Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Aruna Miller takes oath on Bhagwad Gita, IAMC attacks for "promoting Hindutva"

Case ID : 242dfc7 | Location : Maryland City, Maryland, United States | Date of Incident : Tue, 17 January, 2023

Case ID : 242dfc7

Maryland City, Maryland, United States

17 January, 2023

Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Aruna Miller takes oath on Bhagwad Gita, IAMC attacks for "promoting Hindutva"

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

Aruna Miller, a 58-year-old woman created history by becoming the first Indian-American to be elected as the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. She chose to take her oath to the office on a copy of the Bhagwad Gita. The radical Islamist organisation Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) took to Twitter to attack her by saying "Protestors are demanding that Lt. Gov. Miller apologize for her ties to Hindutva and donate the Hindutva money received during the campaign to charities.”

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the category- Hate speech against Hindus. Under this, based on case details, it has been placed under the sub-category of- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. In the given case, Aruna Miller, a Hindu, was taking an oath to office swearing on the religious text that she has faith in - the Bhagwat Gita. Islamist organisations pegged her move as "Hindutva". Islamists, who harbour religious hatred towards Hindus and their faith often use the term Hindutva as a euphemism to target Hindus and their faith alleging that anyone who they disagree with is a "radical" Hindu. In this case, the opposition was mounted by IAMC, which tried to equate important Hindu belief with extremism when it is actually a harmless expression of Hindu identity. The IAMC is a Jamat-e-Islami-backed lobbyist organisation claiming to be a rights advocacy group. In the past, it had reportedly collaborated with and had even paid money to various groups in the USA to get India blacklisted by the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom). A detailed report by Disinfo Lab has exposed its links with the terror outfit Jamat-e-Islami. IAMC founder Shaik Ubaid and member Abdul Malik Mujahid have headed the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the US front for Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan. According to DisInfo Lab, ICNA has established links with Pakistan-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Rasheed Ahmed, who heads the IAMC was the former executive director of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). IMANA’s Director of Operations is Zahid Mahmood an ex-Pak Navy official. With IAMC's links to Islamic terror outfits, the religiously motivated hate that led them to attack Aruna Miller merely exercising her religious right makes the assertions of IAMC hate speech specifically targeting and dehumanising Hindus.