Bal Thackeray

Bal Thackeray (1926-2012) was an Indian don spiritual leader. He headed a political party known as Shiv SenaFile:Wikipedia's W.svg. His group Shiv Sena's motto is Mumbai for Marathis. (Mumbai is a metro city where people from all over India come and live). Shiv Sena vehemently claim that they are not anti-Muslim.

Inventing "The Other"
Islamophobia
Fear And Loathing
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A guide to
Indian Politics
Jai Hind?
Persons of interest
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“”If you take Mein Kampf and if you remove the word Jew and put in the word Muslim, that is what I believe in.
—Bal Thackeray[1]

Views

Thackeray was very vocal in his opposition to people who migrate to Mumbai, to non-Hindus (especially Muslims), and to illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh. In the late 1970s, as part of his "Maharashtra is for Maharashtrians" campaign, Thackeray threatened migrants from South India with harm unless they left Mumbai. In 2002, Thackeray issued a call to form Hindu suicide squads to counter alleged Muslim violence.

On Muslims

He equated Islam with violence and urged Hindus to fight terrorism and Islam. He regularly wrote inflammatory anti-Muslim columns in his newspaper Samna. He criticized former Indian president A. P. J. Abdul Kalam since he was a Muslim.

Admiration for Hitler

Bal Thackeray was a great fan of Hitler. He said that Muslims in India will meet the same fate German Jews did. [2]

Religious beliefs

Ironically he claimed that he is an atheist, perhaps in an attempt to discredit atheists.[3]

gollark: Never mind, I checked the internet, now I have a rough idea.
gollark: I have no idea what "thermic analysis" is, but... enjoy?
gollark: I can remember random facts fine, just not... life events, at all.
gollark: I did do geography for a while (pre-GCSEs), but it wasn't grouped in with the science stuff. I've also completely forgotten what we did, so very effective teaching right there.
gollark: Ah.

References

Footnotes
  1. https://www.thedailybeast.com/hitlers-strange-afterlife-in-india
  2. In rod we trust, Varsha Bhosle, 29 January 1998
  3. The Rebirth of Shiv Sena: The Symbiosis of Discursive and Organizational Power, Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Uday Singh Mehta, Usha Thakkar, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 56, No. 2 (May, 1997), pp. 371-390, JSTOR link (requires subscription) Google Search result showing the quote
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