By Shaik Ubaid
The Hindu supremacist movement, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has claimed that it will be playing an active part in the inter-national interfaith summit in Indonesia. The RSS spokesperson claims that the summit is being held to work against Islamic religious extremism.
Religious extremism is not unique to Islam but is present in all religions as the genocide and pogroms of Muslims by extremist Buddhists in Burma and Sri Lanka proves. What is unique to Islam is that its followers actively resist and combat the extremists within, as we see happening in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Pakistan. Muslim governments also use their armies against Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, Pakistani Taliban, etc. We do not see any similar resistance from the Hindu community in India or the Buddhist community in Burma to violently combat the RSS or Ma Bha Tha, respectively. The police forces in these countries actively help the extremists.
According to a news report, in a first-of-its-kind event, Indonesia, the largest Muslim-country in the world, will host a global summit of religious leaders modelled on the Group of G20.
It is called the ‘G20 Religion Forum’, or R20 for short. It will be a parallel event to the annual G20 summit that Indonesia will host this year and is being seen by scholars as an attempt to “quell the ideas of radical Islam and extremism and promote moderatism”. It is reportedly being organized by Nahdatul Ulema
For the Nahdatul Ulema to call for a religious summit at this moment in human history is not only a noble act but also a silver lining in the fast-gathering ominous clouds of xenophobia, fascism, religious ultranationalism and population displacement due to climate change.
But this silver lining itself is under a threat. It is alarming is that a well-known violent ultra nationalist and religious supremacist organization, the RSS, which was involved in the killing of the apostle of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, and which derives inspiration from the teachings of Hitler, has infiltrated the R20 summit.
The RSS is blamed for bombings and pogroms. It is accused of much bloodshed of Muslims, Christians, and other minorities by all human rights organisations such as the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and every other human rights organization.
It seems that some Arab Muslim governments have joined hands with the Indian government of the ultranationalist BJP to use the G20 summit to target democratic Islamic movements with mass appeal. BJP is cooperating because this will give legitimacy to the RSS.
This is not only hypocritical but will be extremely dangerous for the Arab masses and 200 million Indian Muslims.
The R20 submit is a golden opportunity to denounce every religious supremacist group including ISIS, Al Qaeda, RSS, KKK, Ma Bha Tha (based in Burma), Kach (based in Israel) and all such groups which are fascist and do not believe in the democratic process.
Any association of the R20 summit with a group such as the RSS, however remote, will not only be extremely absurd, paradoxical and hypocritical but will make the R20th summit lose all his credibility and become a laughingstock for all times to come. Afterall, the RSS is considered by many human rights experts to be equivalent to ISIS. It must therefore be banned, not allow to hold an interfaith peace summit.
To prevent this eventuality from coming to pass, we at The Alliance to Protect America from Infiltration by Religious Extremists – ASPAIRE have appealed for an American Muslim emergency summit. The Coalition of Americans for Pluralism in India – CAPI, North American Indian Muslim Association NAIMA and Justice for All (JFA), are cosponsoring this invitation to the leaders of USCMO – which is the national Muslim alliance in the US, the regional Shuras/ alliances, as well as national organizations for a meeting, to chalk out a strategy to combat this attempt by the RSS to become accepted as a peace-promoting group
The aim is to have a unified religious position against the RSS, free of state interference to protect the RSS, which will not be possible for Saudi Arabia, India and possibly Indonesia. The Muslims in America are free to take such a stand and rally their colleagues from other faiths. They must also seek help from Turkiye which is a G20 member and will be the most amenable to this position among all the Muslim states of the G 20 group
If we fail, not only will Islam be demonized as the only religion where extremism is flourishing but a violently Islamophobic Hindu supremacist organisation such as the RSS will be allowed to dictate policy about reforming Islam and promoted as a peace-loving international movement .
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Shaik Ubaid, the founding president of ASPAIRE, is a practicing neurologist. He is a veteran human rights activist and a strategic thinker. His tweets @ShaikUbaid
RSS always tries to hide its true face showing others ..
Stop RSS/VHP/BJP terrorists organizations now before its too late !!!
Can imagine the extra-flex sneaky behavior and then stabbing from behind as soon as such cowards get the opportunity….
stop