Sweden was followed by the abhorrent burning of a copy of the holy Quran, the Muslim holy book, outside the Turkish embassy in Denmark and in front of a mosque in the capital, Copenhagen. This heinous crime was committed by Rasmus Paludan, the leader of hard-line political party Hard Line. This same person burned the […]
In a speech delivered on October 1, 2011, President George W. Bush announced the start of the War on Terror (WOT). Referring to the day now simply known as 9/11—Bush declared: “The attack took place on American soil, but it was an attack on the heart and soul of the civilized world. And the world […]
The month of Ramadan is around the corner. For the 1.8 billion Muslims around the globe, it heralds in a month of spiritual reflection, prayers, self-improvement and an intensified devotion and worship of the tenets laid down by religion. For it is in this month that the Quran, the holy book to all Muslims, was […]
The ubiquity of the word “secularism” (it is mentioned in more than 75 of the world’s constitutions as an ideal the State promotes, or an organizing principle that it affirms), and the passionate discussions it generates throughout the world, sometimes distracts us from the fact that its origins are relatively recent. It was only after […]
How many faces and colors do the Indian leaders and policymakers have? Shouldn’t their crimes be regarded as crimes? These questions surfaced, after ultra-extremist communal RSS-cum-BJP leader Subramanian Swamy threatened to send Indian forces to Bangladesh to occupy it to protect the Hindus though they are the most advantageous community in Bangladesh. Subramanian Swamy shared […]
Hindu nationalist groups have skillfully built a discourse that Hindus are in danger in a ‘secular’ India, thus there is a need for a reassertion of Hindu identity and making India a Hindu nation. To build this ‘Hindu Khatre mein hai’ discourse, they have been blaming the high birth rate among the Muslim population and increasing conversions […]
The events in Srebrenica in 1995 included the killing of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. The genocides of 2.7 to 3 million Polish Jews and 1.8 to 2.77 million non-Jewish ethnic Poles. The systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population carried out in Anatolia during World War I and its aftermath (1914-1922) on the […]
The Merriam-Webster definition of supremacist is ‘an advocate or adherent of group supremacy’. We do not however, find the very important element of ‘essence of hatred’ towards other people in this particular definition. White Christian supremacist groups actually thrive on their mental sickness of extreme hatred that they feel in the core of their hearts […]
On 5 August 2020, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the groundbreaking for the Hindu temple of Ram in Ayodhya at the site of violently demolished Babri Mosque. The day was synchronized with the first anniversary of the repeal of Article 370, which had granted limited autonomy to the Muslim majority state of Jammu and […]
History is being rewritten in India. The groundbreaking of Ram temple in Ayodhya with Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the first brick of the grand temple was a quiet assertion of how India has changed and is likely to change in the coming decades. Outwardly, the country is quiet and calm. There are no protests, […]