Indian Americans call on San Diego school to cancel Islamophobic presentation by Hindu far-right supporters

Washington, D.C. (February 14, 2023) – The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) today wrote a letter to the administration of Francis Parker School in San Diego, CA, raising concerns over a scheduled Islamophobic presentation by the supporters of Hindu supremacism on February 16.

The presentation promotes various anti-Muslim narratives, conspiracy theories, and far-right propaganda among the school students.

IAMC’s letter debunked several false claims made by the Hindu far-right supporters in their breakdown of topics to be covered at the event, including claims that the partition of India and Pakistan only led to the death of Hindus, that the Pakistani military carried out a genocide only of Bangladeshi Hindus in 1971, and that Muslims have carried out a genocide of Hindus in Kashmir.

The letter cited historical facts, prominent reports, and media sources in informing the school leadership that “the Partition of India and Pakistan led to the mass killings of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike at each other’s hands,” as well as that “the Pakistani military’s brutal genocide was indiscriminate and it did not target people based on their faith, but by their Bengali ethnicity,” making claims of a genocide specific only to Bengali Hindus is “dishonest and disrespectful.”

Regarding claims that Muslims were responsible for a Kashmiri Hindu genocide, the letter added, “This claim is easily proven false from the Indian administration’s own data… Indian government data reports that 219 Kashmiri Hindus were killed in Kashmir during the 1990s by terrorists,” a number that - while tragic - does not equate to a genocide.

IAMC further explained the Hindu far-right ideology of Hindutva and its impact both in India and the United States and provided resources to the school administration to become better educated on the issue of Hindutva propaganda in academic spaces.

IAMC has urged the school administration to immediately call off the Islamophobic presentation and avoid platforming supporters of a dangerous extremist ideology in the future.