American standup comedian and writer of Egyptian origin Ramy Youssef has put the smile back on Muslim faces. The act that has done this is being described as ‘Big’ with a capital ‘B’. While scooping up his first Golden Globe award of the night the talented Youssef intoned, not without drama, “I would like to thank my God. Allahu Akbar. Thank You, God.”

The invocation to Allah has exploded into a tsunami of appreciation on Twitter. Muslims all over the world are thrilled that Ramy has redeemed God’s fair name. A friend here in India sent me an article by Aymann Ismail who has written in Slate that “Allahu Akbar” long thought to be as normal as exclaiming “thank God” has been “twisted” by many to make “Non-Muslims” regard it as an ominous “war-cry”. A portent for a suicide terror strike or some such embittered act of nihilistic rage. Ismail writes “Youssef sneaking in that phrase is political, easy to read as a deliberate protest…”

Indeed, even in India, Ramy’s bold ‘protest’ has struck a chord. Apparently, my friend says under the current Modi dispensation “Muslims are terrified of even saying ‘alhamudullilah’ when they sneeze in public because it invites stares.” But now after Ramy Youssef has put the salutation in context Muslims in India will feel doubly vindicated.

The sense of ‘otherness’ felt by Muslims is shared by large number of Hindus in India too. Last year Mamata Banerjee, Bengal Chief Minister made it a point to shame villagers who made the cardinal error of chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ as her cavalcade passed by. The feisty ‘pocket demagogue’ leapt out of her car and lashed out at their ‘villainy’. Presumably, Banerjee was deeply influenced by the collective wisdom of some self-styled Left-liberal intellectuals who have come to view Jai Shri Ram as a provocative “war cry”. The immediate provocation for this pronouncement were a few grisly videos that captured ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chanting mobs lynching Muslims. Of course, much before these bleeding hearts pronounced their verdict the salutation has been identified with the rise of muscular Hindutva.

Consequently, over the years many Indians have come to realize that greeting someone with the salutation ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is to run the risk of being branded a “RSS type”. In today’s context the term loosely conjures up a ’boorish Islamo-phobic brown shirt Modi Bhakt’. What will it take to wake up the secular ayatollahs of the privilegenstsia to the all-embracing innate goodness of ‘Jai Shri Ram’? Perhaps, an Amitabh Bachchan on the Oscar stage invoking ‘Jai Shri Ram.’