Welcome to Mamata's Bengal: Islamist hate-preacher gets a free pass, BJP's rath yatra opposed tooth and nail

New Delhi: “Are you Hindu? Then what makes you celebrate the Bengali new year? I am a Muslim. I have a policy to demolish idol (of Hindu Gods and Godesses). I am here to put such celebrations (Hindu) to grave." 

Pure, unadulterated hate speech by a hardcore Islamist preacher from neighbouring Bangladesh. Now imagine, at a time when Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is hell bent to stop the BJP's rath yatra in the state, she and her administration seem to have no problem whatsoever with Sheikh Abdur Razzak Bin Yusuf vitiating the atmosphere in the state by spreading hate, communalism, and sexism of the worst kind.

The hate tour

From December 14 to 20, Yusuf, the rabid hate preacher, is slated to spit his communal vile, eight venues in seven days, some of which includes madrasas as well. On December 14, Yusuf will kick-start his Bengal tour from Bagnan in Howrah district and conclude at Barasat of North 24 Pargana on December 20.

Most of his venues are minority dominated, some of which have seen communal tensions as well. Out of eight venues, four of them are in Malda that has seen large-scale riots by the Muslim community in 2016. Kaliachak in Malda district witnessed arson and violence on January 3, 2016, when a part of a protest rally attended by thousands of Muslims turned violent. A police station was torched as well.

Sensitive areas

Not just that, Dhulagarh is also there on his tour itinerary. He will be lecturing there on December 19. There were reports of minor clashes between Hindus and Muslim in Dhulagarh, followed by a one-sided attack on Hindus with many of their houses being burnt down and many Hindus forced to flee, in 2016. Allowing Yusuf to preach publicly in Dhulagarh is a sure shot recipe for disaster.

Who is this Islamic preacher?

Now, one might ask: Who is Sheikh Abdur Razzak Bin Yusuf?  His Facebook page describes himself as, “Ever so much interested in teaching Hadith and the Quran to students and preaching Islam each possible way so as to guide people towards the right path of Heaven and thereby rescuing people going astray.” But in reality, his survival depends on dissemination of hate, often coupled with tweaked facts to suit his purpose. He has advertised his upcoming tour of Bengal on his Facebook page as well.

Now let us look at some snippets of his beliefs. In this video, he is seen to be expressing his disgust after knowing that he is giving a lecture in a place that is called Shivpur, hence an association with Hindu God Shiva. He says, "What is this place called? Shivpur? Oh, then your whole life is meaningless. Even your prayers are also fake". He is also heard shouting, “If I have come here, even Hindus should have been here. I would have done some favour for them, Inshallah!"

Bengal Police okay with him!

Speaking exclusively to MyNation, one of the organisers of the event, Munawar Hossain, for the Murshidabad leg of the tour claimed that they have requisite police permission for the event. “We have our event on December 18 in Murshidabad. We have submitted all documents a month before (to the administration). Yes, we have requisite permission”, said Hossain.

MyNation spoke to Trinamool Congress MP Idress Ali, the minority face of TMC in parliament, who fanned ignorance about the matter and played it down.

But what’s baffling is such a sexist hate preacher who believes that 'women should not use nail polish’, ‘men should use force to restrain bad behaviour on women’, to expressing disgust at the name of Shivpur for its association with a Hindu God, will have a free run in Bengal; while the Mamata Banerjee government is fighting tooth and nail in the Calcutta high court not to allow its rath yatra, that is purely political. Ironically, the Bengal government invoked a 15-page ‘intel report’ to object three rath yatras, which is claimed to suggest the rallies and rath yatras will spark off ‘communal violence’.

BJP's Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh speaking to MyNation trained his guns at Mamata Banerjee, “This is done deliberately with cold politics in mind. Why else would they object to a rath yatra but okay this hate monger from Bangladesh? This is to send a message to the Muslim community (that TMC is with them).”

Amid all this Bengal remains the tinderbox that it is. Probably more on the edge than before with thousands of BJP cadres losing patience, resulting in clashes with the TMC. A few days back, one such clash in Jalpaiguri in north Bengal resulted in a senior police officer being injured. And Sheikh Abdur Razzak Bin Yusuf’s presence will further worsen the thread of communal amity in Bengal, or whatever is left of it.