Zawahiri raises hijab row, hails Karnataka student

Distancing himself from Zawahiri’s comments, Muskan’s father, Mohammed Hussain, said it was “wrong” to take his daughter’s name. “I don’t even know who he is… it is wrong to take my daughter’s name. I am happy in my country. We do not need them to speak about our country’s issue. They are just spoiling our peace,” he said. He said Muskan was also disturbed about the video. “She is worried about her education and these things really cause trauma,” he said.

Zawahiri’s video starts with a clip of Muskan taking on the mob, followed by his address in which he only talks about the hijab issue. Zawahiri says her “defiant slogan of takbeer” as she challenged “a mob of Hindu polytheists” had “emboldened the spirit of jihad” and reawakened the Muslim community. He says she even inspired him to write a poem, which he recites at the end of the video.

“She has unveiled the reality and unmasked the nature of the conflict between the chaste and pure Muslim ummah and the degenerate and depraved polytheist and atheist enemies it confronts. May Allah reward her greatly for imparting a practical lesson to Muslim sisters plagued by an inferiority complex vis-a-vis the decadent western world. May Allah reward her for exposing the reality of Hindu India and the deception of its pagan democracy,” Zawahiri says in the Arabic video clip with English subtitles.

“Her takbeer inspired me to write a few lines of poetry, in spite of the fact that I am not a poet. I hope that our honourable sister accepts this gift of words from me,” he says. Praising the “free media” for circulating Muskan’s video, he says: “I call upon them to lay bare the injustice that is taking place, confront this oppression and spread the facts concerning the situation on the ground.”

“We must stop being deceived by the mirage of Hindu democracy of India, which, to begin with, was never more than a tool to oppress Islam. We must realise that in this real world, there is no such thing as ‘human rights’ or ‘respect for the Constitution’ or law, or other such nonsensical conjectural ideas,” he says.

Zawahiri says it was the same deception that the West had employed against Muslims, “the true nature of which was exposed by France, Holland and Switzerland when they banned the hijab while allowing public nudity”. “The enemies of Islam are one and the same, those fighting the hijab of Muslims in Egypt and Maghreb are the same opportunist thugs, writers, journalists, even hired turbans who vilify the hijab and the Islamic Shariah. It’s a war on Islam, its core doctrines, its laws, ethics and etiquette,” he says.

“Our Muslim ummah in the Indian subcontinent, our battle today is a battle of awareness, a battle of discerning illusion from reality. We must understand that the way out is by holding on to our Shariah, uniting as a single ummah, from China to Islamic Maghreb, and from Caucasus to Somalia, a united ummah waging a concerted war across several fronts. We must gather around the sincere scholars and fight our war ideologically, intellectually, using the media, and with weapons on the battlefield against the enemies of Islam,” he says.

He says the first step is to raise awareness. “We must realise that the governments imposed on us, specifically in Pakistan and Bangladesh, do not defend us; rather, they defend the very enemies that have empowered them to fight against us,” he says.

Zawahiri’s reference to a current issue confirms that he is alive, contrary to suggestions that he may have died of natural causes in 2020. While the al Qaeda has released several videos even after unconfirmed reports of his death, he only spoke about past conflicts and ideological issues in these, raising doubts on whether the videos were current.

The video has raised concern in the Indian security establishment. “While media outlets affiliated to these groups keep talking about Indian issues, Zawahiri devoting so much time on a single issue is a development that cannot be ignored. It shows al Qaeda views India as a serious ground for recruitment and may channelise its resources with greater vigour for the same. A message of this kind from Zawahiri is likely to energise cadres and inspire those harbouring perception of persecution,” said a senior security establishment official.

Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra alleged that the video proved the involvement of “unseen hands” behind the hijab row. “We have been saying this from the beginning, and the high court too had suggested the possibility of some unseen hands behind the hijab row…now it is proved, because al Qaeda people are now releasing videos,” he said.

The hijab row has figured in the mouthpieces of some terror groups. Last month, the Islamic State-associated magazine, Voice of Hind, carried a cover story on the issue. Earlier, AQIS also covered the issue in its magazine, Nawa-e-Ghazwa-e-Hind.

In his earlier videos, Zawahiri has largely focused on Islam’s war against western powers, with India only finding passing mention. While he has mentioned Kashmir in the past too, he has never spoken about it in detail. His last India-centric video was in 2014, when he announced the formation of the “Base of Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent”, and said it was a message that al Qaeda had not forgotten its Muslim brothers in India. He said jihadists would break the borders of British India and asked for Muslims in the subcontinent to unite.