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USCIRF's alarming India report receives backing from IAMC
IAMC echoed USCIRF’s call for the U.S. Department of State to officially designate India a Country of Particular Concern.
IAMC is the largest US-based advocacy organization of Indian American Muslims. / IAMC
The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) praised the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for raising alarms over deteriorating religious freedoms in India.
In its newly-released India update report, USCIRF expressed grave concerns about the far-right Indian government's promotion of Hindu supremacy and ongoing violations of religious freedom.
USCIRF highlighted several troubling issues, including hate speech and disinformation spread by Indian politicians during the recent general elections, ongoing violent attacks against religious minorities, expropriation and demolition of Muslim places of worship, crackdowns on civil society, and transnational repression against Indians living abroad.
The report specifically pointed to policies and rhetoric introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) throughout 2024 that disproportionately targeted religious minorities.
"In addition to the enforcement of discriminatory state-level legislation and propagation of hateful rhetoric, the [BJP] government made a concerted effort to implement election promises that negatively and disproportionately impacted religious minorities and their ability to practice their faith," the report noted.
Key actions included the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and the introduction of a national code to replace religion-specific personal laws. These moves, the report stated, were often justified by government officials as necessary to protect India's "cultural [and] linguistic heritage," a term USCIRF characterized as a euphemism for advancing Hindu supremacy at the expense of minorities.
Additional discriminatory laws cited in the report include anti-conversion laws, cow slaughter laws, the Uniform Civil Code, the National Registry of Citizens, and the recently introduced Waqf Amendment Bill, which aims to erode the Muslim community's autonomy over its religious institutions.
This report follows USCIRF's recommendation earlier this year to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its severe violations of human rights and religious freedoms, marking the fifth consecutive year of such a recommendation. The CPC label is reserved for the world's worst violators of religious freedom.
"IAMC applauds USCIRF for releasing this critical update, which shines a light on just how severely religious freedom conditions in India are deteriorating under the Hindu supremacist government," said IAMC Executive Director Rasheed Ahmed.
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