- Title: "We are Indians" - say Muslims protesting against India's citizenship law
- Date: 23rd December 2019
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (DECEMBER 22, 2019) (ANI - NO USE INDIA) PROTESTERS SINGING HINDI PATRIOTIC SONG
- Embargoed: 6th January 2020 15:34
- Keywords: Afghanistan Bangladesh Citizenship Amendment Act Citizenship Law Hindu Muslims New Delhi Pakistan
- Location: NEW DELHI AND BENGALURU, KARNATAKA, INDIA
- City: NEW DELHI AND BENGALURU, KARNATAKA, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Civil Unrest
- Reuters ID: LVA002BB730HZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Waving India's national flags and carrying copies of India's constitution, Indian Muslims protesting against a citizenship law which they say is discriminatory, aim to show that they are every bit as 'Indian' as those who support the Hindu nationalist government.
The protesters wear Muslim caps and many of the women wear the hijab headscarves, but they also sing national songs, read out sections of the constitution and carry pictures of independence hero Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar, who led the drafting of the constitution.
Protesters say displays of patriotism help dispel the notion that protests are a Muslim issue. Tens of thousands of Hindus have also joined.
At least 21 people have died in the protests against the new citizenship law and a planned national register of citizens, which protesters say contravene the secular constitution and discriminate against Muslims. The law gives non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who fled to India before 2015 a pathway to citizenship. It does not apply to Muslims.
India's Muslims, who form about 14% of the Hindu-majority country's 1.3 billion people, say they are often called anti-national and Pakistani. Muslim Pakistan was carved out of British colonial India when the countries gained independence in their bloody 1947 partition and have since fought three wars.
Muslim protesters at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi said that police who stormed the campus on December 15 with tear gas and batons called them "Pakistani citizens" and "Islamic militants". Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself appeared to make a veiled allusion to Muslims resorting to violence during the protests.
(Production: Eileen Hsieh) - Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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