Modi Can’t Afford to Alienate the Middle East
But don’t count on foreign pressure to slow the growing marginalization of Muslims within India itself.
Modi has reveled in relations with Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries.
Photographer: T. Narayan/BloombergIndia’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is not accustomed to any serious pushback against its efforts to entrench Hindu nationalism within the Indian public square. For the past decade India has seen the BJP’s ideas advance practically without opposition, whether internal or external. The notion that the party might publicly disavow even the more extreme views expressed by its supporters has seemed unthinkable.
Yet that’s precisely what we saw earlier this week when the party quickly suspended and expelled two of its spokespersons for statements about the Prophet Mohammad that had gone viral online. The BJP put out an official statement to insist it “respects all religions” and is “strongly against any ideology which insults or demeans any sect or religion.”