Anand Ranganathan, a scientist, columnist and professor at Jawaharlal National University, was blocked by Twitter on Wednesday apparently for ‘hateful conduct’.
Professor Ranganathan had posted the English translation of a Quranic Verse in the light of Bengaluru violence and also gave reference to the text.
“Those who abuse Allah and His Messenger, Allah has cursed them in this world and the Hereafter and prepared for them a HUMILIATING punishment” 33:57. Let those Muslims who advocate the contrary have the GUTS to say they don’t believe in this order. https://t.co/7ZHiEsh1Wx”
The original verse and its translation can be found here.
In response to this, Prof. Ranganathan has replied to Twitter if the verse from Holy Koran is hateful and has asked Twitter to clarify its position.
A Muslim mob in Bengaluru went on a rampage on Tuesday night in which it vandalized the KJ Halli police station and the house of Dalit Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy allegedly over a Facebook post on Prophet Mohammad by a relative of the MLA.
Following the incident many Muslims claimed on Twitter that Islam does not advocate violence. In response to this, Dr. Ranganathan had quoted the above verse.
However, the microblogging site blocked Anand Ranganathan claiming that it was a hateful content.
Many called out the selective censorship policy of Twitter and also questioned its neutrality.
So please do not quote any verse from the Quran as it will be considered Hate Speech. However, you are free to mock, deride, insult anything Hindu. #BringBackAnandRanganathan
— Nandini 🇮🇳 (@NAN_DINI_) August 13, 2020
Some also questioned if citing Quran amounted to blasphemy and whether Twitter is Islamophobic.
I always suspected and maintained that @twitter is primarily a tool of leftists and would be used to censor any factual discussion–Shame to block @ARanganathan72 oneof the finest and sharpest gentleman on this media —#liftbanonRanganathan72 RT
— RVAIDYA2000 (@rvaidya2000) August 13, 2020
This is not the first time Dr. Ranganathan has been targeted by Twitter. Earlier his tweets were blocked or his account locked over alleged violation of Twitter rules.