Muslim activist’s home bulldozed ‘in revenge’
Woman voices anger at ruling party’s response to protest in India sparked by comments about Prophet
A YOUNG Muslim woman who is among India’s most famous student activists has had her home demolished after the government accused her father of leading anti-blasphemy protests.
Afreen Fatima, an outspoken critic of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says officials in the state of Uttar Pradesh bulldozed her family home in revenge for her activism.
Thousands of Muslims took to the streets last week over insulting comments made by two BJP spokesmen about the Prophet Mohammed.
The Hindu-nationalist BJP has sought to marginalise Muslim communities since taking power in 2014, demolishing mosques, renaming cities and preventing students from wearing the hijab to school.
Ms Fatima rose to prominence taking the government to task over the policies online and leading classmates in protest against the hijab ban.
Demonstrations over the remarks turned violent last week, with two teenagers killed and at least 30 wounded. Hundreds of protesters were arrested.
Bulldozers on Sunday tore down Ms Fatima’s home in the city of Prayagraj, ripping through balconies and fences as dozens of riot police stood guard.
The family’s belongings were left strewn in the rubble, including a poster that read: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
“I feel like this is a vendetta, not just against me and my politics, or my father and his politics, but our whole family,” Ms Fatima told an Indian publication.
Authorities in Uttar Pradesh, which is Bjp-ruled, claimed Ms Fatima’s father, a local politician in a Muslim party, had organised demonstrations over the alleged blasphemy.
They claimed that a destruction notice had been issued to the family last month as their home had been constructed illegally. Ms Fatima said they only heard about the demolition after the protest and the backdated notice was forged. She said the family had not taken part in protests last Friday.
“We had been paying our house taxes for around 20 years and not once did we receive any intimation by any development authorities of Allahabad that our house is illegal. Why were they even taking our taxes if it was an illegal house?” she told Al Jazeera.
Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and a hardline Hindu monk, had ordered the demolition of “illegally” constructed homes of those involved in the protest, according to a BJP spokesman.
At least two other houses have been demolished. Mr Adityanath has gained the nickname of “bulldozer baba” (bulldozer monk) for the regular destruction of the houses of government critics, a policy since copied by other Indian states.
In April, buildings belonging to Muslims in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat were destroyed after intercommunal violence.
“I felt paralysed when it happened,” Ms Fatima said on hearing her home would be torn down. “I didn’t know what to do or who to call. It felt like a nightmare.”
A former chief justice in Prayagraj told the Indian Express newspaper that the demolition of Ms Fatima’s house was “totally illegal”.
At least 230 alleged rioters have also been arrested in Uttar Pradesh since Friday, including Ms Fatima’s mother, father and sister.
The BJP dismissed Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal over the remarks about the Prophet Mohammed, which triggered a backlash from Muslim nations around the world.
There were protests in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh while countries in the Middle East, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, demanded an apology from India.
Stung by the potential damage to its relations with its allies in the Gulf, the BJP has filed charges against Ms Sharma and Mr Jindal for “inciting hatred”.