A coalition of American Muslim groups has announced that a top advertising company which runs the digital advertisement board for NASDAQ in Times Square has refused to run advertisements for right-wing Hindu groups planning to celebrate the illegal destruction of Babri Masjid and Ram Temple’s groundbreaking ceremony on August 5.
Hindutva groups operating in the US had planned to display images of Hindu deity Ram and 3D portraits of the Temple in Ayodhya which was to be beamed across the giant billboards in the iconic Times Square, considered among the largest continuous exterior displays in the world.
According to a statement put out by the Muslim coalition, Dennis Levine of the ad company Branded Cities, confirmed the decision to not run the advertisements. The company “also reassured that Branded Cities and Nasdaq oppose the demolition of Babari Masjid and will never allow any supremacist groups to run their advertisements”.
The coalition comprises of Indian Minorities Advocacy Network- ImanNet, Justice for All, Coalition of Americans for Pluralism in India CAPI, North American Indian Muslim Association NAIMA, Islamic Circle of North America -Social Justice ICNASJ and The International Society for Peace and Justice.
Dr Shaik Ubaid, the President of ImanNet called this a great victory for pluralism, human rights and rule of law. He urged the US government to investigate the flow of funds between militant Hindutva supremacist groups in the US and India as well as the Hindutva attempts to infiltrate the US power centres.
Apart from this coalition, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) announced that they will be holding a press Meet to protestTimes Square celebration of Ram Temple event to be held in Ayodhya India on August 5.
More than two decades after it was destroyed by marauding Hindu mobs, the historical Babri Masjid land was awarded to Hindus by the Supreme Court for the construction of Ram temple on November last year.
The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was razed to the ground on December 6, 1992, by extremists Hindus, claiming that it was built on the site of a temple allegedly destroyed by Muslim rulers. The demolition of the medieval mosque, which was constructed under the rule of the first Mughal Emperor Babar, triggered religious riots in many parts of India that resulted in the death of more than 1000 people.
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