Last two weeks have been quite eventful for India. The Prophet row became a serious challenge for India’s diplomatic dispensation even as the country became a target of Twitter storms that called for “boycotting Indians” and “Indian products”. To a layman, they seem like organic attacks due to genuine anger but, amidst the entire episode, a serious point that all of us seemed to have missed is that these attacks were actually orchestrated by certain vested interests.
Many have reported that the attack that originated from Arab countries was actually driven by Pakistan’s deep state and International Organisation for the Support of Prophet of Islam (IOSPI), propaganda arm of Muslim Brotherhood (MB). A report by Digital Forensics and Research and Analytics Centre found that as many as 7,000 Pakistani social media handles used fake news to attack India. Along with this, the Twitter storm originated from an IOSPI-run handle @SupportProphetM.
Muslim Brotherhood is not new to the digital world. It realised the potential of the digital medium in 2011 itself, and used hashtags, social media and online forums during the Arab Spring, which catapulted it to power, briefly, in Egypt. But the propaganda machinery that it has mastered since then has stayed functional. While the Muslim Brotherhood has been declared as a terrorist organisation by many countries including Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and UAE, it has found Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan as its key backers.
India has lately become a consistent target of MB’s propaganda activities. Last September, it targeted India through another Twitter storm with a ‘Boycott India’ hashtag. Top Muslim Brotherhood leaders such as Mohamed al-Sagheer and Sami Kamal al-Din also tweeted with the same hashtag. The Twitter storm was massively supported by media organisations based in Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan including Al Jazeera, TRT World, Rassd News. They also use fake accounts of politicians and journalists every time that they attack India on Twitter.
India has always been on the target of Pakistani deep state but now even Qatar and Turkey have also joined forces to attack India. The emerging Qatar-Pakistan-Turkey-Malaysia axis is vying for influence in the Islamic world. Qatar particularly wants to be its leader and it has a strategic goal to dominate Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). For many years, MB has successfully milked the Palestine cause to gain traction and influence in the Islamic world. For them, Palestine is not just a cause but also a conflict industry where they seek donations running in billions of dollars to fight for the cause of “oppressed Muslims”.
But every business needs diversification for growth so they have also horizontally expanded to include Kashmir as their latest conflict project. MB works on the ‘BDS model’, which refers to Boycott, Divest and Sanction. In India, it has successfully trended multiple boycott calls by now. The narrative building model that Israel once faced is now being applied to India as well with Islamophobia, Genocide and Fascism being the keywords. They are all part of multiple toolkits that are launched time and again to attack India through digital and social media. They often post fake news that trends on Twitter. The boycott campaign is, however, much older with origins in 2018. Like any other business, these forces also believe in mergers and acquisitions.
Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami has now merged interests with MB to internationalise its conflict industry. Earlier, Jamaat-e-Islami was responsible for South Asia operations and MB took care of the US and Europe, but now the MB is more directly participating in the Indian subcontinent.
The Indian government must be cautious as the activities of these outfits are not limited to the online domain. They are smart in their operations as they use the plank of Islamic Solidarity to rally support for anti-India activities in the Islamic world and use the ploy of human rights to target western audience and bombard them with anti-India narrative.
In December 2021, they organised a conference on the Kashmir issue titled “Russell Tribunal on Kashmir” on the lines of famous “Russell Tribunal” created in 1966 to try International War Crimes committed during the Vietnam war. This event was organised in Bosnia and backed by many West-based organisations along with Al Jazeera’s Balkan chapter. One of the backers of this event, Kashmir Civitas, who also organised a Kashmir unity conference in London in 2020. These events, sometimes organised in Turkey and in Western capitals, were often attended by top Pakistani diplomats.
The motive of these conferences and hashtag attacks is to shift the Arab world’s allegiance from India. They are targeting Saudi Arabia and the UAE to boycott, divest and sanction India by highlighting Kashmir as an issue that requires Islamic solidarity.
The most sinister aspect of the Qatar-Turkey-Pakistan’s nexus in targeting India is its ability to drive ground action. According to a recent investigation by Usanas Foundation, Qatar-based charities are funding Islamist organisations in India that are associated with Salafi school of Islam. The Enforcement Directorate has also been tracing the money trails of the Popular Front of India, a radical Islamist organisation, to Gulf states including Qatar. PFI’s name has repeatedly emerged in the violence across Indian cities including the recent Kanpur riots. Some members of the Indian National Congress have even asked for banning the PFI and pointed out its role in the Hijab controversy in Karnataka.
It is beyond doubt that India is currently the top target of information warfare by the terrorist organisations. But is India doing enough to counter this? Many verified social media handles that are on the payrolls of these organisations have been spreading fake news against India to disturb communal harmony. But despite repeated calls for action, these handles are still up and alive.
The author is a PhD in International Relations from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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