BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma is receiving death threats with a bounty on her head for merely stating what is written in Islamic scriptures about Prophet Mohammed. The cyberattacks started after so-called fact-checker Zubair Mohammed shared a clipped video of Nupur speaking about it in a TV debate.
Nupur Sharma had participated in a debate on recent findings of the presence of Shivling in the Gyanvapi complex in Times Now on May 27. Many HINOs on social media mocked the findings of the court-appointed survey committee by comparing the Shivling with nuclear reactors, barricades, etc while Muslims continued to insist that it is a fountain. The pattern continued in the Times Now debate as well and Nupur had relied on Islamic scriptures to respond in the same coin.
“Should I start mocking claims of flying horses or the flat-earth theory as mentioned in your Quran? You are marrying a 6-year-old girl and having sex with her when she turned 9. Who did it? Prophet Muhammad. Should I start saying all these things that are mentioned in your scriptures?”, she said when Taslim Ahmed Rehmani, one of the panelists heckled her while talking about how abrahamics have been mocking Hindu deities. It is clear that she talked about the prophet only after the other panelists mocked Hindu deities.
But alt-news co-founder and POCSO accused Zubair Mohammed shared the clip of her speech to make it look like she did it to provoke the Muslim community. It is to be noted that she neither interpreted something on her own nor invented a new story like abrahamics do while denigrating Hindu deities. She had merely said what is already written in the Islamic religious scriptures. Yet Muslims descended on her TL to issue death threats not only to her but to her family as well.
It has only gotten worse since as open calls to murder Nupur were made in a Twitter space session in the beginning and now it has come to announcing Rs.1 crore bounty for her head. An Instagram user with the handle name ‘basedmuwahhid’ had shared Nupur Sharma’s picture and called for her beheading. He commented below the picture “Are you going to stay silent after what she said?” inciting fellow Muslims to act against Nupur.
One Aljabbar Sheikh, called Nupur Sharma’ Shaitan ki Auladh’ under the Instagram post, while another user Fayid wrote that ‘kafirs’ like Nupur Sharma should be butchered for commenting on Prophet. Similar calls and convictions were made to kill Nupur Sharma in the name of defending the honor of the prophet.
As vile abuses, threats, and calls for murder poured in on social media, Muslim politicians weren’t to be left behind. AIMIM chief Assadudin Owaisi dog-whistled his followers against Nupur Sharma in a meeting. He reportedly asked the PM to take action against her saying “this is not justified to make offensive remarks against the one whom we revere”. He had dog-whistled against Kamlesh Tiwari in a similar manner in the past.
A Hyderabad-based Islamic party AIMIM (Inquilab)’s leader Qavi Abbasi announced a reward of ₹1 crore to any Muslim who would kill the BJP leader. In the video that went viral on social media, he can be seen making derogatory remarks about Hindu Dharma and calling Nupur Sharma a ‘white collar prostitute’. Another viral video showed the student union President of Shibli College in UP inciting Muslims to attack the BJP leader and the Hindu community.
Abdur Rahman, the student union President had said “when the honour of our Prophet is compromised, no Muslim comes forward (to avenge it). Why? Because we have become scared, complacent and cowards,” in a provocative speech. He also warned the Hindu community indirectly saying that he is willing to trample 80 crore people under his feet. The BJP leader is facing threats from Pakistan as well, as Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a political party, has announced Rs.5 million bounty for beheading her. TLP members were behind the cold-blodded killing of the Srilankan national Priyantha who was accused of blasphemy.
Even though Islamists have been publicly calling for Nupur’s murder, no action has been taken on any of them by the police. But Raza Academy which was responsible for the violence in Azad Maidan during which the Amar Jawan Jyoti was vandalized, has filed a complaint against Nupur Sharma based on which the Mumbai police have filed an FIR against her. Another FIR has been filed against her by the Mumbra police based on a complaint from a man named Mohammad Gurfan.
Political parties like NCP, not explicitly Islamic, have also jumped in by protesting against Nupur. But BJP, whose spokesperson is the affected person here, maintains a conspicuous silence so far. Nupur said in an Opindia interview that the party high command has extended its support and is rallying behind her. But BJP leaders have not even made a peep about the issue in media and elsewhere. On the contrary, Islamist political leaders brazenly continue to dog-whistle their followers in public forums.
It remains to be seen whether Nupur will face the same fate as Kamalesh Tiwari or the powers that be will recognize the Islamists’ threats for what they are and provide her security. At a time when the survey footage of the Gyanvapi complex has been released through which it is proven beyond doubt that it was a temple and there indeed is a Shivling inside the well, sharing Nupur’s clipped speech appears to be an attempt to deflect attention from what Islamists did to Gyanvapi and continue to do the same to what remains of it.
(With inputs from Opindia)
