Indscribe reports on the recent conference regarding “Allegations on Muslims and Terrorism” in Lucknow, India, where Muslim scholars and intellectuals discussed recent incidents, and the place of Indian Muslims in society. While asserting that participation was high, he laments that the desired objectives could not be achieved. Innocent Muslims continue to be arrested simply as “statements”, and public policy is not being affected.

The fact is that situation is UP is quite bad at the ground-level. Everybody wants sternest possible action against terrorists but it is unacceptable the way police implicate innocent (of course, poor) youths in false cases, just to show their success in cracking a case.

But this is happening in UP regularly. The arrest of Aftab Alam Ansari was one such incident. There have been several such cases. Ironically, those arrested are immediately branded terrorists and even the lawyers refuse to fight their case.

Having my own roots in Lucknow, it’s interesting to see the same situation with Muslims both in the West and back home. We in the West often lament that we are treated unfairly, but little do we realize that often, things are no better back home.