Dubai, Apr 11: An Indian expat in the UAE is facing police action for allegedly insulting Islam on social media in response to a Facebook post on the coronavirus, according to a media report.
Rakesh B Kitturmath, who worked as a team leader at Emrill Services, an integrated facilities management (FM) headquartered in Dubai, was sacked on Thursday after his post sparked outrage on social media, the Gulf News reported.
“Kitturmath’s employment stands terminated with immediate effect. He will be handed over to Dubai Police. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards such hate crimes,” said Stuart Harrison, CEO of Emrill Services.
"As an organisation, we have worked hard over the years to embrace diversity and create a culture of inclusion, where every nationality, religion and background is welcomed and celebrated. We have a strict social media policy for our employees to ensure they respect our values, both inside and outside of work," the newspaper quoted Harrison as saying.
Harrison said they are trying to find out if Kitturmath was still in the UAE, according to the report.
“We have over 8,500 employees so this may take a while. That said, we have fired him. If he’s still in the country, he will be handed over to Dubai Police,” he said.
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Originally from Ranebennuri, Karnataka, Kitturmath joins an ever-growing list of Indian ex-pats who have landed in trouble for alleged Islamophobic messages in recent days.
Earlier this week, Abu Dhabi resident Mitesh Udeshi was sacked for posting a cartoon mocking Islam on his Facebook page while a police complaint was filed against Sameer Bhandari of Future Vision Events & Weddings’ in Dubai after he asked a Muslim job seeker from India to go back to Pakistan.
The UAE outlaws all religious or racial discrimination under a legislation passed in 2015.
The anti-discrimination/anti-hatred law prohibits all acts “that stoke religious hatred and/or which insult religion through any form of expression, be it speech or the written word, books, pamphlets or via online media.”
Comments
Muslim organisations felicitate State BJP Chief Nalin Kumar
I want to know from them wat was the need for this. Has this helped the ordinary Mangalore Muslims in anyway. I would not have asked abt this if the program was conducted in your house. But here it is done in the name of Muslims. We need to stop being intellectually dishonest
Young energetic Muslim brothers present in Dk ,please note we need young leaders to lead us . Wake up ... and take over .
We respect ur decision sir.
But there are a lot of questions about it on people's mind.
We need to be updated about ur next plan of action.
Are u planning to approach the court for gaining the permission from the police, bcoz otherwise I don't think we will get the permission
Secondly, a few days back I wanted to contact Muslim central committee office to confirm if the protest Wil be there. I googled for the no, but the no. did not exist. Does that mean the Muslim central committee does not have an office or telephone no????
This only shows how organised we are.
Requesting Muslim central committee to get their house in order. Get more professional. Also consult people to utilise various platform to responsibly collect funds from so many ordinary bearys who want to donate money, but don't know whom to send it to.
We need an action committee to handle such situations. It must consist a battery of lawyers to fight the cases filed by the police.
If our leaders are old, they need to groom new leaders into the committee.
Moreover, it is important to question these so called leaders about their fecilitation program conducted for making kateel wen he won the election. Wat was the purpose of such fecilitation. Becoz I don't think he gives a damn when our community suffered. I question, whether all this is done in our name only to gain your contact and flourish ur business???
Never ever dare to do so in the name of Muslims
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