It’s the kind of brazen invitation to bigotry that one has come to associate with our chronically bilious neighbour Pakistan.
Every so often, some ranting obscurantist flanked by mainstream Pakistani politicians pops up in Bahawalpur’s Osman-o-Ali, the seat of the dreaded terror group Jaish-E-Mohammad. This messiah of Jihad will be seen wagging his finger menacingly, vowing Gazwa-E-Hind (Holy War) against the “Kafir mulk” India. The prospect of modern-day crusaders astride winged horses motivated by the allure of promises waiting in “Jannat” never fails to enthuse the audience of ever-ready conscripts.
But now, sadly, this circus of the obscure is making news in India. On Friday, October 27, Malappuram in Kerala was witness to scenes that could have been plucked straight out of Bahawalpur’s book of how-to-mainstream Islamist terror. A well-established political party, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s youth faction, organised a rally where the main draw was Palestinian ex-Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal.
Meshaal was on a link from Qatar’s capital Doha, and he spoke agitatedly in Arabic. The thrust of Meshaal’s message was to reportedly rouse his Malayali audience to join him in denouncing “Hindus” and “Jews”. The Hamas leader is apparently upset with Hindus because many of them had dared to imply that his organisation was guilty of a terrorist act on October 7. These sympathisers of Israel therefore were now “enemies of the faith”. As it turns out, Meshaal needed no encouragement because shockingly, the rally was organised to “dismantle” Zionism and Hindutva alike.
When the Jamaat-E-Islami (Hind) was picked out by the BJP and many others on social media, it retorted by saying that Meshaal was part of the “resistance” fighting for “freedom” for Palestinians who were “oppressed” by Israel.
While it is a fact that in a democracy like India the right to peaceful protest is guaranteed under law and anyone can legitimately protest Israel’s “occupation”, this right isn’t absolute. It is constrained by legal checks and of course, subject to the mores of morality.
To be sure, the Jamaat’s “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” defence doesn’t quite hold in Meshaal’s case.
The Hamas, for one, is a self-admitted religious crusader sworn to the “eradication till the last” of the “kafir” Jew. It doesn’t recognise the two-state solution and wants to erect a latter-day caliphate on the land that is currently with Israel. All this poison is proudly advertised in its charter of governance. Even the supposedly improved version doesn’t hide Hamas’ unqualified disdain for the right of Jews to live in a homeland.
Thus, while Hamas may not be banned in India, any group purporting to preach a communal agenda on Indian soil stands at odds with the country’s constitutionally directed secular outlook. It is simply against the law to make communal speeches on Indian soil. The JEI(H) should know better. For wasn’t it the first to protest when a Yati Narasinghanand was platformed at a rally threatening Muslims a year ago?
The second problem with the JEI(H) mainstreaming Meshaal is with the means Hamas has patronized, in its words, to “eradicate” the “Kafir Jew”.
Instead of relying on the guiles of diplomacy as a political resistance group is obligated to do, Hamas relies on ghoulish barbarism to exact a price from Israeli Jews. The depravations it inflicted on innocent Jewish women and children became clear on October 7.
Hamas proudly claims that its medieval lust for gore is religiously ordained. For this justification, Hamas has even incurred the wrath of the Palestinian Authority (PA) — the arguably more legitimate and reasoned voice of the Palestine movement. In fact, several Arab governments are estranged from Hamas. Most of them view Hamas as a threat to their regimes, given that the group’s leaders borrow from the uncompromising fundamentalism of the Islamic Brotherhood that wants to supplant the Gulf’s Emirs with one supreme Caliph.
Could the Jamaat be so ignorant of the impropriety and insensitivity involved in handing the stage to the “ISIS” or Jaish-E-Mohammad like Hamas?
Third, it is well known that Hamas is funded by states that think nothing of patronising terror groups to carry out attacks in foreign jurisdictions. India too has been fighting the scourge of religious terrorism sponsored against it from across the border in Pakistan. This one fact alone should have compelled the JEI(H) to steer clear of endorsing Hamas. The Palestinian cause can be championed without patronizing Hamas.
Indeed, Meshaal’s Hamas is a usurper in Gaza. It rules by denying basic rights to Gazans and cruelly tortures dissenters. Many international rights watchdogs have accused it of committing “crimes against humanity” in its jurisdiction. It seized power in 2007 and hasn’t held an election since. The Jamaat, that swears by democratic expression, should be the last political party in India to be serving as a megaphone for the voice of authoritarianism
Fourth, in a state where the shadow of Islamist radicalisation has loomed large for the past few years, the Jamaat’s courting of Hamas makes it guilty of promoting hardline Islamism among impressionable minds.
The Islamic State (IS), for one, has found it particularly easy to recruit youth from Kerala to fight in Syria. Will a mainstream political party like the JEI(H) take responsibility for exciting hate against “Hinduism” and “Zionism” among its youthful followers? What if they were to pick up the gun at Meshaal’s instance and carry out attacks against Jews and Hindus on Indian soil?
Given the gravity of the transgressions, it’s condemnable that the Kerala government has been so utterly soft on the Jamaat-E-Islami (Hind) for visibly undermining law and morality.
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