On June 5, 2022, BJP national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and BJP Delhi media head Naveen Kumar were suspended from the party’s membership due to offensive comments to many Muslims in India.
In the footage below, Sharma mocks Buraq (the flying donkey), the Quran, for describing the world as flat, and points out the age of the Prophet’s wife, Aisha, in a TV debate last week.
Prime Time debates in India have become a platform to encourage hate mongers to speak ill about other religions. @TimesNow's Anchor @navikakumar is encouraging a rabid communal hatemonger & a BJP Spokesperson to speak rubbish which can incite riots.
Shame on you @vineetjaintimes pic.twitter.com/lrUlkHEJp5— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) May 27, 2022
Kumar has been removed from the party for a tweet that also insulted the prophet. That controversial tweet has been deleted.
“ I’ve been receiving death and rape threats, including beheading threats against me and family members,” Sharma said. She also stated on Twitter that her words came in response to insults against the Hindu god Shiva.
"If my words have caused discomfort or hurt religious feelings of anyone whatsoever, I hereby unconditionally withdraw my statement," she said, but her apology may have come too late.
The actions of these former BJP members stirred an international backlash from the Muslim world.
“The State of Qatar calls on the Indian government to immediately condemn these remarks and publicly apologize to all Muslims around the world,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Mohammed Al Ansari said.
Spokesperson for Ministry of Foreign Affairs @majedalansari : Qatar Demands Public Apology from Indian Government for Remarks of Official in Ruling Party Against Prophet Mohammed#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/NnN1khKw6X
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) June 5, 2022
Kuwait has made similar requests, and supermarkets have pulled Indian goods off the shelves.
VIDEO: Superstores in Kuwait remove Indian products from their shelves after remarks on the Prophet Mohammed by an official in India's ruling party prompted calls on social media to boycott Indian goods pic.twitter.com/AD1J3wTY2g
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 6, 2022
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation – the second-largest intergovernmental organization globally after the United Nations, with a 57 nation membership, also added to the condemnation. “The General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation expresses its strong condemnation and denunciation of the recent insults issued by an official in the ruling party in India towards the Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him.”
The removal of the two members might have cooled escalations off in the middle east but not enough for the subcontinent as national security risks have also gotten worse. Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent released a letter warning of suicide bombings in Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat to “fight for the honor of the Prophet,” according to the Indian express.
After the warnings were stated, the letter said, “They should find refuge neither in their homes nor in their fortified army cantonments.”
