"No muslims are allowed to enter in our soil. The gram panchayat has ordered us, hindus, to not work with them or we will be fined. They went to Tablighi Jamaat to bring Corona. They will kill us through the virus. You don't know, this is their Corona Jihad." Sithara looked up at the television hearing the absurd statements to see who was speaking. She read his name in the footer. He belonged to a village in Karnataka. He looked poor, some one who could hardly earn a living and someone who was far from realising that he was a mere patron of a system that would never help him out in reality.
She couldn't help but sigh at his ill-informed opinion. She did not hate him. She knew how he was trained by the masters of politics but what really amazed her was the reporter's eagerness to push people to spill venom against the community.
She had also witnessed anti-muslim hate speech messages in many of her what's app groups. She could not care enough about them, they were too stupid to heed to but she noticed that Arsalan's newspaper was gradually getting a hold of the issue, picking it up, speaking about it at length, bursting the hypocrites and educating people the right way.
It had been a few days since the entire media in the country had diverted its attention towards the rising number of Covid cases in muslim community, especially after the religious ceremony in Delhi that they had attended in the initial days of the month when Covid-19 restrictions were minimal.
Nobody spoke of the fact that the increase was because of targeted testing of these people rather they were being shove to the verge of untouchability. It was an enormous crisis in making.
She didn't understand why Arsalan was watching Rebulic TV, especially when Ammi and Abba were sitting around. "Arsalan? What are you watching??" Sithara couldn't help but interrupt. The narration of the news anchor was disturbing. He was spewing hate and she did not feel he deserved a second of their time and peace.
Sithara's voice broke Arsalan out of his trance and he instantly changed the channel.
"Al jazeera writes in its column that it is disheartening to see the world watching silently this continuous persecution of the largest religious minority in India. It would go down in history as yet another darkest episode in making of a new kind of apartheid against Muslims in the biggest democracy in the world."
"But if I'm not wrong which I am sure I'm not, isn't Al Jazeera Muslim supporting news-group?????" The party representative retorted back at the reader.
"No. It's not muslim supporting, it is just arab based. Anything about the organization does not change the truth that the muslims in India are being linked to the virus as though they are maliciously spreading it or doing it solely to disobey the state, the government."
"The Star of Mysore newspaper has called for genocide/ethnic cleansing of Muslims in India. What do you have to say about it? Direct attacks on muslim relief volunteers and socio-economic boycott of muslims in public spaces is being witnessed every where now. What is the your government doing???"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
