by your supposedly legitimate and reliable US and Western European Corporate news organizations that Islamist rioters chronically chant that they want to see Hindus beheaded whenever they riot over their hurt feelings? Why was that fact hidden from you and how trustworthy are news organizations who would hide that from you? The US and Western European Corporate news organizations are not run by stupid people, most of the journalists who write those stories are not stupid people either, and they are not ignorant of these facts. Even US Indologists like Sheldon Pollock who almost certainly visited India on multiple occasions; he was likely was aware of it too. While all these Western and US news organizations were making incessant news about Cow vigilantism, Muslim rioters were enthusiastically screaming how they wanted to see Hindus heads chopped off. For those in Western Europe, absolutely expect that to start happening as Muslim populations grow in your country in the subsequent years alongside typical phrases like “This wouldn’t happen in an Islamic country!” following the statements where the Islamists demand to see public beheadings to quench the bloodthirst of their hurt feelings. It’s already being normalized in France. The Charlie Hebdo murders by Algerian Islamists led to broad international support in 2015, the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty in October 2020 by Islamist refugee Abdullakh Anzorov over rumors led to national support and sympathy in France[11][12], and the fatal stabbing of French teacher Dominique Bernard and injury of two others who tried to stop another Russian Islamist refugee Mohammed Mogouchkov as he stabbed and screamed “Allahu Akbar” at a French school parking lot resulted in a muted national response in France with the French government immediately having to grapple with multiple bomb threats.[13][14] This is the gradual banality and normalization of 7th century Arab fundamentalist standards into non-Muslim societies. This is what the Neoliberal economists, Neoliberal politicians, and Neoliberal CEOs have brought to Western Europe. Hindus of India warned us all for decades upon decades, but all Western Europeans in particular saw were their stereotypes of “backwards” brown people and occasionally they cry “Hindutva” instead of seeing Hindus in India as rational people giving legitimate criticisms that they should have taken seriously.
That being said, I think Atheists that aren’t from Islamic backgrounds should be added to the CAA. Unfortunately, one negative of Free Speech is that the mix of Free Speech and security means that anyone can have very stupid ideas that don’t comport to reality-based thinking and many in the US simply don’t understand the realities of Muslim-majority countries. We know what Islam teaches Muslim men to do to all religious minority women and young girls. Those of you in India who have read and watched news of what Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Afghans do to non-Muslim religious minorities know what I mean and it is a failure of compassion for the victims, if we all pretend otherwise. If a Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi, or Jain family came from Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Afghanistan got on their knees and began begging for protection because their 9-year-old daughter was nearly raped by a gang of Muslim men and they’re fleeing for their lives; we all know from the evidence that if they were sent back, exactly what would happen to their 9-year-old daughter. Now, imagine it is an Atheist family from non-Islamic background; what is the moral difference? Regardless of how bigoted it appears to the privileged news journalists in the US and Western spheres; everyone who looks at the evidence within Islamic theology and the behavior of most Muslim men across the world know what they do to girls as young as nine-years of age. I would highly recommend adding Atheists of non-Islamic backgrounds, regardless of if Hindus in India are labeled bigots by privileged buffoons who do not understand the reality of how disgusting Islam is, how is protecting the lives of young children from rape not a worthy goal?
While it is unfortunate that Muslim minority families or Ex-Muslim Atheists have to be turned away, the fact remains that if India accepted a fast-track for Muslim refugees alongside others, then Bangladesh and Pakistan would threaten war because the legitimacy of being Islamic States and their Islamic identity would be called into question in terms of political legitimacy. It is yet another example of the ignorance of White Christian and so-called Liberal Corporate organizations in the US and Western Europe. In the case of Ex-Muslims, the supposed Ex-Muslims can and have lied before to gain refuge in other countries in Europe, so it is in India’s best interests to turn them away for the safety and security of all non-Muslim lives. Finally, please consider the notorious case of Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman in Pakistan who was accused of “blaspheming Prophet Mohammad” by her Muslim neighbors and beaten by an angry mob outside of her home while the Pakistani police did nothing.[1] Think about how her family’s home was targeted and ransacked with a mob physically assaulting the whole family and how Asia Bibi was sentenced to death for Blasphemy and put in solitary confinement for nine years before her retrial.[2] How her family had to keep moving from place to place to avoid being murdered by angry mobs of Islamists attempting to assassinate them shortly after the retrial and acquittal of Asia Bibi.[3] That is what this woman and her family endured over false allegations against her and even if the charges had been true, that would have simply meant they endured all of that for the freedom to speak their minds. No one should have to live like this; no Hindu, no Buddhist, no Parsi, no Jain, no Sikh, and no Christian should have to live in fear of their young child being gang raped by Islamist men, because they believe that they’re saving the child’s eternal soul from the fires of hell; neither should Atheists. It is unfortunate that Atheists from Islamic backgrounds would present security risks due to the history of fakery by Muslims, but this shouldn’t be the case for Atheists of non-Islamic backgrounds.
A Falsehood of Islamic Colonization: The Case of Egypt
As an anecdotal example of why the actual and clear history of Islamic colonization is important to remember, a few years ago on the social media platform of Discord, a well-meaning Ex-Muslim Atheist in India told me that while Islam surely had problems, it at least helped with women’s rights unlike other faiths at the time. He believed that at the time of Islam’s conquest, it had surely helped improve women’s rights by not having child sacrifices. What he was taught was a complete lie, likely to promote the objectives of the Islamic colonizers as war propaganda. It wasn’t until I read historian Kishori Saran Lal that I realized how completely false this was and this Ex-Muslim from India clearly wasn’t told of his ancestors’ true history. Ex-Muslims in India don’t even know that women’s rights worsened under Islam in India because women were put into cages and sold at auctions like cattle.[4][5] As a counter example to the perception that young girls were being sacrificed prior to Islamic colonization, consider the vilification and lies that Islam promotes against ancient Egypt by falsely asserting they had virgin sacrifices where they drowned young girls into the Nile. This particular story presumably originates from the ancient Greeks, but it seems Medieval Muslims used this lie for their purposes to justify their own colonization. From the website Islam Question and Answer by Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid (PDF):
Is it proven that ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote a letter to the Nile in Egypt so that its water would flow by Allah’s leave?
Question: 178417
I want to know the authenticity of the story about Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) writing a letter to the River Nile. It seems to me as illogical, for the Qur’aan and the Saheeh saheeh Sunnah (authentic prophetic traditions) do not teach such a thing. Also, that for droughts, Salah Salat Ul al Istisqa is authentically established.
Answer
Praise be to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah.
Ibn Katheer (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
It was narrated to us via Ibn Luhay‘ah from Qays ibn al-Hajjaj from someone who told him: When Egypt was conquered, its people came to ‘Amr ibn al-‘As (may Allah be pleased with him) and said to him: O Ameer, this Nile of ours is used to something and cannot flow unless it is done. He said: What is that? They said: On the twelfth night of this month, we take a young girl from her parents, and we placate her parents, then we dress her in jewellery and the finest garments there can be, then we throw her into this Nile.
‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) said to them: This is something that cannot happen in Islam; Islam erases that which came before it (of bad customs).
So they stayed for a while, during which the Nile did not flow at all, neither a little nor a lot, until they thought of leaving. Then ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), telling him about this. He wrote to him, saying: You did the right thing. I am sending you a piece of paper with my letter; throw it into the Nile.
When his letter came, ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) took the piece of paper on which was written:
“From the slave of Allah ‘Umar, Ameer al-Mumineen, to the Nile of the people of Egypt.
To proceed: If you only flow on your own initiative, then do not flow, for we have no need of you. But if you only flow on the command of Allah, the One, the Subduer, and He is the One Who causes you to flow, then we ask Allah, may He be exalted, to make you flow.”
He threw the paper in the Nile and by Saturday morning, Allah had caused the Nile to flow (to a depth or width of) sixteen cubits in one night, and Allah put an end to this particular custom of the people of Egypt until today.
End quote from al-Bidayah wa’n-Nihayah, 7/114-115
Similar reports were also narrated by Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam in Futooh Misr, p. 165; al-Lalkai in Sharh I‘tiqad Ahl as-Sunnah, 6/463; Ibn ‘Asakir in Tareekh Dimashq, 44/336; Abu’sh-Shaykh in al-‘Azamah, 4/1424, via Ibn Luhay‘ah.
This is a da‘eef isnad (weak chain of narration) that is not saheeh, and this report cannot be proven with such an isnad. Ibn Luhay‘ah – whose full name was ‘Abdullah ibn Luhay‘ah ibn ‘Uqbah – is da ‘eef as he used to get mixed up, and in addition to that he is mudallis (one who narrates from someone he met something he did not hear). See at-Tahdheeb, 5/327-33; Mizan al-I‘tidaal, 2/475-484
Qays ibn al-Hajjaj is sadooq (trustworthy), from the sixth level of hadeeth narrators (tabaqah) according to al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar; they are the ones who it is not proven that they met any of the Sahabah/Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). See: Taqreeb at-Tahdheeb, 1/25
Sometimes he narrated it as a mursal (the link between the Successor and the Prophet is missing) report and sometimes he narrated it from the one who told him, but the one who told him is majhool and not known.
So the report is da‘eef (weak) and is not saheeh (sound)
If this story were true, everyone would know about it and it would be well known, and it would have been widely narrated through confirmed isnads, because it is an important and significant event, the like of which should not be ignored; rather an incident less significant than this would not be overlooked by historians and narrators.
And Allah knows best.[1]
[1] Al-Munajjid, Muhammad Saalih. “Is It Proven That ’Umar (May Allah Be Pleased with Him) Wrote a Letter to the Nile in Egypt so That Its Water Would Flow by Allah’s Leave? – Islam Question & Answer.” Islam, Islam Question & Answer, 17 June 2012, islamqa.info/en/answers/178417/is-it-proven-that-umar-(may-allah-be-pleased-with-him)-wrote-a-letter-to-the-nile-in-egypt-so-that-its-water-would-flow-by-allahs-leave.
And the actual truth, from journalist Ahmed Maged in his article published in 2008, last updated on August 7th, 2015, and titled “The Nile Bride Sacrifice Is a Myth, Says Egyptologist” on Daily News Egypt, in an interview with Egyptologist Bassam El Shammaa, which reads as follows:
CAIRO: The ancient Egyptian custom of offering a virgin as a sacrifice to the river Nile every year to instigate a flood is a big historical error, Egyptology researcher Bassam El Shammaa told Daily News Egypt.
“The myth of Arous El Nil (Bride of the Nile) has tarnished the image of ancient Egyptians who by nature hated violence and were only content to see blood at the altar, El Shammaa said.
According to some versions of history, this Egyptian custom was practiced until the Islamic conquest of Egypt when Caliph Omar Ibn El Khattab banned the pagan ritual.
According to Egyptian historian Al Maqrizi (1364-1442) in his “El Khutat El Maqrizia (The Maqrizian Plans), when the Arab armies led by commander Amr Ibn El Aas entered Egypt, Egypt’s Copts requested to uphold the annual ritual prior to the time of the flood.
When Ibn El Aas referred the request to the Caliph, the latter sent a letter to Al Mokawkas, the last Coptic governor of Egypt, and asked him to throw the letter in the Nile instead.
Containing words of supplication to God to bring about the flood, the letter’s benediction was said to have caused the Nile to increase its volume overnight to 16 cubits, a miracle that persuaded Egyptians to renounce the ancient custom, claimed Al Maqrizi.
El Shammaa, however, doubts the authenticity of this story.
“That the Copts had approached Ibn El Aas to ask him to sacrifice a bride isn’t in line with Christian belief which bans all such pagan customs. How many Egyptians were found mummified after Christianity spread in Egypt? None, he argued.
Observing the details of the account, El Shammaa notes the contradiction between the fact that the Copts had explained to Ibn El Aas that each year Egyptians sacrifice a slave and the fact that this slave is taken by force from her parents and thrown into the Nile at a specific location in the river.
“Since when do slaves have parents? he asks. “The Nile location referred to is none other than the Island of Phaela, the only Coptic site on the Nile with a church and the closest point to the Nile’s First Cataract, which made the island ideal for measuring the water level.
“With a Coptic church on it, the island could not have been a scene for such a sacrifice because Christians shunned all pagan practices. The Caliph Omar Ibn El Khattab responding by asking Al Mokawkas to throw the letter as a gift to Nile also contradicts the behavior of a conservative Muslim ruler.
“Besides it’s illogical for the Nile to rise to 16 cubits overnight. The process takes a much longer time.
According to El Shammaa, there isn’t a morsel of evidence in ancient Egyptian records to suggest that people sacrificed a virgin.
Pling, the Greek historian, explained that the ancient Egyptians offered crocodiles wrapped in colorful attire to the Nile.
A papyrus known by the name of ‘Anastasia’ embodied the holy songs that were chanted to the Nile prior to the flooding, says Al Shammaa.
It said: “Blessed flooding, to you we offer sacrifices like buffalo, oxen and birds, to you we offer the gazelles that were hunted at the mountainside, for you we set fires and burn incense.
“There is no mention whatsoever of a virgin or any human sacrifice, which should encourage research on where that myth began, he continued.
The myth, however, has its sources, he explained.
The first is the Greek historian Plutarch who first invented it. Repeated by many Greeks, it told the story of a king known as Egyptos who offered his daughter as a sacrifice to the Nile to avoid the gods’ wrath.
After he did that he committed suicide by throwing himself in after her. Since then, Plutarch said, the Egyptians began to sacrifice a virgin every year.
El Shammaa says that there was no Egyptian king called Egyptos, adding that this is a mythical character with no basis in reality.
There is also evidence that the tourists who came to Egypt in the 17th and 18th centuries witnessed celebrations during the flooding of the Nile where a clay bride was offered to the river.
When they inquired about it, they were told that Egyptians had replaced the real virgin with a clay model.
“The myth must have spread this way to attract tourists, says El Shammaa.[1]
[1] Maged, Ahmed. “The Nile Bride Sacrifice Is a Big Myth, Says Egyptologist.” Dailynewsegypt, Egyptian Media Services, 7 Aug. 2015, www.dailynewsegypt.com/2008/10/03/the-nile-bride-sacrifice-is-a-big-myth-says-egyptologist/.
The Colossal Failure of the Ex-Muslim Atheist Movement
In 2018, I had wrongly assumed that the non-profit organization, Ex-Muslims of North America, and their affiliates like Ex-Muslim Atheist Armin Navabi’s social media organization Atheist Republic largely knew what they were doing and that their approach of constant insults would be useful in criticizing Islam. This turned out to be an extremely idiotic assumption on my part. Later, I wrote a slew of essays about on my blog which I titled “The Five Lenses” to critique why they failed from five perspectives that I had. I was wrong to treat them as experts that knew what they were doing. While I sometimes cannot stop myself from calling something out as incredibly stupid in religion when I spot something I find objectionable, it should go without saying that rational critique and rational debate where Free Speech is respected among all parties and all are willing to listen to Free Speech rebuttals; that does far more to convince others than anything else. Mockery without evidence almost never convinces people to change their mind on anything and likely hardens people to oppose your views. For example, when Western Ex-Muslim atheists like Ali A. Rizvi compared Hindu theology to Tooth Faeries, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny, then who was this meant to convince? If you apply that argument without any broader context to any religion’s internal theology, then it won’t convince anyone to change their minds. If they knew such logic wouldn’t work to convince Muslims to leave Islam, then why apply it to other religious views? The answer was simply their bigotry towards Hindus.
To give a brief summary without becoming pedantic. There were three major failings of their movement that they didn’t realize: the majority of Liberal Americans genuinely don’t care whether they live or die because religious tolerance holds more importance to Liberal Americans than the lives of all Ex-Muslims. My anecdotal experience, in the absence of any reliable survey data, has convinced me that this is indeed a fact; the moment I ever brought up Ex-Muslim of North America videos to any Liberal I met through Liberal campaign organizations like the Working Families Party on my Facebook, they either accused me of bigotry and hatred towards Muslims and promptly blocked me on social media or just unfriended and blocked me without ever being willing to have any sort of conversation. I was sharing the panel discussions of Ex-Muslim college tours of Ex-Muslims discussing their own life experiences and they found that to be too offensive. It was specifically the Ex-Muslims talking about their own human rights which offended these mostly White Liberals. They genuinely do not care whether Ex-Muslims live or die; they don’t want it to be their problem. Perhaps they fear it validates views of White Supremacy, but I really don’t know the underlying cause. Even if an Ex-Muslim was shot dead right in front of them, they would almost certainly make excuses that it has absolutely nothing to do with Islam despite Quran 4:89. Only some Black and Hispanic Liberals seem willing to listen and learn about how serious these problems are. On social media more generally, it was mostly Right-wing and Conservative Americans showing they genuinely care about the lives of Ex-Muslims including Ex-Muslim Atheists. Second, Ex-Muslim Atheist groups as a whole, sought only to ridicule and insult every other group and it blew-up in their faces. Sure, Western Ex-Muslim Atheists, you can stand on a Berlin memorial for Holocaust victims[1], you have the Free Expression to do that even though many of us disagree with you, but that doesn’t mean you’re entitled to other people’s time, money, or any attention on social media. Offending sensibilities without a discernible objective simply makes the broader public perceive you to be a nuisance streamer like Johnny Somali or Vitaly Zdorovetskiy and not an intellectual fighting for a legitimate human rights cause like Christopher Hitchens or Chris Hedges. I strongly disagree with Hedges on many human rights issues, but like the late Christopher Hitchens, I recognize that he’s sincere about his views. How you conduct yourselves does matter. It was actually jarring for me to witness the same people like Armin Navabi conducting some very thorough and in-depth critiques of Islam on college tour panels and then later deciding to become nuisance streamers to mock Hindus with pictures sexualizing Kali. Who was this ever going to convince? When I tried to explain this to them myself, they treated me as a nuisance and assumed I was attempting “gotcha” moments. I realized quickly that they were not the people I assumed they were and that I was wrong to ever hold them to such high esteem. I’ll never make that mistake again. The intentional bigotry towards Hindus was the clearest sign on people with uncontrollable bad habits and narcissism reacting with self-sabotage; they actually thought Right-wing Muslims and Hindus would “unite together” so that Western Ex-Muslims could present themselves as an aggrieved minority. Instead, both groups realized Western Ex-Muslim Atheists were acting this way for attention and just ignored it; I suggested in a short Youtube video that didn’t get many views to simply block them, because I no longer saw any benefit towards real-life human rights causes. I mostly got praises from Muslims for the video; that may seem like a contradiction, but there was no need for any organized campaign against Ex-Muslims, all any group has to do is ignore them and they lose all power because social media campaigns aren’t the same as grassroots organized efforts to support human rights causes. For example, the Hindu nonprofit known as SEWA International and Christian NGOs are doing more to help others with food and medical drives than angry videos highlighting human rights crimes from social media groups like the Atheist Republic. What happened to most of those Ex-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries seeking to bring attention to their human rights being violated? They were also ignored. There is a genuine difference in how people treat others based upon whether you’re insulting them or critiquing their beliefs with an argument premised on why it is a disadvantage for them to believe in faith-based ideas. Of course, to do the latter, that required actually learning about Hinduism in the first place like they did Islam and Christianity. They were never willing to do that, so they stuck to the long-held Islamic tradition of bigotry against Hindus.
The third failing is something Hindus in India were better able to spot than Hindus living elsewhere. Ex-Muslim Atheists wanted to find and ridicule people they considered beneath them; it is no secret that most Muslims in the world, and most Ex-Muslims as a result, grow-up believing that Hindus are a sub-human species unworthy of human rights or equal respect because of Islamic perceptions of polytheism. Even if we were polytheists, that wouldn’t justify bigotry but Muslims and Ex-Muslims always try to find excuses for the bigotry ingrained from viewing Hindus as polytheist, from the teachings of their barbaric faith tradition of Islam. They can’t mock Jews without being labeled anti-Semites by people who don’t distinguish between Jewish people and Jewish teachings, mocking Christians must feel like mocking people of a higher social status to them because White Christianity is seen as synonymous with scientific modernity to some Ex-Muslims and Muslims, and so their need to vilify people they consider lesser is towards Hindus exclusively because they need to justify their Islamic or prior Islamic beliefs. Most Ex-Muslims recognize that Islam is the most dangerous, but they fail to recognize it is also the most stupid due to its emphasis on consistency. Ex-Muslims don’t want to feel any more stupid than they do for having been a Muslim, so they try to find something they believe is dumber without actually researching the theology of Hinduism. The fact any Ex-Muslim reading this is unlikely to be convinced that reading up on the theology would help make better arguments says it all. They believe themselves to be too “above” genuinely taking the time to read and learn a theology they’ve surely vilified the most throughout their entire lives.
For any fellow Hindus or outside observers unconvinced that there is a longstanding bigotry and hatred of Hindus by most Muslims and Western Ex-Muslim Atheists, consider this: when Western Ex-Muslim Atheists and Muslims talk about the Armenian genocide, it is from the perspective of shame and there are always discussions on how to convince Turkey to recognize it. When Western Ex-Muslim Atheists mention they know and fully accept that Muslims historically slaughtered approximately between 60 – 80 million people in India’s five-hundred years of history? They laugh and tell Hindus to shut up and get over it. When Hindus bring up how many Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, and so on are being kidnapped and raped or killed in Bangladesh and Pakistan? Western Ex-Muslim Atheists argue that India needs to accept more Muslim refugees and Hindus should ignore those facts they see every single year as if Hindus should treat the two events as separate. For White Europeans, it is reasonable to have concerns. For Dharmic followers of India who historically suffered five-hundred years of brutal oppression and mass genocide and then more brutal oppression and genocide after Akbar the Great’s peaceful rule which totaled to about 700 – 800 years, it is not considered reasonable. They notoriously ignore that India’s policies are no different than Israel and the US towards any potential influx of Muslim migrants. Hindu lives being in danger doesn’t matter to most Ex-Muslim Atheists.
Muslims and Ex-Muslim Atheists Psychological Projection unto Hindus
Fellow Hindus may find this next part interesting and even enlightening; it is one of the core reasons I decided to write this book, because I’ve seen this phenomenon happen repeatedly and I believe it is long overdue to call it out. If you’re a born and raised Muslim or an Ex-Muslim born and raised from a Muslim family reading this, then you might find this next part painful to read. Typically, most people from a Muslim background have never criticized Hinduism. I do not mean that you cannot criticize Hinduism and I do not mean the logical fallacy of shifting goalposts to change the criteria of what Hinduism is. Read these next words carefully: Muslims have only ever been trying to turn Hinduism into Islam, to criticize Islam by giving it a Hindu lexicon. The criticism that Muslims have with these supposedly critical “anti-Hinduism” arguments outside of Casteism are really just a mockery and disparagement of Islam. That is, every single criticism that I’ve read from Muslims and Ex-Muslim Atheists about Hinduism are actually criticisms of Islam; I don’t know what sort of psychological self-deception is going on with Muslims who do this, but it is definitely there. This is a real phenomenon that exists among Muslims. To give you a comparison of how we Hindus view your criticisms: in Islam, taqiyya is a theological concept that most Muslims only hear about from anti-Muslim bigots according to Ex-Muslims of North America’s co-founder, Muhammad Syed. Judging from what I researched, he is correct and most Muslims have never even heard of this concept and it has nothing to do with how Muslims live and practice their faith. Sure, it happened some centuries ago, but only on specific historic instances of intra-Muslim violence between Sunni-Shia for Shia Muslims to protect themselves, it was never practiced towards non-Muslims, and it is not practiced today among Muslims. This should be a fairly reasonable assumption to make. Here’s what most Muslims don’t understand: Muslims who criticize Hinduism have been doing the social equivalent of a bigot shouting “taqiyya” at Hindus in how we practice Hinduism. They’ve been doing this social equivalent of shouting “taqiyya” at Hindus for decades or longer, while ignoring that what they’re shouting at us is more readily observant in Islam’s theology. You hate Islam so much that you are trying to turn Hinduism into Islam, to find a substitute to vent your hatred for Islam and in doing so, you openly dehumanize us. You are psychologically projecting onto Hinduism and psychologically scapegoating Hindus. Our way of life needs to be “lesser” in your minds in order for you to justify your way of life and Muslim identity or former identity. It won’t change the fact that your Islamic religious teachings having completely failed you and everyone else in your ummah (One Muslim community / Muslim nation). We Hindus have always been vilified by you, so when you see us start doing better, then you want us either dead or chronically humiliated so that you get an ego boost to justify your failed religious lifestyle of believing in an unchanging 7th century standard of Arab fundamentalism.
Do you believe that I am exaggerating or lying? Let’s consider some examples. Islamists who criticize Hinduism in order to convert Hindus to Islam argue that there is a bovine deity, usually given alternative names of Kamadhenu or Surabhi, but this depiction is usually a metaphor for the sacredness of cows in Hindu theology. However, let me grant to any Muslim reading this that a few denominations that worship may surely exist and a few Hindus do worship Kamadhenu / Surabhi as an actual deity despite the fact that the vast majority of Hindus haven’t heard of it or only view it as a metaphor. Why do Islamists insist on objecting to this though? Because of Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 58, Hadith Number 227 which has a story about the Prophet Mohammad flying on a white horse, which gave rise to the Islamic artistic depictions of a supernatural flying horse called Buraq:
Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 58, Hadith Number 227.
Sahih Bukhari Book 58. Merits of the Helpers in Madina (Ansaar)
Narated By Abbas bin Malik : Malik bin Sasaa said that Allah’s Apostle described to them his Night Journey saying, “While I was lying in Al-Hatim or Al-Hijr, suddenly someone came to me and cut my body open from here to here.” I asked Al-Jarud who was by my side, “What does he mean?” He said, “It means from his throat to his pubic area,” or said, “From the top of the chest.” The Prophet further said, “He then took out my heart. Then a gold tray of Belief was brought to me and my heart was washed and was filled (with Belief) and then returned to its original place. Then a white animal which was smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey was brought to me.” (On this Al-Jarud asked, “Was it the Buraq, O Abu Hamza?” I (i.e. Anas) replied in the affirmative). The Prophet said, “The animal’s step (was so wide that it) reached the farthest point within the reach of the animal’s sight. I was carried on it, and Gabriel set out with me till we reached the nearest heaven.
When he asked for the gate to be opened, it was asked, ‘Who is it?’ Gabriel answered, ‘Gabriel.’ It was asked, ‘Who is accompanying you?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Muhammad.’ It was asked, ‘Has Muhammad been called?’ Gabriel replied in the affirmative. Then it was said, ‘He is welcomed. What an excellent visit his is!’ The gate was opened, and when I went over the first heaven, I saw Adam there. Gabriel said (to me). ‘This is your father, Adam; pay him your greetings.’ So I greeted him and he returned the greeting to me and said, ‘You are welcomed, O pious son and pious Prophet.’ Then Gabriel ascended with me till we reached the second heaven. Gabriel asked for the gate to be opened. It was asked, ‘Who is it?’ Gabriel answered, ‘Gabriel.’ It was asked, ‘Who is accompanying you?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Muhammad.’ It was asked, ‘Has he been called?’ Gabriel answered in the affirmative. Then it was said, ‘He is welcomed. What an excellent visit his is!’ The gate was opened.
When I went over the second heaven, there I saw Yahya (i.e. John) and ‘Isa (i.e. Jesus) who were cousins of each other. Gabriel said (to me), ‘These are John and Jesus; pay them your greetings.’ So I greeted them and both of them returned my greetings to me and said, ‘You are welcomed, O pious brother and pious Prophet.’ Then Gabriel ascended with me to the third heaven and asked for its gate to be opened. It was asked, ‘Who is it?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Gabriel.’ It was asked, ‘Who is accompanying you?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Muhammad.’ It was asked, ‘Has he been called?’ Gabriel replied in the affirmative. Then it was said, ‘He is welcomed, what an excellent visit his is!’ The gate was opened, and when I went over the third heaven there I saw Joseph. Gabriel said (to me), ‘This is Joseph; pay him your greetings.’ So I greeted him and he returned the greeting to me and said, ‘You are welcomed, O pious brother and pious Prophet.’ Then Gabriel ascended with me to the fourth heaven and asked for its gate to be opened. It was asked, ‘Who is it?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Gabriel’ It was asked, ‘Who is accompanying you?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Muhammad.’ It was asked, ‘Has he been called?’ Gabriel replied in the affirmative. Then it was said, ‘He is welcomed, what an excel lent visit his is!’
The gate was opened, and when I went over the fourth heaven, there I saw Idris. Gabriel said (to me), ‘This is Idris; pay him your greetings.’ So I greeted him and he returned the greeting to me and said, ‘You are welcomed, O pious brother and pious Prophet.’ Then Gabriel ascended with me to the fifth heaven and asked for its gate to be opened. It was asked, ‘Who is it?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Gabriel.’ It was asked. ‘Who is accompanying you?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Muhammad.’ It was asked, ‘Has he been called?’ Gabriel replied in the affirmative. Then it was said He is welcomed, what an excellent visit his is! So when I went over the fifth heaven, there I saw Harun (i.e. Aaron), Gabriel said, (to me). This is Aaron; pay him your greetings.’ I greeted him and he returned the greeting to me and said, ‘You are welcomed, O pious brother and pious Prophet.’ Then Gabriel ascended with me to the sixth heaven and asked for its gate to be opened. It was asked. ‘Who is it?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Gabriel.’ It was asked, ‘Who is accompanying you?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Muhammad.’ It was asked, ‘Has he been called?’ Gabriel replied in the affirmative. It was said, ‘He is welcomed. What an excellent visit his is!’
When I went (over the sixth heaven), there I saw Moses. Gabriel said (to me),’ This is Moses; pay him your greeting. So I greeted him and he returned the greetings to me and said, ‘You are welcomed, O pious brother and pious Prophet.’ When I left him (i.e. Moses) he wept. Someone asked him, ‘What makes you weep?’ Moses said, ‘I weep because after me there has been sent (as Prophet) a young man whose followers will enter Paradise in greater numbers than my followers.’ Then Gabriel ascended with me to the seventh heaven and asked for its gate to be opened. It was asked, ‘Who is it?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Gabriel.’ It was asked,’ Who is accompanying you?’ Gabriel replied, ‘Muhammad.’ It was asked, ‘Has he been called?’ Gabriel replied in the affirmative. Then it was said, ‘He is welcomed. What an excellent visit his is!’
So when I went (over the seventh heaven), there I saw Abraham. Gabriel said (to me), ‘This is your father; pay your greetings to him.’ So I greeted him and he returned the greetings to me and said, ‘You are welcomed, O pious son and pious Prophet.’ Then I was made to ascend to Sidrat-ul-Muntaha (i.e. the Lote Tree of the utmost boundary) Behold! Its fruits were like the jars of Hajr (i.e. a place near Medina) and its leaves were as big as the ears of elephants. Gabriel said, ‘This is the Lote Tree of the utmost boundary). Behold ! There ran four rivers, two were hidden and two were visible, I asked, ‘What are these two kinds of rivers, O Gabriel?’ He replied,’ As for the hidden rivers, they are two rivers in Paradise and the visible rivers are the Nile and the Euphrates.’
Then Al-Bait-ul-Ma’mur (i.e. the Sacred House) was shown to me and a container full of wine and another full of milk and a third full of honey were brought to me. I took the milk. Gabriel remarked, ‘This is the Islamic religion which you and your followers are following.’ Then the prayers were enjoined on me: They were fifty prayers a day. When I returned, I passed by Moses who asked (me), ‘What have you been ordered to do?’ I replied, ‘I have been ordered to offer fifty prayers a day.’ Moses said, ‘Your followers cannot bear fifty prayers a day, and by Allah, I have tested people before you, and I have tried my level best with Bani Israel (in vain). Go back to your Lord and ask for reduction to lessen your followers’ burden.’ So I went back, and Allah reduced ten prayers for me. Then again I came to Moses, but he repeated the same as he had said before. Then again I went back to Allah and He reduced ten more prayers. When I came back to Moses he said the same, I went back to Allah and He ordered me to observe ten prayers a day. When I came back to Moses, he repeated the same advice, so I went back to Allah and was ordered to observe five prayers a day.
When I came back to Moses, he said, ‘What have you been ordered?’ I replied, ‘I have been ordered to observe five prayers a day.’ He said, ‘Your followers cannot bear five prayers a day, and no doubt, I have got an experience of the people before you, and I have tried my level best with Bani Israel, so go back to your Lord and ask for reduction to lessen your follower’s burden.’ I said, ‘I have requested so much of my Lord that I feel ashamed, but I am satisfied now and surrender to Allah’s Order.’ When I left, I heard a voice saying, ‘I have passed My Order and have lessened the burden of My Worshipers.”[1]
[1] al-Bukhārī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm al-Juʿfī. “Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 58, Hadith Number 227.” Translated by Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Hadith Collection, Hadith Collection, 23 May 2009, hadithcollection.com/sahihbukhari/sahih-bukhari-book-58-merits-of-the-helpers-in-madina-ansaar/sahih-bukhari-volume-005-book-058-hadith-number-227.
In other words, Islamists want to convince themselves that the majority of Hindus believe in a nourishing, human-headed cow Goddess in order to simultaneously ridicule and feel less stupid about believing in Buraq, the flying white horse of the Prophet Mohammad. The image of a human-headed cow deity is the closest sense-object they could find in Hindu art for them to mock Buraq in Islam. This mockery likely extends to some Hindus drinking cow urine in India, because Muslims in the Middle East drink camel urine due to the false belief taught by the Prophet Mohammad himself that it cures ailments[1]; Muslims usually suffer MERS (Middle East Syndrome Coronavirus) which leads to breathing problems, fevers, kidney failure, pneumonia, and other complications as a result.[2] Regardless of what any of us believe on the practice of drinking cow urine by a scant few Hindus, most Muslims are insulting the practice to use Hinduism as a scapegoat to vilify Islam and not out of genuine concern for Hindus.
Why the accusations of Lady Sita being 6-years old when marrying Lord Rama in the Skanda Purana, while ignoring that Lady Sita’s own words in the much older Ramayana poems state that she was eighteen-years-old?[3][4][5] Islamists are trying to turn Rama and Sita into substitutes for the Prophet Mohammad and his 6-year-old child bride, Aisha, whom the Prophet Mohammad later raped when she was nine. Yet again, as a way of vilifying Islam through Hinduism. Vilifying Lord Krishna for having multiple wives? Another way of using Hinduism as a substitute so that Islamists can vilify the Prophet Mohammad for having multiple wives and sex slaves. Attempting to portray the Skanda Purana texts as pro-rape with the story of Lord Shiva and Lady Mohini? Islamists are trying to substitute the numerous stories of the Prophet Mohammad’s horrific real-life history of violence, such as the story of what the Prophet Mohammad did to the Jewish village of Safiya bint Huyai. They don’t want to see, hear, listen, or learn anything about Hinduism. They want to see, hear, listen, and create a “dark” version of Islam as an outlet for their genuine emotional hatred for Islam; by pretending it exists in another religion that they deem inferior to theirs. Both Islamists and the majority of “regular” Muslims outside the US do not ever wish to see or value the humanity of Hindus or to perceive Hinduism as having any coherent or useful values. They’re too psychologically fixated on needing to see other groups outside of the ummah (One Muslim Nation / Muslim Community) as inferior, specifically to justify their faith in the Quran. This Otherness of Hindus is normalized by many White Liberals and the Corporate media circus in the US. The murder of Hindus by Islamists is treated as banal and barely makes headlines in overseas news stories, meanwhile cow vigilantism was making headlines until a tweet by the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera tweeted an article in 2019 titled “How Cow Vigilantism Is Undermining the Rule of Law in India” by Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee. His article argued that cow vigilantism was essentially an “epidemic” in India because of the whopping 120 cases.[6] No, not percent which wouldn’t even make sense to say, what they meant was 120 cases in India between 2012 – 2018… total.[7] This is in a country with a population of 1.4 billion and which had a population of over 1.2 billion when Al Jazeera made that article. This is how stupid and desperate Islamists are to portray Muslims as perennially aggrieved minorities everywhere to further their Islamist agenda to reduce all other civilizations to 7th century social, political, and technological standards. They psychologically need for Hindus to be worse off to justify their faith in the Quran itself, because if Hindus are better off than all religious groups are thus doing better than those who follow Islam and they would be forced to question Islam with more scrutiny.
What about Honor Killings among Hindus and Muslims? Hindus are the only ones being criticized, the criticisms started internally within India to highlight a pertinent human rights issue for Indian women that needed more attention, appropriate and necessarily harsh criticism is given to Hindu families who commit such a disgusting act upon their own Hindu daughters, the government of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs has developed a statistical list to better assess the problem[8], and everyone is turning a blind eye when Muslims do it to their own family members.[9] I strongly support the criticism of Hindus and Sikhs for this barbaric practice precisely because I believe in Hindu and Sikh women’s human rights, and do you know what else? I know that my fellow Hindus will gradually improve, they have already made strides to improve, I hope the same will be true for our Sikh brothers and sisters, and I believe they will reduce this vile practice due to increased criticism that values the lives of Hindu and Sikh women. I want to see the discriminatory human rights abuses over inter-caste marriages to vanish[10]; I disagree with heterosexual gotra removal, because that would constitute incest since my understanding from what my Hindu family members have told me is that the gotra system was made in ancient times specifically to avoid incest. It’s mainly used as a family tree to make sure that people aren’t committing incest with any cousin or extended cousin marriages in northern India. It seems to have worked efficiently in the large populations of India that used it and it does seem effective in avoiding incest among northern Hindus. I don’t think that most people who criticize the gotra system appropriately recognize that, they don’t think about the negative effect ending the gotra system would have on such a large population like India with incest rising beyond just the Muslim Indian communities, and they often confuse it with a form of Caste when that isn’t true. I honestly think the more that people criticize Hindus with honest critiques, the more it pushes us to improve ourselves even when Hindus find the critiques are often one-sided. What I find that most fellow Hindus dislike is that they feel unfairly maligned, because the same expectations are never given to Muslims. If everyone is being honest with themselves, we all know never to expect the same from Muslims due to their fixation on their 7th century Arab fundamentalist beliefs. Muslim majority countries have worse problems than India with Honor Killings and stalwartly refuse to do anything[11]; nobody is criticizing Pakistan for having a worse rate of Honor Killings, because nobody believes in Pakistan.[12] When an entire country of Muslims refuses to do anything about it, how can we call this the “bigotry of low expectations” when their country is literally refusing to change and they shut down all criticisms of the problem?[13] What use is criticizing Islamic nation-states when they threaten to jail or kill the critics? What is then bigoted about these low expectations, when they reflect reality more accurately? Muslim-majority countries want others to shut up about honor killings, while we Hindus criticize misogyny in our own religion far more openly and have a history of doing so since the 1800s when Hindu reformers campaigned to remove the funeral burning of Hindu women. The problem Hindus, especially those who support Hindutva, have is that it is only Hindus who are ever criticized for these practices by most Liberal, Western, and many Christian organizations and never Muslims. Muslims must be perpetually infantilized due to fears that criticizing them will lead them to murder the critics.
A counterargument for any Ex-Muslim or anyone supporting the human rights of Muslims and who believe that there is a bigotry of low expectations when non-Muslims stop believing that most Muslims are capable of change: why should anyone have to risk being murdered when a Muslim’s comfort level is harmed when they hear a non-Muslim’s criticisms about either Islam or more specifically, the Prophet Mohammad? Why should any non-Muslim people risk being shot or stabbed when giving Free Speech criticisms of Islam? Why bother caring about Muslim human rights, when they make it no secret that the vast majority of Muslims genuinely don’t care about any non-Muslim’s human rights whenever they kill people for being offended by Free Speech criticisms? Why should I care about US Liberal activists yammering about Muslims having rights violated in Sudan, the Israeli territories of Gaza and the West Bank, and other countries; when Syrian Christian human rights, Christian human rights throughout Africa, the multitude of non-Muslim religious minority human rights in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and I’m sure many other places are deliberately ignored? The majority of Muslims have never concerned themselves with the human rights of religious minorities in their own countries nor of Muslim minority human rights, so why exactly should we care about theirs when they make no secret they wouldn’t hesitate to kill us or rape non-Muslim children if given the opportunity, even when they’re living in free and peaceful societies? What are we doing and why always this selective focus treating Muslim lives as more important than all non-Muslim lives? If protection of human rights isn’t going to be reciprocal between the majority of Muslims towards non-Muslims, then what is the point?
The only convincing argument I’ve been given is that people meaning to harm legitimately vulnerable minorities, such as Native Americans in the US, could then more easily commit violence upon them without human rights protections. Yet, I can’t help but think about how this ignores a salient fact about the difference in behavior. For those in the US, the difference is that Native Americans serve in the US Armed Forces at five times the per capita rate of their population size in the US[14][15], they’re more likely to serve in Active-Duty roles in the US Army[16][17], they have protested peacefully for over forty years while begging for their children’s lives to be protected from the ongoing state-sponsored US genocide from the 1978 US Supreme Court decision of Oliphant vs Suquamish[18][19][20][21][22][23], and – unlike Islam – Native American theology are the origins of most modern women’s rights across the entire world that the majority of US and Western women benefitted from and it came exclusively from Native American religious traditions.[24] The idea of Judeo-Christian values falls apart not just because of Enlightenment values and the horrific persecution of the Jews for two-thousand years by Christians, but also because of Native American theology’s major contributions to modern women’s rights throughout all of earth and especially the US and Western countries.[25] While those Democratic Socialists of the US try to portray their support for Gaza as a simplistic question of good versus evil[26], they ignore the US state-sponsored genocide that happens right in their own backyard due to the Supreme Court decision of Oliphant vs Suquamish 1978 that is still in legal effect even now.[27][28][29] Apparently, the majority Islamic Palestinian people who mostly want to kill us, who celebrated the terrorist atrocity of September 11th 2001 shortly after it happened[30][31][32], and who support the idea of raping 9-year-olds per support for following the Sharia (Divine Law of the Abrahamic God) are more important to a significant portion of Liberal Americans than the Native American people who serve and protect us[33][34], while we ignore their peaceful protests and US registered sex offenders go into their homes to rape and kill their children across the US.[35] This is the world we collectively choose to live in. To be completely fair, pro-Palestinian protesters in the US were peacefully protesting for about a year during the Biden Administration and the response by the Biden administration, after Kamala Harris lost the election to President Donald Trump due to not having a committed position on Palestine, was to send an $8 billion weapons sale to Israel before leaving office.[36] For those who draw generalizations between the two disparate civilizations of Islam and Native American nations, I obviously can’t speak for Native Americans and I’m sure the views are diverse like every other group on the issue of Israel-Palestine. As an anecdotal counterpoint, the first time I heard of criticism of Islam was from the band Corporate Avenger, a music band featuring Cherokee singer, Patrick R. “Adawee” Dubar and their 2005 album titled “Born Again” featured songs critical of Islamic theology like “Gay Muslims for Christ” and “Jihad Schmihad” and this was about a year prior to Sam Harris’s criticisms of Islam written in the LA Times.[37][38] The journalists, academics, and social media commentators arguing that criticism of Islam was racist seemed to conveniently ignore that one of the most popular bands among Native Americans in the early 2000s had criticized Islam even earlier than Sam Harris.[39][40][41]
US Policymakers missed America’s Unipolar moment, because they don’t understand the world around them. It has become all too clear that older generation Americans had no understanding of a multipolar world or how to properly strategize in such a world. The only thing in their heads was fixations on a neo-Cold War with Russia, while Vladimir Putin is continuously obsessed with some nebulous “victory” in Ukraine. Yet, US policymakers treated a regional strategic issue as an existential threat of the Soviet Union 2.0 emerging. They repeatedly proved that they never understood the threat of Islamic terrorism despite September 11th, 2001 happening and unarmed American civilians giving their lives to protect the Bush administration and the US Congress to stop the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93 from reaching the White House and the Capitol building. Even this act of self-sacrifice by unarmed Americans to protect the lives of US elected officials and lobbyists has simply become a half-forgotten footnote of history.
Chapter 8
- “687. Tribal Court Jurisdiction.” The United States Department of Justice, 22 Jan. 2020, https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-687-tribal-court-jurisdiction#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20held%20in,the%20tribe%20in%20Duro%20v.
- 9/11 News Coverage: 10:45 AM: Palestinians Celebrate, NBC News / AuthenticHistory, 30 Jan. 2011, youtube.com/watch?v=cqZBy09vCVk&ab_channel=AuthenticHistory.
- al-Bukhārī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm al-Juʿfī. “Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 58, Hadith Number 227.” Translated by Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Hadith Collection, Hadith Collection, 23 May 2009, hadithcollection.com/sahihbukhari/sahih-bukhari-book-58-merits-of-the-helpers-in-madina-ansaar/sahih-bukhari-volume-005-book-058-hadith-number-227.
- Al-Munajjid, Muhammad Saalih. “Is It Proven That ’Umar (May Allah Be Pleased with Him) Wrote a Letter to the Nile in Egypt so That Its Water Would Flow by Allah’s Leave? – Islam Question & Answer.” Islam, Islam Question & Answer, 17 June 2012, islamqa.info/en/answers/178417/is-it-proven-that-umar-(may-allah-be-pleased-with-him)-wrote-a-letter-to-the-nile-in-egypt-so-that-its-water-would-flow-by-allahs-leave.
- Al-Munajjid, Muhammad Saalih. “Will Civilisation Collapse at the End of Time and Will Battles Be Fought with Swords and Spears? – Islam Question & Answer.” Islamqa.Info, Islam Question & Answer, 1 Aug. 2014, islamqa.info/en/answers/162744/will-civilisation-collapse-at-the-end-of-time-and-will-battles-be-fought-with-swords-and-spears.
- Arghya Prasun Roychowdhury / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Apr 14, 2025. “Waqf Violent Protest: On a Tough Legal Wicket, Tmc Faces a Delicate Balancing Act: India News.” The Times of India, TOI, timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/waqf-violent-protest-on-a-tough-legal-wicket-tmc-faces-a-delicate-balancing-act/articleshow/120282778.cms. Accessed 25 Aug. 2025.
- Asad, Amira. “The Egyptian Feminist Who Was Kidnapped for Posing Nude.” VICE, VICE, 14 Feb. 2013, vice.com/en/article/the-egyptian-feminist-who-was-kidnapped-for-posing-nude/.
- Aydemir, Ridvan. “They Want to Kill Me Next | Stand with Me.” YouTube, Apostate Prophet, 1 Feb. 2025, youtube.com/watch?v=AT3sKDZZppQ&ab_channel=ApostateProphet.
- Bhattacharya, Snigdhendu. “Bengal Violence: Basirhat’s Muslim Leaders Tried to Pacify the Rioting Mob, but Couldn’t.” Hindustan Times, Hindustan Times, 16 July 2017, hindustantimes.com/india-news/bengal-violence-basirhat-s-muslim-leaders-tried-to-pacify-the-rioting-mob-but-couldn-t/story-8O6XTqN3yhsvKlfYSDK2aK.html.
- “Bid’Ah Hasanah (‘Good Innovations’) – Islam Question & Answer.” Edited by Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid, Islamqa.Info, Islam Question & Answer, 9 May 1998, islamqa.info/en/answers/864/bid-ah-hasanah-(%22good-innovations%22).
- Boehm, Mike. “Gloomed for Success: O.C.’s Mindfunk Has Had Its Share of Hard Knocks–Thank Goodness.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 1993, latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-03-ca-52788-story.html.
- Boone, Jon. “Salmaan Taseer Murder Case Harks Back to 1929 Killing of Hindu Publisher.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Mar. 2015, theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/12/salmaan-taseer-case-harks-back-to-1929-killing-of-hindu-publisher.
- “Buddhas of Bamiyan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 July 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan.
- Boyer, Lauren. “Stop Drinking Camel Urine, World Health Organization Says.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, usnews.com/news/articles/2015/06/10/stop-drinking-camel-urine-world-health-organization-says.
- “Calcutta High Court Grants Interim Bail to Sharmistha Panoli, Pulls up Bengal Police for Their Actions.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 5 June 2025, opindia.com/news-updates/calcutta-high-court-grants-interim-bail-to-sharmistha-panoli-pulls-up-bengal-police-for-their-actions/.
- Callimachi, Rukmini. “Isis Enshrines a Theology of Rape.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Aug. 2015, nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html.
- “Chapter 1: Beliefs about Sharia.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/.
- “Chapter 3: Morality.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-morality/.
- “Chapter 4: Women in Society.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-women-in-society/.
- “Chapter 5: Relations among Muslims.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-relationship-among-muslims/.
- “Chapter 6: Interfaith Relations.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-interfaith-relations/.
- “Chapter 7: Religion, Science and Popular Culture.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-science-and-popular-culture/.
- “Chapter 8: IPC 153A.” The Indian Penal Code (IPC), The Indian Penal Code (IPC), 14 Jan. 2014, indianpenalcode.in/ipc-153a/.
- Cooper, Renee. “Behind the Grim Statistics for Sexual Violence on Reservations.” KX NEWS, KX NEWS, 22 Dec. 2020, kxnet.com/news/local-news/being-raped-is-a-right-of-passage-behind-the-grim-statistics-for-native-american-women/.
- “Corporate Avenger – Born Again.” http://Www.Discogs.Com, Discogs, http://www.discogs.com/release/1353275-Corporate-Avenger-Born-Again. Accessed 17 Aug. 2025.
- Davies, Maia, and Danny Aeberhard. “Man Who Burned Quran ‘Shot Dead in Sweden.’” BBC News, BBC, 30 Jan. 2025, bbc.com/news/articles/cpdx2wqpg7zo.
- Dawkins, Richard, and Rana Ahmad. “Richard Dawkins Interviews Saudi Arabian Atheist Author Rana Ahmad.” Www.Youtube.Com, Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, 25 Feb. 2019, youtube.com/watch?v=_zncB6hngZg.
- Department of Defense (DOD), et al. “2022 Demographics Profile of the Military Community.” Https://S3.Documentcloud.Org/Documents/24177791/2022-Demographics-Report.Pdf, U.S. Naval Institute Staff / U.S. Naval Institute News, 29 Nov. 2023, s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24177791/2022-demographics-report.pdf. For reference: Page 24 and page 73.
- Department of Defense (DOD), et al. “2023 Demographics Profile of the Military Community.” Https://Download.Militaryonesource.Mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2023-Demographics-Report.Pdf, Military OneSource, 2023, download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2023-demographics-report.pdf. For Reference: Pages 24 and 73.
- Devichand, Mukul. “‘Nowhere Is Safe’: Behind the Bangladesh Blogger Murders.” BBC News, BBC, 7 Aug. 2015, bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33822674.
- “Dhandhuka Murder: 3 Accused in Police Remand for 10 More Days.” The Indian Express, The Indian Express / Express News Service, 7 Feb. 2022, web.archive.org/web/20220207041105/https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/dhandhuka-murder-accused-police-remand-ahmedabad-7760401/.
- Dhar, Aniruddha. “Instagram Influencer Sharmishta Panoli’s Lawyer Claims Poor Hygiene in Kolkata Jail: ‘She Has Kidney Stones.’” Hindustan Times, Hindustan Times, 2 June 2025, hindustantimes.com/india-news/instagram-influencer-sharmishta-panolis-lawyer-claims-poor-hygiene-in-kolkata-jail-she-has-kidney-stones-101748858117735.html.
- Durant, Will. Chapter XV: The Buddha: I. The Heretics (9581 – 9656). Our Oriental Heritage: Being a History of Civilization in Egypt and the Near East to the Death of Alexander, and in India, China and Japan from the Beginning to Our Own Day. Simon and Schuster, 1935.
- Fields, Ashleigh. “Dershowitz Says He Knows Epstein Client List Names: ‘But I’m Bound by Confidentiality.’” Thehill.Com, The Hill, 10 July 2025, thehill.com/homenews/administration/5395597-dershowitz-says-he-knows-epstein-client-list-names-but-im-bound-by-confidentiality/.
- “France Pays Respects to Teacher Killed in School Terror Attack.” France 24, FRANCE 24, 19 Oct. 2023, france24.com/en/live-news/20231019-france-pays-respects-to-teacher-killed-in-islamist-attack.
- Hamade, Kassem. “Salwan Momika Är Tillbaka – Går till Attack Mot Norge.” Salwan Momika Är Tillbaka i Sverige – Ilskan Mot Norge | Sverige | Expressen, Expressen, 11 Apr. 2024, web.archive.org/web/20240411193917/https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/sverige/salwan-momika-ar-tillbaka-i–sverige-ilskan-mot-norge/. For Reference: Google Translated from Swedish to English.
- “India: A Decade on, Gujarat Justice Incomplete.” Human Rights Watch, 28 Oct. 2020, hrw.org/news/2012/02/24/india-decade-gujarat-justice-incomplete#.
- “Jordanian Writer Nahed Hattar Was Murdered Outside the Court Where He Was on Trial for Publishing a Cartoon.” JRMora, Cartoons, jrmora.com, 21 May 2022, jrmora.com/en/jordanian-writer-nahed-hattar-murdered-court-trial-publishing-cartoon/.
- “Kamlesh Tiwari Murder: Up CM Yogi Adityanath to Visit Kin of Deceased Hindu Samaj Leader Today.” India.Com, India.Com, 19 Oct. 2019, india.com/news/india/kamlesh-tiwari-murder-up-cm-yogi-adityanath-to-visit-kin-of-deceased-hindu-samaj-leader-today-3811970/.
- Knight, Kyle, and Meenakshi Ganguly. “India Gets Another Chance Protecting Transgender Rights.” Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch Dispatches, 22 Feb. 2018, hrw.org/news/2018/02/22/india-gets-another-chance-protecting-transgender-rights.
- Lacdan, Joseph. “Army Leader Cherishes Heritage, Honors Native American Contributions.” http://www.Army.Mil, U.S. Army, 19 Nov. 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20250212083345/https://www.army.mil/article/252163/army_leader_cherishes_heritage_honors_native_american_contributions.
- Lal, Kishori Saran. Chapter X: AD 1200 – 1400 (Pgs. 113 – 116). “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1000-1800)” Internet Archive, Internet Archive, 5 Aug. 2018, ia902800.us.archive.org/11/items/GrowthOfMuslimPopulationInMedievalIndiaAd10001800/Growth-Of-Muslim-Population-In-Medieval-India-ad-1000-1800_text.pdf.
- Lal, Kishori Saran. Chapter XI: AD 1400 – 1600 (Pgs. 127 – 143). “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1000-1800)” Internet Archive, Internet Archive, 5 Aug. 2018, ia902800.us.archive.org/11/items/GrowthOfMuslimPopulationInMedievalIndiaAd10001800/Growth-Of-Muslim-Population-In-Medieval-India-ad-1000-1800_text.pdf. For reference: Footnote on page 136.
- Lal, Kishori Saran. “Part III: Reposte on Reviews: VII A Riposte on Reviews: 7.1 The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India.” Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India, 2020th ed., Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, Delhi, 1999, pp. 324–327. For reference:
It is re-asserted that a strict watch was kept on Hindu thought and expression. Hindu learning in general was suppressed since Hindu and Buddhist schools were attached to temples and monasteries. These were regularly destroyed from the very beginning and with them schools of learning. Qutbuddin Aibak razed the Sanskrit College of Vishaldeva at Ajmer and in its place built a mosque called Arhai din ka Jhonpra. In the east Ikhtiyauddin Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked the Buddhist university centres in Bihar like Odantapuri, Nalanda and Vikramshila between 1197-1202. There, according to the contemporary chronicler Minhaj Siraj, “the greater number of the inhabitants of the place were Brahmans, and the whole of those Brahmans had their heads shaven (probably Buddhist monks mistaken for Brahmans) and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there; and the Musalmans… summoned a number of Hindus that they might give them information respecting the import of these books; but the whole of the Hindus had been killed.” All that the invader could learn was that “the whole of the fortress was a college and in the Hindi tongue, they call a college (madrasa) Bihar.”2 During this period there were large numbers of centres of learning spread all over India. B. P. Mazumdar has listed some of these centres in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as existing in Northern India. In Bihar they were Nalanda, Vikramshila, Odantapuri and Phullahari near Monghyr. In North and Eastern Bengal they were Jagaddala, Somapura and Devikota in North Bengal, Vikrampuri in Dacca, Pattikeraka in Comilla, and Panditavihara in Chittagong. Minor viharas were in existence at Gaya and Valabhi and Bundelkhand.
Hieun Tsang, in the seventh century, had noted that monasteries existed in all parts of the country. Many of these continued to flourish in the eleventh-twelfth centuries. Hiuen Tsang’s list included “Nagarkot, Udyana, Jalandhar, Sthanesvara, Srughna Matipura, Brahmapura, Govisana, Ahichchatra, Samkasya, Kanauj, Navadevakula, Ayodhya, Hayamuka, Prayag, Visoka, Kapilvastu, Banaras, Ramagrama, Ghazipur, Tilosika, Gunamati, Silabhadra near Gaya, Kajangala, Pundravardhana, Kamarupa, Samatata, Orissa, Berar, Malwa, Valabhi, Anandapura, Surat, Ujjayini and Chitor.” The adventurer Ikhtiayaruddin Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked Bihar during sultan Aibak’s reign, and centres of learning were specially sacked. So thorough was the massacre by the Khalji warrior in Bihar and later on by others in other places that those who could read ancient inscriptions became rare if not extinct. So that when Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (fourteenth century) shifted two Ashokan pillars from Khizrabad and Meerut to Delhi and installed them there, he called some learned Brahmans to read the inscriptions engraved in Ashokan Brahmi script on the pillars; they failed to read the script. Some of them tried to please the Sultan with funny stories by saying that it was recorded in the inscriptions that no one would be able to remove the monoliths till the advent of Firoz.3
Demolition of schools and temples was continued by most Muslim rulers right up to the time of Aurangzeb, both at the centre and in the provinces. Aurangzeb was one of the enthusiastic sort in this respect, although he was no exception.
The Maasir-i-Alamgiri records that in April 1669, “It reached the ears of his Majesty, the protector of the faith, that in the province of Thatta, Multan, and Banaras, but especially in the latter, foolish Brahmans were in the habit of expounding frivolous books in their schools, and that students and learners, Muslims as well as Hindus went there, even from long distances, led by the desire to become acquainted with the wicked sciences they taught. The Director of the Faith, consequently issued orders to all governors of provinces to destroy with a willing band the schools and temples of the infidels. In obedience of this order the temple of Bishnath at Banaras was destroyed.”4 With such evidences on hand, Jackson is forced to concede that “some limited degree of repression may have been feasible in Delhi or in the vicinity of the sultan’s itinerant court; it was surely impractical in the provincial centres, still more so in the countryside”. I have resided in Delhi, Bhopal and Hyderabad (Deccan) for many years. In all these places I could hardly locate any temples left of the medieval period. Hindu learning was dependent on schools and Brahman teachers, and both were attached to temples mostly in urban areas. And all the three – schools, teachers and temples – were systematically destroyed. Muslim rulers in general and Firoz Tuglaq and Sikandar Lodi in particular considered the Brahmans as ‘the very keys of chambers of idolatry” and treated them with great severity.5 The level of education in the countryside is not known. But the credit for whatever could be- saved of Hindu education goes to the freedom fighters of medieval India and not to the indulgence of the Muslim government.
- Lee, Matthew. “Biden Administration Notifies Congress of Planned $8 Billion Weapons Sale to Israel.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 4 Jan. 2025, pbs.org/newshour/world/biden-administration-notifies-congress-of-planned-8-billion-weapons-sale-to-israel#:~:text=Biden%20administration%20notifies%20Congress%20of,Live%20TV.
- Maged, Ahmed. “The Nile Bride Sacrifice Is a Big Myth, Says Egyptologist.” Dailynewsegypt, Egyptian Media Services, 7 Aug. 2015, dailynewsegypt.com/2008/10/03/the-nile-bride-sacrifice-is-a-big-myth-says-egyptologist/.
- Marx, Karl. “The British Rule in India.” The British Rule in India by Karl Marx, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1853/06/25.htm. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
- MAZE OF INJUSTICE The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA, Amnesty International, https://web.archive.org/web/20111018194106/http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/MazeOfInjustice.pdf.
- McKernan, Bethan. “Alleged Killer Who Shot Atheist Jordanian Writer Outside Supreme Court Identified.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 25 Sept. 2016, independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/alleged-killer-who-shot-atheist-jordanian-writer-charged-with-offensive-facebook-post-identified-a7329391.html.
- McKernan, Bethan. “A Man Has Been ‘sentenced to Death’ in Saudi Arabia for Being an Atheist.” The Independent, The Independent World, 26 Apr. 2017, web.archive.org/web/20170426142501/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-man-sentenced-death-atheism-ahmad-al-shamri-hafar-al-batin-appeal-denied-a7703161.html.
- “Kolkata Police Travel to Gurgaon to Arrest Hindu Influencer Sharmistha over Video Targeting Pakistan, No Action so Far on Muslims Who Issued STSJ Threats.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 31 May 2025, opindia.com/2025/05/kolkata-police-arrest-hindu-influencer-sharmistha-from-gurgaon-over-video-targeting-pakistan-had-offended-indian-muslims-details/.
- Mezzofiore, Gianluca. “Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, Nude Blogger, Gains Support from Egyptian Diaspora.” International Business Times UK, International Business Times UK, 18 Nov. 2011, ibtimes.co.uk/aliaa-magda-elmahdy-nude-blogger-gains-support-252301.
- “Native American Women Are Rape Targets Because of a Legislative Loophole.” VICE, VICE News, 16 Dec. 2015, https://www.vice.com/en/article/bnpb73/native-american-women-are-rape-targets-because-of-a-legislative-loophole-511.
- Navabi, Armin. “ Why I Burn The Quran.” YouTube, Atheist Republic, 29 July 2018, youtube.com/watch?v=nVsqA7fWWoY&pp=ygUbYnVybiB0aGUgcXVyYW4gYXJtaW4gbmF2YWJp.
- Navabi, Armin. “Armin Navabi: @ArminNavabi: ‘With My Fellow Ex-Muslim Freedom Fighters in Berlin.’” X.Com, x.com / Twitter, 14 Sept. 2019, x.com/arminnavabi/status/1172885766965325824?lang=en.
- “Palestinians Celebrate 9/11 Attacks on US.” Youtube, Fox News / mnaba11, 9 Jan. 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9yK0u-XH1M. For Reference: Within the video description box: “Palestinians dance and celebrate in the streets on 9/11”
- “Palestinians Celebrate at Damascus Gate.” Palestinians Celebrate at Damascus Gate – AP Archive, AP Archive / AP News, 30 July 2015, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UucjbGmJILk&ab_channel=APArchive. For reference in the Youtube description box of the video: “There were celebrations at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, following the attacks on the Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Palestinian men, women and children chanted in jubilation after terrorists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center causing them to collapse on Tuesday morning.”
- Pandey, Shraddha. “From Nupur Sharma to Sharmishta Panoli: How Courts Are Emboldening Islamists and Curbing Space for Free Speech.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 3 June 2025, opindia.com/2025/06/nupur-sharma-sharmishta-panoli-courts-emboldening-islamists-curbing-space-for-free-speech/.
- Pandey, Shraddha. “The Growing ‘trend’ of Throwing Meat Pieces in Front of Mandirs, a Co-Ordinated Campaign to Desecrate Sacred Hindu Places?” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 19 June 2025, opindia.com/2025/06/the-growing-trend-of-throwing-meat-pieces-in-front-of-temples/.
- Pollina, Richard. “Suspect Allegedly Yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ before Fatally Stabbing Teacher, Injuring 2 Others in France Knife Attack.” New York Post, New York Post, 13 Oct. 2023, nypost.com/2023/10/13/france-knife-attack-leaves-teacher-dead-several-injured/.
- “Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam.” YouTube, VICE News, 10 Feb. 2016, youtube.com/watch?v=O1lnxUXWGgE.
- “Salman Rushdie Stabbing Suspect Charged with Attempted Murder as Author Remains Hospitalized with ‘Serious’ Wounds.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 13 Aug. 2022, cbsnews.com/news/salman-rushdie-stabbing-suspect-hadi-matar/.
- “Samuel Paty: French Schoolgirl Admits Lying about Murdered Teacher.” BBC News, BBC, 9 Mar. 2021, bbc.com/news/world-europe-56325254.
- “Saudi Arabia: Yemeni Man Sentenced for Apostasy.” Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch: News Release, 7 Jan. 2021, hrw.org/news/2021/12/20/saudi-arabia-yemeni-man-sentenced-apostasy.
- “Section 295A in the Indian Penal Code, 1860.” Indiankanoon.Org, Indian Kanoon, indiankanoon.org/doc/1803184/. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
- Sharma, Nupur J. “Of Free Speech and 295A: Why I Partially Agree and Wholly Disagree with the Arguments of Prof Anand Ranganathan.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 28 June 2022, opindia.com/2022/06/free-speech-295a-disagree-arguments-prof-anand-ranganathan/.
- Simeon, Dilip. “The Tyranny of Hurt Sentiment.” The Indian Express, The Indian Express, 11 Feb. 2015, web.archive.org/web/20220726090225/https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-tyranny-of-hurt-sentiment/.
- Singh, Kavita. “When Peace Is Defeat, Reconstruction Is Damage: ‘Rebuilding’ Heritage in Postconflict Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.” Www.Getty.Edu, J. Paul Getty Trust, 13 July 2022, getty.edu/publications/cultural-heritage-mass-atrocities/downloads/pages/CunoWeiss_CHMA_part-2-08-singh.pdf. For Reference: pages 157 – 159.
- Shah, Amir. “Taliban Destroy Ancient Buddhist Relics.” The Independent Asia RSS, The Independent World, 3 Mar. 2001, web.archive.org/web/20110106181318/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/taliban-destroy-ancient-buddhist-relics-694425.html.
- Sharma, Swati Goel. “Phoola Bai’s Husband Hari Singh Was Brutally Killed by Islamists on Holi. He Was Crushed by a Tractor in Dead of the Night Hailing from an All-Hindu Vanvasi Village in Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh, Phoola Bai Has No Means of Income. .” X.Com, x.com / Twitter, 12 May 2025, x.com/swati_gs/status/1921930773151506515.
- Steinhauer, Jillian. “Feminist Activists Bleed and Defecate on Islamic State Flag #NSFW.” Hyperallergic, Hyperallergic, 27 Aug. 2014, hyperallergic.com/145768/feminist-activists-bleed-and-shit-on-islamic-state-flag-nsfw/.
- “Supreme Court Trashes Rana Ayyub’s Gujarat Book, Says It Is Based upon Surmises, Conjectures, and Suppositions.” OpIndia, OpIndia, 5 July 2019, opindia.com/2019/07/supreme-court-rana-ayyub-gujarat-files-haren-pandya-murder/.
- “The Benefits of Drinking Camel Urine – Islam Question & Answer.” Islamqa.info, Islam Question and Answer, 27 Mar. 2006, https://web.archive.org/web/20190209043245/https://islamqa.info/en/answers/83423/the-benefits-of-drinking-camel-urine.
- “The Never-Ending Maze: Continued Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA.” Amnesty International USA, Amnesty International USA, 19 July 2023, http://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AmnestyMazeReportv_digital.pdf.
- “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Apr. 2013, pewresearch.org/religion/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/.
- Trump, Donald J. “Presidential Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month, 2018.” The White House, Whitehouse.gov, 31 Oct. 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20201226230730/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-national-native-american-heritage-month-2018/.
- “Book III: Aranya Kanda – The Forest Trek.” Translated by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao et al., Srimad Valmiki Ramayana: Book 3 Aranya Kanda: Sarga / Chapter 47: Verses: 10b – 11., Desiraju Hanumanta Rao & K. M. K. Murthy, Nov. 2004, https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga47/aranyaitrans47.htm For reference: In the context of Lady Sita speaking on her own behalf to Ravana: “मम भर्ता महातेजा वयसा पंच विंशकः || ३-४७-१०अष्टा दश हि वर्षाणि मम जन्मनि गण्यते | 10b, 11. mahaatejaa mama bhartaa = great resplendent my, husband; vayasaa panca vimshakaH = by age, five, twenty – twenty-five years; mama janmani = my, from birth; aSTaa dasha varSaaNi hi = eight, ten – eighteen, years, only; gaNyate = reckoned up.
“My great-resplendent husband was of twenty-five years of age at that time, and to me eighteen years are reckoned up from my birth. [3-47-10b, 11a]
These foots are said to be nonexistent in some more ancient mms. But lengthy narrations are there in calculating the age of Rama and Seetha, at this point of legend with these stanzas. The letter bha in the line mama bhartaa mahaatejaa is the ninth letter of Gayatri hymn and thus the ninth book of Ramayana with thousand couplets is started from here. The whole of Ramayana is with twenty-four thousand verses and Gayatri hymn has twenty-four letters, and each book of Ramayana contains a thousand verses, starting with each letter of Gayatri. This is the then classification of the cantos of this epic and such grouping of verses is nonexistent now.”
- “Book III: Aranya Kanda – The Forest Trek.” Translated by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao et al., Srimad Valmiki Ramayana: Book 3 Aranya Kanda: Sarga / Chapter 47: Verses: 10b – 11., Desiraju Hanumanta Rao & K. M. K. Murthy, Nov. 2004, sanskritdocuments.org/sites/valmikiramayan/aranya/sarga47/aranya_47_frame.htm. For reference: In the context of Lady Sita speaking on her own behalf to Ravana: “मम भर्ता महातेजा वयसा पंच विंशकः || ३-४७-१०अष्टा दश हि वर्षाणि मम जन्मनि गण्यते | 10b, 11. mahaatejaa mama bhartaa = great resplendent my, husband; vayasaa panca vimshakaH = by age, five, twenty – twenty-five years; mama janmani = my, from birth; aSTaa dasha varSaaNi hi = eight, ten – eighteen, years, only; gaNyate = reckoned up.
“My great-resplendent husband was of twenty-five years of age at that time, and to me eighteen years are reckoned up from my birth. [3-47-10b, 11a]
These foots are said to be nonexistent in some more ancient mms. But lengthy narrations are there in calculating the age of Rama and Seetha, at this point of legend with these stanzas. The letter bha in the line mama bhartaa mahaatejaa is the ninth letter of Gayatri hymn and thus the ninth book of Ramayana with thousand couplets is started from here. The whole of Ramayana is with twenty-four thousand verses and Gayatri hymn has twenty-four letters, and each book of Ramayana contains a thousand verses, starting with each letter of Gayatri. This is the then classification of the cantos of this epic and such grouping of verses is nonexistent now.”
- “Chapter 30 – Rāma’s Life.” Translated by Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare, Skanda Purana: Book 3 – Brāhma-Khaṇḍa: Section 2 – Dharmāraṇya-Khaṇḍa: Chapter 30 – Rāma’s Life: Verses 8-9, http://www.wisdomlib.org, 15 Aug. 2020, www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc423651.html#:~:text=8%2D9.,with%20S%C4%ABt%C4%81%20for%20twelve%20years. For reference: Within the context of Vyasa’s narration: “8-9. The bow of Īśvara that was kept in the abode of Janaka, was broken. In his fifteenth year, O king, Rāma married the six-year old beautiful daughter of the king of Mithilā,[1] Sītā who was not born of a womb. On getting Sītā, Rāghava became contented and happy.”
- Wagner, Sally Roesch. Sisters in Spirit: Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists. Book Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.
- “‘WE HAVE NO ORDERS TO SAVE YOU’ State Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat.” Www.Hrw.Org, Human Rights Watch, hrw.org/reports/2002/india/gujarat.pdf. Accessed 22 Aug. 2025. For Reference on page 44 where they explicitly vilify Hindu religious practices and perpetuating the falsehood of trying to link practicing faith to violence against Christians; abject anti-Hindu bigotry: “A well planned strategy is being operated by the Hinduvata forces in Gujarat and it aims at communalising society at the grass root level. Youngsters belonging to the age group of fifteen to twenty-five are being recruited as activists of the Bajrang Dal for this purpose. They are taught to carry out operations covertly and deny any knowledge of those incidents where communal flare-ups do take place…. The VHP has also intensified its activities all over Gujarat. Activities such as the distribution of the idols of Hindu Gods, revival of Hindu festivals, conducting of “Artis” [prayer ceremonies] etc., are on the increase in recent months…. A well planned program to “Hinduvise” the tribals is in full swing in the entire tribal belt of South Gujarat. The founding of the units of the VHP and the BD [Bajrang Dal] in each tribal locality, the regular visits and preaching of Swamis, the construction of temples for tribals, etc. are being pursued vigourously. The attack on Christian churches, disruption of prayer meetings, physical assaults on Christians, etc. are part [of] and the result of this programme.205”
- Williams, Robert A. “THE ALGEBRA OF FEDERAL INDIAN LAW: THE HARD TRAIL OF DECOLONIZING AND AMERICANIZING THE WHITE MAN’S INDIAN JURISPRUDENCE.” UW Law Digital Repository Media · University of Wisconsin Law School Digital Repository · University of Wisconsin Law School Digital Repository, University of Wisconsin Law Review, repository.law.wisc.edu/s/uwlaw/media/35536.
- Willsher, Kim. “Teacher Decapitated in Paris Named as Samuel Paty, 47.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Oct. 2020, theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/teacher-decapitated-in-paris-named-as-samuel-paty-47.
- Worley, Will. “Full Extent of Isis Destruction of Palmyra Revealed in Devastating before and after Photos.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 2 Apr. 2016, independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palmyra-syria-photos-new-palmyra-photos-show-devastation-of-artefacts-ruined-by-isis-a6964766.html.
- Zarrinkoub, Abdolhossein. Chapter 4: The Lost Language (Location 1833 – 1878). Two Centuries of Silence: An Account of Events and Conditions in Iran [Persia] During the First Two Hundred Years of Islam, from the Arab Invasion to the Rise of the Tahirid Dynasty First edition. Mazda Publishers. Kindle Edition.
- Zarrinkoub, Abdolhossein. Chapter 9: The Battle of Beliefs (Location 4422 – 4965). Two Centuries of Silence: An Account of Events and Conditions in Iran [Persia] During the First Two Hundred Years of Islam, from the Arab Invasion to the Rise of the Tahirid Dynasty First edition. Mazda Publishers. Kindle Edition.
- Zickgraf, Ryan. “Democratic Socialism’s Moral Theater.” UnHerd, 13 Aug. 2025, unherd.com/2025/08/democratic-socialisms-slide-into-irrelevance/.
Endnotes
[1] “The Benefits of Drinking Camel Urine – Islam Question & Answer.” Islamqa.info, Islam Question and Answer, 27 Mar. 2006, https://web.archive.org/web/20190209043245/https://islamqa.info/en/answers/83423/the-benefits-of-drinking-camel-urine.
[2] Boyer, Lauren. “Stop Drinking Camel Urine, World Health Organization Says.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/06/10/stop-drinking-camel-urine-world-health-organization-says.
[3] Vyasa. “Chapter 30 – Rāma’s Life.” Translated by Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare, Skanda Purana: Book 3 – Brāhma-Khaṇḍa: Section 2 – Dharmāraṇya-Khaṇḍa: Chapter 30 – Rāma’s Life: Verses 8-9, http://www.wisdomlib.org, 15 Aug. 2020, www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc423651.html#:~:text=8%2D9.,with%20S%C4%ABt%C4%81%20for%20twelve%20years.
[4] Valmiki. “Book III: Aranya Kanda – The Forest Trek.” Translated by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao et al., Srimad Valmiki Ramayana: Book 3 Aranya Kanda: Sarga / Chapter 47: Verses: 10b – 11., Desiraju Hanumanta Rao & K. M. K. Murthy, Nov. 2004, https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga47/aranyaitrans47.htm
[5] Valmiki. “Book III: Aranya Kanda – The Forest Trek.” Translated by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao et al., Srimad Valmiki Ramayana: Book 3 Aranya Kanda: Sarga / Chapter 47: Verses: 10b – 11., Desiraju Hanumanta Rao & K. M. K. Murthy, Nov. 2004, sanskritdocuments.org/sites/valmikiramayan/aranya/sarga47/aranya_47_frame.htm.
[6] Bhattacharjee, Manash Firaq. “How Cow Vigilantism Is Undermining the Rule of Law in India.” Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 3 Jan. 2019, www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/1/3/how-cow-vigilantism-is-undermining-the-rule-of-law-in-india.
[7] Bhattacharjee, Manash Firaq. “How Cow Vigilantism Is Undermining the Rule of Law in India.” Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 3 Jan. 2019, www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/1/3/how-cow-vigilantism-is-undermining-the-rule-of-law-in-india.
[8] “MURDER RATE ACROSS THE STATES.” Www.Mha.Gov.In, Government of India / MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS , www.mha.gov.in/MHA1/Par2017/pdfs/par2023-pdfs/RS05042023/3734.pdf. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
[9] Bloom, Nathan, and Phyllis Chesler. “Hindu vs. Muslim Honor Killings.” Middle East Forum, Middle East Quarterly, 18 July 2012, www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/hindu-muslim-honor-killings.
[10] Namrata, Namrata. “In between Honor, Rebellion and Patriarchy: Honor Killings in India.” New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Global Human Rights Hub fellows blog, 9 Feb. 2024, newcollege.asu.edu/global-human-rights-hub/fellows-program/ghr-fellows-blog/namrata.
[11] Bloom, Nathan, and Phyllis Chesler. “Hindu vs. Muslim Honor Killings.” Middle East Forum, Middle East Quarterly, 18 July 2012, www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/hindu-muslim-honor-killings.
[12] Bloom, Nathan, and Phyllis Chesler. “Hindu vs. Muslim Honor Killings.” Middle East Forum, Middle East Quarterly, 18 July 2012, www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/hindu-muslim-honor-killings.
[13] Bloom, Nathan, and Phyllis Chesler. “Hindu vs. Muslim Honor Killings.” Middle East Forum, Middle East Quarterly, 18 July 2012, www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/hindu-muslim-honor-killings.
[14] Trump, Donald J. “Presidential Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month, 2018.” The White House, Whitehouse.gov, 31 Oct. 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20201226230730/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-national-native-american-heritage-month-2018/.
[15] Lacdan, Joseph. “Army Leader Cherishes Heritage, Honors Native American Contributions.” http://www.Army.Mil, U.S. Army, 19 Nov. 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20250212083345/https://www.army.mil/article/252163/army_leader_cherishes_heritage_honors_native_american_contributions.
[16] Department of Defense (DOD), et al. “2022 Demographics Profile of the Military Community.” Https://S3.Documentcloud.Org/Documents/24177791/2022-Demographics-Report.Pdf, U.S. Naval Institute Staff / U.S. Naval Institute News, 29 Nov. 2023, s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24177791/2022-demographics-report.pdf.
[17] Department of Defense (DOD), et al. “2023 Demographics Profile of the Military Community.” Https://Download.Militaryonesource.Mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2023-Demographics-Report.Pdf, Military OneSource, 2023, download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2023-demographics-report.pdf.
[18] MAZE OF INJUSTICE The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA, Amnesty International, https://web.archive.org/web/20111018194106/http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/MazeOfInjustice.pdf.
[19] Cooper, Renee. “Behind the Grim Statistics for Sexual Violence on Reservations.” KX NEWS, KX NEWS, 22 Dec. 2020, www.kxnet.com/news/local-news/being-raped-is-a-right-of-passage-behind-the-grim-statistics-for-native-american-women/.
[20] “The Never-Ending Maze: Continued Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA.” Amnesty International USA, Amnesty International USA, 19 July 2023, http://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AmnestyMazeReportv_digital.pdf.
[21] Williams, Robert A. “THE ALGEBRA OF FEDERAL INDIAN LAW: THE HARD TRAIL OF DECOLONIZING AND AMERICANIZING THE WHITE MAN’S INDIAN JURISPRUDENCE.” UW Law Digital Repository Media · University of Wisconsin Law School Digital Repository · University of Wisconsin Law School Digital Repository, University of Wisconsin Law Review, repository.law.wisc.edu/s/uwlaw/media/35536.
[22] “Native American Women Are Rape Targets Because of a Legislative Loophole.” VICE, VICE News, 16 Dec. 2015, https://www.vice.com/en/article/bnpb73/native-american-women-are-rape-targets-because-of-a-legislative-loophole-511.
[23] “687. Tribal Court Jurisdiction.” The United States Department of Justice, 22 Jan. 2020, https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-687-tribal-court-jurisdiction#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20held%20in,the%20tribe%20in%20Duro%20v.
[24] Wagner, Sally Roesch. Sisters in Spirit: Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists. Book Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.
[25] Wagner, Sally Roesch. Sisters in Spirit: Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists. Book Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.
[26] Zickgraf, Ryan. “Democratic Socialism’s Moral Theater.” UnHerd, 13 Aug. 2025, unherd.com/2025/08/democratic-socialisms-slide-into-irrelevance/.
[27] MAZE OF INJUSTICE The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA, Amnesty International, https://web.archive.org/web/20111018194106/http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/MazeOfInjustice.pdf.
[28] “The Never-Ending Maze: Continued Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA.” Amnesty International USA, Amnesty International USA, 19 July 2023, http://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AmnestyMazeReportv_digital.pdf.
[29] Williams, Robert A. “THE ALGEBRA OF FEDERAL INDIAN LAW: THE HARD TRAIL OF DECOLONIZING AND AMERICANIZING THE WHITE MAN’S INDIAN JURISPRUDENCE.” UW Law Digital Repository Media · University of Wisconsin Law School Digital Repository · University of Wisconsin Law School Digital Repository, University of Wisconsin Law Review, repository.law.wisc.edu/s/uwlaw/media/35536.
[30] 9/11 News Coverage: 10:45 AM: Palestinians Celebrate, NBC News / AuthenticHistory, 30 Jan. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqZBy09vCVk&ab_channel=AuthenticHistory.
[31] “Palestinians Celebrate 9/11 Attacks on US.” Youtube, Fox News / mnaba11, 9 Jan. 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9yK0u-XH1M. For Reference: Within the video description box: “Palestinians dance and celebrate in the streets on 9/11”
[32] “Palestinians Celebrate at Damascus Gate.” Palestinians Celebrate at Damascus Gate – AP Archive, AP Archive / AP News, 30 July 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UucjbGmJILk&ab_channel=APArchive.
[33] Trump, Donald J. “Presidential Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month, 2018.” The White House, Whitehouse.gov, 31 Oct. 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20201226230730/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-national-native-american-heritage-month-2018/.
[34] Lacdan, Joseph. “Army Leader Cherishes Heritage, Honors Native American Contributions.” http://www.Army.Mil, U.S. Army, 19 Nov. 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20250212083345/https://www.army.mil/article/252163/army_leader_cherishes_heritage_honors_native_american_contributions.
[35] Cooper, Renee. “Behind the Grim Statistics for Sexual Violence on Reservations.” KX NEWS, KX NEWS, 22 Dec. 2020, www.kxnet.com/news/local-news/being-raped-is-a-right-of-passage-behind-the-grim-statistics-for-native-american-women/.
[36] Lee, Matthew. “Biden Administration Notifies Congress of Planned $8 Billion Weapons Sale to Israel.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 4 Jan. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/world/biden-administration-notifies-congress-of-planned-8-billion-weapons-sale-to-israel#:~:text=Biden%20administration%20notifies%20Congress%20of,Live%20TV.
[37] Boehm, Mike. “Gloomed for Success: O.C.’s Mindfunk Has Had Its Share of Hard Knocks–Thank Goodness.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 1993, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-03-ca-52788-story.html.
[38] “Corporate Avenger – Born Again.” http://Www.Discogs.Com, Discogs, http://www.discogs.com/release/1353275-Corporate-Avenger-Born-Again. Accessed 17 Aug. 2025.
[39] “Corporate Avenger – Born Again.” http://Www.Discogs.Com, Discogs, http://www.discogs.com/release/1353275-Corporate-Avenger-Born-Again. Accessed 17 Aug. 2025.
[40] Boehm, Mike. “Gloomed for Success: O.C.’s Mindfunk Has Had Its Share of Hard Knocks–Thank Goodness.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 1993, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-03-ca-52788-story.html.
[1] Navabi, Armin. “Armin Navabi: @ArminNavabi: ‘With My Fellow Ex-Muslim Freedom Fighters in Berlin.’” X.Com, x.com / Twitter, 14 Sept. 2019, x.com/arminnavabi/status/1172885766965325824?lang=en.
[1] Jaffery, Shumaila. “Asia Bibi: Pakistan’s Notorious Case.” BBC News, BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Asia_Bibi. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
[2] Jaffery, Shumaila. “Asia Bibi: Pakistan’s Notorious Case.” BBC News, BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Asia_Bibi. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
[3] Sherwood, Harriet. “Asia Bibi Family Being Hunted ‘house to House’ in Pakistan.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 Nov. 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/21/asia-bibi-family-being-hunted-house-to-house-in-pakistan.
[4] Lal, Kishori Saran. Chapter X: AD 1200 – 1400 (Pgs. 113 – 116). “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1000-1800)” Internet Archive, Internet Archive, 5 Aug. 2018, ia902800.us.archive.org/11/items/GrowthOfMuslimPopulationInMedievalIndiaAd10001800/Growth-Of-Muslim-Population-In-Medieval-India-ad-1000-1800_text.pdf.
[5] Lal, Kishori Saran. Chapter XI: AD 1400 – 1600 (Pgs. 127 – 143). “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1000-1800)” Internet Archive, Internet Archive, 5 Aug. 2018, ia902800.us.archive.org/11/items/GrowthOfMuslimPopulationInMedievalIndiaAd10001800/Growth-Of-Muslim-Population-In-Medieval-India-ad-1000-1800_text.pdf. For reference: Footnote on page 136.
[1] Fields, Ashleigh. “Dershowitz Says He Knows Epstein Client List Names: ‘But I’m Bound by Confidentiality.’” Thehill.Com, The Hill, 10 July 2025, thehill.com/homenews/administration/5395597-dershowitz-says-he-knows-epstein-client-list-names-but-im-bound-by-confidentiality/.
[2] Sharma, Swati Goel. “Phoola Bai’s Husband Hari Singh Was Brutally Killed by Islamists on Holi. He Was Crushed by a Tractor in Dead of the Night Hailing from an All-Hindu Vanvasi Village in Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh, Phoola Bai Has No Means of Income. .” X.Com, x.com / Twitter, 12 May 2025, x.com/swati_gs/status/1921930773151506515.
[3] Pandey, Shraddha. “The Growing ‘trend’ of Throwing Meat Pieces in Front of Mandirs, a Co-Ordinated Campaign to Desecrate Sacred Hindu Places?” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 19 June 2025, www.opindia.com/2025/06/the-growing-trend-of-throwing-meat-pieces-in-front-of-temples/.
[4] “Kolkata Police Travel to Gurgaon to Arrest Hindu Influencer Sharmistha over Video Targeting Pakistan, No Action so Far on Muslims Who Issued STSJ Threats.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 31 May 2025, www.opindia.com/2025/05/kolkata-police-arrest-hindu-influencer-sharmistha-from-gurgaon-over-video-targeting-pakistan-had-offended-indian-muslims-details/.
[5] “Kolkata Police Travel to Gurgaon to Arrest Hindu Influencer Sharmistha over Video Targeting Pakistan, No Action so Far on Muslims Who Issued STSJ Threats.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 31 May 2025, www.opindia.com/2025/05/kolkata-police-arrest-hindu-influencer-sharmistha-from-gurgaon-over-video-targeting-pakistan-had-offended-indian-muslims-details/.
[6] Dhar, Aniruddha. “Instagram Influencer Sharmishta Panoli’s Lawyer Claims Poor Hygiene in Kolkata Jail: ‘She Has Kidney Stones.’” Hindustan Times, Hindustan Times, 2 June 2025, www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/instagram-influencer-sharmishta-panolis-lawyer-claims-poor-hygiene-in-kolkata-jail-she-has-kidney-stones-101748858117735.html.
[7] Dhar, Aniruddha. “Instagram Influencer Sharmishta Panoli’s Lawyer Claims Poor Hygiene in Kolkata Jail: ‘She Has Kidney Stones.’” Hindustan Times, Hindustan Times, 2 June 2025, www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/instagram-influencer-sharmishta-panolis-lawyer-claims-poor-hygiene-in-kolkata-jail-she-has-kidney-stones-101748858117735.html.
[8] Bhattacharya, Snigdhendu. “Bengal Violence: Basirhat’s Muslim Leaders Tried to Pacify the Rioting Mob, but Couldn’t.” Hindustan Times, Hindustan Times, 16 July 2017, www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bengal-violence-basirhat-s-muslim-leaders-tried-to-pacify-the-rioting-mob-but-couldn-t/story-8O6XTqN3yhsvKlfYSDK2aK.html.
[9] Arghya Prasun Roychowdhury / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Apr 14, 2025. “Waqf Violent Protest: On a Tough Legal Wicket, Tmc Faces a Delicate Balancing Act: India News.” The Times of India, TOI, timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/waqf-violent-protest-on-a-tough-legal-wicket-tmc-faces-a-delicate-balancing-act/articleshow/120282778.cms. Accessed 25 Aug. 2025.
[10] “Calcutta High Court Grants Interim Bail to Sharmistha Panoli, Pulls up Bengal Police for Their Actions.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 5 June 2025, www.opindia.com/news-updates/calcutta-high-court-grants-interim-bail-to-sharmistha-panoli-pulls-up-bengal-police-for-their-actions/.
[11] Willsher, Kim. “Teacher Decapitated in Paris Named as Samuel Paty, 47.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Oct. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/teacher-decapitated-in-paris-named-as-samuel-paty-47.
[12] “Samuel Paty: French Schoolgirl Admits Lying about Murdered Teacher.” BBC News, BBC, 9 Mar. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56325254.
[13] Pollina, Richard. “Suspect Allegedly Yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ before Fatally Stabbing Teacher, Injuring 2 Others in France Knife Attack.” New York Post, New York Post, 13 Oct. 2023, nypost.com/2023/10/13/france-knife-attack-leaves-teacher-dead-several-injured/.
[14] “France Pays Respects to Teacher Killed in School Terror Attack.” France 24, FRANCE 24, 19 Oct. 2023, www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231019-france-pays-respects-to-teacher-killed-in-islamist-attack.
[1] Willsher, Kim. “Teacher Decapitated in Paris Named as Samuel Paty, 47.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Oct. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/teacher-decapitated-in-paris-named-as-samuel-paty-47.
[2] “Samuel Paty: French Schoolgirl Admits Lying about Murdered Teacher.” BBC News, BBC, 9 Mar. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56325254.
[3] Pollina, Richard. “Suspect Allegedly Yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ before Fatally Stabbing Teacher, Injuring 2 Others in France Knife Attack.” New York Post, New York Post, 13 Oct. 2023, nypost.com/2023/10/13/france-knife-attack-leaves-teacher-dead-several-injured/.
[1] Simeon, Dilip. “The Tyranny of Hurt Sentiment.” The Indian Express, The Indian Express, 11 Feb. 2015, web.archive.org/web/20220726090225/https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-tyranny-of-hurt-sentiment/.
[2] Pandey, Shraddha. “From Nupur Sharma to Sharmishta Panoli: How Courts Are Emboldening Islamists and Curbing Space for Free Speech.” Www.Opindia.Com, OpIndia, 3 June 2025, www.opindia.com/2025/06/nupur-sharma-sharmishta-panoli-courts-emboldening-islamists-curbing-space-for-free-speech/.
[1] Marx, Karl. “The British Rule in India.” The British Rule in India by Karl Marx, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1853/06/25.htm. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
[1] “Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam.” YouTube, VICE News, 10 Feb. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1lnxUXWGgE.
[2] Dawkins, Richard, and Rana Ahmad. “Richard Dawkins Interviews Saudi Arabian Atheist Author Rana Ahmad.” Www.Youtube.Com, Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, 25 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zncB6hngZg.
[3] “Supreme Court Trashes Rana Ayyub’s Gujarat Book, Says It Is Based upon Surmises, Conjectures, and Suppositions.” OpIndia, OpIndia, 5 July 2019, www.opindia.com/2019/07/supreme-court-rana-ayyub-gujarat-files-haren-pandya-murder/.
[4] “India: A Decade on, Gujarat Justice Incomplete.” Human Rights Watch, 28 Oct. 2020, www.hrw.org/news/2012/02/24/india-decade-gujarat-justice-incomplete#.
[5] “‘WE HAVE NO ORDERS TO SAVE YOU’ State Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat.” Www.Hrw.Org, Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india/gujarat.pdf. Accessed 22 Aug. 2025. For Reference on page 44
[6] Knight, Kyle, and Meenakshi Ganguly. “India Gets Another Chance Protecting Transgender Rights.” Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch Dispatches, 22 Feb. 2018, www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/22/india-gets-another-chance-protecting-transgender-rights.
[7] “Saudi Arabia: Yemeni Man Sentenced for Apostasy.” Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch: News Release, 7 Jan. 2021, www.hrw.org/news/2021/12/20/saudi-arabia-yemeni-man-sentenced-apostasy.
[8] “Salman Rushdie Stabbing Suspect Charged with Attempted Murder as Author Remains Hospitalized with ‘Serious’ Wounds.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 13 Aug. 2022, www.cbsnews.com/news/salman-rushdie-stabbing-suspect-hadi-matar/.
[9] Hamade, Kassem. “Salwan Momika Är Tillbaka – Går till Attack Mot Norge.” Salwan Momika Är Tillbaka i Sverige – Ilskan Mot Norge | Sverige | Expressen, Expressen, 11 Apr. 2024, web.archive.org/web/20240411193917/https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/sverige/salwan-momika-ar-tillbaka-i–sverige-ilskan-mot-norge/. For Reference: Google Translated from Swedish to English.
[10] Davies, Maia, and Danny Aeberhard. “Man Who Burned Quran ‘Shot Dead in Sweden.’” BBC News, BBC, 30 Jan. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpdx2wqpg7zo.
[11] Aydemir, Ridvan. “They Want to Kill Me Next | Stand with Me.” YouTube, Apostate Prophet, 1 Feb. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT3sKDZZppQ&ab_channel=ApostateProphet.
[1] Mezzofiore, Gianluca. “Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, Nude Blogger, Gains Support from Egyptian Diaspora.” International Business Times UK, International Business Times UK, 18 Nov. 2011, www.ibtimes.co.uk/aliaa-magda-elmahdy-nude-blogger-gains-support-252301.
[2] Mezzofiore, Gianluca. “Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, Nude Blogger, Gains Support from Egyptian Diaspora.” International Business Times UK, International Business Times UK, 18 Nov. 2011, www.ibtimes.co.uk/aliaa-magda-elmahdy-nude-blogger-gains-support-252301.
[3] Asad, Amira. “The Egyptian Feminist Who Was Kidnapped for Posing Nude.” VICE, VICE, 14 Feb. 2013, www.vice.com/en/article/the-egyptian-feminist-who-was-kidnapped-for-posing-nude/.
[4] Asad, Amira. “The Egyptian Feminist Who Was Kidnapped for Posing Nude.” VICE, VICE, 14 Feb. 2013, www.vice.com/en/article/the-egyptian-feminist-who-was-kidnapped-for-posing-nude/.
[1] Navabi, Armin. “ Why I Burn The Quran.” YouTube, Atheist Republic, 29 July 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVsqA7fWWoY&pp=ygUbYnVybiB0aGUgcXVyYW4gYXJtaW4gbmF2YWJp.
[2] Durant, Will. Chapter XV: The Buddha: I. The Heretics (9581 – 9656). Our Oriental Heritage: Being a History of Civilization in Egypt and the Near East to the Death of Alexander, and in India, China and Japan from the Beginning to Our Own Day. Simon and Schuster, 1935.
[1] “Destruction of Cultural Heritage by the Islamic State.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 May 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_cultural_heritage_by_the_Islamic_State.
[1] Shah, Amir. “Taliban Destroy Ancient Buddhist Relics.” The Independent Asia RSS, The Independent World, 3 Mar. 2001, web.archive.org/web/20110106181318/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/taliban-destroy-ancient-buddhist-relics-694425.html.
[1] Lal, Kishori Saran. Chapter X: AD 1200 – 1400 (Pgs. 113 – 116). “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1000-1800)” Internet Archive, Internet Archive, 5 Aug. 2018, ia902800.us.archive.org/11/items/GrowthOfMuslimPopulationInMedievalIndiaAd10001800/Growth-Of-Muslim-Population-In-Medieval-India-ad-1000-1800_text.pdf.
[2] Lal, Kishori Saran. Chapter XI: AD 1400 – 1600 (Pgs. 127 – 143). “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1000-1800)” Internet Archive, Internet Archive, 5 Aug. 2018, ia902800.us.archive.org/11/items/GrowthOfMuslimPopulationInMedievalIndiaAd10001800/Growth-Of-Muslim-Population-In-Medieval-India-ad-1000-1800_text.pdf. For reference: Footnote on page 136.
[3] Callimachi, Rukmini. “Isis Enshrines a Theology of Rape.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Aug. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html.
[4] Callimachi, Rukmini. “Isis Enshrines a Theology of Rape.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Aug. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html.
[5] Lal, Kishori Saran. Chapter X: AD 1200 – 1400 (Pgs. 113 – 116). “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1000-1800)” Internet Archive, Internet Archive, 5 Aug. 2018, ia902800.us.archive.org/11/items/GrowthOfMuslimPopulationInMedievalIndiaAd10001800/Growth-Of-Muslim-Population-In-Medieval-India-ad-1000-1800_text.pdf.
[6] Lal, Kishori Saran. Chapter XI: AD 1400 – 1600 (Pgs. 127 – 143). “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1000-1800)” Internet Archive, Internet Archive, 5 Aug. 2018, ia902800.us.archive.org/11/items/GrowthOfMuslimPopulationInMedievalIndiaAd10001800/Growth-Of-Muslim-Population-In-Medieval-India-ad-1000-1800_text.pdf. For reference: Footnote on page 136.
[1] Al-Munajjid, Muhammad Saalih. “Will Civilisation Collapse at the End of Time and Will Battles Be Fought with Swords and Spears? – Islam Question & Answer.” Islamqa.Info, Islam Question & Answer, 1 Aug. 2014, islamqa.info/en/answers/162744/will-civilisation-collapse-at-the-end-of-time-and-will-battles-be-fought-with-swords-and-spears.
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