'Muslims and pets not allowed': Indian journalist slams 'apartheid' post on Facebook

 

Protesters hold up the Indian national flag as they attend a protest against a new citizenship law, after Friday prayers at the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, India. - Reuters / ArchivesIndian journalist Rana Ayyub on Saturday criticized a person for a Facebook post where he had notified the availability of an apartment rental in Mumbai. The post made it clear that Muslims and pets are not allowed.

Ayyub, an opinion columnist for the Washington Post, said in a tweet: "No Muslims or pets allowed. This is 20th century India. This is one of the most elegant addresses in Mumbai, Bandra."

"Remind me that we are not a communal nation, tell me this is not apartheid," she asked.

Violence against Muslims on the rise

Violence and hate speech against Muslims are becoming increasingly common in India, and various people belonging to the faith are even being tortured and killed.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, addressing the United Nations General Assembly last month, said that the RSS has been directing its hatred of Muslims, just as the Nazis were of Jews.

"While the hatred of the Nazis was directed at Jews, the RSS directs it at Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Christians," he said, adding that extremist ideologues believe India is exclusively for Hindus and others not. They are equal. the citizens.

"The secularism of Gandhi and Nehru has been replaced by the dream of creating a Hindu Rashtra, subjugating and even cleansing the 200 million Muslims and other minorities in India," he said.

Muslims charged with spreading coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak in India had also triggered a series of attacks against Muslims across the country, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government health ministry claiming that Muslims are spreading the virus.

"Young Muslims who distributed food to the poor were attacked with cricket bats," The New York Times had said in a report dated New Delhi.

"Other Muslims have been beaten, nearly lynched, kicked out of their neighborhoods or attacked in mosques, branded as spreading viruses," the newspaper said, noting that Hindu extremists were scapegoating the entire Muslim population of the country for deliberately spreading the virus through "corona". jihad".

Sikh temples in Punjab state, he added, were urging people not to buy milk from Muslim farmers because it is allegedly infected with the coronavirus.

The newspaper said the mounting anti-Muslim attacks came after the government claimed that more than a third of the more than 8,000 coronavirus cases in the country were related to Muslims.