They are assertive, resolute and articulate. They are attracting admirers and getting noticed by their detractors. They are India's new Muslim youth leaders fighting injustice and inequality.
Since India's Hindu nationalist-dominated Parliament passed a law that grants citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan as long as they are not Muslim, there have been protests across the country demanding its repeal.
The movement against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was passed in December 2019, gathered momentum after protesting students faced a brutal police response.
Delhi police's beating of students at Jamia Millia Islamia, one of India's top universities, in the initial days of what became a national anti-CAA movement was the catalyst for the famous Shaheen Bagh protest in the city.
When Jamia protesters were assaulted, a group of women from the Muslim neighborhood of Shaheen Bagh came out of their homes, occupied a part of the main road and did not leave the site for 101 days.
The sit-in inspired similar protests not only in Delhi but in many states and energized the 200 million-strong Muslim community to demand an end to discriminatory state policies. Shaheen Bagh became a symbol of the anti-CAA movement. Activists and leaders belonging to different backgrounds and faiths considered it a matter of prestige to speak from its platform.
On some days, Shaheen Bagh received tens of thousands of people, including those who came out of curiosity to see how a group of women had organized such a large protest that went on around the clock.
It became a thorn in the government's side and was reviled by various Hindu nationalist groups and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/resistance-against-injustice-toward-muslims-grows-in-india
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