Muslims in India 'Targeted With Suspicion'

Residents of Thriving Bombay District Describe Rising Tension in Wake of Train Bombings

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Muslims in India "Targeted with Suspicion"
Residents of thriving Bombay district describe a rising tension in the wake of the train bombings.

BOMBAY -- At first glance, the Nayanagar district of Bombay could be a showcase for the rising prospects of India's long-struggling Muslim minority. It features wide, clean streets, brightly painted high-rise apartments and a populace that includes doctors, engineers and real estate agents.

But in the wake of the devastating July 11 train bombings in Bombay, in which more than 200 people were killed, residents here say they feel fingers of suspicion and hate pointing at all Muslims, not just jobless slum youths and bearded students from Islamic radical groups.

"We are law-abiding citizens, but the whole community is being targeted with suspicion now," said Azimuddin, 40, a physician who with dozens of neighbors rushed to help victims of one bombed train that had just pulled out of Nayanagar station. "Every one of us is a question mark."

Tensions have intensified in the past week, with warnings of further terrorist attacks in Bombay and New Delhi during India's Independence Day celebrations Tuesday. The U.S. Embassy has warned all American citizens in India to remain off the streets during the next week.

On top of that, the alleged bomb plot thwarted in Britain has added to the jittery sense of vulnerability across India, with all airports and military facilities on high alert. With most of the suspects in that case of Pakistani descent, the Times of India newspaper Saturday portrayed India as "truly in the arc of terror."

The cumulative impact on Muslim communities such as Nayanagar's is palpable. In a dozen conversations, residents barely contained their anger and bitterness as they traced a history of growing discrimination, ostracism and violence, punctuated by Bombay's Hindu-Muslim riots of 1993 and a worse rampage of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat state in 2002.

"Of course I'm angry. I'm 52 years old, and I grew up in a Bombay of friendship and compassion. That's gone now," said Abdul Majid, who owns a small construction company. "We are all against terrorism, but how are terrorists born? If you torture people and deny them jobs and education long enough, you create terrorists."

Government officials have noted with relief that Bombay's heterogeneous population pulled together quickly to restore normality to the huge, fast-paced seaside city that is home to both India's financial center and its powerhouse Bollywood entertainment industry.

But police investigations have led to the arrests of 13 Muslim men, including a Bombay physician and a software technician, all with alleged links to a banned Islamic students group and some with suspected ties to the Pakistan-based radical organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. There have been late-night raids in a dozen Muslim communities in Bombay and unusual security checks of Muslims traveling abroad, including several irate members of the pampered Bollywood set.

"This Islamophobia is being imported from the West and filtering like a poison into India's bloodstream," said Mahesh Bhatt, a Bollywood producer who complained that when his film crew flew to Dubai for a shoot last week, the sole Muslim, a choreographer, was singled out by police for questioning about his passport and travel.

Police officials here declined several requests for interviews, but in public statements and letters to newspapers last week, they insisted that Muslims in general are not being targeted because of the bombings. They also denied Indian press reports that the government had ordered special scrutiny of Muslims who travel abroad, including white-collar employees of multinational companies.

Some human rights activists in Bombay said the behavior of the police had been largely professional and not abusive after the bombings, despite the fact that they are under enormous pressure to solve the crimes and that most evidence so far has pointed to militant Muslims. Officials have met with Muslim community groups, called mohalla committees, seeking cooperation and promising restraint.