Landmark Egypt trip bolsters Modi’s stature, demolishes West’s noxious ‘anti-Muslim’ narrative

On his return from an ‘official state visit’ to the United States, Narendra Modi had a two-day stopover in Egypt, where he was also on his first ‘state visit’ at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. India-Egypt engagement has seen a dramatic rise under Modi and El-Sisi. The countries are breaking new ground. The trajectory is upward and positive. The Egyptian president was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations this year. The El-Sisi government spared no effort to convey the message that Modi’s presence was eagerly awaited and treasured. This, after all, was the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister since 1997. In many ways, in terms of the deals signed, elevating ties to ‘strategic partnership’ and unlocking possibilities for the future, this was a landmark visit. In a special gesture, Egyptian prime minister Mostafa Madbouly received Modi at the airport on Saturday. Both sides have been steadily investing in bilateral ties. For instance, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made trips to Cairo last year in September and October, respectively, to facilitate El-Sisi’s arrival in India. For his part, the Egyptian president has set up a special group of senior ministers and high-ranking officials headed by Prime Minister Madbouly to develop bilateral ties, indicating a ‘whole of government’ approach. High on Modi’s agenda on Saturday, Day 1 at Cairo, was a meeting with this ‘India Unit’ in Madbouly’s cabinet. According to a readout by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the ‘India Unit’ explained to the prime minister the activities it has undertaken and proposed new areas of cooperation. Topics of discussion included trade and investment, renewable energy, green hydrogen, IT, digital payment platforms, etc. Beyond the statecraft, Modi’s visit to Egypt, the most populous Arab country, an ancient civilization with an incredible Islamic heritage and history, is in itself a huge statement. Even more so since he went there straight from the United States where among all the friendship, warmth and hospitality displayed by the Joe Biden White House, the signing of important deals, state dinner and address to a joint session of US Congress — the dubious narrative of Modi’s “Hindu nationalist government persecuting Muslims at home, snatching away their rights and freedoms” kept rearing its head at regular intervals. The steady drumbeat of spurious assertions on “discrimination against Muslims” and “erosion of minority rights” that are  unsupported by facts and downright deceitful formed a relentless ambient noise during the length of Modi’s visit. It reached a crescendo when former US president Barack Obama added fat to the fire by adding his own version of unsubstantiated, provocative remarks about the state of Muslims in India, criticized Modi, advised Biden to talk to his guest about “protection of Muslim minorities” and dropped dark predictions of India getting Balkanized again on religious lines. Lies, if repeated, can sometimes take the colour of truth. Apart from Obama, who’s still incredibly powerful in the power corridors of Washington DC, some “progressive” lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party also added to the narrative. ‘Squad’ members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar boycotted Modi’s address to the US Congress. AOC accused Modi of “systematic human rights abuses of religious minorities and caste-oppressed communities”, Tlaib, an Islamist radical, slammed it as “shameful” that “Modi has been a given a platform”, while her colleague Omar, an anti-Semite and Islamist fundamentalist who has deep roots with Pakistani lobbyist groups, accused Modi government of “repressing religious minorities.” Bernie Sanders claimed that Modi has “pushed an aggressive Hindu nationalism that leaves little space for India’s religious minorities,” without caring to cite any evidence, while Pramila Jayapal, another Democratic lawmaker, collected signatures from 70 House and Senate Democrats in a letter urging Biden to press Modi on “human rights and democratic values in India.” The irony couldn’t be starker. In 2016, Obama’s last year as president, the United States dropped 26,171 bombs on Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. The equation amounts to an average of 72 bombs dropped every day on the seven Muslim-majority nations — the equivalent of three bombs an hour. And yet, tracking Modi’s visit through the lens of  American media might give one the impression that Modi is a ‘genocidal maniac’ out to cleanse India of its Muslim population. What does data say? Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan American think tank, in a major survey on India’s population growth and religious composition, released in 2021, found that “India’s six largest religious groups have remained relatively stable since Partition. The greatest shift has been a modest rise in the share of Muslims, accompanied by a corresponding decline in the share of Hindus. Between 1951 and 2011, Muslims grew by 4.4 percentage points to 14.2% of the population, while Hindus declined by 4.3 points to 79.8%.” Easy to see why, despite the insidious and baseless narrative about a ‘Hindu nationalist government led by Modi persecuting Muslims in India’ dominating American mainstream discourse, there’s little appetite for this nonsense worldwide. In this context, Modi’s visit to the heart of the Arab world, with whom he has totally transformed India’s relations, carried added significance. The respect and enthusiasm with which the prime minister was greeted in Egypt, one of the most important Arab nations that may serve as the gateway to Africa and Europe for India, speaks volumes about his and India’s image in the Arab world and belies the phoney narrative about ‘Hindu majoritarian’ India that pervades the discourse in western media and academia. One of the key engagements that the prime minister had lined up in Cairo was with the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawky Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam, who was elected to the post in 2013. He holds the office of the ‘Chairman of the Supreme Council of the General Secretariat’ for ‘Fatwa Authorities Worldwide’. The Grand Mufti, who had visited India last month at the government’s invitation, praised the prime minister’s leadership. News agency ANI quoted him, as saying, “wise policies are being adopted by PM Modi in bringing co-existence between the various factions in India. At the religious level, we have strong cooperation with India. The Indian side is also going to provide an Information Technology Centre of Excellence here. We have lots of scope of cooperation.” Modi’s itinerary also included a visit to the 11th-century Al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo. Renovated with the help of India’s Dawoodi Bohra community, a project that was completed just a few months back, the Fatimid era Shi’a Mosque is an important landmark and a symbol of India and Egypt’s friendship, syncretic culture, and shared heritage. On Sunday, the prime minister made an “ unscheduled trip ” to the Pyramids of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World built more than 4,000 years ago. For a man vilified by Western media as ‘anti-Muslim’, Modi was conferred with the ‘Order of the Nile’, Egypt’s highest civilian honour, by President El-Sisi on Sunday. The prime minister is the first Indian to receive this award. It is a recognition of Modi’s stature, who is now the recipient of 13 state honours in his nine-year tenure. The list includes Saudi Arabia’s highest civilian honour — the King Abdulaziz Sash, Afghanistan’s highest civilian honour, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, The Grand Collar of the State of Palestine Award, the ‘Order of Zayed’ — the UAE’s highest civilian award, Order of the Distinguished Rule of Nishan Izzuddin, the highest civilian honour of the Maldives, as well as “The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance”, by the King of Bahrain. The list of awards by the Muslim majority and Islamic states, the honour and appreciation showered on him by not only the Egyptian government but also the larger community , puts in perspective the toxic and fallacious narrative about India and the Modi government that has now been normalized in the West. The narrative has dominated American discourse on India in such a way that it has taken on the character of established wisdom. The peddlers of this narrative are a motley crew of Western liberal media, well-funded evangelical and Islamist advocacy groups, regime change operators masquerading as ‘human rights’ activists, Pakistani lobbyists and left-liberal academia that might misunderstand, but also purposefully misrepresent and mischaracterize Hindu nationalism. The interplay between these groups — that lend legitimacy to each other in an incestuous citation loop — shape the dominant discourse, for instance, in the US where the knowledge base about India is weak and there is not even a superficial understanding of the myriad complexities that define this diverse nation. Perhaps India could do with a bit of lobbying, at least in the United States where such efforts go a long way in shaping narratives. India as a country is far too insular and unwilling to tell its story to the world, and the Hindu-American community is too self-centred to involve itself in religious advocacy or local politics. It doesn’t fit an aspiring great power’s profile and gives a poor account of its ambition if it fails to effectively counter the battle of narratives. The writer is Deputy Executive Editor, Firstpost. He tweets @sreemoytalukdar. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .