A Tale of 2 Extremes: Islamist Reactions to Hindutva Nationalism

The establishment of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and the Islamic State coincided with the rise of a Hindutva government in India. Today, both ISIS and AQIS are competing throughout South Asia to win recruits, conduct terror attacks, and foment religious turmoil—and both have increasingly fixed their gaze on India. While it has been widely recognized these two Salafi-Jihadist movements are seeking to exploit Muslim-Hindu communal tensions in India for their own gain, less attention has been paid to their rhetoric about the Modi government and the social and political ascendancy of Hindutva or Hindu Nationalism. This dynamic demands greater attention.