“The pathology of Islamophobia is growing throughout the West. It takes its most lethal form in India where the Modi government is systematically dismantling Indian secular democracy and turning the country into a Hindu-ethnocracy where almost 250 million (Indian) Muslims are becoming a persecuted minority.” – Noam Chomsky, 4 February 2022
Fifty-four renowned intellectuals, musicians, scholars, and activists from 24 countries are scheduled to gather in a live YouTube public event which the organizers bill as “A Scream from Global Civil Society: India Genocide Warning!”
“What makes the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, and other genocides since – like in Darfur – so unspeakable, are not only the horrors of the genocides themselves; what makes them so unspeakable is that they were preventable.
Nobody can say that we did not know. We knew but we did not act. Just as with regard to the Rohingya and the Uyghurs, we know and are not acting. Silence in the face of evil is complicity with evil itself. ” – Irwin Cotler, former Minister of Justice, Attorney General of Canada, the International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and Emeritus Professor of Law, McGill University 4 Feb. 2022
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Event Timetable
A Scream from Global Civil Society: India Genocide Warning
“The pathology of Islamophobia is growing throughout the West. It takes its most lethal form in India where the Modi government is systematically dismantling Indian secular democracy and turning the country into a Hindu-ethnocracy where almost 250 million (Indian) Muslims are becoming a persecuted minority.” – Noam Chomsky, 4 February 2022
Fifty-four renowned intellectuals, musicians, scholars, and activists from 24 countries are scheduled to gather in a live YouTube public event which the organizers bill as “A Scream from Global Civil Society: India Genocide Warning!”
London: Friday (4 February), the Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia, a progressive network of regionwide engaged scholars and intellectuals, will be hosting a non-stop 5-hour YouTube LIVE where the participants will appeal to the conscience and better nature of hundreds of millions of Indians of all faiths and ethnicities.
India has recently made headline news with the escalation of anti-Muslim rhetoric and rallies calling for genocide. The organisers enjoy impunity from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This alarming state of affairs was encapsulated in the headlines of an investigative report (dated 10 January 2022) “As Hindu Extremists Repeatedly Call for Muslim Genocide, The Police Ignore An Obvious Conspiracy.”
Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation’s Article-14.com reported, “Hindu extremists have organised 12 events over 24 months in four states calling for genocide of Muslims, attacks on Christians and insurrection against the government. As more events are planned, we track how their events are unimpeded, main organisers are free and police see no conspiracy or incitement, in contrast to the quick arrests and action against dissidents, peace activists and journalists.”
In response to these developments, some of the world’s leading genocide scholars and renowned activists will join anti-racist activists and campaigners from Indian, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia.
Alongside a dozen Indian participants, are renowned international figures including Noam Chomsky; renowned composer, jazz musician and activist David Amram; former Justice Minister of Canada Irwin Cotler; conceptual artist and photographer Kevin Abosch; Bosnian human rights activist Demir Mahmutcehajic; past president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) Daniel Feierstein; founding President of the Genocide Watch Gregory Stanton (also past president of IAGS); Rafal Pankawski of Poland’s Never Again! Association; Dr Ewelina U. Ochab of Coalition for Genocide Response; Cambodian genocide scholars Meta Sovicheth and Pheng Pong-Rasy; and Malaysian human rights defender and columnist Hishamudin Rais.
Harsh Mander, Director of Centre for Equality Studies in New Delhi and founder of Karwan-e-Mohabbat (‘Caravan of Love’) says, “India is hurtling into a frighteningly dark place of hate, fear and violence for its minorities. It has badly lost its way from the inclusive and egalitarian country that was promised in its freedom struggle and constitution.”
He further cautions, “the present climate of hate for minorities is engineered by the ruling leadership, that normalises, legitimises and valorises hatred and bigotry. There are many warning signs that echo the 1930s in Germany. If we don’t learn from history, we will be complicit in an immense crime against humanity.”
Dr Maung Zarni, one of the organizers of this Friday’s event, and a well-known Burmese whistle-blower of Rohingya genocide, echoes Mr Mander’s warning against genocide in India when he said, “India is great not because such individual iconic figures as Tagore or Gandhi, but because its society is tolerant, inclusive and multi-civilizational.” He continues, “if hundreds of millions of good Indians stay silent and let the hate-mongers call, plan and press for mass-violence against Muslims and other non-Hindu communities, not only will India’s greatness diminish but its majoritarian Hindu society will sleep-walk into genocide.”
Musicians from Turkey, Syria, Malaysia, and Bangladesh will contribute to the event with their LIVE performances around the themes of peace and common humanity.
The event’s co-sponsors are Genocide Watch, Noor Culture Centre of Canada, Never Again! Association of Poland, Documentation Centre – Cambodia and International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London, UK.
Hashtags for the event are: #WeAreAllIndians & #IndiaGenocideWarning
The link for public viewing (no registration): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfB6hOaCGI1yXA2yPKDvpJQ
Contacts:
Maung Zarni @drzarni or
Harsh Mander @harsh_mander
Download: Media Advisory
