A young man was attacked by a crowd of angry shoppers for allegedly insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The incident happened last week at Safari Mall in the capital of Doha where video footage taken over shows angry crowd shouting, hitting and punching the person and a few others try to fend the crowd.
The representatives of both Qatar government and Indian community officials met during an emergency meeting on Sunday and had called for calm.
An Indian expatriate while speaking to Doha News said the victim who has been hospitalized, was alleged to have posted provocative comments in Malayalam about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Niyas Yusuf, who wrote an open letter to Qatar’s Indian community denouncing the attack, added:
“What he did is completely wrong but such acts of mob attack in name of religion should not be encouraged. (It was) just horrible (in a) way which never happened here before and should not happen again.”
The president of the Indian Cultural Center in Qatar, Girish Kumar, told Doha News, “The government has some serious concerns… The message is that no one should, under any circumstances, intervene” in this manner.
He added,” The public should not punish someone… Instead, issues should be reported immediately to the authorities.”
The community leader also express disapproval of both the online insults and subsequent assault, calling on expats here to show consideration for the rules of their host nation:
“Qatar is such a great country… (and itoffers) vibrant cultural platforms for all communities and expats,” he said. “We need to have strong, peaceful harmony.”
Insulting certain faiths that includes desecrating, defaming, or committing blasphemy against Islam, Judaism or Christianity in Qatar is punishable by up to seven years in prison, as per US State Department report on religion