CAIR Reiterates Call for Modi’s India to Be Designated a Country of Particular Concern in Wake of Charges that Official Plotted U.S. Citizen’s Murder
12-26-2023
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(WASHINGTON, DC, 11/29/2023) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, today called on the Biden administration to finally designate India as a Country of Particular Concern after today’s U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announcement of the arrest of an Indian government employee who allegedly “directed a plot to assassinate on U.S. soil an attorney and political activist who is a U.S. citizen.”
Despite the far-right, anti-Muslim Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government-documented abuse of numerous religious minorities, the White House honored him with a state dinner during his U.S. visit in June, and Congress hosted him for a speech to a joint session.
In a statement, CAIR National Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said:
“Our nation’s past response to Saudi Arabia’s assassination of an American journalist who was critical of them was tepid at best. Now is the time for the Biden administration to say that efforts to assassinate our citizens will result in substantive consequences and not be just business as usual.
“Earlier this year, President Biden and Congress had the opportunity to tell Modi that persecuting religious minorities is unacceptable, but they chose to honor him instead. Given his more recent decision to provide American assistance to Israel’s effort to erase Palestinians from Gaza, President Biden needs to take strong action to start restoring the confidence of Americans that his administration stands for some form of international accountability and values. He must finally designate India as a Country of Particular Concern.”
After the declassification of the U.S. national intelligence report regarding the involvement of Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman in the murder of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi, CAIR and other groups urged President Biden to use his power to impose the full range of sanctions available under the Global Magnitsky Act – including asset freezes and visa bans – on MBS as well as any other Saudi national implicated in the murder.
BACKGROUND
Hindutva movements are at the core of anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, and anti-minority persecutions in India. They have also stoked hatred between Muslim and Hindu groups in the U.S.
Last year, U.S. groups protested speaking engagements featuring anti-Muslim, anti-Christian Hindu extremist leader Sadhvi Ritambhara. Ritambhara’s hate speeches have been described as “the single most powerful instrument for whipping up anti-Muslim violence” in various Indian states, leading to communal riots and thousands of deaths. Ritambhara is also well known for her anti-Christian hate and bigotry. She has suggested that Christian missionaries were attempting to convert people in India and that if even a “single Hindu is converted, Christians will be wiped out from the face of India.”
In New Jersey last year, the Indian Business Association (IBA), organized an India Independence Day parade in Edison and Woodbridge which featured a bulldozer, which has become a symbol of anti-Muslim animus in India. Following local condemnations, IBA issued an apology.
In 2005, the State Department denied Modi a visa to visit the U.S due to his persecution of minority faiths in Gujarat, where he served as Chief Minister.
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