Saudi officials have ordered the arrest of a citizen for assaulting a non-Muslim Asian expatriate and asking him to embrace Islam, according to media reports.
According to reports, a video recently went viral in which the expatriate is being insulted by an Arabic speaking man for not embracing Islam and not fasting in the month of Ramadan. The video does not show the Saudi national who is insulting the expatriate but he can be heard speaking in Arabic to the man who apparently is not able to follow the language.
Abused for not embracing Islam
The Arab national then goes on to use abusive words against the Asian resident on the pretext of inviting him to embrace Islam. The monitoring centre affiliated with the Saudi officials examined the said video and took cognisance of the abusive remarks by its citizen, reports Saudi news agency SPA.
"The public prosecution closely follows up whatever infringes rights of citizens and residents including harm to their dignity and legal rights regardless of pretexts of such infringement," Gulfnews quoted sources.
The identity of the expat or his country of origin was not revealed.
Islamophobia in India
Of recently, the matter of religious intolerance has seen a growing trend in many parts of the world. In India, instances of violence against Muslims made many Arab countries to call out Islamophobic hate speeches made by influential Indian nationals that are spurring the hatred against Muslims in the country.
Gulf countries outraged over hatred against Muslims in India
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Kuwait government, a royal Princess of United Arab Emirates (UAE) among other expressed their outrage over the hateful speeches and social media posts that accused India's Muslims, more particularly the members of religious missionary group the Tablighi Jamaat, of spreading the coronavirus.
The Arab world especially took notice of Indian nationals working in Gulf countries and who posted Islamophobic posts targeting India's Muslim population for spreading the coronavirus.
Hate speech by one Dubai-based Saurabh Upadhaya, who asked Indian Muslims to "accept they were the source of the pandemic " and described them as "terrorists", made Sharjah royal Sheikh Hend Faisal Al Qassimi put several strong tweets and wrote a front-page opinion piece in Dubai newspaper Gulf News titled, "I pray for an India without islamophobia" in which she stressed the need "to reject hatred and replace with love on earth to live together."
The influential UAE-royal in one of her tweet warned that those indulging in "openly racist and discriminatory" activities would be made to leave UAE.
About 8.5 million Indians live and work in Gulf countries, some at very high designations. A significant number of those are Hindus.
BJP MP tweet against Arab women
Further, an old tweet by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya insinuating that "95 per cent of Arab women have never had an orgasm in the last few hundred years", provoked the Arab world outrage.
Collective strong reactions from the Gulf countries, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) issuing a statement, urging India to take urgent steps to "stop the growing tide of islamophobia" in the country made Indian government take note of the consternation in the Arab world.
PM Modi denounced hate speech
After that Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: "COVID 19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood. We are in this together."
India's trading relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council member states- Bharain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE-has grown considerably, with bilateral trade volume surpassing the $100b mark.
