Anti-Muslim

Thackeray’s views have typically been highly anti-Muslim, usually attacking them and occasionally sympathizing with them. He has declared that he is not against every Muslim, but only those who reside in this country but do not obey the laws of the land. I consider such people traitors. His party is viewed as being anti-Muslim, though Shiv Sainiks officially reject this accusation. When explaining his views on Hindutva, he has conflated Islam with violence and has called for Hindus to fight terrorism and fight Islam. In an interview in Suketu Mehta’s book ‘Maximum City’, he advocates the hanging of Indian Muslims and mass expulsion of Muslim migrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

In the 1980s he had stated that:
“They (Muslims) were spreading like a cancer and should be operated on like a cancer. The country should be saved from the Muslims and the police should support them (Hindu Maha Sangh) in their struggle just like the police in Punjab were sympathetic to the Khalistanis.”

Bal Thackeray criticized and challenged Indian Muslims through his party newspaper, Samna, around the time the 16th century Babri Masjid was demolished by members of the Shiv Sena and the BJP in the northern town of Ayodhya, on December 6, 1992. Hindus believe that the Babri Mosque was built on the demolished ruins of a Hindu temple in the 16th century, and consider it to be the Ram Janmabhoomi (birthplace of the Hindu God Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, one of the Trimurti of the Hindu Pantheon).

The Justice Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry, which investigated the ensuing communal riots in Mumbai, indicted Thackeray for sparking anti-Muslim violence, which led to more than 1,000 deaths in several ensuing riots, many by having kerosene poured on their bodies while alive and then being burned to death. The death toll during the actual act of the demolition of the Mosque was zero. The Srikrishna Commission found that Thackeray was personally responsible, not only for inciting the mobs through his incendiary speeches, but also directly coordinating the movement of the rioters. At the time, Thackeray made allegations that the Commission was “biased” and “anti-Hindu”. His views were not supported outside of the Shiv Sena party.

In a deposition before the Srikrishna Commission a witness alleged Thackeray coordinated much of the January 1993 Mumbai carnage. Yuvraj Mohite claimed, “Balasaheb was sitting and he was getting calls from various places. He would ask what was happening at that particular place (from where he got the call) and then he would say, ‘Kill them. Send them to Allah.’”

Mohite additionally told the commission that “Thackeray –
    * Ordered that not one Muslim be left alive to stand in the witness box
    * Asked his men to send the additional police commissioner, A A Khan, to his Allah.
    * Ordered his men to retaliate to the Hindu killings in Jogeshwari.”

Later, in February 1993 Thackeray said, “I am proud of what my boys have done. We had to retaliate and we did. If it was not for us, no one would have controlled the Muslims.”

However, in an interview in 1998, he claims to have tempered his stance on many issues that the Shiv Sena had with Muslims, particularly regarding the Babri Mosque or Ram Janmabhoomi issue, saying:

    “We must look after the Muslims and treat them as part of us.”

He has since made more inflammatory statements regarding Muslims, and reiterated his desire for Hindus to unite across linguistic barriers and to see “a Hindustan for Hindus” and to “bring Islam to this country down to its knees”.

However, he has also expressed admiration for Muslims in Mumbai in the wake of the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists. In response to threats made by the leader of the Samajwadi Party that accusations of terrorism directed at Indian Muslims would bring about communal strife, Thackeray said that the unity of Mumbaikars (residents of Mumbai) in the wake of the terrorist attacks was “a slap to fanatics of Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi” and that Thackeray “salute(s) those Muslims who participated in the two minutes’ silence on July 18 to mourn the blast victims”.