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
Vinaasha kalakke vipareetha budhi
I dont understand, why media giving attention to this rubbish speech.. He just wanted media attention. and also he wanted to thrill his followers..
Nalin Kumar Kateel is no. 1 terrorist. Once he told, he wanted to burn entire Mangalore.
Shakha trained bhakt ! Modi & Shah are very happy on his comment on CM. Nalin Don't worry you are eligible represent educated Mangalorean (?) in forth coming Parliament election -2019.
This kateel is delivering an election speech or mocking himself?
An uneducated goon who threatened to set entire Dakshina Kannada district on fire is a desh bhakt. And a farmers’ leader turned politician who upheld the concept of Kalnaya Rajya is a terrorist. What a joke.
Katilanna.. First learn language. The meaning of Sultan is King. You are hailing him as king. King will be terrorists for only terrorists.
I think politics of this region is a curse. There is no boundries to the wild allegation and lies that these politicians utter. I think we have to play back some of his terrorism speeches including burning of DK speech.
The only way we can stop BJP getting back to power in Karnataka is to switch to ballot system.
What they think they can fool all Kannadigas, as they did in North East, UP.
Unfortunately the people in that regions are very innocent. They don’t understand how they are being fooled by their leaders specially Modi and Amit Shah.
Now their own people are fed up of them. Many secular leaders left the BJP and jointed Congress.
Kateel is very lucky to be a MP who really does not deserve to be Grama Panchayat member.
The cleanest CM is Siddaramiah, in the recent generation, like very few CM s we had in the past like Nijalingappa, Kadidal Manjappa. He never indulged in single bribery or corruption.
He is Very straight and strong leader, who has always worry for the people. But our stupid opposition want to destroy him for their selfishness at the cost suffering of poor people.
May God almighty help our people to understand the fact and elect the best leaders.
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