We, the undersigned, are American academics, community leaders, and activists who condemn Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden’s decision to hire Amit Jani, an avid supporter of the Modi regime, as his Asian American and Pacific Islanders Outreach (AAPI) Director and Muslim Outreach Coordinator. We call upon the Biden campaign to terminate Amit Jani’s employment from the campaign.

Despite presenting himself as a liberal counterweight to this virulent wave of Islamophobia, Joe Biden’s appointment of Amit Jani as his AAPI Outreach Coordinator is horrific. It is unacceptable for the AAPI Outreach Coordinator of a Presidential candidate to have ties with Hindu fascists, for it jeopardizes his relationships with the entire AAPI community. The AAPI community has been weathering attacks on our religious freedom, immigration rights, xenophobia, and increased hate crimes. Biden should be hiring an AAPI Coordinator that can speak to all of our needs, not someone in bed with a violent Hindu nationalist movement.

Given the rising tide of Islamophobia and authoritarianism engendered by Trump and his allies, it is necessary to have a Democratic candidate who is unconditionally opposed to anti-Muslim racism and fascism at every time, in every place, and in every form. It is also vital to recognize that Trump represents but one of many far-right heads of state around the world, from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, to China’s Xi Jinping, to India’s Narendra Modi. To hire a supporter and friend of Narendra Modi opens the door to embracing anti-Muslim and Hindu nationalist politics. Progressive Asian Americans and South Asian Americans cannot stand by a candidate with relationships to fascists, here or abroad.

As Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and his political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have continued these attacks on Muslims and caste oppressed people. Modi’s BJP-led government revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which granted Indian-occupied Kashmir, a disputed territory that is majority-Muslim, special status and internal autonomy. Amit Jani organized an event celebrating the removal of Article 370, opening the door to Modi’s annexation and communications blackout of Kashmir. With the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, Modi’s fascist government is pushing forth a genocidal plan that will place India’s 200 million Muslim in detention camps, mirroring not only Trump’s call for a Muslim registry but also Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws, which targeted German Jews in what would lead up to the Holocaust. We vehemently oppose the Modi regime’s record of Islamophobia, neofascism, and perpetration of human rights violations.

Amit Jani has a long history of friendship with Prime Minister Modi, whose reign as Chief Minister of Gujarat saw the anti-Muslims pogroms in 2002. Jani’s late father, Suresh Jani, founded the organization Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP) in the United States, a sister organization of India’s Hindu nationalist party. The OFBJP is the international arm of the BJP in the United States, donating millions of dollars towards their operations in India and organizing supporters of the Modi government in the political, social and economic sphere.

In the midst of Modi’s decades of hate, Amit Jani, has heaped praise on him. On the night of Modi’s election, Jani was in India, and posted a photo of himself wearing a BJP shirt on Facebook with the caption: “Loved the energy and jubilation throughout the state on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in the Indian national elections! Proud of Deepti Jani [Amit Jani’s mother] for all the work you did during the campaign.”

In June of 2017, Amit Jani took a picture with Narendra Modi at a “community reception” in McLean, Virginia, right before the “Howdy Modi” rally in Houston, which featured Donald Trump and Narendra Modi, before a crowd of 50,000 supporters. The marriage of Hindu and white nationalist politics is yet another consequence of the global ambitions of Trump and Modi, and remind us that Americans can no longer avoid being ill-informed about the world. The world’s strongmen want to build a new global world order in which terror allows for unchecked profit for the few, at the repression of the many.

For Biden to confront this global tide of Islamophobia and authoritarianism is not just important for the safeguarding of the rights of Asians, Muslims and South Asians in America, but also important for safeguarding the rights of so many marginalized minority groups that are threatened by this rise of fascism and illiberal democracy.

For these reasons, we, signed below, call on the Biden campaign to terminate Amit Jani from his Presidential campaign. We demand a public statement from the Biden campaign that condemns Hindu nationalism and Islamophobia, that lays out lays out substantive policy actions they will take to confront both Hindu nationalism, Islamophobia, and white supremacy.

Such action is vital if the Biden campaign wants to send a message to South Asian, Asian American and Middle Eastern communities, and all in the United States and around the world who believe in a commitment to human rights and an end to this rising tide of global Islamophobia.

Signed,

Alliance for Justice and Accountability

Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA)

Ali A. Olomi, Assistant Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University Abington

Anwar Omeish, Director of Civil Society & Community, Libyan American Alliance

Amad Shaikh, Founder and Chairman Board of Directors, MuslimMatters, Inc.

API Chaya

Asian American Feminist Collective

Asian American Writers Workshop

Azaad Austin

Council on Minority Rights in India

Bay Area Against Hindu Fascism

CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities

Chicago South Asians for Justice

Coalition of Seattle Indian Americans

Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, Harvard University

Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM)

Desi Queer Diaspora

Equality Labs

Hamzah Raza, Muslim Chaplain at Boston College

Hammad Alam, Staff Attorney, Asian Law Caucus, National Security & Civil Rights

Heba Macksoud, Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, Board of Directors

Jamil Dakwar, Human Rights Lawyer & Adjunct Professor, Hunter College

Justice for Muslims Collective

Indian American Muslim Council

Jeremy Siegman, Lecturer on Social Studies, Harvard University

Javeria Jamil, Civil Rights Attorney

Khalafallah M Osman, Muslim Chaplain at Northeastern University

Mohammed Missouri, Executive Director of Jetpac

Muslim Democratic Club of New York

National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance

Sanaa Abrar, Advocacy Director, United We Dream

Sasha Ahuja, Interim Director, Girls for Gender Equity

South Asia Solidarity Initiative

Stand with Kashmir

Students Against Hindutva

Steven Salaita

Queens Against Hindu Fascism

Queer Crescent Healing