New Delhi: In a concerning development, Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri has spoken on the ongoing hijab controversy in India referring to the Karnataka student Muskan Khan, who had raised slogans of 'Allahu Akbar' on February 8 after she was heckled by a right-wing mob who were shouting 'Jai Shri Ram'.
Zawahiri's video speech titled 'Hurat-ul-Hind' (The Noble Woman of India), which was released by Al Qaeda mouthpiece As-Sahab media on Tuesday, also clarifies that he is alive as against the assumptions made in 2020 that he had died of natural causes. In the video, Zawahiri begins his address with Muskan, her "defiance" and how her act "brought to the fore a true picture" of the conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims. "Her takbeer [saying Allahu akbar] had further bolstered the spirit of Jihad and had awakened the Muslims," Zawahiri can be heard saying in Arabic with English subtitles.
Throughout the 8-minute 44 seconds long video, Zawahiri speaks of Muskan and how her act 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.
Also read: They raised Jai Shriram slogans, I responded with Allah hu Akbar, says brave Muslim girl
He adds that he was inspired to write a poem on Muskan's actions. "Her takbeers inspired me to write a few lines of poetry inspite of the fact that I am not a poet. I hope that our honourable sister accepts this gift of words from me," he says. The poem begins with, "I shall not surrender, gallantly declared the Hijab. Learn from my faith, so chanted the Hijab..." He then goes on with further verses praising Muskan for more than a minute.
Zawahiri gives a message to the Muslims in the subcontinent asking them to "Stop being deceived by the mirage of democracy in India." Hindu democracy, he says "was never more than a took to oppress Islam." “Our Muslim Ummah in the Indian subcontinent, our battle today is a battle of awareness... 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 the Caucasus to Somalia, a united Ummah waging a concerted war across several fronts. We must gather around sincere scholars and fight our war ideologically. Intellectually… using the media… and with weapons on the battlefield against the enemies of Islam,” he adds.
BJP MP Rajeev Pratap Rudy, while speaking to the media, called Zawahiri's video "a matter of grave concern". "A terrorist speaking of an issue in India and trying to incite the people of India to spread terrorist activities in the country is a matter of concern. I am sure the government of India must have taken a note of it," he said. So for there has been no official comments from the government's end over the video.
Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, became the leader of Al Qaeda following the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan by U.S. Navy SEALs.
Also read: Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique gifts smartwatch, iPhone to Muskan
