Muslim couple forced to sell house after protests by Hindu neighbours
A Muslim couple in India have been hounded out of their newly-purchased home by their Hindu neighbours who said they would not allow them to live there because of their religion.
Hindu residents of the posh TDI City – an upscale residential bloc in the northern city of Moradabad – began protesting on Tuesday night after news of the sale became public.
"We cannot tolerate a Muslim family living right in front of our local temple. This is also a question of the safety of our women," she said.
"We want the sale to be revoked and are asking the administration to cancel the registration of the house in the name of its new owners. We cannot allow people from another faith to come and live here. We will not allow them to enter and continue to protest as long as they don't go away," she added.
Many of the residents also visited the district magistrate's office to lodge a complaint. Outside, they shouted slogans against Dr Bajaj and the Muslim couple.
The protests have had their intended effect. On Friday, Dr Bajaj told the BBC that a resolution, mediated by the city's elected representative, had been reached and the new Muslim owners would re-sell the house to a Hindu family already living in the housing society.
Incidents of violence and discrimination against India's Muslim community have grown in the past decade under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Muslims in states like Gujarat and Maharashtra and even in the capital, Delhi, have often said they are unable to buy or rent homes in Hindu neighbourhoods. A few years ago, a Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi had made headlines for alleging he was refused a flat in Mumbai because of his Muslim faith.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp837p125ywo
A Muslim couple in India have been hounded out of their newly-purchased home by their Hindu neighbours who said they would not allow them to live there because of their religion.
Hindu residents of the posh TDI City – an upscale residential bloc in the northern city of Moradabad – began protesting on Tuesday night after news of the sale became public.
"We cannot tolerate a Muslim family living right in front of our local temple. This is also a question of the safety of our women," she said.
"We want the sale to be revoked and are asking the administration to cancel the registration of the house in the name of its new owners. We cannot allow people from another faith to come and live here. We will not allow them to enter and continue to protest as long as they don't go away," she added.
Many of the residents also visited the district magistrate's office to lodge a complaint. Outside, they shouted slogans against Dr Bajaj and the Muslim couple.
The protests have had their intended effect. On Friday, Dr Bajaj told the BBC that a resolution, mediated by the city's elected representative, had been reached and the new Muslim owners would re-sell the house to a Hindu family already living in the housing society.
Incidents of violence and discrimination against India's Muslim community have grown in the past decade under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Muslims in states like Gujarat and Maharashtra and even in the capital, Delhi, have often said they are unable to buy or rent homes in Hindu neighbourhoods. A few years ago, a Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi had made headlines for alleging he was refused a flat in Mumbai because of his Muslim faith.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp837p125ywo
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
