Genocide Watch Founder Says India is at Cusp of Genocidal Massacres
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2022 (Chicago, IL) – At a panel discussion organized by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) at the Islamic Society of North America’s (ISNA) annual convention, Dr. Gregory Stanton of the world-renowned human rights organization Genocide Watch stated that India is preparing for “genocidal massacres” of 200 million Muslims.
“India has all of the preparatory stages for more genocidal massacres,” Dr. Stanton said at ISNA’s 59th convention in Chicago, citing the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the dehumanization of Muslims through hate speech, and the “non-prosecution of lynchings and other crimes committed by Hindus against Muslims.”
“Persecution of Muslims is reflected in termination of Kashmir’s autonomy… Much Muslim property has been expropriated or destroyed, and Muslims have been displaced into enclaves,” Dr. Stanton added.
“A climate of impunity reigns, in which eyewitnesses to mass murders of their own families have been terrorized into recanting testimony, and the killers have been acquitted.”
He warned about the influence of the Hindu supremacist paramilitary group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is the parent ideologue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that the RSS now pushes its violent supremacist ideology in, “schools, trade unions, cultural societies, and religious groups all over India.”
He further warned that the BJP has already played a role in instigating violent and genocidal violence in the past, especially during the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, and that, “preparation for more massacres has already begun.”
“The killers clearly expressed their genocidal intent in their slogans: ‘Kill them all, destroy their society;’ ‘finish off all Muslims;’ ‘our people were not spared by them, don’t have mercy,’” he quoted. “Police officials said that BJP party officials instigated the mobs. ‘This was not a riot,’ said one senior police official. ‘It was a state-sponsored pogrom.’”
Also speaking on the panel were Niranjan Takle, a renowned Indian investigative journalist, and Ajit Sahi, Advocacy Director of IAMC. Takle stated that the BJP is implementing ideas put forth by the founders of the Hindutva ideology, including the weaponization of rape and cow vigilantism to spread fear among Indian Muslims.
Takle further raised the issue of Hindu extremism rising outside of India, naming several US-based organizations as channels for spreading the ideology.
“This Hindutva ideology I know for sure has spread across the world through several organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh… and they are trying to influence policies of foreign countries right now, apart from spreading hatred because it’s only hatred on which they can survive,” he said.
“I am a Hindu myself. This fight is against Hindutva. Hindutva is bigotry,” said IAMC advocacy director Ajit Sahi. “If Indian democracy goes down, it will have a terrible effect around the world, including the United States.”
