The West isn't Alone in Pandering to Angry Muslims

The Indian government of Kashmir decided to transfer land to Hindu shrine in India's only Muslim-majority state. As a result, hundreds of muslims started to protest the land transfer and the government caved in and cancelled the land transfer. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's main opposition party, has called for a nation wide strike today to protest. The Christian Science Monitor

Srinagar, India - Jubilant Kashmiris lit bonfires and set off fireworks in the streets on Wednesday to celebrate a rare triumph in their struggle against Indian rule. For nine days, Muslim leaders have staged the biggest protests seen in Jammu and Kashmir since the early 1990s against a government plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in India's only Muslim-majority state. Hundreds of people were wounded and at least four killed while protesting. On Tuesday, the government bowed to the pressure and voted to scrap the plan. But while some parts of the state saw rejoicing, the government's decision stoked tensions elsewhere.

In Hindu-majority Jammu, the revocation prompted new rallies, with activists chanting that the government had pandered to Muslims. In the national capital, New Delhi, India's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called for a nationwide strike on July 3. It warned that the government's decision would unleash a tide of Hindu nationalist anger – an indication that the party is likely to agitate over the issue ahead of general elections scheduled to be held in May.

....

Back in Srinagar, separatist leaders anxious to maintain the momentum of recent days said they were preparing for a new round of protests to demand independence – their ultimate goal.

"We will be happy when we are free from India," says Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a hard-line Muslim separatist leader. He indicated that the next cause independence activists would seize upon was the occupation of large swaths of land in Kashmir by the Indian Army.

Mr. Geelani's sentiments are shared by many. Public feeling in the state certainly runs high as 90 percent of the population in Srinagar believes that Kashmir should be independent of either India or Pakistan, according to a poll in an Indian newspaper.

[...]

Kashmir's latest controversy came about when the state government – led by the Congress Party that rules at India's center – said that it would transfer 99 acres of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, which manages a shrine in a cave containing an icicle believed to be an incarnation of the god Shiva. The board was to build huts and toilets for the thousands of Hindu tourists that visit each year.

Independence leaders say the sanctity of the cave is overplayed by Indian politicians and that the plan to build accommodations for pilgrims was in fact a ploy to settle large numbers of Hindus in a Muslim-majority area, thereby altering the area's demographics. Indian officials have dismissed the allegations.