Bollywood actress and popular television personality Hina Khan received massive flak from Islamists on social media after she posted pictures of herself at a Durga Puja pandal. Hina Khan has been dating industry colleague Rocky Jaiswal for several years and often participates in Hindu festivals with him.
Accompanying her partner, as usual, the actress arrived at a Durga Puja pandal to take blessings on the Navami day. She also clicked some pictures, which were later shared on social media. As soon as Hina posted these pictures for public viewing, radical Islamists flocked to the comment section of that post, abusing the actress for going against Islamist norms.
Some users with Islamic usernames shamed her for visiting the pandal. Few also demanded that a Fatwa be raised against her. Some even compared her to other Muslim actresses who, according to them, were better Muslims. A couple of social media users also reminded her to fear Allah’s wrath. Khatija Malik questioned her Islamism and asserted that their lord doesn’t allow them to do so, and many others slandered her family.
Those who attacked her were people who looked like regular social media users from moderate Muslim families, but it was their rabid hate of Hindu Dharma and the sight of Durga murtis that revealed their radical side. It also exposed the fact that your harmless-looking neighbour minding his own business can be a highly fundamentalist Islamist, and you won’t know it till you inadvertently irk their radical side by simply following your faith without hurting them the least.
The attitude of these social media users was in no way different from the moral police of Iran that are inflicting unbearable tortures on Iranian women and killing them for not wearing the Hijab correctly and not following “Islam properly”. If given a chance, these religious extremists would take to the streets and assault the likes of Hina Khan for visiting a Hindu pandal.
It must be highlighted that several men from the Muslim community have been caught harassing and molesting Hindu women and assaulting Hindu men on social media. When Hindu associations take action against such cases and bar Muslim men from entering a Garba event, they cry for secularism and demand that it is their right to join these Hindu events. On the other hand, when a Muslim woman participates in a Hindu event, these Islamists slander her and use profanities against her.
Their “Islam” is violated when a Muslim woman takes the blessings of Maa Durga, but not when men from their community enter Hindu religious venues to engage in violence with Hindus. They want more and more of such men from their cult to visit Hindu festivities and create more destruction and disturbance. The hypocrisy of the Islamist cult is evident.
This is not the first time Hina Khan became the target of Islamist bigotry and abuse. Back in June this year, Hina posted pictures of her in a swimsuit and was dragged through the dirt by social media users with Muslim user names. Men and women attacked her for her clothing choice. In 2018, though she was not wearing a swimsuit, she was thrashed by Islamists for posting pictures in western wear during the month of Ramzan.
Unfortunately, feminists from the Muslim community, like Rana Ayyub or RJ Sayema, never raise their voices in support of women like Hina, proving that when it is a tug between a moderate Muslim who will be of no use to their Islamist cause versus radicals from their community, they will always side with the latter.
