That the U.S. has put India on “watch list” for failing to protect the rights of religious minorities – reminds us of the adage of the pot calling the kettle black. Aren’t the spiteful phrases like ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘Islamic terror’ coined by the Bush regime intended to malign the image of a religion? How could the U.S. absolve itself of the acts of state terrorism perpetrated by it – the carpet bombing on civilian areas in Afghanistan and Iraq, the torture cells of Abu Ghraib, wrongful detentions in Guantanamo Bay, the interventions in the affairs of other countries in the name of export of democracy? Funnily, while the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has included countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Egypt and Turkey in the “watch list”, the exclusion of Israel, notorious for its religious intolerance and human rights abuse, smacks of double standards.
Syed Sultan Mohiddin
Kadapa, A.P.