'This Is It. I'm Going To Die': India's Minorities Are Targeted In Lynchings
Last year, a long-distance truck driver, Mohammad Hashim, was hauling a load of refrigerators out of New Delhi when a dozen strangers on motorbikes forced him off the road.
They pulled him out of his truck and demanded he open the back. They wanted to see if Hashim was transporting cows or beef — which is illegal in many Indian states, because cows are sacred in Hinduism, the majority religion in India.
"But I'm just the driver, and I'm not allowed to open the back of the truck. It was locked," Hashim, 45, recalls. "So they pulled on my beard and tried to force me to chant 'Jai Shri Ram.'"
That slogan — which means "Praise Lord Ram," a Hindu god — has long been known as a prayer. Now it's an incitement to mob violence against India's minorities.
Hashim, a Muslim, refused to chant in praise of a Hindu god. So the
