RIYADH – Top Indian media outlets have drawn mockery for publishing fakenews claiming Saudi Arabia banned the Islamic movement Tableeghi Jamaat, atransnational Sunni Islamic missionary movement.
Indian media, which act as a puppet of Hindu nationalist party BJP, has along story of spreading fake news which was refuted repeatedly, and thistime the group carried dozens of stories claiming that the Kingdom’sMinistry of Islamic Affairs has called upon its mosques to allocate thenext Friday sermon to warn against the group’s misguidance, deviation, anddanger.
In reality, the group that is mentioned is not Tableeghi Jamaat whichcontinues its operations from the South Asian region but the tweet sharedby the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs mentioned a group named Al-Ahbab[The Tablighi and Da’wah Group] which is reportedly a militant group havingtentacles in the largest country in the Middle East.
The stories posted by Indian media outlets didn’t mention the Al-Ahbabgroup which Kingdom said is one of the gates of terrorism, even if theyclaim otherwise. The group is said to be an offshoot of Al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, the Islamic seminary Darool Uloom Deoband, which is creditedwith initiating one of the most influential global Islamic networks, hascondemned the reported decision of Saudi Arabia to ban the Islamicmissionary movement.
Officials also urged Saudi officials to release other details of the bannedorganisation to debunk false accusations.
Another major factor that debunks the Indian propaganda is that no leadingpublication of the Middle East or Western country reported such claims.
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Last year, Indian authorities blamed the discovery of COVID-19 withTableeghi Jamaat members which led to a vicious hate campaign not onlyagainst the organisation but also Muslims in general, who were accused by alarge section of mainstream media of being solely responsible for the novelvirus outbreak in the South Asian country.
Indian newspaper dubbed Tableeghi Jamaat members as ‘super spreaders’ andaccused them of carrying out a ‘corona jihad’ to deliberately spread thevirus.
BJP influenced media reports also falsely accused them of misbehaving withmedical staff at various quarantine facilities.
As misinformation and conspiracy theories flooded media platforms, therewere even calls for a social boycott of Muslims, followed by attacks onTablighi Jamaat members across the country.
The campaign against Tableeghi Jamaat all over India, and by extensionagainst all Muslims in the country, was a byproduct of the hate politics ofthe ruling dispensation helped by the lapdog media and an army of socialmedia workers.
