If anti-Muslim campaign continues: Naseeruddin Shah warns of civil war in India

ISLAMABAD: One of India’s highly regarded actors, Naseeruddin Shah, has warned of a civil war in India if the anti-Muslim campaign by the Hindu extremists continues.

He said if attempts at Muslim genocide and ethnic cleansing did not stop immediately, India’s Muslims were going to fight back.

“If it comes to the crunch, we will fight back… If it comes to that, we will. We are defending our homes, our family, our children,” he said.

In an interview with a wire service in India, while speaking about members of the Dharam Sansad, who called for genocide and ethnic cleansing of Muslims 10 days ago in Haridwar, he said, “I wonder if they know what they are talking about? 200 million are going to fight back. “We belong here. We were born here and we will live here.”

He said it could lead to a civil war. The central question posed by the interviewer was “what does it feel like to be a Muslim in Narendra Modi’s India?”.

To this, he said, “Muslims are being marginalised and made redundant. They are in the process of being reduced to second class citizens and it’s happening in every field.”

Naseeruddin Shah said “a concerted attempt is being made to make Muslims insecure”. He said, “It’s an attempt to make us scared.” However, he added, “We should not be scared.”

An attempt is being made to spread a phobia among Muslims, but again, he added, “We must not admit this is frightening us.” Naseeruddin Shah said that “I don’t feel insecure because this is my home”. But he added, “I’m concerned what will become of my children”.

Speaking about the prime minister’s total silence after the bloodcurdling calls for genocide and ethnic cleansing, Naseeruddin Shah said “he doesn’t care” adding “at least you cannot accuse him of being a hypocrite”.