By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, June 10:
While over15 West Asian countries have sent official messages to India condemning suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s alleged derogatory remarks made over Prophet Mohammed, Geert Wilders, the Dutch lawmaker has supported her saying India should not have apologized over the matter.
After the al-Qaeda threat to Sharma, a far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders, has come out with a couple of tweets in support of Sharma. He said that “Appeasement never works. It’ll only make things worse. So my dear friends from India, don’t be intimidated by Islamic countries. Stand up for freedom and be proud and steadfast in defending your politician #Nupur Sharma@NupurSharmaBJP who spoke the truth about Muhammad.
“It is ridiculous that Arab and Islamic countries are angered by Indian politician #Nupur Sharma@NupurSharmaBJP for speaking the truth about #ProphetMuhammad who indeed married Aisha when she was six years old and consumed the marriage when she was nine. Why does India apologize?” he added.”My message to them is: go to hell. You have no morals. We stand for the truth. We stand for freedom,” he further said.
Whereas an Iranian External Affairs Minister Hussain Amir Abdollahian after Wednesday’s meeting in a tweet said “pleased to meet PM Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and other Indian officials to advance our bilateral strategic dialogue. Tehran & New Delhi agree on the need to respect divine religions & Islamic sanctities & to avoid divisive statements, determined to bring relations to new heights.
However back home, veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah exhorted the three Khans of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan for keeping quiet over the Prophet controversy. In a TV interview, the actor said that these big actors ‘had too much to lose’ and therefore couldn’t speak about the topic.
“I cannot speak for them. I am not in the position they are in. I feel they think they would be risking too much. But then, I don’t know how they explain it to their conscience about it”.
In the meanwhile the Bhiwandi (near Mumbai) city police have served a notice to Naveen Kumar Jindal, suspended media head of the Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP)’s Delhi unit, asking him to be present before the police station on June 15 in a case of hurting religious sentiments by making derogatory comments on Prophet Mohammed. An FIR has been registered on a complaint given by Maulana Mohamed Noori, 48, an Imam by profession and resident of Bhiwandi.
