Govt Steps in to Arrest Damage to Friendship as Islamophobic Comments Irk Gulf Nations

New Delhi: India’s Ambassador to UAE Pavan Kapoor on Monday tweeted to say that "India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and rule of law. Indian nationals in UAE should always remember this".

This came at a time when a member of the royal family from Sharjah and a vocal human rights activist and author Princess Hend Al Qassimi has taken on those in the UAE making hateful and Islamophobic remarks. She warned an Indian national Saurabh Upadhyay of a fine or deportation for his hateful comments.

In a tweet, Upadhyay had called for death to "radical Islamic Tablighi terrorists and other radical Islamic sons of satan". Upadhyay, whose bio said he lives in Dubai, deleted his account after his hateful tweets came under the scanner.

Princess Qassimi invoked Mahatma Gandhi in subsequent tweets to spread a message of harmony. But she subsequently exposed two more cases. One was Rakesh B Kitturmath, who was fired from Emrill Services headquartered in Dubai for insulting Islam on social media as per newspaper reports. The other was Sohan Roy, founder-chairman and CEO of Sharjah-headquartered Aries Group who tendered an apology after being accused of using the coronavirus pandemic to fuel Islamophobia.

Meanwhile, the independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organisation of Islamic Nations (OIC) also commented on the issue, condemning the "unrelenting vicious Islamophobic campaign in India maligning Muslims for spread of COVID-19 as well as their negative profiling in media subjecting them to discrimination and violence with impunity".

The then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj last year had been invited as a guest of honour to deliver an address at the OIC plenary at the UAE's behest. In fact, the UAE had set aside the objections raised by Pakistan, a founding member of the OIC, to India's presence at the meet in Abu Dhabi and had gone ahead with hosting Swaraj. The Ministry of External Affairs has not reacted to the OIC's comment so far.