By Sabena Siddiqui /  The New Arab

For the last two weeks, India has been engulfed in a diplomatic crisis following remarks made by two senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officials about the Prophet Muhammad.

As outrage and protests spread within India, condemnation also started pouring in from across the Islamic world. As a result, at least 20 Muslim-majority states have summoned their Indian ambassadors to provide an explanation.

The crisis began when Nupur Sharma, the national spokesperson for the BJP, made offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad in a televised debate. Another BJP spokesperson, Naveen Jindal, then took to Twitter to endorse her comments and add derogatory remarks.

Anger spread across the Middle East, resulting in a Twitter storm under the hashtag #AnyoneButTheProphetOModi.

“The Muslim world has traditionally stayed relatively quiet about anti-Muslim issues in India because it values its trade relations with India. Clearly insulting the Prophet Muhammad was a red line”
Infuriated, several Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states lodged strong protests with the Indian government for ignoring insulting behaviour from key officials.

Taking a tough stance, Qatar demanded an apology from the Indian government during a visit by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to Doha on a trade mission. Soltan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi, the Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said “these insulting remarks would lead to incitement of religious hatred, and offend more than two billion Muslims around the world”.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry also condemned the remarks while the UAE denounced the “statements insulting the Prophet in India”. Meanwhile, supermarkets in Kuwait boycotted Indian goods.

Noting growing tendencies towards hate speech in India, the Saudi-led Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also stated, “These insults come in the context of the increasing intensity in hatred of and insults to Islam in India and the systematic harassment of Muslims”.

Since Arab states rarely comment on India’s domestic issues, New Delhi may not have expected such a backlash.

“The Muslim world has traditionally stayed relatively quiet about anti-Muslim issues in India because it values its trade relations with India. Clearly insulting the Prophet Muhammad was a red line,” Michael Kugelman, South Asia senior associate at The Wilson Center in Washington, told The New Arab.

This article first appeared on english.alaraby.co.uk