Doha: Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia have condemned remarks on Prophet Muhammad made by two BJP leaders that were described as “Islamophobic”. The controversy erupted amid Vice President Venkaiah Naidu tour of Qatar in a bid to bolster trade.
Qatar and Kuwait have summoned India’s envoys and given them protest notes over the controversial remarks of two BJP leaders against Prophet Muhammad. India, seeking to defuse the row, said the remarks are the “views of fringe elements.”
News channel in Iran reported that Tehran called “insult against Prophet of Islam in an Indian TV show”. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), based in the Saudi city of Jeddah, also condemned the remarks.
The Congress trashed the BJP statement, saying it is “nothing but a blatantly counterfeit pretense, which is evidently farce and another sham attempt at damage control”. Taking to Twitter, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tagged a post which said that supermarkets in Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain removed Indian products after insulting remarks were made by ruling party leaders.
The controversy flared last week after remarks by BJP national spokesperson Nupur Sharma on a TV debate and the party’s Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal’s now-deleted tweets.
The comments were criticised by Muslim groups in India and triggered violence in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh on Friday, injuring around 40 people.
Outrage over the remarks has spread in the Arab world with a trending Twitter hashtag calling for a boycott of Indian products in some countries. A Qatari minister said, “Systematic hate speech against Islam in India… will be considered insult by 2 billion Muslims.”
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