Obscure Sufi group vows to contest 'partisan' US report recommending sanctions on RSS and RAW
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Amidst an unprecedented escalation of assaults upon members of minority communities, particularly Muslims and Christians, in India by individuals often associated with fringe Hindutva factions, and a blistering United States report detailing such atrocities inflicted upon hapless minorities with recommendations for sanctions on organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a little-known Sufi group has denounced the findings as biased and vowed to challenge the missive at the United Nations.
The Mumbai-based Sufi Islamic Board (SIB) issued a stinging rebuttal to the 2026 annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), categorising the proposed diplomatic and economic penalties as a "sovereign interference" that threatens to destabilise the geopolitical equilibrium.
In a press communication released on March 15, the Board contended that the report’s proposal urging the US government to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Indian entities, including the RSS and the external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing, represented an unprecedented and potentially destabilising intervention in India’s internal matters, while also warning that such measures could erode the foundations of international cooperation in the fight against transnational extremism.
The organisation further alleged that the USCIRF’s conclusions were shaped by the influence of what it termed partisan North American diaspora groups, citing organisations such as Hindus for Human Rights as actors that had, according to the Board, promoted narratives designed to delegitimise India’s legal institutions and cultural frameworks within international forums.
Reiterating long-standing objections to the commission’s methodology, the SIB referred to a petition it had submitted in July 2024 criticising the USCIRF’s interpretation of laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act and the Citizenship Amendment Act, arguing that the commission relied on ideologically driven data while ignoring the complex realities of religious tensions in South Asia.
The statement specifically warned that such portrayals might be exploited by proscribed organisations, including the Popular Front of India, which has been banned by the Indian government, thereby complicating efforts aimed at maintaining communal stability and countering violent radicalisation.
Expressing particular alarm over the report’s suggestion that Washington consider designating India as a “Country of Particular Concern” while contemplating sanctions against RAW, the SIB argued that such a move would risk undermining global counter-terrorism coordination at a time when security agencies are confronting expanding networks linked to groups such as the Islamic State Khorasan Province and Al-Qaeda.
Reaffirming its intention to seek international recourse, the Board said it would challenge the USCIRF report before the United Nations, as it had attempted in 2024, while urging the United States administration and the wider international community to reject what it described as a politically motivated assessment disregarding India’s sovereignty.