The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighting Indian PM Narendra Modi’s use of hate speech against Muslims and other minorities in his electoral campaign.
CAIR also repeated its request for the State Department to designate India a “country of particular concern.”
HRW said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2024 electoral campaign frequently used hate speech against Muslims and other minorities and the leadership of Modi’s party repeatedly made statements inciting discrimination, hostility, and violence against Muslims and other minority groups during his campaign to win his third consecutive term of office.
SEE: India: Hate Speech Fueled Modi’s Election Campaign | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)
HRW noted: “Modi regularly raised fears among Hindus through false claims that their faith, their places of worship, their wealth, their land, and the safety of girls and women in their community would be under threat from Muslims if the opposition parties came to power.
“He repeatedly described Muslims as ‘infiltrators’ and claimed Muslims had ‘more children’ than other communities, raising the specter that Hindus—about 80 percent of the population—will become a minority in India.”
In a statement, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said:
“We welcome this disturbing Human Rights Watch analysis of the ongoing Islamophobic rhetoric used by Indian Prime Minister Modi and other government officials to incite hatred against that nation’s Muslim community. Based on this analysis, we again urge the Biden administration to designate India as a ‘country of particular concern.’”
He noted that CAIR previously condemned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a “hateful and dangerous” campaign speech in which he called Muslims “infiltrators” who would take India’s wealth if allowed to come to power.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com