Stoking a fresh controversy in Karnataka state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Secretary C.T. Ravi has deemed halal meat part of an “economic jihad” by the Muslim community.
Non-Muslims in India use the term “Halal” almost exclusively to refer to the slaughter and preparation of meat in accordance with Islamic practices. Most Muslims only buy meat from Muslim vendors or from shops which sell Halal meat.
Generally, butcher's shops run by Hindus or people from other faiths don't not sell Halal meat.
“Halal is an economic jihad. It has been put in place so that Muslims don’t do business with others, which has been forced upon them,” Ravi, the BJP legislator from Chikmagalur town, stated in Bengaluru city on Tuesday.
Ravi said it a day after Karnataka’s Hindu group — Janajagruthi Samithi, gave a call to Hindus to stop buying halal meat, as the animals butchered this way are offered to “Allah” and it would be offensive if Hindus did this to their gods.
The BJP politician argued that when Muslims refuse to buy meat from Hindu butchers because it is not halal, there should be nothing wrong with Hindus not purchasing the meat from Muslims.
Hijab Ban Row
The development comes as protests erupted across Karnataka in January over some students trying to attend classes wearing Hijabs in defiance of the law prohibiting them from doing so.
The Hindu students argued that if Muslim girls could wear Hijabs in classrooms, they could also attend classes wearing Hindu saffron shawls.
Hindu groups in the state have also called for an “economic boycott of Muslims".
Currently, BJP is the ruling party of Karnataka, and the Congress Party and Janata Dal- Secular (JD-S) are the main opposition parties.
Criticising the BJP, former state chief and JD-S leader H.D. Kumaraswamy denounced such trends and asked Hindu youths not to “spoil” the state.
“I want to ask the government where you want to lead this state,” he stated.
Meanwhile, 61 progressive thinkers from the state, including writer K. Maralusiddappa, Prof. S. G. Siddaramaiah, novelist Bolwar Mahamad Kunhi and renowned businessman Dr. Vijaya, have written to State Chief Basavaraj Bommai with an appeal to check religious hatred.
“It is shameless work to deliberately instil religious hatred in this land where the epistle is sung as a garden of racial peace,” the letter stated.