{"id":59261,"date":"2022-06-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/2022\/06\/07\/gulf-states-protest-indian-officials-islamophobic-remarks-insulting-prophet-muhammad\/"},"modified":"2022-06-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T00:00:00","slug":"gulf-states-protest-indian-officials-islamophobic-remarks-insulting-prophet-muhammad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/2022\/06\/07\/gulf-states-protest-indian-officials-islamophobic-remarks-insulting-prophet-muhammad\/","title":{"rendered":"Gulf states protest Indian official&#8217;s &#8216;Islamophobic&#8217; remarks insulting Prophet Muhammad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned remarks about the Prophet Mohammed made by a top official in India&#8217;s ruling party that were described as &#8220;Islamophobic&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The remarks by a spokesperson for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#8217;s party last week were blamed for clashes in an Indian state and prompted demands for her arrest, with anger spreading overseas to Muslim countries.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia became the latest Gulf country to condemn the remarks made by Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma during a televised debate last week.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In the past 24 hours:<\/p>\n<p>*Saudi government has condemned Indian government for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.<\/p>\n<p>*Superstores in Kuwait and Bahrain removed Indian products.<\/p>\n<p>*Modi&#39;s picture attached to garbage bins in Kuwait.<\/p>\n<p>*Boycott India movement gains global momentum! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lb5Ukk12hy\">pic.twitter.com\/lb5Ukk12hy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cjwerleman\/status\/1533576879994638336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\nRiyadh described the spokesperson&#8217;s comments as &#8220;insulting&#8221; and called for &#8220;respect for beliefs and religions&#8221;, according to a foreign ministry statement.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar had also demanded that India apologise for the &#8220;Islamophobic&#8221; comments, as India&#8217;s Vice President Venkaiah Naidu visited the wealthy Gulf state in a bid to bolster trade.<\/p>\n<p>India&#8217;s ambassador in Doha, Deepak Mittal, was ordered to the foreign ministry on the second day of the high profile visit by Naidu and Indian business leaders.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BJP suspending them after a day when gulf countries protested shows that they don&#39;t care about the sentiments of muslims in India but their businesses with gulf is what matters. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NupurSharma?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NupurSharma<\/a> is a shame to the entire nation. Thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zoo_bear?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@zoo_bear<\/a> for raising your voice fearlessly.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Rais Shaikh (@rais_shk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rais_shk\/status\/1533492483522445315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\nThe envoy was handed an official protest letter which said &#8220;Qatar is expecting a public apology and immediate condemnation of these remarks from the government of India,&#8221; according to a foreign ministry statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Allowing such Islamophobic remarks to continue without punishment constitutes a grave danger to the protection of human rights&#8221; and &#8220;will create a cycle of violence and hate&#8221;, it added.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Sunday, neighbouring Kuwait said that, like Qatar, it had summoned India&#8217;s ambassador, amid widespread calls on social media for a boycott of Indian goods in the Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), based in the Saudi city of Jeddah, also condemned the remarks Sunday, saying they came in a &#8220;context of intensifying hatred and abuse towards Islam in India and systematic practices against Muslims&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED<\/p>\n<p>India&#8217;s BJP on Sunday suspended Sharma for expressing &#8220;views contrary to the party&#8217;s position&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Modi&#8217;s party, which has frequently been accused of acting against the country&#8217;s Muslim minority, said it &#8220;respects all religions&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Sharma said on Twitter that her comments had been in response to &#8220;insults&#8221; made against the Hindu god Shiva.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If my words have caused discomfort or hurt religious feelings of anyone whatsoever, I hereby unconditionally withdraw my statement,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>New Delhi has made no immediate comment but its embassy in Doha released a statement saying that &#8220;strong action&#8221; had been taken against &#8220;fringe elements&#8221; who had made derogatory comments. The embassy gave no further details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several Gulf states, including Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, have condemned derogatory comments against the Prophet Muhammad from members of India&#8217;s ruling party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":59617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iumsonline.cloud\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}