No place to pray
\nThe Haryana chief minister had earlier declared that outdoor prayers in Gurgaon \u201cwill no longer be tolerated\u201d
\n New Delhi
\nDinesh Bharti drives around with other activists on Fridays, heckling and harassing Muslims praying outside in Gurgaon \u2014 the latest flashpoint of sectarian tensions under India\u2019s Hindu nationalist government.
\nMuslims praying in the open \u201ccreate problems in the country and the entire world\u201d, the thickset Hindu man in his 40s said, a red tilak on his forehead marking him out as a devout member of India\u2019s majority religion.
\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s election in 2014 emboldened hardline groups who see India as a Hindu nation and its 200 million-strong Muslim minority as potentially dangerous outsiders.
\nGurgaon is a modern satellite city of the capital New Delhi. Around 500,000 Muslims either live there, have migrated to the area for work or labour there during the day.
\nThe city has 15 mosques for them, but the local government has refused permission to build more \u2014 even as the number of Hindu temples has grown.
\nThis has forced the community to hold Friday afternoon prayers \u2014 the most important of the week for Muslims \u2014 in open spaces.
\nIn recent years, Hindu groups have sprayed cow dung at Muslim prayer sites and called worshippers terrorists and Pakistanis.
\nThe local government, meanwhile, has steadily cut the number of approved outdoor worship sites.
\nRead: In occupied Kashmir, closed mosque belies India\u2019s religious freedom
\n\u2018No longer tolerated\u2019
\nEarlier this month, the Haryana state chief minister, a member of Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party, declared that outdoor prayers in Gurgaon \u201cwill no longer be tolerated\u201d.
\nUndermining their argument that religion can be practised only indoors, Hindu groups celebrated last Friday by setting up a makeshift temple and community kitchen to feed hundreds as devotional music blared.
\nAcross town, hundreds of Muslims queued to take turns to worship at one of only six remaining prayer venues still available.
\nAt another site, Muslims were heckled and forced to chant slogans such as \u201cHail Lord Ram\u201d \u2014 a Hindu deity \u2014 that have proliferated under Modi among his supporters.
\n\u201cIf the government doesn\u2019t find a solution to the issue … it will become more complicated and serious,\u201d Sabir Qasmi, a Muslim cleric, told AFP.
\nLifelong hardliner
\nModi is a lifelong member of the hardline Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Hindu nationalist group.
\nHe was briefly barred from the United States over religious riots in Gujarat in 2002 when he was state chief minister.
\nSince his coming to power, a string of lynchings of Muslims by Hindu mobs for so-called cow protection \u2014 a sacred animal for many Hindus \u2014 and other hate crimes has sown fear and despair in the community.
\nSeveral states have brought in legislation criminalising conversion to Christianity and Islam, including through marriage \u2014 or \u201clove jihad\u201d as Hindu hardliners call it.
\nThis week, a video emerged from a recent gathering of right-wing Hindu groups in which some delegates called for Muslims to be killed, reports said.
\nHindu protesters in Gurgaon say outdoor prayers pose a \u201csecurity\u201d risk, cause traffic problems and prevent children from playing cricket.
\nBut critics say the real reason is simply that Muslims have no place in Modi\u2019s new intolerant India, where Hindu zealots are dictating government policy.
\nArati R. Jerath, a political commentator, said there is an agenda to convert India from a pluralistic and secular nation into a \u201cHindu country\u201d.
\n\u201cWhether it is economic spaces or spaces for worship, or spaces for the food and customs or anything with a Muslim identity, that is going to be part of the project,\u201d Jerath told AFP.
\n\u201cIt is not necessarily a government-sponsored project, but certainly a project by the supporters of this government, who … get tacit support from the government.\u201d
\nOn Sunday, the head of a Hindu umbrella group proposed a solution: Muslims should convert.
\n\u201cThey will have their temples to pray and this (prayer) issue will end,\u201d said Mahaveer Bhardwaj, chairman of the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No place to pray The Haryana chief minister had earlier declared that outdoor prayers in Gurgaon \u201cwill no longer be tolerated\u201d New Delhi Dinesh Bharti drives around with other activists on Fridays, heckling and harassing Muslims praying outside in Gurgaon \u2014 the latest flashpoint of sectarian tensions under India\u2019s Hindu nationalist government. Muslims praying in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[195,1790,2120,2119],"class_list":{"0":"post-234853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-india","9":"tag-muslim","10":"tag-pressure","11":"tag-worshippers"},"yoast_head":"\n