On Monday, 1 July, at least 1 lakh people from the Muslim community gathered at the historic martyrs’ memorial in Malegaon to call for a law against mob lynching.
The country is witnessing an increasing number of lynchings, either in the name of cows or ‘Jai Shri Ram’ sloganeering. The organisers called 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari’s lynching the final straw.
The community, in a letter, urged the president to write to all state governments and union territories about lynchings and remind the heads of their constitutional duties.
The gathering did not go unnoticed by Twitterati who said “not everything can be taken for granted.”
“Patience of Muslims is running out,” said one Twitter user.
Writer Zainab Sikander said she sees “a huge reformation coming in the Muslim community in India”.
“We need to come out in the open and address the Islamophobia that we live with,” she tweeted.
There were tweets asking Muslims to hold similar rallies in other cities/states.
“May this protest be a historic start,” said one Twitter user.
“Enough is enough,” said academic Ashok Swain.
Another Twitter user said, “mob lynching is a mobilised murder and is being spread according to a well-devised plan.”
The protest and demands of the community should be taken into serious consideration. It is high time the government formulated strict laws against lynching.
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