India activists decry 'politics of bulldozers' as government levels Muslim homes

A Muslim civil rights group has decried India's "politics of bulldozers", amid a fight to stop the government levelling Muslim homes following riots. 

Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (JUH), one of India’s largest socio-economic Muslim organisations, has appealed to the country’s Supreme Court to intervene after authorities ordered the property of Muslims accused of criminal activity to be demolished.

It follows clashes between Muslims and Hindus amid provocative Hindu nationalist marches in India in recent weeks. 

"Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the dangerous politics of bulldozers that have been started to destroy minorities, especially Muslims under the guise of crime prevention in BJP-ruled states," the group's president Maulana Arshad Madani tweeted on Sunday.

Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the dangerous politics of bulldozers that have been started to destroy minorities especially Muslims under the guise of crime prevention in BJP ruled states. https://t.co/6Os0EnbA7A

— Arshad Madani (@ArshadMadani007) April 17, 2022

It follows a similar practice by the Israeli government to demolish the Palestinian family homes of suspected or convicted of 'terrorism', which has been decried as "collective punishment" by human rights groups.

The complaint named the central government and the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat - all of which are ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - in its petition.

The JUH's move comes after the Madhya Pradesh government demolished dozens of homes and shops that belonged to Muslims in Khargone village.

At the time, the state's home minister Narottam Mishra said "we will turn the houses from where the stones were pelted to a heap of rubble".

"The criminal manner in which the police and the administration have acted in support of the bullies in Khargone shows that enforcing the law is no longer their goal,” read the petition. “If the police and the administration had shown even a little loyalty to the constitution, the Muslims in Karauli, Rajasthan would not have been targeted and their houses and businesses in Khargone would not have been destroyed."

[English Caption]

A Hindu extremist preacher provoking his devotees, and asking them to bulldoze houses of Muslims in India. pic.twitter.com/NyQexfN9pb

— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) April 17, 2022

Amnesty International also urged the Indian government to halt its destruction of Muslim homes earlier this week. 

Dozens of Muslims were implicated by the right-wing BJP of participating in violence over the past week that was reportedly instigated by right-wing Hindu groups when bands of armed men gathered in Muslim areas across India, chanted threatening slogans and planted saffron flags - associated with Hinduism - atop of mosques.

The attacks on Muslims came amid right-wing rallies 'celebrating' the Hindu festival of Ram Navami, which commemorates the birth of Lord Ram, one of the chief Hindu deities.

Attacks against Muslims in India have ramped up recently as dozens of Islamophobic or communal incidents are being reported each month.