The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), a secular and rights-based organisation, has condemned the hate speeches given at a meeting called by a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), against the Muslim community at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar earlier this week. It has termed the hateful sloganeering as “an open call to genocide.”

“Muslims are as much citizens of India as Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs…and such an open call to arms against Indian citizens needs to be checked and punished by law,” said Dr Noorjehan Safia Niaz, co-founder of BMMA. She added, “These criminal hateful pronouncements are against the law of the land and every principle of civilised human behaviour. They go against the principles of shared traditions and co-existence that mark our multi-cultural society. We cannot remain silent when such hate and viciousness is deployed to divide us as citizens and as human beings.”