Thousands-Strong Riots in India After Ruling Party Spokeswoman Mentions Muhammad’s 6-Year-Old Wife

MUMBAI, INDIA JUNE 6: Muslim activists shout slogans in reaction to the remarks of suspend
Bhushan Koyande/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Gabrielle Reyes

Police in India’s northern city of Kanpur said on Monday they had arrested 38 people in connection with acts of rioting on Friday after local Muslims and Hindus pelted each other with stones, India Today reported.

The violence broke out in response to remarks made late last month by Nupur Sharma, a spokeswoman for India’s ruling, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which some Muslims deemed insulting to Islam’s prophet Muhammad.

“We have identified another 100 stone-pelters and rioters through CCTV footage and video clips,” Anand Prakash Tiwari, a police commissioner in Kanpur, told the Press Trust of India (PTI) on June 6.

Kanpur is located in India’s Uttar Pradesh state, which borders India’s national capital territory of Delhi. An Uttar Pradesh deputy police commissioner named Pramod Kumar told PTI on Monday his department had created 25 “hoardings,” or advertisement billboards, displaying “photographs of about 20 key accused, who allegedly took part in the June 3 violence.”

“[The billboards] will be put up at prominent places in and around the affected areas and neighbouring pockets [of Kanpur],” Kumar said.

The wanted posters were likewise available for viewing online on Monday and appeared to contain 40 distinct photographs of suspects at press time on June 6.

Violence between Muslims and Hindus in Kanpur began on Friday, June 3, after a group of Muslims called for the closure of several local businesses as a form of protest against comments made by now-former BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma on May 28.

India’s the Hindu newspaper detailed the incident on June 3, writing:

Police sources said the violence broke out on the Parade road, Nai Sadak, and Yateemkhana area of the city when the move to get the markets closed by a Muslim group was opposed by members of the other community.

When the police tried to intervene, those who were trying to get the markets closed indulged in stone-pelting, injuring a police inspector and a constable. The police had to resort to lathi-charge [baton charge] to restore order. Police said petrol bombs and gunshots were also fired.

Roughly 2,000 people were involved in the rioting, according to a June 4 report by NDTV.

Remarks Sharma, the BJP mouthpiece, made on May 28 during a live, televised debate with an Indian Muslim political leader allegedly sparked the mob violence in Kanpur on June 3.

“You are marrying a six-years-old girl and having sex with her when she turns nine,” Sharma said to her debate opponent at the time, referring to Islam’s Muhammad and his third wife, Ayesha.

Princeton University’s “Islam FYI: An Educational Resource on Islam for the Public” states the following about Ayesha’s age when she married a 53-year-old Muhammad:

The well-established, but not altogether agreed upon, tradition of Lady Ayesha’s age at the time of marrying Prophet Muhammad comes from a hadith [saying of Muhammad] in one of the most authentic collections – Sahih al-Bukhari in which Ayesha, herself, states: “The Messenger of God married me when I was six, and consummated the marriage with me when I was nine.”

BJP spokeswoman Sharma made the comments during a debate “on the Gyanvapi Mosque issue,” according to the Deccan Herald. The issue surrounds northern India’s Gyanvapi Mosque, which was built on the ruins of a 16th-century Hindu shrine called Vishwanath Temple.

“The temple was partially destroyed in 1669 on the orders of Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal [Muslim] emperor,” the BBC reported on May 18.

Continuing, the British broadcaster provided further context for the current controversy surrounding the Gyanvapi mosque:

A bunch of Hindu petitioners have gone to a local court asking for access to pray at a shrine behind the mosque and other places within the complex. A controversial court order which allowed video-recorded survey of the mosque is said to have revealed a stone shaft that is the symbol of the Hindu deity Shiva, a claim that has been disputed by the mosque authorities.

After this, a part of the mosque has been sealed by the court without giving the mosque authorities a chance to present their case. The dispute has now reached the Supreme Court, which said on Tuesday that the complex would be protected, and prayers will continue in the mosque.

India is majority Hindu, though the nation’s largest religious minority is comprised of Muslims.

“Hindus make up 79.8% of India’s population and Muslims account for 14.2%; Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains account for most of the remaining 6%,” Pew Research Center reported in September 2021.

India’s ruling BJP “suspended” Sharma on June 5 in response to the public backlash against her comments about Islam on May 28. Hindus and Muslims across India have increasingly engaged in mob violence against each other in recent months. Some critics of the nation’s ruling BJP, a Hindu nationalist party, have blamed the BJP’s leaders for allegedly instigating the discord through their rhetoric. Others blame Muslim extremists for reacting disproportionately to perceived insults to Islam by Hindus.

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