Muslim student humbles Indian professor for calling him ‘terrorist’

MANIPAL, Karnataka: In the latest case of Islamophobia in India, a professor at Bengaluru’s Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) from the coastal region of Karnataka allegedly called a Muslim student a “terrorist” in a viral video on the internet.

The student, however, did not take the matter lightly and confronted him for being Islamophobic. The video was shared by Ashok Swain — a professor at Uppsala University and UNESCO’s chair on International Water Cooperation — and has garnered over one million views on Twitter alone taking the internet by storm. The tweet has received over 45k likes and more than 17k retweets in less than 18 hours.

Resultantly, the professor has been suspended while a probe has been ordered into the matter, as per a noted Indian news outlet. “A Professor in a classroom in India calling a Muslim student ‘terrorist’ — This is what it has been to be a minority in India!,” Professor Swain tweeted, highlighting the plight of minorities in the country led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — notorious for instigating the rise of right-wing politics in India. The student, in the said video, appears visibly upset after the professor refers to him as a terrorist in front of his classmates — merely due to his Muslim identity.

“How can you pass such statements?” the student is heard asking the professor. The professor, apparently taken aback due to the call out, tells him that he said it in a “funny manner”. “26/11 is not funny, being Muslim and facing such things in this country is not funny,” the student responds to him, after which the professor apologises telling him that he is equal to his son. The student asks him if he will also treat his son in the same manner.

“Will you treat your son like this? Will you label him as a terrorist, in front of everyone in the class? Sorry alone will not help, sir. It doesn’t change how you portray yourself here,” the Muslim boy said. The student and professor held a conversation after the incident during which the latter also issued a personal apology, sources told an Indian newspaper.