India last week hit back at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and asked the organisation from refraining baseless and misleading statements. The IOC had asked the Indian government to check growing "Islamophobia" in the country, in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. In India, the spread is largely linked to the congregation held by Delhi based Nizamuddin Markez in early March.
Calling the allegations by OIC as regrettable, Indian official sources urged the organisation not to communalise the international fight against the disease. The OIC's Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission in a tweet also said the Indian media was negatively profiling Muslims and subjecting them to discrimination.
"OIC-IPHRC urges the Indian government to take urgent steps to stop the growing tide of Islamophobia in India and protect the rights of its Muslim minority," it tweeted. Sources said there have been deliberate attempts to damage India's ties with the Arab countries. They said the "malicious propaganda" was an attempt to create discord between India and the Gulf nations.
Indian missions in the region have warned against use of fake news and also appealed to Indian nationals to remember that discrimination in any form is against India's moral fabric.
There has been a wave of angry reactions on Twitter by leading citizens from various Arab countries following allegations that Muslims were being blamed for spreading Covid-19 in several parts of India.
