‘Where Are Your Jews And Hindus?’ – OpEd

Where are the Jews?

“Israel continues to exercise apartheid in Palestine, which constitutes a crime against humanity’, practices discrimination and extremism.” In March 2017 during a UN Human Rights Council debate Hillel Neuer (a Canadian-born international lawyer), Executive Director of UN Watch, took the floor and gave the following speech (Extracts):

Mr. President, let me begin by putting the following on the record: Everything we just heard — from the world’s worst abusers of human rights, of women’s rights, of freedom of religion, of the press, of assembly, of speech — is absolutely false; and, indeed, Orwellian.

Over the weekend, President Abbas announced he was giving his highest medal to Rima Khalaf, who resigned from the Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia, a Beirut-based UN agency of 18 Arab states, after Secretary General Guterres rightly instructed her to remove an absurd report which accused Israel of “apartheid.” The accusation against Israel is absurd. Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs, whatever challenges they face, enjoy full rights to vote and to be elected in the Knesset, they work as doctors and lawyers, they serve on the Supreme Court.

Now I’d like to ask …How many Jews live in your countries? How many Jews live in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco? Once upon a time, the Middle East was full of Jews. Algeria had 140,000 Jews. Egypt used to have 75,000 Jews. Syria had tens of thousands of Jews. Iraq, you had over 135,000 Jews. Mr President, where is the apartheid? UNHRC chamber goes silent.

“We have 50 million Muslims in Europe.
Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe—
without swords, without guns, without conquest—
will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.” — Muammar Gadhafi – 2006 

Does the World Know about the Hindu Holocausts?

The genocide suffered by the Hindus of India at the hands of Arab, Turkish, Mughal and Afghan occupying forces for a period of 800 years remains unrecognized by the World of the ‘World’s biggest holocaust’. The invasion of India by the Afghan ruler Mahmud Ghazni in about 1000 AD began the Muslim invasions into the Indian subcontinent and they lasted for several centuries. Ghazni invaded India seventeen times between 1001-1026 AD. Nadir Shah and Babur are believed to have raised towers of Hindu skulls. Babur at Khanua when he defeated Rana Sanga in 1527. Akbar ordered a general massacre of 30,000 Rajputs after he captured Chithorgarh in 1568. The Bahamani Sultans had an annual agenda of killing a minimum of 100,000 Hindus every year. The holocaust of the Hindus in India continued for 800 years, till the brutal regimes were effectively overpowered in a life and death struggle by the Sikh rulers in Punjab, the Maratha armies in other parts of India and in Assam by Lachit Barphukan. There is no official estimate of the total death toll of Hindus.

“The Mohammedan conquests of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. The Islamic historians and scholars have recorded with great glee and pride the slaughters of Hindus, forced conversions, abduction of Hindu women and children to slave markets and the destruction of temples carried out by the warriors of Islam from 800 to 1700 AD. Millions of Hindus were converted to Islam by sword during this period.” And the Hindu Genocide continued into the 20th century:

680,000 Hindus massacred?

• 1947-Partition of India: 14 million Hindus displaced, and 2,000,000 Hindus massacred?

• 1950- East Bengal Riots (Now Bangladesh): 4.5 million Hindus displaced, and 500,000 Hindus massacred?

• 1971-Hindu Genocide in Bangladesh: 30 million Hindus displaced and 3,000,000 Hindus massacred?

• 1921-Malabar genocide: The mastermind of Mappila genocide, Haji and Ali, raised Khilafat Army consisting of more than 60,000 Muslim soldiers with Turkish Caliphate flags. The aim was to establish “the Caliphate rule”, as pointed out by the then Deputy Collector, C Gopalan Nair. The slogans or battle cry were neither against ‘Imperial rule’ nor in favour of ‘Nationalism’ but against the ‘Kafirs’ (non-believers of Islam). The bizarre yet shocking 1921 Malabar genocide and forcible conversion of Hindus marked one of the earliest radical Islamic violence against the Malabar Hindus. Annie Besant said that “more than 1,500 Hindus were brutally murdered, 20,000 people were forcibly converted to Islam. 

The World’s Muslim Population Grows Exponentially

World Muslim population projections by the Pew Research Center’s Forum (Jan 2011 report): The world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030. The Global Muslim population is likely to grow at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades – an average annual growth rate of 1.5% for Muslims, compared with 0.7% for non-Muslims. If current trends continue, Muslims will make up 26.4% of the world’s total projected population of 8.3 billion in 2030. 

US Muslims projections show the number of Muslims more than doubling over the next two decades, rising from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030. If current trends continue, the number of U.S. Muslims under age 15 will more than triple, from fewer than 500,000 in 2010 to 1.8 million in2030. The number of Muslim children below the age of 4 years living in the US is expected to increase from fewer than 200,000 in 2010 to more than 650,000 in 2030!

Canada Muslims are expected to nearly triple in the next 20 years, from about 940,000 in 2010 to nearly 2.7 million in 2030. Muslims are expected to make up 6.6% of Canada’s total population in 2030, up from 2.8% today.  

European nations Muslim growth rates: 

Belgium (139.8 per cent), Czech Republic (300 per cent), the Netherland (165.7 per cent), Poland (233.3 per cent), Spain (276.8 per cent), Sweden (206.8 per cent), and the UK (144.8 per cent) witnessed an increase by 140-300 per cent between 1990 and 2010. Germany is the only country with a double-digit growth rate of 65 per cent.  Muslims have grown by 150 per cent in a decade in non-Muslim countries. 

In Europe as a whole, the Muslim share of the population is expected to grow by nearly one-third over the next 20 years, rising from 6% of the region’s inhabitants in 2010 to 8% in 2030. In absolute numbers, Europe’s Muslim population is projected to grow from 44.1 million in 2010 to 58.2 million in 2030. In the UK, Muslims are expected to comprise 8.2% of the population in 2030, up from an estimated 4.6% today. In Austria, Muslims are projected to reach 9.3% of the population in 2030, up from 5.7% today; in Sweden, 9.9% (up from 4.9% today); in Belgium, 10.2% (up from 6% today); and in France, 10.3% (up from 7.5% today). Several factors account for the faster projected growth among Muslims in Europe is the result of immigrants to Europe and majority being Muslims over the years. France had an expected net influx of 66,000 Muslim immigrants in 2010, primarily from North Africa.  

Muslim countries for the same period surprisingly have only grown in double figures with Syria leading (88.4 per cent) and Pakistan (58.6 per cent).

Indian Subcontinent: 

According to 1951 census, Pakistan (both West and East Pakistan) had a population of 75 million population, in which West Pakistan had a population of 33.7 million and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had a population of 42 million. In 1951, Hindus constituted 16% of the Pakistani population (this included East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which made the Dominion of Pakistan the country with the world’s second largest Hindu population after India. In the 1951 census, the population of West Pakistan was 1.6% Hindu, while East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was 22.05% Hindu. After the Partition of India in 1947 the decimation took five years not 50. Most of the 16 per cent Hindus who were present in Pakistan at the time of the partition either escaped to India or tragically succumbed to the genocide of the partition. Pakistan is expected to surpass Indonesia as the country with the single largest Muslim population.

India’s Muslim population between 1951 and 1961 increased by 32.7%, 11 percentage points more than India’s overall rate of 21.6%. But this gap narrowed between 2001 to 2011, the difference in growth between Muslims (24.7%) and Indians overall (17.7%) was 7 percentage points. India’s Christian population grew at the slowest pace of the three largest groups in the most recent census decade – gaining 15.7% between 2001 and 2011. India is also home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations, surpassed only by Indonesia, which had 209 million (20.9 crore) Muslims in 2010. Pakistan’s Muslim population is roughly the same size as India’s. Bangladesh follows in fourth place, with 134 million (13.4 crore) Muslims.

India world’s most populous country 

India’s population has more than tripled in the six decades following Partition, from 361 million (36.1 crore) people in the 1951 census to more than 1.2 billion (120 crore) in 2011. As of 2020, according to the UN Population India will surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2030 but that has already been achieved seven years ahead and India now is the world’s most populous country. Between 1951 and 2011 India share of Muslims stood at 14.2% of the population, while Hindus at 79.8%. 

In the projected scenario, as of 2020 about 15% of Indians are Muslim (14.2% in 2011), 79% are Hindu (79.8% in 2011), and 2% are Christian. In 2050, Hindus are projected to represent about 77% of Indians, Muslims 18%, and Christians still 2%. Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains are projected to shrink as a share of the population.

Islamophobia

The UN on 15 March 2023 (Friday) commemorated the ‘first-ever International Day to Combat Islamophobia’ with a special event in the General Assembly, where speakers upheld the need for concrete action in the face of rising hatred, discrimination and violence against Muslims. Wonder if Hindu Holocausts over the centuries though past have ever been discussed in the UN?

The biggest Hindu Holocausts of the World History has been erased from the history. When the word ‘Holocaust’ comes up most think immediately of the Jewish holocaust. Europe and America produced films highlighting the human misery caused by Hitler and his army. The films expose the horrors of Nazi regime and reinforce the beliefs and attitude of the present-day generation towards the evils of the Nazi dictatorship. In contrast look at India. There is hardly any awareness among the Indians of today of what happened to their ancestors. History has been distorted to the extent that Mughals are considered as the Great Rulers to the extreme that so called Akbar the Great is considered as the “Saviour of Hindus” in the Indian school textbooks.

Sources:

Pew Research and Open Sources (The figures and instances may be exaggerated but there is truth in the basic facts regarding the Hindu Holocausts over the centuries. A large number of articles peg the reason for higher population growth of Muslims to their higher fertility rate. This does not seem to be the correct reason in my perspection as there are a large number of other comparative reasons.)