The outside of Madrassah Azizia Photo Twitter/ @meerfaisal01
India – On March 31, Madrassah Azizia was set on fire by a Hindutva mob during the Ram Navami rally. An armed mob of around 1 000 people vandalised the Madrassah which is in Bihar Sharif’s Murarpur locality and set fire to its library reducing it to ashes.
Madrassah Azizia is 110 years-old and is the oldest Madrassah and library in Bihar Sharif. According to Ghazala Ahmad, Journalist based in India, the Madrassah was established by a woman called Azizia who was from Bihar in the memory of her husband.
“A lot of students from the state used to come and study and learn the Quran [at the Madrassah]. It was vandalised and burnt down by the Hindutva mob in the state. It had almost 5 000 books. Religious and non-religious. It was also associated with the state board and both kind of teachings imparted in this Madrassah. The religious one and the non-religious one as well.”
The aftermath of the attack Photo Twitter/ @LMHOBOfficial
The attack by the Hindutva mob in Bihar
Bihar has been rocked by violence over the last weekend when the Ram Navami rally was taking place. Seventy people have been arrested in connection with violence while one death has been reported. Acts of this nature are common during the Hindu festivals, said Ahmad. Adding that last year was no different than this year.
“Last year we also saw similar kinds of incidents in several states in India. The same happened this year as well during Ram Navami. They have religious rallies but they turn into violent ones and they raise provocative slogans in front of mosques and more specifically in front of Muslim religious institutions. Then they try to attack people associated with Islam. The same happened in Bihar as well. This incident happened in front of the Madrassah. Soon after that it escalated to the colonies as well.”
Women in Bihar have accused the Hindutva mob of forcibly entering their homes, abusing them and stealing their valuables, said Ahmad. The attacks on Muslims have only got worse as the blessed month of Ramadan began.
“Soon after Ramadan started, a lot of people were barred from offering Taraweeh prayers (the prayer performed during Ramadan in the evening) not even in the mosques but in their private houses. Moradabad, is a place in Uttar Pradesh, where a family was stopped from offering Taraweeh prayers because some Hindutva organisation had an objection with that. The police came with the order that they cannot pray there anymore.”
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Erasing Islam from India
The National Council of Education Research and Training announced its decision to erase certain chapters on the Mughal empire from class 12 history books. This, to Ahmad, is a clear attempt to erase any history of Islam from India. There are many such events taking place in an attempt to eradicate Islam from India.
“Anything which is related to Muslim presence in India, there is an attempt to erase it. Be it our Mosques, be it our religious institutions, be it the names of the places which are remotely associated with the Urdu word or the Muslim name.”
Every incident against Muslims has been given a sort of “state impunity”, said Ahmad. The lynching and burning of two Muslims men that happened three months ago, no action has been taken against the attackers. For this reason, she and many others, are not sure if these incidents will actually be investigated properly and the culprits will be brought to justice.
These acts of violence and hatred against Muslims will unfortunately continue, said Ahmad. The BJP does not seem interested in protecting the rights of Muslims and perhaps it is now time for the United Nations and international bodies to get involved.
To hear more from Ghazala Ahmad on the violence and hatred against Muslims in India, listen to the podcast here:
