Indian Muslims fear state-driven Islamophobia more than the pandemic itself.

Evidence

“I am more afraid of extremists than I am of the virus,” shared Yusuf, a father of two living in Uttar Pradesh. “I know more people hospitalized by Hindutva than the sickness.” So Yusuf, and millions of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh and the rest of India, stay locked inside—for as long as humanly possible—to safeguard themselves and loved ones from two parallel pandemics that are on a violent collision course. … Staying at home and social distancing, for Muslims in India, may be a matter of life and death. Not as much out of fear of the global virus that has had much of the world confined and quarantined, but out of fear of a far more ominous and deadly pandemic—Indian Islamophobia. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 468

Categorization

• QUESTION: The rhetoric of the COVID-I have internalized the comparison deeply, maybe I can track how this parallels the Chinese state’s own internalizing of the same rhetoric.