We, the undersigned express our solidarity with Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, renowned scholar, journalist and presently Chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission.
We strongly condemn the continued media trial and targeting of Dr Zafarul Islam Khan for his Facebook post thanking Kuwait for expressing solidarity with Indian Muslims. In his Facebook post, he mentioned the appalling deterioration of human rights of Indian Muslims who have been targeted by Hindutva bigots. A few politicians with ulterior motives and news channel anchors known for spreading bigotry and Islamophobia have mischievously sought to misinterpret his statement and ridiculously label him as anti-Hindu and anti-India.
He has only reiterated what many citizens of India, public figures, international institutions, various European governments, the United States of America and United Nations human rights mechanisms have repeatedly underlined their concern at the increasing human rights abuse and violations of religious minorities in India.
Dr Zafarul Islam Khan is a man of integrity. He is a scholar who is known to stand up for constitutional freedoms and values.
His work as the Chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission has been warmly applauded by human rights activists and NGOs across different faiths. His timely interventions on problems of minorities in Delhi have made him a respectable figure among not only Muslims but Sikh, Christians, Jains and Parsis. He is a humanist in the truest sense of the word.
The hateful propaganda against Dr Khan is one more illustration as how certain Indians fail to differentiate between Hinduism, a religion and Hindutva which is a supremacist political ideology.
Dr Zafarul Islam Khan is a leading Indian intellectual whose niche area is Islamic studies and Arab world. He enjoys great respect in the Arab and Muslim world for his understanding and knowledge. He is an alumni of the esteemed Jamia Al-Azhar and Manchester University.
Dr Khan is known for taking bold public positions. He was the first Muslim scholar in the world who denounced ISIL, which later became IS or ISIS. He issued a statement opposing the barbaric crimes of ISIL (IS or ISIS) and Boko Haram against minorities. He takes strong stands against extremism of all sorts. That makes him a prominent critic of RSS.
Dr Khan is a scholar ambassador and earned international prestige for the India. Any attack and targeting of him, is actually an insult to Indian constitution and ethos.
We demand the appropriate authorities of the Government of India take strong legal action against those who are distorting Dr Khan’s Facebook post, and spreading vicious false propaganda against him.
Signed by:
Swami Agnivesh
Mohammad Adeeb
Arun Kumar (Prof)
Zafar Jung
Kamal Faruqui
Annie Namala
Kavita Krishnan
Subhash Gatade
Jawed Naqvi
Indu Pratap Singh
Avinash Kumar
Iftikhar Gilani
Anil Chamadia
Xavier Dias
Denzil Fernandes (Dr)
Irfan Engineer
Faisal Khan
John Dayal (Dr)
Mujtaba Farooque
Ravi Nair
Abubakr Sabbaq (Adv)
Gopal Menon
Bilal Khan
Ashok Choudhury
Jaffer Latief Najar
Mujahid Nafis
Aseem Sundan
Poojan Sahil
Ankur Otto
Mariya Salim
Tanweer Alam
Juned Khan
E M Abdul Rahiman
Aditi Dutta
Devika Prasad
Ameeque Jamei
Suhaib Ansari
Gurminder Singh
A C Michael
Neelima Sharma
Aftab Alam (Dr)
Dhruva Narayan
Syed Saif Ur Rahman
Tanweer Fazal (Dr)
Thouseef Madikeri (Dr)
N.D. Jayaprakash
Salahuddin Ansari
Satyajeet Nambiar
Suhail KK
Abu Sufiyan
Sujata Madhok
Tariq Khan
Violin Mathew Benjamin
Shamsul Islam (Prof)
Sreedhar Ramamurthi
Mohd. Shahid (Prof)
Anand Vivek Taneja (Dr)
Kush Kumar Singh (Dr)
Mangla Verma
Vipul Kumar
Waquar Hasan
Braham Prakash
Abdul Rashid Agwan
Fawaz Shaheen
Guman Singh
Mohammed Hafeez Ulla
Kp Sasi
Mushfique Raza Khan
Partha S Banerjee
Gautam Majumdar
S.Q. Masood
Aiman J Khan
M. K. Faizy
Tasleem Rehmani (Dr)
Mohammed Shafi
Lenin Raghuvanshi (Dr)
Malik Motasim Khan
Kripal Singh Mandloi
Labeed Shafi
Qamar Intakhab
Raees Ahmed Siddiqui
Laeeq Ahmed Khan
Anthony Arulraj
Sadiq Zafar
Biju Gopidasan
George Pulikuthiyil
Mohd Abdullah
Mohd Sorab Hussain
Mukunda Kattel
Sandeep Pendse
Paul Newman
Ovais Sultan Khan
Comments
Modi govt has failed miserably in protecting minorities rights in the country..
Yours is one of the worst sites I have come across - disabling both Control+v and Control+c etc. Shame on you.
There is a Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964 in force in Karnataka, Section 4 of which lays down: \4. Prohibition of Slaughter of Cow or Calf of She-buffalo:- Not withstanding any law, usage or custom to the contrary, no person shall slaughter or cause to be slaughtered, or offer or cause to be offered for slaughter or otherwise intentionally kill or offer or cause to be offered for killing any cow or calf of she-buffalo.\" The law is framed by Congress government four decades back and is very much in force. As such, what the dalits did was illegal - a crime - for which they are liable to 6 months imprisonment or fine or both. Well, that does not give license to vigilantes of any party or organization to take law into their own hands and beat them up either. The only course was to stop the killing if possible, or seize the slaughtered cow (carcass) etc. and hand over to the police. If the police do not act, then they could agitate in public, etc. So both parties are wrong on this occasion."
NRI PM S ACCHE DIN FOR INDIANS
The day Mr. Narendra Modi became prime minister , all such goondasm raised in our country. Narendra Modi can't talk because these are the part of his mentor (RSS) programmes.
These goons (Bhajrangis) are paid goons of BJP.
Time has come for Daliths and Minorities to stand against these criminals.
This is Karnataka not Gujurat. Strict punishment should be handed out to the perpetrators of such a heinous crime. As per the Constitution people are free to eat what they please. Why should the Bajrang Dal or anyone get offended if anybody eats beef.
BD will get their reward from the devils who inspire them to do such acts... Devils are permanent residence in HELL... it is easy for them to take human to HELL when people encourage EvIL in the society... Evil in the society spreads when People dont Ponder or want to know about the CREATOR of all that exists...
ISLAM says no one will escape of their crime, A day will be there to JUDGE all that happened in this EARTH. and JUSTICE will be done by the CREATOR who created U me and all that exists.
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