In a welcome move by the Uttar Pradesh state government in India, as a precautionary measure to combat Covid-19, the yearly carnival of the Hindu Ram Navami celebrations are being called off this year.

However, the government’s struggle with its second largest religious group seems to have no end. Many Muslims in India are not following any of the medical advisories that have been rolled out to save the world’s second largest population of Muslims, which calls India its home.

We have already reported how the CAA implemented by the Indian government has no bearing on Indian Muslims and is only a channel to provide persecuted minorities in neighboring Islamic countries swiftly with Indian citizenship. Muslims have gathered all over the South Asian country and are demonstrating against the law.

In view of the pandemic, theaters, shopping malls, educational institutions across India have been shut down, exams have been postponed, and organizations have facilitated work from home. But despite repeated government requests to discontinue the planned demonstrations and avoid large gatherings, the Muslims pay no heed. Early last week, the main organizer of the anti-CAA demonstrations, Tabreez Khan, tested positive for Covid-19. One can only speculate on how many Muslim protestors he may have encountered while helming the demonstration, to whom he may have passed on the virus.

Flouting all warnings, as the Muslims continue to cluster up in huge numbers, an aged burkha-clad woman who was participating in the demonstration rubbished the global threat. She claimed that there was no coronavirus as such. Corona, as per her, has come out of their Quran. Referring to the government bulletins, she said, “Maybe they (the government) fear corona, but it can’t do us any harm. More dangerous calamities will hit the world, but we will remain unscathed. Let them be scared. Our God will protect us.”

Another “protestor” can be heard asking, “Is it necessary that we will get coronavirus if we come to protests? It can happen in our homes, also. Are we not stepping out of homes? We are going out of houses, children are going to school, taking metro, going to market. Ten people sitting in Parliament and talking. Won’t they get infected?” She further finds a conspiracy theory in the deadly pandemic and suggests that the coronavirus is an invention of the Indian Home Minister Amit Shah or the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, designed to prevent the Muslims from protesting.

The blatant refusal to adhere to the central government’s strict notices finds encouragement in the hate-infused speeches of jihadist speakers who sound off at such Islamic protests. They regale huge masses of people with words such as, “They pray to Lakshmi (Hindu deity), they are afraid of coronavirus. We do not pray to Lakshmi, so we are not afraid.” They also assert that their Allah will protect them.

Such mass demonstrations are not limited to India’s heart, the city of Delhi, but have mushroomed in major hubs such as Kolkata and Chennai as well. It will not be an exaggeration if we conclude that the jihadists, fully cognizant of the dangers of large congregations, have now decided to use the coronavirus as a bioweapon, employing crowds to precipitate the spread of the deadly virus.

The Indian government left no stone unturned to assure the safety of all Indian citizens, including the Muslims, but the ingratitude exhibited by many of them, coupled with the disobedience, is revolting. After airlifting Muslim pilgrims from the contagion-infested Middle-East, the government set up preventive screening of all passengers arriving from overseas. What they get in return from many of the Muslims is vehemence, vandalism and more.

A group of 160 students arrived at the Srinagar airport from Bangladesh last Thursday. The stringent medical process installed at all airports required them to undergo a few tests and maintain social distancing. Shockingly, not only did these educated students refuse to cooperate with airport authorities and defied the quarantine process, following abrasive civil disobedience, they started a commotion and immediately took to violence against the airport authorities and medical staff. Srinagar airport was vandalized; glass window panes and other items in the arrival area were shattered. Parents of these students were sympathetic to the ideological warfare that the students had subscribed to and started a chaotic protest outside the airport.

Airport authorities reported the violence to local police, but the students didn’t concede. It was only with great force that the police could take these vandals into isolation, as prescribed by the government and health advisory.

While Hindu mandirs and Christian churches have gone on a pause, Muslims continue to assemble in increasing numbers to offer namaz in Delhi, Noida, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, thumbing their noses at the imposed Section 144, that constitutionally forbids citizens to gather in large numbers. Residents of Muslim societies in Pune of Maharashtra state blocked a Covid-19 survey, thwarting all the efforts to combat Covid-19. After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a mass curfew on Sunday, March 22, requesting citizens to stay indoors, the All-India Sufi Ulema Council asked Muslims to gather in mosques to perform repentance and seek forgiveness. The Council president, Hakim Sufi Syed Mohammad Khairuddin Quadri, appealed to his followers to attend special congregations managed by mosque committees, “instead of spending time engaging in absurd activities at home”.

In recent years, the western world, because of propaganda from liberal media outlets, have come to think of India as a country hostile towards its minority. However, only one who lives in this country would know that the Muslims are no hapless minority. They are the privileged second-largest religious group, with an advantageous “victim card”. The government has been spread very thin dealing with this group, which derives guidance from their fundamentalist maulvis and imams. To counter the resistance faced by a mass of hardliners, while keeping the majority safe, and to dodge international criticism for being anti-minority, only the Indian government knows what it has to put up with every day. Or perhaps the Israelis would know also.