India’s Moslems fear for their reputation and safety

As a result of the terror attacks of extremists presumed to be Moslems in Mumbai India’s Moslems fear that they will fall under general suspicion of supporting terror. India’s 138 million Moslems are also increasingly worried for their personal safety since acts of revenge by radical Hindu organisations cannot be ruled out, reported the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius, on Thursday. „India’s Moslems are the big losers of the spreading of the war of terror of Moslem extremists on the subcontinent.” The propensity to violence of a small radical minority is creating a long-term danger for the second-largest Moslem community in the world. For India’s Moslems the development is particularly tragic, belonging as they do to the most disadvantaged classes of the population.

Among India’s Hindu majority population an anti-Moslem feeling is growing rapidly. After the terror attacks in Ahmedabad in July 2008 many Moslem Indians saw themselves threatened in their personal safety and had the feeling of second-class citizens. Hindu nationalists have been stirring up dislike and hatred towards the religious minority. The Prime Minister of the federal state of Gujarat, Marendra Modi, has said in public: „Not every Moslem is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Moslem”.

Many Moslems saw themselves in recent months observed in public mistrustfully. It is enough in public transport to make hasty movements – and then one is immediately suspicious. For this reason Moslems have been withdrawing more and more into the private sphere and into their religious community. „If India’s politicians do not stand out with determination against this development there is a great danger of ghettoisation for India’s Moslems and a great danger for democracy in general”, warned Delius.

India’s Moslems have been trying desperately in recent months to distance themselves from all politically motivated violence. More than 6,000 Moslem scholars, imams and religious leaders of this religious community in India condemned terrorism at a conference on 10th November 2008. In May 2008 a fatwa was issued forbidding all terror.

In a confidential government report which became public in the year 2007 it was stated that 31 percent of the Moslems in India live under the poverty line. One quarter of all Moslem children do not go to school and half of all Moslem women can neither read nor write. There is also a lack of proper housing, health care and jobs.