Tablighi Jamaat is a mess we all created

‘Coronavirus exposes the idiocy of Islamophobia’, writes Mehdi Hassan, an Aljazeera journalist based in Washington DC. This precisely captures what is happening in India and Nepal when it comes about Islamophobic approach of looking at COVID-19. The Indian media and government tirelessly blamed Muslims for the infection as if Tablighi Jamaat is the only reason behind this pandemic. Some folks here in Nepal as well tried to give a communal angle to the virus. Nevertheless, Muslims are greatly thankful to the Nepal government as it did not point fingers on them. However, it is sad that it did nothing to make those spewing hatred accountable.

Let me assert in the very beginning that I am not defending the Jamaat in any way whatsoever. I am just trying to deconstruct the convoluted case of Tablighi Jamaat and connect various dots that explain how we came here and point out the way ahead to avoid any collateral damage.