Hijab-Clad Muslim Girl In India's Karnataka State Heckled By RSS Mob Hindutva 'Unveiled'

In the India’s state of Karnataka on Tuesday a hijab-clad student was jeered at and heckled by a Hindutva supporters mob while she shouted back “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) in retaliation.

A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mob tried to surround her and shouted at her while Muskan Khan parked her scooter in the parking of her college in Mandya. In the footage that soon went viral on social media, undaunted she continued walking towards her college building.

Muskan told NDTV that she has always worn the burqa and hijab since started studying in college. The principal has said noting, when she entered the class, outsiders started this.

The harassment incident of Muskan drew the attention of some Bollywood celebrities, intellectuals, media personalities, and politicians, who condemned the government of Modi for taking the country to that low.

A young student in a hijab chased by 'Jai Shree Ram' (Hail Lord Ram) slogan-shouting men in a new video from Karnataka. The Indian news anchor Rajdeep Sardesai said that it is shameful when we focus on their dress when we should be worried about the jobs for the young. This is what bigotry does with the nation, divides it on food, dress, and religion.

Indian filmmaker Pooja Bhatt said that it takes a pack of men as always to intimidate women. Such pathetic and frightened excuses for human beings. Their shawls are brandished as weapons and cloaking their weakness in cruelty. A rudderless generation of a sizeable section lost to hate.

It is almost a month since the campaign has begun by the students after they were barred from entering their classrooms wearing hijab in a state-run school of Karnataka’s Udupi district. The story got viral across the internet, and the students started protesting the school gates while reading their lessons.

Other schools, out of the fears of RSS supporters, also started enforcing the ban on the hijab, instead of pacifying the situation. To worsen the situation RSS supporters also simultaneously started shouting pro-Hindutva slogans.

The machinery of state seemed to be helpless before the RSS supporters. And instead, some of the ruling party members also made statements defending the ban on the hijab which encouraged the RSS group to further provoke the situation.

Violence was reported in several districts, as the controversy over students on campus wearing the hijab intensified, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced the closure of all colleges and schools for three days in the state, after failing to control the situation.

In the colleges of some areas, Hindu girls also appeared wearing saffron shawls to defend the ban and to protest against their hijab-wearing fellows.

BC Nagesh the education minister of state, also refused to lift the ban. Several meetings between the protesting students and government representatives have failed to resolve the issue.

Pakistani politicians also condemned the Muskan incident. Sheikh Rashid Interior Minister of Pakistan while a press conference on Wednesday in Islamabad said that India’s politics and treatment of Muslims have been exposed by one Muslim girl.

Malala Yousafzai Nobel laureate and activist has also condemned the Muskan incident and said that it is horrifying, refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs. She also called Indian authorities to stop the marginalization of Muslim women.