There are many Indian Muslims who profess to be liberal and secular, but whose mask of ‘liberalism’ and ‘secularism’ comes off if a deeper probe is conducted.
I may here mention only two of them, the journalists Arfa Khanum Sherwani and Saba Naqvi, who are often seen on TV and Youtube nowadays.
These two wax eloquent and shout from the treetops about the atrocities and oppression of Indian Muslims.
Now I too have always condemned such atrocities and oppression
https://archive.siasat.com/news/harassment-muslims-name-terrorism-katju-419062
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_EjbqiqQYz
But I am not selective. I condemn atrocities on Hindus too, and on all communities. For example, I condemned the atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s, many of whom were killed and the rest hounded out of the Kashmir valley, where their ancestors had lived for centuries.
But as far as I know, neither Arfa nor Saba have ever written anything anywhere, whether in the print media or the social media, or spoken on TV or Youtbe, condemning the atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits. What kind of selective ‘secularism’ is this ? Secularism cannot be a one way traffic, it has to be a two way traffic. So it seems that the ‘secularism’ of Arfa and Saba is skin deep.
https://www.hastakshepnews.com/2026/05/indian-muslims-and-secularism-justice.html
Recently in response to a tweet of Saba condemning the atrocities on Bengali Muslims after the BJP came to power in the state, I sent her this tweet :
” Saba, did you ever raise your voice condemning the atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits when they were being killed and hounded out of the Kashmir valley ? If so, post thelink.
Your father Saeed Naqvi told me a few days back that he had written against the atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits, but when I asked him to send me a link of his alleged writing, he did not respond.
Jab Kashmiri Panditon par bhayanak zulm ho raha tha, tab tumhaare, tumhaare walid ke, aur sabhi Hindustan ke Musalmaanon ke munh par kya taala laga hua tha ?
I condemn the atrocities and oppression of Indian Muslims. But secularism cannot be a one way traffic. It has to be a two way traffic ”.
Saba has as yet not responded to my tweet, and I doubt she ever will.
As far as I know, Arfa too has never written or spoken on TV or Youtube condemning the atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits.
So it seems that for these two ladies, atrocities on Muslims is a bad thing, but atrocities on Hindus is quite okay.
Apart from the above, one may also consider another aspect.
I have not only condemned atrocities on Muslims, I have also criticised Hindus for many of their practices, e.g. following the feudal caste system and treating dalits as inferiors.
But have Saba and Arfa ever criticised sharia, burqa and maulanas which are keeping Muslims backward ? If so, let them give, and post, the links.
https://indicanews.com/feudal-ideas-and-practices-must-be-suppressed
Have they ever supported the progressive and humanitarian Supreme Court verdict in Shahbano’s case ( which said that a Muslim husband must give maintenance to his divorced wife ), and did they condemn Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi who, for fear of losing his Muslim vote bank, got the verdict legislatively annulled ? I never heard of them doing so.
Did they condemn Mamata Banerjee who, in order to appease Bengali Muslims, announced in 2011 that every imaam in a mosque in West Bengal would get Rs 2500 per month, and every muezzin Rs 1500 per month ? I doubt it.
Arfa Khanum Sherwani and Saba Naqvi epitomize the true face of a large section of our ‘liberal’ Muslims, whose ‘secularism’ is selective, and therefore skin deep.
