Mumbai/Hyderabad: Actor Naseeruddin Shah, poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar, former top cop Julio Ribeiro and activists Javed Anand and Yogendra Yadav are among over a hundred prominent Indians from diverse backgrounds who issued a statement on Saturday condemning the Paris beheadings and deploring the outrageous statements by Muslim religious and political leaders. Among other things, the statement read: “No God, gods, goddesses, prophets or saints may be invoked to justify the killing and/or terrorising of fellow human beings.”

“We are deeply disturbed by the convoluted logic of some self-appointed guardians of Indian Muslims in rationalising cold-blooded murder and deplore the outrageous remarks of some heads of state. It has become the order of the day for all religious groups to indulge in whataboutery whenever such heinous crimes are committed by those belonging to their flock. Rationalising crimes by comparing them to similar crimes committed by others is an irrational and absurd argument as two wrongs don’t make a right,” the statement said.

“We stand in solidarity with the ‘French Council for the Muslim Faith’ for strongly condemning the attacks and issuing an appeal calling on all Muslims in France to “cancel all celebrations of the birthday of the Prophet as a sign of mourning and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, in Hyderabad, Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) — the Muslim wing of the RSS — took to the streets on Saturday to protest Islamophobia in France and the alleged support extended by French president Emmanuel Macron to groups blaspheming the Prophet.