Following a complaint lodged by the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union (AMUSU), the Uttar Pradesh Police has filed a FIR against the former vice-president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, Shehla Rashid on February 17. Students from AMUSU has alleged that Rashid made a derogatory statement against the Prophet in a Facebook post. She was also accused of quoting Hindutva abuses against the Prophet to highlight hate speech and blasphemy.
The post, dated January 9 ironically was about hate speech and questioned whether historical and religious figures should be subjected to the scrutiny of the same principles that all of us live by. In the post, Shehla had used several examples which ridiculed Hindu and Islamic religious figures to make her point. Here is the Facebook post that caused a stir on social media:
After all these controversies, Shehla Rashid made another post on Facebook on February 18 in which she thanked the AMUSU people and clarified that the post what she wrote earlier and got accused of using derogatory and objectionable words, was mistaken by them.
The fact remains that Indians and religious groups have become way too sensitive in the past few years and what can be a bigger proof than a post which was meant to condemn blasphemy in the first place being accused of hate speech. Needless to say, the students of Aligarh Muslim University are interpreting the phrases used in the Facebook post out of context and blowing the whole issue up to epic proportions.
Here is the copy of the FIR which was filed against Rashid:
Post this FIR was filed, a huge support have been garnered in the favour of Shehla over the social media:
A post she shared herself:
Several members of the AMUSU have also come out in support of the JNUSU leader, condemning the AMU students’ body “for missing out a basic point about language and semantics”.
