Al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent has said it plans to carry out suicide bombings in revenge for the “insulting and slandering” remarks made by leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party about the prophet Muhammad and his wife, Aisha.
The Indian news agency ANI has reported that in a letter dated 6 June, AQIS – the regional branch of al-Qaida – warned that Hindu nationalist “terrorists should now await their end in Delhi and Bombay and in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat”.
It went on: “They will find refuge neither in their homes nor in their fortified army cantonments. May our mothers be bereaved of us if we do not avenge our beloved prophet.”
A diplomatic row erupted over the weekend when more than a dozen Arab countries protested against a remark made by two BJP spokespeople last month, which they found to be derogatory about the prophet.
The remark also triggered protests by Muslims in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, last week, resulting in violence and unrest.
In response, the BJP suspended one spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, expelled its Delhi media head, Naveen Kumar Jindal, and told the Muslim countries that had summoned the Indian envoy in protest that the views did not represent those of the government.
AQIS said avenging the affront was necessary because “the hearts of Muslims all over the world are bleeding and are filled with feelings of revenge and retribution”.
The terror group, formed in 2014 as an offshoot, has found some support in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh but not among India’s 200 million Muslims, even though the government’s aggressive Hinduism has marginalised them and made them feel vulnerable over the eight years it has been in power.
For this reason, say experts, AQIS has not succeeded in staging any major act of terrorism so far. During the past few years, experts feared that, in line with the Hindu right’s increasing belligerence towards Muslims, AQIS might succeed in winging recruits among Muslim youths. Videos urge them to rise up and defend their religion.
“It hasn’t happened. AQIS has gained no traction here, nor has Islamic State. There has been no increase in recruits. The alienation of Muslims has not resulted in radicalisation,” Ajay Sahni, a counter-terrorism expert and executive director at the Institute of Conflict Management.
Stung by the Arab reaction and the unwanted international media attention, the BJP has issued a list of dos and don’ts for its spokespeople. Viewers of television news debates call this advice overdue. For years, BJP leaders have ranted, shrieked, wagged their fingers and silenced other speakers.
The party’s advice is to restrain their language, avoid becoming agitated and refrain from stoking hatred. This new protocol will come as a shock to spokespeople who for eight years have basked in the benign approval of the top leadership.
Seemingly part of this new restrained policy, the police in Uttar Pradesh arrested a BJP youth wing leader in Kanpur on Tuesday for making inflammatory remarks about the prophet on social media.
