Hindu supremacist Gujarat government announce plans to end Muslim personal laws
In yet another attempt to polarize votes ahead of state elections and further marginalize India’s Muslims, the Hindu right-wing government of Gujarat state has announced it will set up a committee to work towards implementing a “uniform civil code.”
The UCC has been a long-standing demand of India’s Hindu extremists, who have rejected the personal laws that India’s Muslims have been constitutionally allowed to observe and practice.
The (UCC) will mandate the formulation of a common law for all citizens in personal matters such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance, regardless of their religious practice.
With this announcement, Gujarat is the second state ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after Uttarakhand to announce its plans to implement the UCC.
India’s laws allow followers of different faiths to follow their own laws such as the Hindu Marriage Act, Indian Christian Marriages Act, and the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act. Muslim personal laws are based on religious texts and are not codified.
Implementing the UCC is a violation of freedom of religion and an invasion of the private lives of citizens, particularly Muslims and Christians, who are already severely marginalized in India. Far from being a step towards progressiveness, the UCC is another avenue for Hindu supremacists to attack and prosecute Muslims and Christians for practicing their faith in their private lives.
Hindu extremists drag Muslim man to police, falsely accuse him of luring Hindu woman
Hindu extremists nabbed a 24-year-old Muslim man and handed him over to the police in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district on Friday, falsely accusing him of trying to lure a Hindu woman. The news reports have not named the man.
The Hindu extremists belonging to the Hindu militant group Bajrang Dal claimed he had booked a hotel room under a fake identity to be with the Hindu woman with the “intention of love jihad.”
Love jihad is a bogus and false propaganda run by extremist Hindu forces claiming, without evidence, that Muslim men trick non-Muslim girls into marriage and force them to accept Islam.
The Muslim man is now under police custody for further investigation.
Fearing exposure, UK Hindu groups announce boycott of Leicester violence review
Fearing that they will be exposed for their role in the anti-Muslim violence in Leicester city of the UK in September, Hindu organizations in that country have announced they will boycott a government “review” into that violence.
The review will focus on the reasons behind the incidents, said Leicester Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, who commissioned it. The review is led by Chris Allen, Associate Professor in Hate Studies at the University of Leicester.
Allen warned his findings may face a backlash when they are published in March. “I know that this will probably put me in the line of fire,” Allen said, adding, “I think that we have a public responsibility and I think that we have a civic responsibility as well.”
As many as 61 people were arrested after the violence.
A full review along with recommendations for action will be ready by March 2023.
The police are investigating over 150 incidents connected to the violence.
