Letter published in Guardian

Guardian, 24 November 2001

Thomas Friedman’s New York Times article (Guardian 23 November) on Muslims in India exemplifies the kind of disinformation that has kept people in the US in the dark about global realities.

Among the recent events that Friedman omits to report are: the desecration of the Taj Mahal by activists of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the shooting dead by police of ten Muslim demonstrators in Malegaon in Maharashtra, the banning of radical Islamic groups, government attempts to impose ‘Vedic mathematics’ and other methods of ‘Hinduising’ Indian soiciety, and the severe restrictions on civil liberties (particularly threateing to Muslims and other minorities) currently being rushed through in the guise of ‘anti-terrorism’ legislation.

Friedman quotes actress Shabana Azmi’s welcome critique of the reactionary Imam of the Jama Masjid in Delhi but omits any reference to her equally forceful criticisms of the attacks on Muslims by the Indian government and media. He also omits any reference to the persecution of Christians mounted in recent years by forces associated with the ruling party.

Friedman’s report is one of many efforts to conceal from the US public the fact that among the most strident supporters of the US’s ‘war against terrorism’ are the Hindu fundamentalists who now control the central government in India. Sitting on the Indian cabinet are individuals, including Home Minister Advani, who are directly complicit in the destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya 1992 – an act of vandalism and intolerance as unacceptabe as the Taliban’s blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas.

With reports like Friedman’s, it’s no wonder so many people in the US find it difficult to grasp the destructive hypocrisy of their government’s policies around the world.

Mike Marqusee