The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a prominent Muslim body, has denounced the "provocative acts of violence and vandalism" during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami in India.
In a statement on Tuesday, the OIC said instances of attacks on Muslims during the nine-day festival were a "vivid manifestation of mounting Islamophobia and systemic targeting of the Muslim community in India".
Not surprisingly, India's foreign ministry condemned the statement, saying the OIC showed an "anti-India agenda". "This is one more example of their communal mindset and anti-India agenda. OIC only does its reputation damage by being consistently manipulated by anti-India forces," foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement on Twitter.
Local media reports said large processions of people carrying tridents, swords, sticks and other weapons passed through Muslim neighbourhoods in several cities, raising hate slogans and even setting homes and shops on fire in some places.
According to local media reports, at least two people were killed in the violence during the festival, including one in the eastern state of Bihar, where authorities deployed hundreds of riot police and cut mobile internet services to prevent a flare-up.
The OIC said the violence during the Ram Navami processions saw the "burning of a madrassa (Muslim school) and its library by an extremist Hindu mob" in Bihar's Bihar Sharif town.
Similar incidents of violence were reported from West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and other states, leading to more than 100 arrests across the country.
"The OIC General Secretariat calls upon the Indian authorities to take firm actions against the instigators and perpetrators of such acts and to ensure the safety, security, rights and dignity of the Muslim community in the country," the OIC said.
Hindu extremist groups have been emboldened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was Gujarat state chief minister during huge riots there in 2002, was elected prime minister in 2014.
Hindu extremists are calling for genocide against MuslimsTellingly, at a conference in December last, a Hindu extremist dressed head-to-toe in the religion's holy color, saffron, called on her supporters to kill Muslims and "protect" the country.
"If 100 of us become soldiers and are prepared to kill 2 million (Muslims), then we will win, protect India, and make it a Hindu nation," said Pooja Shakun Pandey, a senior member of the right-wing Hindu Mahasabha political party.
Her words and calls for violence from other religious leaders were met with a roar of applause from the large audience, a video from the three-day conference in the northern Indian city of Haridwar shows.
According to CNN, the Hindu Mahasabha is at the tip of a broader trend in India that has seen an alarming rise in support for extremist Hindu nationalist groups since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power nearly eight years ago.
Analysts fear this rise poses a serious danger to minorities, especially Muslims - and worry it may only get worse as several Indian states head to the polls in the coming months.
"What makes the Hindu Mahasabha dangerous is that they have been waiting for a moment like this in decades," said Gilles Verniers, an assistant professor of political science at Ashoka University, New Delhi.
Hindu Mahasabha
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