- Thursday, February 27, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
FORMER Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar spoke out on the ongoing controversy related to Prophet Muhammad after a leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uttered words about him on a television debate that did not go down well with the Muslim community. However, his condemnation saw a retaliation from Indians who reminded him of the vandalization of a Hindu temple in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday (8).
The 46-year-old former speedster with more than 400 international wickets wrote on Twitter that the Prophet is everything to him and praised the Indian government over its action against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal. While Sharma was suspended, Jindal was expelled from the party for his controversial remarks on the Prophet.
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Akhtar said he condemned the “insulting and disrespectful” remarks and hoped that the Narendra Modi government will ensure that such things did not happen again.
— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) June 9, 2022
India faced a massive backlash from the Muslim world, including the Arab nations, over Sharma’s remarks and had to get into a diplomatic firefighting to set things in order.
However, Indians hit back at Akhtar over his tweet and pointed out the act of vandalism in Karachi.
India’s ministry of external affairs lodged a protest with the Pakistan government over the incident and said it was “another act of systemic persecution of religious minorities”.
We’ve noted recent incident of vandalisation of a Hindu temple in Karachi. We believe it’s another act of systemic persecution of religious minorities. We’ve conveyed our protest to Pakistan Govt, urging them to ensure safety, security &well-being of its minority communities: MEA pic.twitter.com/UqFo8iw7WO
— ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2022
The Indian Twitter users asked Akhtar to condemn the incident in Karachi and advised him to ask his country’s prime minister to write a letter on the Karachi vandalism and tweet.
Here are some reactions to Akhtar’s tweet:
Take care of this first….ask your PM write a letter and tweet https://t.co/n0XQ7Tmb2M
— Subhasish (@Subhasish_w) June 9, 2022
Also condemn this one
— Mayur King (@Mayurking1990) June 9, 2022
What about constant attacks on Hindu temples in your country ?
Honour and respect of our Gods also means everything to us irrespective of whether you believe or not.
Have you condemned the constant attacks on temples ? Or do you secretly support it ? This happened today ?? pic.twitter.com/FEMdzqhK9L— Piyush | पीयूष (@Pyush_k) June 9, 2022
