Oslo White supremacist terrorist and Hitler’s Hindus

What is the connection between Hitler’s Hindus and white supremacists? They both admire each other for their anti-Islam rhetoric. They both believe that violence is the way to eliminate Islam.

Anders Behring Breivik also known by his pseudonym Andrew Berwick, is a Norwegian terrorist who committed the 2011 Norway attacks. On 22 July 2011, he killed eight people by detonating a bomb in Oslo, then shot dead 69 participants of a summer youth camp on the island of Utøya.  In July 2012, he was convicted of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion and terrorism.  

At the age of 20, Breivik joined the anti-immigration/right-wing Progressive Party, and chaired the local Vest Oslo branch of the party's youth organization during 2002. He left the Progress Party in 2006 and went on to join a gun club while also founding a company which he used to finance his planned terrorist attacks.

On the day of the attacks, Breivik electronically distributed a compendium of texts entitled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, describing his militant ideology. In them, he stated his opposition to  Islam and called for the deportation of all Muslims From Europe.  He wrote the purpose of his terrorist attack was to publicize the manifesto. 

Since his imprisonment, Breivik has identified himself as a fascist and a Nazi who practices Odinism and supports ethno-nationalists.  Odinism is a form of polytheism. Breivik was an admirer of Hindu nationalist groups such as the RSS and the BJP. He wrote the manifesto at a time Congress government was in power. The following are the excerpts from his manifesto that adores RSS militancy and its anti-Muslim strategy.

“The state of the Indian/Hindu resistance - Indian nationalists Saffronisation is a political neologism (after the saffron robes of the Hindu clerics), used to refer to the policy of right-wing Hindu nationalism (or Hindutva) which seeks to make the Indian state into a "Hindu nation" and its Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain minorities incorporated into Hinduism. These nationalist movements are also called Sanatana Dharma movements. A related term, the Saffron Brigade, is used as a descriptor of people and organizations in India that promote Hindu nationalism such as the Sangh Parivar by their critics, who allege a militant Hindu agenda. The Sanatana Dharma movements or Hindu nationalists, in general, are suffering from the same persecution by the Indian cultural Marxists as their European cousins. An example of typical Hindu nationalist ridicule: "Ullal by-polls results are out and the Congress has retained its ‘forte,’ thus upsetting BJP and JD(S) calculations. The message is clear - the BJP has failed to gain the confidence of minorities. “Come what may. We do not want the saffron brigade or any other party which is supporting the saffron brigade to come to power in Ullal” - is the answer given by the electorate of Ullal." The thing is, The Indian government (current government United Progressive Alliance coalition led by Indian National Congress) is a Socialist-Leftist Liberalists. The other side is National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a political arm of the RSS: these people are of Hindu right-wing nationalism comprising of Hindu parties (including Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain sub-sects), strongly supported by Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities. The UPA (the incumbent government) relies on appeasing Muslims and very sadly proselytizing Christian missionaries who illegally convert low caste Hindus with lies and fear alongside Communists who want the total destruction of the Hindu faith and culture. The irony in India is that the Hindus who are living abroad (expatriate Hindus) are more concerned about Hindu culture than the ones in India, because from abroad, they can get an eagle's view of what's happening in India while Indian Hindu residents don't see it being in the scene.

The only positive thing about the Hindu right-wing is that they dominate the streets. They do not tolerate the current injustice, and often riot and attack Muslims when things get out of control, usually after the Muslims disrespect and degrade Hinduism too much. This behavior is nonetheless counterproductive. Because instead of attacking the Muslims, they should target the category A and B traitor in India and consolidate military cells and actively seek the overthrow of the cultural Marxist government. India will continue to wither and die unless the Indian nationalists consolidate properly and strike to win. It is essential that the European and Indian resistance movements learn from each other and cooperate as much as possible. Our goals are more or less identical. The PCCTS, Knights Templar support the Sanatana Dharma movements and Indian nationalists in general.”

Islam and Good Governance: A book review 

by Dr. Aslam Abdullah

Muqtedar Khan cites the hadith that Allah has commanded Ihsan in all things, in his new book Islam and Good Governance: A Political Philosophy of Ihsan and asks so why not in politics?

Fifty-three-year-old Professor Muhammad Abdul Muqtedar Khan is a well-established Muslim scholar who is most likely to influence the shape of ideas rooted in Islam in this century.  He is already creating strong waves in a pacific ocean stagnant for centuries. Khan is a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware, where he established the program of Islamic Studies. Prior to joining the university, he was a scholar at the International Studies at Adrian College and was a non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2003 to 2008. Khan has his Ph.D., in international relations and Islamic Political thought from Georgetown University.

He comes from the former Muslim independent state of Hyderabad that is now part of India and he is a strong advocate of change in Muslim thinking as he believes that the failure of Muslims to interact with the ever-changing world has caused Islam to be seen as a stagnant and irrelevant faith to many, including Muslims.

Khan is also an activist and he has testified at hearings in US Congress. He is also the recipient of the Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Award for service to Islam from Aligarh Muslim University Alumni.

Khan has taken a strong stand against violent extremism and equally has opposed Islamophobia. Khan considers the United States of America a beckon of hope and light and advocates democracy and freedom for Muslim societies.

His book Islam and Good Governance is a brilliant and valuable addition to Islam and politics. Khan critically examines his own faith traditions and questions many assumptions that have become part of Muslim dogma and thinking. He questioned the scholars of the past and critiques Islamism for reducing Islam to an ideology. Islam, he argues, is a reservoir of values, not just an identity and Muslims should focus on realizing Islamic values not just preserving identity through symbolic actions.  He advocates the vision of a Muslim polity based on the concept of Ihsan or virtue of excellence as an alternative to the existing political ideals Muslim activists and groups have been promoting for long.

Such a polity in his view means that people would be free from any coercion. Laws that emanate from religious ideals would not be imposed upon people as they would be free to live their lives based on their own understanding and responsibilities towards society. He believes that people should be inspired to develop a moral and compassionate view of humanity, grounded in love and beautifying the world around them. He believes in the concept of an open society with freedoms for all and commitment to social justice. He believes that Ihsan is as much a political concept as it is theological or religious and it means proper utilization of human and material resources for the well-being of all. Khan is advocating a polity that is grounded in love, sincerity, and enhancement of human potential in every sense of the term.

While the book undoubtedly makes a pathbreaking contribution to challenge traditional Islamic notions of good governance as shariah implementation and argues for a new way of thinking about governance as a creation of a society where everyone can realize their moral worth and work to perfect their own character and soul through the pursuit of social justice. The book also advances traditional Islamic thought with regards to the idea of Ihsan. Khan delves into the Quran and hadith and in the fifth chapter of the book titled “Unveiling Ihsan” provides a very deep and profound rendition of the cosmology of Ihsan. This is his original contribution to Islamic theology.

In chapter six he provides a very interesting reading of the history of Islamic political philosophy focusing on its diversity and the many different ways in which Muslims have thought about Islam and governance. This is his original contribution to Islamic political thought.

This book is highly recommended for all those who are critically examining their own role in society within the context of Islam. It should be included as a textbook on Islamic governance and polity in every political department in the Muslim world and elsewhere. It is a valuable addition to political philosophy and thought. It deserves to be translated into Arabic. Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Malay, Bahasa Indonesian, French, German and Chinese in addition to other languages of the world. It would remove the veil of ignorance for those who have been led to believe that Islam’s political rule can be secured only by a system where people have no freedom or no choices.

The RSS and White Supremacist Nexus

by Aslam Abdullah

President Trump would join India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on stage in Houston on September 22 addressing some 50,000 Modi supporters in the US. This is the first time in the history of the United States that a sitting president would share a public stage with a leader who was once banned in the US for his alleged involvement of Gujarat carnage that shook the world in 2002. Is it pure coincidence or there is something else behind the headlines.

Modi is an RSS groomed leader. His organization believes in the promotion of a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State) with no or second class status of India's religious minorities. Trump is a businessman who has found a strong electoral ally in the form of white supremacists who want to turn the US into a white supremacist Christian country. Apparently, the agenda of the two on religious issues is diametrically opposed. Modi's RSS wants to eliminate Christians and Trump's white supremacists want to dominate the US and consider the RSS a Pagan religious entity. 

But there is a connection between the White supremacists and the RSS, a connection that dates back to almost a century when the world was confronted with the menace of Hitler and Mussolini.  It was a connection that was established by a woman by the name of Savitri Devi. In fact, her birth name was Maximiani Portas that her Greek father and Engish mother gave her at in 1905 in France. She was a highly educated woman and was an ardent supporter of Hitler and his theory of a pure race. She served as a Nazi spy in India, where she went under the pretext of studying Hinduism at Shanti Niketan of Rabindra Nath Tagore and where she got married to one Mukherjee, the only known official member of the Nazi party in India. She was well versed in several Indian languages.

She believed in the purity of Arayan race and she argued that India's upper castes are the purest of the pure Aryans because they have preserved the legitimacy of their blood through practicing a strict caste system.

She wrote a book in 1939 titled a Warning to Hindusim, in which she made four main points. 1. Hindu upper castes are the real pure Aryans and India belongs to them only. 2. Other religious groups can live in India, but under the domination of Hindu upper castes. 3. Muslims pose the greatest danger to Hindus through their population growth and without checking this explosion, Hindu upper castes cannot preserve their identity. 4. In order for Hindus to gain supremacy in India, they must demonstrate militancy and be seen as warriors.

The preface of the book was written by Gopal Savarkar, the elder brother of Damodaran veer Sarvarkat one of the prominent leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha and ardent believer in Hindu Supremacy.

Savitri Devi was a great admirer of Sararkar and she wrote several articles in RSS and Hindu Mahasabha related publications highlighting her passion for Hindu upper castes. She was the one who paved the way for RSS activists to stay in touch with White Supremacists. The relations that were established by Savitry Devi were consolidated by frequent visits of white supremacist leaders and workers to Ashrams and seminars run by the RSS in India. 

These are the relations that are now paying rich dividends to the RSS inspired Hindus in the USA. Not only, they have embraced the Islamophobic agenda of the white supremacists, but they have also aligned with Trump as a real ally of the RSS. 

Trump was apparently advised by white supremacist leaders in the country to join Modi. This was also the advice given by the pro-Neytanyahoo camp in the USA that believes that India is the only country that can contain a nuclear Pakistan. It is in this context that the shaking of hands between an apparent racist and a known fascist should be seen. Trump has eyes on the next election. He understands the monetary power of some 2.4 million Hindus in the US, even though the number of Hindu voters is less than half a million. But with 40,000 medical doctors, 34 percent IT force and a heavy presence in the real estate sector they form a formidable electoral group, Trump would love to be his supporters. Even though it is the Democratic party that has four of its congresspersons from the Hindu community, but under the changing political landscape, it is the Republicans under Trump that the Hindu majority in the US, inspired by the RSS is supportive of without realizing that their tactical alliance would ultimately hurt their own religious community.

Will Muslims ever unite on anything?

Dr. Aslam Abdullah

Unity is what Muslims generally talk about. Unity is what Muslims say, the community lacks and unity is the desired objective, Muslim scholars and leaders do not get tired referring to.

The verses from the Quran are very clear on the subject of unity “And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you) and be not divided among yourselves, and remember with gratitude Allah’s favor on you; for you were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His grace you became brethren, and you were on the brink of the pit of fire and He saved you from it. Thus, does Allah make his signs clear to you: that you may be guided” (Quran, 3:103).

It further explains that “The believers are nothing else than brothers (in Islam). So make reconciliation between your brothers, and fear Allah, that you may receive mercy.”(Quran, 49:10)

The Quran admonishes the believer to avoid those who cause disunity, "VERILY, as for those who have broken the unity of their faith and have become sects - thou has nothing to do with them. Behold, their case rests with God: and in time He will make them understand what they were doing. (49:10)

It also describes the dividers as psychopaths who rejoice the divisions, "[or] among those who have broken the unity of their faith and have become sects, each group delighting in but what they themselves hold [by way of tenets]. (30:32)

In several of his sayings, the Prophet Muhammad urged the community to work for unity. He said in his last sermon: "Arabs have no superiority over non-Arabs and Non-Arabs have no Superiority over Arabs, You are all equal except by piety and good actions. I leave behind me two things, the Quran and my example, the Sunnah and if you follow these you will never go astray”   He also reminded the believers that “The similitude of believers in regard to mutual love, affection, and fellow-feeling is that of one body; when any limb of it aches, the whole body aches, because of sleeplessness and fever.”  He also told the community of believers  “The Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, he doesn’t oppress him, neither does he hand him over to the enemy, he doesn’t disappoint him, nor does he humiliate him.”  

In summary, this Quranic verse summarizes the essence of the message: "And pay heed unto God and His Apostle, and do not [allow yourselves to] be at variance with one another, lest you lose heart and your moral strength desert you. And be patient in adversity: for, verily, God is with those who are patient in adversity. 8:46)

Despite the clear message about the adverse consequences of the lack of unity, the community, by and large, throughout its history has neglected it. Rather, it has indulged itself in almost every kind of division one can think of. 

Often, it is argued that once Muslims agree on a single theology, such as praying in one format, fasting through a unified method, moon sighting through consensus, etc., the community become united. These issues are exclusively Muslim related issues. A unified community on these issues is irrelevant to the world that comprises some 77 percent non-Muslims. They can create a superficial unity without bringing about any meaningful changes. Unfortunately, the community leadership has been focussing on this type of unity, while neglecting the divine mandate on the purpose of unity.

The Quran identifies justice as the main purpose of unity among believers. It says in the following verses.  "O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it is against your own selves or your parents and kinsfolk. Whether the person concerned is rich or poor, God's claim takes precedence over [the claims of] either of them. Do not, then, follow your own desires, lest you swerve from justice: for if you distort [the truth], behold, God, is indeed aware of all that you do!"  (4:135) 

In another verse, it admonishes 5:8 O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all equity; and never let the hatred of anyone lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious. And remain conscious of God. Verily, God is aware of all that you do. 5:8)

The Quran asserts that those who stand for justice are loved by the creator (5:42). It also elaborates that the purpose of the divine guidance to humanity was to ensure that people commit them to justice. Indeed, [even aforetime] did We send forth Our apostles with all evidence of [this] truth; and through them. We bestowed revelation from on high, and [thus gave you] a balance [wherewith to weigh right and wrong], so that men might behave with equity; and We bestowed [upon you] from on high [the ability to make use of] iron, in which there is awesome power as well as [a source of] benefits for man: and [all this was given to you] so that God might mark out those who would stand up for him and His Apostle, even though He [Himself] is beyond the reach of human perception. Verily, God is powerful, almighty! (57:25)

Justice is not a narrow term. It includes everything that creates a balance in every aspect of life, economics, social relations, personal attitude and behavior, political authority, use of the material and human resources and war and peace. Justice is a universal value and it simply means that when the dignity and rights of one are violated, those who believe in the divine guidance and accept all the creations as His, have to stand for the protection of that individual and group.

It is this lack of commitment to justice that has caused perpetual disunity among Muslims.

Muslim scholars have talked about justice, but in a manner where they do not question the status quo that denies justice to all. Recently a Muslim scholar explaining the meaning of political obedience observed "We do not accept any rebellion (khurūj) against our leaders or our public affairs even if they are oppressive. This is the ʿaqīdah of the Muslims .”(Shaikh Hamza Yusuf) He is not the only one who believes in this idea. There are many others among the classical Muslim scholars who promoted and propagated the idea. But this idea goes against the fundamentals of the divine message that exhorts believers to take a firm and clear position on issues pertaining to justice. In other words, whenever one notices injustice against an individual or a group, it becomes collective and individual responsibility of people to be a witness to justice. 
The unity is not for political domination or suppression of the rights of others. The unity is not for establishing the supremacy of Islam or Muslims upon others. Unity is not for only serving Muslim interests. The unity among the believers is to pioneer climate of mutual respect and commitment to justice.

Muslim unity would emerge only when justice for all becomes the motto of our actions and scholarship. Otherwise, we can never create unity on peripheral issues. 

The customers of Muslim Prostitutes

The Muslim prostitutes of India have many customers. The recent ones include the RSS, the BJP and similar outfits belonging to the Hindutva ideology. The RSS is founded on the idea of Golwalkar who known as Guruji. Modi is a disciple of Guruji and his main admirer. Here is what Goldwarkar wrote about India, its Muslim population and other minorities.

Golwalkar, "guruji'' said in his book `We on Our Nationhood Defined':

"To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races — the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.''

Gurujis views on minorities:

"Foreign elements'' (Christians and Muslims) may "live at the mercy'' of the "national race (Aryan Hindus) as long as the national race may allow them to do so and to quit the country at the sweet will of the national race. That is the only sound view on the minorities' problem. That is the only logical and correct solution.''

This doctrine is the reason for Hindu aggressiveness and hostility towards Minorities.

"Bharat main Rehna hai to vande matram kehna hoga" If you have to live in India, have to say I worship mother India."

M.S. Golwalkar further wrote that the "hostile elements within the country pose a far greater menace to national security than aggressors from outside". He identifies three major "Internal Threats: I: The Muslims; II: The Christians; III: The Communists". A long chapter impugns the patriotism of these groups, speaking darkly of their "future aggressive designs on our country".

Below is the piece from Freedom at midnight:

“Golwalkar, on December 6, 1947, the police report on this meeting says it discussed how to "assassinate the leading persons of the Congress in order to terrorize the public and to get their hold over them”. Two days later, Golwalkar addressed a crowd of several thousand volunteers at the Rohtak Road Camp in Delhi. The police reporter in attendance wrote that the RSS leader said that "the Sangh will not rest content until it had finished Pakistan. If anyone stood in our way, we will have to finish them too, whether it was Nehru Government or any other Government... " Referring to Muslims, he said that no power on earth could keep them in Hindustan. They should have to quit this country... "If they were made to stay here the responsibility would be the Government's and the Hindu community would not be responsible. Mahatma Gandhi could not mislead them any longer. We have the means whereby [our] opponents could be immediately silenced".

These are Golwalkars views on non-Hindus.

"In this land Hindus have been the owners, Parsis and Jews the guests, and Muslims and Christians, the dacoits". He asked, maliciously: "Then do all these have the same right over the country?"

Golwalkar saw Muslims, Christians and Communists (among others) as threats to the nation.”

The Muslim Prostitutes of India

The English language has this word, "prostitution," used mainly about the practice or occupation of engaging in sexual activity with someone for payment. Its synonyms are whoring, sex tourism, the sex industry, street-walking,  escorting, call girls, or the sex workers. In general, all religions and cultures denounce this practice and call it a sin.

But the word has also another meaning. The unworthy or corrupt use of one's talents for the sake of personal or financial gain is also called prostitution. This second definition is more appropriate than the first one. In the case of the first instance, a person sells one's body or rents it for some time in return for some payment. But in the second instance, a person or a group of people sells their conscientious, their faith, their ideals for some gains best known to them.

Throughout human history, the people belonging to the second category have outnumbered the people in the first category. Yet, the world, mostly talks about the first set of people and ignore the second. Not only that, but it applauds them for doing so.

In general, the people of the second category are abundantly found in religious circles, political movements, politicians, academicians, and social worker as well as in almost every field of life.

Among religious circles and politicians, this prostitution is widespread beyond one's imagination. Recently, in India, two such cases of prostitution have come to limelight. One involves a religious person and the other a politician. The name of the religious person is Arshad Madani, who is often known as Maulana (Our Lord), Arshad Madani and the second one is known as Arif Muhammad Khan. Interestingly, both are Muslims and have in two words that are associated with a religious figure always described by his followers as the perfect human being, i.e., Mohammad and Madani.

Madani is a scholar of Hadith and also the President of an organization called Jamiat Ulama, Hind, or the Council of Scholars of India. Khan has been a former President of the student union of the most prestigious Muslim university, the Muslim University of Aligarh as well as the member of India's parliament and a cabinet minister. Recently, both 0f these people prostituted or sold one of the most precious human commodity known as conscious for some visible and invisible gains. Khan accepted the governorship of an Indian state and Madani announced his decision to work with an organization whose declared policy is to make India free of Muslims and other minorities and who is viewed as a terrorist organization. The institution Madani represents is often accused of a promoter of terrorism. 

The RSS and its political wing have watched with applause the lynching of Muslims and Dalits in India. They both are committed to restoring a Hindu order in India that establishes a hierarchical system based on the birth of an individual and institutionalizes inequality. They both are responsible for creating the world's largest concentration camp in Kashmir, where Muslims have been forced to live in pathetic sub-human condition for their political views.

Khan and Madani have joined their ranks and endorsed their policies. Khan has already been rewarded. Madani's reward would be in the form of concessions and financial handouts to Dar Ul Uloom, Deoband. The reason Madani also prostituted his conscious also involves his ties with the despotic rulers of the Gulf and their prostituting scholars. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries recently awarded the leader of the RSS and BJP their highest national civilian award endorsing the lynching, the killing, and violence against innocent people. Madani was inspired by his religious masters in the Gulf and agreed to prostitute his and with him the consciousness of his kind who run thousands of Muslims seminaries in India. With, this prostitution common among the body of Islamic scholars in India, the Muslim community of India is now being led to a future that it is unable to fathom and figure out.

US Congress and Kashmir Crisis

by Dr. Aslam Abdullah

The possibility of a nuclear showdown between India and Pakistan cannot be ruled out if the world fails to honor its pledge given to the people of Kashmir in the UN in 1948, assuring them the right to self-determination. The world cannot allow a nuclear disaster that might claim over one billion lives as well as irreparable damage to everything the human civilization has built over 5,000 years.

The showdown is not about a piece of land called Kashmir. It is not about who owns the beautiful valley of the land described by many as the paradise on the earth. It’s about two ideologies. One side believes in the suppression of people’s rights to promote hegemonic ideas shrouded in hatred and animosity, and the other stands for people's right to determine their own future freely and fearlessly.

India’s ruling elites have cut off Kashmir from the rest of the world by imposing a curfew, by deploying almost one million armed personnel, and by arresting children, youth, women, and elderly who can walk and protest in the streets.

How many have been killed and tortured to death in Kashmir? No one is allowed to know because the government of India has imposed draconian censorship. The satellite technology cannot estimate the number of people killed at homes and in the streets. But the satellite images give data about the number of protest rallies that have been held in Kashmir since August 5, when the people were asked to shut themselves in their homes.

Patients are dying at home. Young mothers are dying at home for being unable to go to the hospital for delivering babies. Dialysis patients are losing lives because they cannot get the treatment and lack of medicine is creating a disaster of unheard proportion.

The power elites of Delhi are not ready to allow Kashmiris to express their ideas freely and fearlessly. They have already bought and intimidated a great majority of journalists who are being mouth fed news about Kashmir. The government has become the biggest circulator of lies and false news.

The power elites in India belong to the RSS (an Indian right-wing Hindu nationalist organization) and its allied organizations, including the BJP (the pro-Hindu political party of post-independence India). The RSS believes in a minority free India. It reveres Hitler and Mussolini, the two well-known Christian fascists. It believes that India is only for Hindus and the minorities either have to leave the country or convert to Hinduism.

Kashmir was given special status at the time of independence because both India and Pakistan assured its people that they would have the right to choose either of the two countries for their final accession.

For almost 70 years the issue of Kashmir was forgotten. But India brought it out at the international level when it stripped Kashmir of special status and annexed it as a union territory against all its promises in the United Nations.

Since then almost anyone that matters in the world has spoken on the issue. And now the US Congress members have also started bringing up the Kashmir issue with the context of human rights.

“I am excited to see so many members joining us in calling attention to what is happening in Kashmir. Please continue to call your members and ask them to speak up. We expect openness from India,” Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, tweeted, referring to a comment on Kashmir from Ted Lieu, a California Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He tweeted that he had heard from his constituents that they were unable to reach their families in Kashmir. “Democracies like India should not be engaging in a communications blackout that has lasted over three weeks. We need de-escalation, not the hiding of what’s happening,” Lieu had said on Twitter, referring to a tweet from Representative Don Boyer, a Virginia Democrat.

The number of lawmakers commenting on Kashmir is likely to increase when the Congress reconvenes in September.

Additionally, the first Indian-American lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Pramila Jayapal also issued a statement saying that she was troubled over reports of arrests in Jammu and Kashmir after India revoked Article 370 of the constitution that granted special status to the state.

“We have taken this decision because we have found that over 70 years, the level of development in the State has been hampered by the so-called ‘special status’ that the State enjoys, which in any case was a temporary provision…,” Ambassador to the U.S. Harsh Vardhan Shringla had told Fox News earlier in August. “Deeply troubled by reports of Indian Govt’s arrests of 2,000 in Kashmir…,” Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said in a statement.

“Democracy requires transparency, due process, and freedom of assembly and speech. These are absolutely essential, even in the most complex of situations,” said Jayapal, who is considered as champion on human rights issues in the Congress. She also shared a New York Times news report on her Twitter account.

Moreover, Congressman Adam Schiff of California also said that fundamental human rights like free speech and access to information must be protected. Congressman Peter King of New York also met the Indian Consul General in New York to discuss “India-Pakistan the dispute” over Kashmir. “Met with Consul General of India to discuss the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir. Told him I understood India’s action & had concerns over Islamist elements in Pakistan & Kashmir. But b/c of sensitivity & both countries being nuclear powers urged need to seek a diplomatic solution,” King wrote. “Very concerned about the situation in Kashmir, particularly the ongoing communications blackout,” said Congressman Don Beyer.