Recently, the Washington Post chose Rana Ayyub to write about India’s momentous elections in 2019, the largest in the history of the world. The article was filled with invective against the ruling party (BJP), was full of hatred against majority Hindus, and spoke only about the victimhood of Muslims. From the article, one would have got the impression that the only issue in the election, was what Muslims like Rana Ayyub thought. Rana Ayyub also insulted India’s democratic process, just because she didn’t agree ideologically with the expected winners.
The choice of Ayyub for framing the narrative about India’s elections spoke poorly about Washington Post’s editorial choices. It also showed that the Washington Post, for all its journalistic pretensions, continues to be narrowly informed about India.
For one, Rana Ayyub has dubious media credentials. Her original stint as a full-time journalist was with Tehelka magazine, whose main claim to fame was creating news stories through shady stings and undercover traps.
But there is a bigger reason why giving a platform to Rana Ayyub is troublesome. While Rana Ayyub presents herself as a journalist, she is in fact an Islamist masquerading as a journalist. If you read her articles closely, you will find that she talks of nothing other than the interests of Muslims.
You can check out this trait of hers in the infamous Washington Post article cited below:
You know India’s democracy is broken when millions wait for election results in fear
There were numerous issues debated during the Indian elections in 2019. The Government talked about ensuring that developmental schemes reached the grassroots, its success in delivering basic amenities like power and toilets to the vast majority, and having a strong national security policy. The opposition parties raised issues like unemployment, farmer’s distress, Rafale acquisition etc. At the constituency level, there were numerous other local issues, which were debated and discussed.
So there was a smorgasbord of issues that the Indian electorate mulled over, before punching the electoral button. And the voice of the electorate was emphatic, they brought back the BJP with a majority larger than the one it had received 5 years back.
But Rana Ayyub only focused on the likes and dislikes of Muslims, as if this was the only thing that mattered in the elections. She had absolutely nothing to say about the common Indian’s hopes, desires, aspirations or even concerns or anxieties. For her one-track mind, issues like infrastructure building, sanitation, financial inclusion, corruption et al. were of zero value.
Her exclusive obsession with the interest of Muslims, is a trait she shares with Islamists throughout the world. Their only concern is painting pictures of Muslim victimhood, and voicing discontent with secular democracies. (However, for some strange reason, Islamists will never talk about the atrocities inflicted on Uighur Muslims by China). Any other issue on the Earth, whether they are related to the Environment, gender justice or development, is not part of the Islamist’s mental domain. A person who wears green glasses, thinks that the entire world is only made of green.
The Islamist always thinks of the Muslim community, as a monolithic bloc. Notice how Rana Ayyub claims in her articles, that she is speaking for all 190 million Muslims in India. In recent times, Islamists and their all-weather allies, the Leftists, have been painting any isolated incident involving Muslims as victims, as an attack on the entire Muslim community. Similarly, Rana Ayyub also, conflates Danish with the entire Musilm community of India, saying that “Danish’s fear permeates life for all Muslims in India”. Islamists and Leftists should think carefully before spreading this message of fear. My concern is, what if other communities also decide to think conversely, that every attack by a Muslim, is an attack by the entire Muslim community!
In her article, Rana is intellectually dishonest, as she slyly blames Narendra Modi for the Akhlaq incident which happened in 2015, whereas the UP Chief Minister, at that time was Akhilesh Yadav, and was responsible for state law & order. Akhilesh is the head of a socialist party, which counts numerous Islamists amongst its members.
Along with victimization of the Muslims as the main theme,there is a parallel attempt by Islamists to demonize the ‘Other’ community. The ‘Other’ for the Islamist, is always the Hindu in India. Elsewhere the ‘Other’ could be Buddhist, Jew or Christian, Yazidi or Kalash. In the Islamist viewpoint, all the ills of the Muslims are only because of the “Other’ community. This demonization of the “Other’ serves another purpose of the Islamist, which is to whitewash and provide justification for Islamist violence.
Thus, we need to start recognizing Rana Ayyub for what she is, a radical Islamist. Only then, will her hate-filled invective start to make (some) sense.
