India Muslims Attacked for Selling Meat

OnIslam & News Agencies

Sunday, 17 August 2014 00:00

Several Muslim families were forced to flee the village following the attacks.

CAIRO – A Hindu mob has attacked Muslim shop owners in Gurgaon village in the north Indian state of Haryana and ransacked their stores after accusing them of selling beef meat, forcing dozens of Muslim families to flee the Hindu-majority village.

“When I tried to reason with them and showed them the receipts to prove it was buffalo meat and not beef, they started raining blows on us," Mohammad Israr, 25, a Muslim who runs a meat shop in Gurgaon village, told The Hindu.

"They punched me in the chest, abdomen and head. Aftab (his 40-year-old friend) was also hit on the head and sustained injuries,” Israr recalled from his bed at the Civil Hospital.

Clashes started last Thursday, August 14, when dozens of Hindus attacked a meat shop run by two Muslims, using sticks, after accusing them of selling beef.

They also submerged the meat with acid. “The meat was worth over Rs.10,000,” lamented Israr.

Earlier this month, several Muslim families were forced to flee the village to their original neighborhood in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh after they were being beaten up and their shops were ransacked by Hindus.

According to eyewitnesses, traffic police didn’t intervene to end the attack and help Muslims.

However, samples of meat were sent to the lab for examinations to verify whether it is beef or not.

Hindus believe that the cow is sacred, and many Hindus worship the cow.

According the Israr, this was the first communal attack that he faced during his seven-year-career in the village.

The concept of halal, -- meaning permissible in Arabic -- has traditionally been applied to food.

Muslims should only eat meat from livestock slaughtered by a sharp knife from their necks, and the name of Allah, the Arabic word for God, must be mentioned.

Islam provides details about avoiding any unnecessary pain.

Muslims in India constitute 14 percent population of the country.

Many Muslims fear that the new leader, Narendra Modi, could end several schemes meant for minority community launched by the Congress government.