At least 15 countries, including Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Malaysia. the UAE, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Maldives, Libya, Turkey and Indonesia have lodged official protests against India over abusing remarks by ruling party officials. The anger has been growing since last week after the two spokespeople, Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, made speculative remarks that were seen as insulting Islam’s Prophet Prophet Muhammad and his wife Aisha.
The countries expressed their denunciation and rejection of insults of Prophet Muhammad, and demanded an apology from the government. Anger has also poured out on social media, and calls for a boycott of Indian goods have surfaced in some Arab nations. At home, it has led to protests against Modi’s party in some parts of the country.
The controversial remarks follow increasing violence targeting India’s Muslim minority carried out by Hindu nationalists who have been emboldened by Modi’s regular silence about such attacks since he was first elected in 2014. Rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused Modi’s governing party of looking the other way and sometimes enabling hate speech against Muslims, who comprise 14% of India’s 1.4 billion people.
Gulf states Qatar and Kuwait had summoned their Indian ambassadors. Doha demanded the Indian government issue a public apology over Sharma's comments. Sharma said on Twitter that her comments had been in response to “insults” made against the Hindu god Shiva. “If my words have caused discomfort or hurt religious feelings of anyone whatsoever, I hereby unconditionally withdraw my statement,” she said.
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