India

India is in the midst of a diplomatic nightmare over controversial comments made by a senior official from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about the Prophet Muhammad.

Nupur Sharma’s remarks, made in a TV debate about 10 days ago, have incensed Indian Muslims and outraged more than a dozen Islamic nations.

On Sunday, the BJP suspended Ms Sharma from the party. The head of the party’s Delhi media unit, Naveen Kumar Jindal, was also expelled for sharing a screenshot of her offensive comment in a tweet.

What she said is below it was in response to Hindu gods being mocked by mohammedan cultists.

Islamists issue death threats to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma: What she said and what the Islamic scriptures say

“Should I start mocking claims of flying horses or the flat-earth theory as mentioned in your Quran? You are marrying a 6-year-old girl and having sex with her when she turned 9. Who did it? Prophet Muhammad. Should I start saying all these things that are mentioned in your scriptures?” said Sharma, after being heckled by Taslim Ahmed Rehmani while talking about the longstanding practice of mocking Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

President Joe Biden has condemned the “poison” of white supremacy in the “body politic” of the United States after an 18-year-old white gunman killed 10 people on Saturday at a market in a predominantly Black neighbourhood of Buffalo in New York State.

A court in India has sentenced to death a record 38 people for a deadly terror attack in the Indian city of Ahmedabad in 2008, in which up to 20 bombs were set off across the city in hospitals, shopping centres and parks, leaving 56 dead.

It was the first time so many accused have received death sentences in a single case in the country. The sentence must be confirmed by a higher court. Judge AR Patel also sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment in the case.

… A previously unknown Islamist terror organisation, the Indian Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attack but Gujarat police said a nationwide network of radical Islamist groups were involved in the blasts. The Indian Mujahadeen is believed to be a faction of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), a group of young extremists who had declared jihad against India. Among those given death sentences on Friday was Safdar Nagori, the former Simi leader.

The Indian state of Karnataka has shut its schools for three days after the regional government backed schools imposing a ban on hijabs, leading to widespread protests and violence.

The issue began in January, when six female Muslim students staged a weeks-long protest after they were told to either remove their headscarves or stop attending class at a government college in the district of Udupi.

Last week, other colleges in the state began to enforce bans after some Hindu students, backed by rightwing Hindu groups, protested that if hijabs were allowed in classrooms, they should be allowed to wear saffron shawls. Saffron is the colour that has become commonly associated with Hindu nationalism.