TW: This article mentions sexual assault, rape, description of a graphic cartoon.
A few days back, A teacher, Samuel Paty was beheaded by an 18-year-old-boy in France for supposedly showing a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad. In Islam, the depiction of God in the form of an image or cartoon is strictly prohibited, and hence, considered blasphemous.
Across the world, this incident was strongly condemned. News outlets, however, carried out ‘media trials’ and termed this incident as part of ‘Islamic terrorism’. Hence, once again debate over ‘Islamic terrorism’ has been revived.
However, Muslims across the world strongly condemned this incident and requested the world to not link such a heinous crime with religion, as Islam doesn’t subscribe to such activities. If we read the biography of Prophet Mohammed, then we come to know that He was such a generous and kind person that he was respectful to his enemy too.
As usual, the so-called mainstream media in India carried out their coverage of the French teacher’s murder with much aggression and it seemed like ‘propaganda’ to just fuel Islamophobia in India. The Indian media termed it as “Islamic jihad” and “Islamic terrorism“. Simultaneously, the media and a section of users online, asked if Islam is so weak that merely cartoon can break it or insult it.
Today, the same people are running a campaign against lawyer and social activist, Deepika Singh Rajawat, for allegedly hurting the sentiments of Hindus.
As per reports, Deepika Singh Rajawat posted a cartoon on her social media account which depicted, one side a man worshipping women, and on the other side, the same man holding tightly the legs of a woman. The cartoon was trying to say that during festivals or any occasion, men worship women, but on the rest of the days, the same man tortures, harassed and rapes her. Tt means that worshipping women is only ‘ostentatious’.
Alert:
Several right wing organisations hav been staging angry protests outside my residence. Law enforcing agencies must intervene immediately to avert untoward incident.
In view of slander n threats—both online n offline Im afraid that the frenzied mob can attack me any time.— Deepika Pushkar Nath (@DeepikaPNath) October 21, 2020
De facto, what Ms Rajawat wanted to say through the cartoon is the reality of our society. But, Hindutva sympathizers and right-wing leaning media organizations are not willing to confess to it. Instead, they seem to be running a campaign against her for supposedly hurting religious sentiments and demand her arrest.
So now, it can be easily understood as to what peak of hypocrisy are they sitting on! One the one hand, when someone makes a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed, just to mock him, he is termed by the Indian media as a ‘hero’. And on the other hand, when someone makes cartoon to just show the reality of our society, it is termed as an attack on religious sentiment and they demand immediate arrest of that person!