Mumbai: Nine days before India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dissociated itself from two of its national spokespersons on 5 June 2022, following protests by at least 17 nations over derogatory comments they made about Prophet Mohammed, Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of fact-checking website AltNews tweeted a video clip of a television debate during which the offensive comments were made.


In the clip of the Times Now debate of 27 May, one of the two now-suspended BJP spokespersons, Nupur Sharma, responded to a query on whether panelists could refer to a structure inside the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi as a fountain (Hindu petitioners are claiming it is a shivling, a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva) by asking a Muslim panelist if she should ridicule words from the Quran. She then went on to make a reference to the age of Aisha, the Prophet’s wife.


As Muslims expressed outrage on social media, right-wing Twitter handles turned their attention to Zubair, 39, a former telecom engineer who has been a fact-checker for five years. He had ridiculed Hindu deities too, they claimed (here and here), as they held him responsible for threats and abuses Sharma was receiving.



She told OpIndia—a website aligned with the government and called out previously for fake news—that she was receiving hate messages and threats at the behest of Zubair.


“... a hundred and fifty percent Mohammed Zubair is to be held responsible,” she said, during an interview in which she also claimed that former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had called her, and other senior BJP leaders were privately “rallying behind” her. Days later, as more nations protested, the BJP took a public position that her comments were “contrary to the party’s position”.


As Muslim countries criticised her comments, prompting one Indian embassy spokesperson to refer to the party spokespersons as “fringe elements”, Zubair continued to face a barrage of online accusations and threats (here, here, here, here, here).


Read more - https://article-14.com/post/a-fact-checker-faces-threats-criminal-cases-for-drawing-attention-to-hate-speech-by-hindu-extremists-62a2abc1e66e0