The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) in a statement on Friday condemned the Islamophobic comments of several prominent leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and demanded that they be banned from setting foot into Canada.

The organisation representing the voices of Muslims in Canada also called for the country to refrain from participating in the 2022 G-20 conference, scheduled to take place in Kashmir this year.

“The year’s G-20 is being hosted on the same grounds where India is committing grave human rights atrocities and where genocidal conditions continue to brew,” read the statement by NCCM.

NCCM has demanded that Canada place an entry ban on 13 high-ranking BJP officials for their statements against religious minorities in India.

“We are asking the Canadian government, as per the provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, to prohibit BJP leaders calling for ethnic cleansing and communal violence in India from entering Canada,” the NCCM stated.

The NCCM held the BJP responsible for “an ongoing collapse of civil liberties and human rights in India”.

“This is in large part fueled by their ideology of “Hindutva” or Hindu supremacy—which is dedicated to refashioning India as an exclusively Hindu state, at the expense of other minority groups such as Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Dalits and Adivasis,” stated the council.

The list curated by the NMMC includes Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Rajya Sabah MP Subramanian Swamy, and the recently suspended MLA Raja Singh from Telangana following his derogatory remarks, in a “comedy video”, on Prophet Muhammad.

Bihar BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul, Supreme Court lawyer, Delhi BJP unit leader Ashwini Upadhyay, Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur, M. Panchaksarya Renukacharya (Political Secretary to Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai), Union minister of Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh, BJP Delhi leader Kapil Mishra, Haryana BJP spokesperson Suraj Pal Amu, UP BJP MLA Raghvendra Pratap Singh, and UP MLA Raghuraj Singh are the others in the list.

Instances Islamophobic comments by the BJP leaders:

Yogi Adityanath, has been promoting the bulldozing of homes and businesses of protestors demonstrating against his Islamophobic policies and rhetoric. He even brought bulldozers to the protest to intimidate those participating.

Subramanian Swamy said that any country where Muslims become more than 30 per cent of the population is in danger. He once said, “No, not all people are equal, Muslims do not fall into the equal category.”

Anurag Thakur, once implied that Muslims are “traitors” at a 2020 rally. “What should be done with traitors of the country?” he chanted. “Shoot them,” replied the crowd.

“Canada must stand up for international human rights,” stated the NCCM.

This article first appeared in siasat.com