Three Indian Islamic scholars, Maulana Umar Gautam, Mufti Jahangir Qasmi and Maualana Kaleem Siddique, have been declared as victims of religious persecution by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Three of them have been included in ‘Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List‘ by the USCIRF.
The aforementioned list names a total 33 persons including Kashmir’s human rights activist Khurram Pervez, journalist Siddique Kappan, activists, Meeran Haider, Khalid Saifi, Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid.
Human rights groups have welcomed the addition of the names of the three Islamic scholars to the list of the victims of religious persecution by the USCIRF.
“We appreciate USCIRF’s indepth research and investigation into these cases. Recognizing the victims of the Indian government is an effective mechanism to notify India that US agencies are monitoring its degradation of human rights. Touted as the world’s largest democracy, India is quickly being reduced to a fascist group-autocracy with ballot box validation,” Hena Zuberi, director of Justice for All, a Washington DC-based organisation, said.
She added that her team had submitted profiles of such prisoners over the last 2 years to USCIRF. Many of the names submitted by it have been included.
Zahir Adil, Team Lead of the Save India From Fascism organisation, said, “By adding these names to the victims’ list, USCIRF recognises the malfeasance of the Indian government in using these laws to persecute religious minorities,” stated
This article first appeared on muslimmirror.com