NEW YORK: Indian Muslim and other faith-based groups have called on organizers of Sunday’s parade in New York marking India’s Independence Day to immediately remove a float featuring Ram Mandir, saying it is considered as a symbol glorifying the destruction of mosques and violence against the Muslims in India. The float portrays the controversial Ram Mandir but its site has long been bitterly contested between Muslims and Hindus, and in the early 1990s the Babri mosque that stood there was razed by a Hindu fundamentalist and extremist mob.
The mosque’s destruction was followed by countywide riots that killed more than 2,000 people, mainly Muslims. In a controversial decision, the Indian Supreme Court handed over the land to Hindus in 2019.
Several US based groups have written a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, calling the float anti-Muslim and adding it glorified the destruction of mosque. Among groups who inked the letter were the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Hindus for Human Rights and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Other group signing the letter were: Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Federation of Indian American Churches of North America (FIACONA), Genocide Watch, New York State Council of Churches, India’s Civil Watch International, Center for Pluralism, American Muslim Institution, and Association of Indian Muslims in America.
“This float’s presence signifies these groups’ desire to blend Hindu nationalist and extremist ideology with Indian identity…” the letter added. “We implore you to take immediate and decisive steps to prevent inclusion of a divisive and polarizing float in this parade.”
Mohammed Jawad, head of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), stated, “[The mandir] is widely understood as a monument to Hindu supremacist ideology, one that highlights Modi’s target of creating a Hindu ethno-state, and reinvigorates the Indian right’s goal of taking over and destroying mosques countrywide.”
Jawad said, “It is an anti-Muslim symbol, and those who celebrated the Ram Temple’s consecration are very much aware of this … we can’t allow this to slide in a city like New York, where diversity is cause for celebration and communities of all backgrounds coexist.”
Mayor Adams said that there was no room for hate and if there is a float or a person in the parade that’s promoting and inciting hate, they should not.
Human rights experts and western media reported that India has seen a rise in attacks, including discrimination and violence, on Muslims and other minorities in recent years under Hindu nationalist and extremist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Meanwhile, APP reported that the Pakistan Day Parade Committee has announced that the event will take place in New York City on August 25.
