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
The actual FACT is during Independence and Partition of India & Pakistan, British as usual left a piece of land so that there will be no peace between India & Pakistan (in-case if they join Hands they will become Super Power of the World). The only solution for Peace to Prevail is leave Kashmir to their people. Let them decide which part of Kashmir they want to stay, make partition, I know this won't be done as for political GAINS, Let the families of Politician start living in Kashmir and feel how it is to lose a loved ones. Just by blaming Pundits and Muslims wont work. Killing innocent people by either side is just to brainwash the Public and to keep the rivalry alive on the basis of religion and country.
Malala , you have yourself experienced how inhuman and ruthlessly atrocious Pakistan Government is. As they manipulated you and your family’s circumstances to harass, they are exploiting and manipulating India’s freeness and all-inclusiveness to keep Kashmir and its denizens in constant turmoil to get pleasure from other’s pain. They are doing same to Baluchistanis since partition and the Kashmiries of Pakistan held area are extremely unhappy and are in totters due to this policy of Pakistan.
Its Pakistan's fault not Indians....Pakistan should stop sending terrorists to India ...which is not happening at all....that is why Kashmiris suffering around there...
Malala should advise Pakistan government first not to involve with our domestic problems....
It is good for Kashmiris if they stay with India as far as their security and economic developments are concerned...
True that Malala has suffered beyond our imagination and came out of it bravely. But that doesn't make her an expert in everything.
Dear Malala, Can you please talk about the inhumanity and heartbreak in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan?
Malala Request you to please stay peaceful and stay happy and not say things that don't fit into ur vocab pls.
I didn't really used to like her but now my respect for her has gone up a lot.
Do you live in delusional world..what should paramilitary forces do if someone is breaking law and order of any country
Lets hope this time her voice will be heard as she has won Noble Prize for PEACE. Lets wish that India will keep Human Life above her EGO and will look Kashmir with HUMAN eye before there is no solution left
Dear Malala, Surely New Delhi government and Kashmiri people need to work together. Your concern is respected.
India in committing a genocide in Kashmir by killing innocent people SC must take notice of this.
As much as I admire Malala, I hate to see her get into Politics and Indo-Pak disputes. There are enough noises being made, or have been made, to no end.
please advise the kids to stop pelting stones and focus on studies to snatch the opportunities from rapidly growing Indian economy.
Thank you Malala for raising your voice in our support.
Since you are an influential opinion maker, I hope the world listen to you and stop the perpetrator from committing these atrocities against us.
Malalaji, Welcome to politics.
Dear Malala we respect you. But it is not government of India or Pakistan decide the future of Kashmir. There are some third parties who really want disturbance or conflict in the valley.
Trolls across the border always loved everything Malala spoke about. I hope they do the same now and accept stark reality!
Thank You Malala, for your kind words and care about Kashmiris
She is a teenage girl with little understanding of the dynamics of terrorism inspite of being a victim of it herself. The valley has been infected by the terror virus with religion which drove away the natural inhabitants of Pandits from Kashmir being hounded from mosque sermons. Many got murdered and not so lucky to escape. No one thought of their rights, now a generation has spent the life as refugee. Neither India nor local Kashmir government or the world body cares to it. However Pakistan terror export looks working well, but it is always the civilian who pays the price.
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