Antony Blinken expresses concern over rising demolitions, hate speech in India

Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed alarm about issues like the rise in home demolitions and hate speech in India, even as he highlighted examples of religious freedom violations worldwide.

“In India we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship for members of minority faith communities,” said Blinken as he released the State Department’s annual report on the status of international religious freedom on Wednesday, June 26.

Blinken had voiced his concerns about increasing attacks on individuals and places of worship in 2022, when he released the annual report on religious freedom. According to other US officials, "In India, some officials are ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship."

India retaliated that year, accusing the US of engaging in "vote bank politics" in foreign affairs. In addition, the Indian answer mentioned that it had frequently expressed "concern" over "racially and ethnically motivated attacks, hate crimes and gun violence" in the US, the Wire reported.

The US State Department compiles the annual report using information from its embassies across the globe. Although every nation is listed in the report, the US Secretary of State only brings up the worst-performing nations—or those with antagonistic political relations with Washington—during his opening remarks at the annual release events.

Prior to discussing India, Blinken discussed a number of issues during the release of the 2023 edition of the report. These included the attack by Hamas on Israel and the ensuing Gaza conflict, blasphemy laws in Pakistan that have led to vigilante violence and mob violence, antisemitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric in Hungary, and European countries with laws that effectively forbid some types of religious clothing in public spaces.

Blinken also brought up Iran and China, citing their similar persecution of religious minorities like the Baha'is and Muslim Uyghurs.

US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain echoed Blinken's worries in his additional remarks on India.

“Our report also documents cases where violence is occurring at the societal level, sometimes with impunity, and it also contributes to the repression of religious communities. In India, for example, Christian communities reported that local police aided mobs that disrupted worship services over accusations of conversion activities or stood by while mobs attacked them and then arrested the victims on conversion charges,” said Hussain.

The 2023 report on the state of religious freedom in India lists a number of incidents that happened in 2023, such as the ongoing incarceration of Umar Khalid and the suspected deaths of Mohammed Junaid and Muhammad Nasir by cow vigilantes.

“The Supreme Court took no action on the bail plea of Muslim student Umar Khalid, who was arrested and imprisoned following the riots, despite saying in September that the court would review his case. A New Delhi sessions court heard arguments concerning the bail applications of other accused protest organizers, but did not render verdicts,” says the report.

Attacks on the Christian community in India are detailed in the report; Blinken brought up this problem in his speech at the report's release.

“In December, the United Christian Forum (UCF) reported 731 attacks on Christians in the year, compared with 599 such incidents in 2022. The UCF data by state showed the most incidents in Uttar Pradesh (301) and Chhattisgarh (152),” says the 2023 report.

The report also addressed the imprisonment of members of minority communities for violating laws that ban forced conversions to another religion.

“Christians and Muslims were arrested under laws banning forced religious conversions, which religious groups said in some cases were used to harass and imprison members of religious minority groups on false and fabricated charges or for lawful religious practices. In some cases, Christian groups said local police aided mobs that disrupted worship services over accusations of conversion activities or stood by while mobs attacked Christians and then arrested the victims on conversion charges,” says the report.