Saurabh Upadhyay, whose profile described him as the CEO of Rockwell Events and Sales, was called out for his Islamophobic tweets with Princess Hend Al Qassimi of the Sharjah Royal family.
Princess Hend Al Qassimi, a member of UAE royal family slammed “Islamophobic posts” on Twitter stating that such posts “Will not go unnoticed”!
“Anyone that is openly racist and discriminatory in the UAE will be fined and made to leave. An example, Princes Hend Al Qassimi responded to the Tweet of Indian expat Saurabh Upadhyay.”
Saurabh Upadhyay deactivated company’s website, Linkedin profile. His Facebook, Twitter, accounts disappeared after Royal family member warns of consequences for Islamophobia.
Abusing Muslims and denigrating Islam has become the normality for most of the right-wing individuals working in the Gulf
The rising Islamophobia from Indian expats living in the Gulf nations has come under the radar of many gulf citizens, activists and intellectuals as not only the crime against Muslims in India has increased but also the attacks from the right-wing individuals on social media has seen a rise after the Coronavirus pandemic was given a communal angle by Indian Media.
Right-wing Indian expats in Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait etc., are seen blaming Muslims for the spread of Coronavirus, which has led them to criticize Islam and dub the spread as ‘Corona Jihad’ on social media.
Despite many Indians sacked by Gulf states for their posts on social media, there is a growing list of expats who are landing in trouble for their alleged Islamophobic posts in the recent days.
An Indian national working as a chief accountant in Dubai was sacked after his posts went viral evoking criticism. Another individual working at a facilities management company was sacked after his post caused outrage on social media, there were other individuals, who were reported to Dubai police for mocking Islam and Muslims.
A branch of Burger King in Kuwait has sacked one of its employees after his post went viral. The BK management also reiterated that these things will not be tolerated.
Elsewhere an Indian lost his job for his anti-Muslim rants on social media after being reported to Kuwait authorities.
The allegations and hostility has been criticized by many Gulf Citizens including Zahrani Abidi, Abdur Rahman Nassar, and Princess Hend Al Qassimi, and many others.
Abdur Rahman Nassar from Kuwait has been highly vocal about the way Indian Muslims are treated, despite Indian expats from 53 Muslim countries remitting $120 Billion per year to India.
Nassar Raised the point in his tweet saying “Every year, more than 55 billion $ are transferred to India from the Gulf countries, and more than 120 billion annually from all Muslim countries. Indians (mostly Hindus) are treated well in these countries. In return, how are Muslims treated in India?”
Princess Hend al Qassimi of the Sharjah Royal Family, warned a twitter user after he put out several tweets targeting Muslims over the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also used foul language and wrote, “do whatever you want to do”, in a fiery tweet Princess responded to the user “You make your bread and butter from this land which you scorn and your ridicule will not go unnoticed.”
Later the user deactivated all his social media profiles after Princess warned him of dire consequences.
Later on, Saurabh Upadhyay deactivated all his social media profiles after Princess warned him of dire consequences.
Noora Al Ghurair, an Emarti businesswoman, called out another twitter user, who is based in Dubai for past 20 years, for her tweet against Sunni Muslims, Noora tagged Dubai police and warned that “Any call for boycott & hatred will not be accepted in our lands”.
Who is Princess Hend Al Qassimi? All you need to know about the latest anti-hate speech crusader
Princess Hend Al Qassimi, it appears, has become the new crusader against hate speech on Twitter. Responding to Upadhyay’s tweets, she said that such behaviour would not be tolerated in the United Arab Emirates.
“Hate speech is the beginning of genocide. Gandhi once said: “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” Let us learn from the bloody history we have now documented and in pictures and film. Understand that death begets death & love begets love. Prosperity starts with peace,” she tweeted.
The princes Hend Al Qassimi received a lot of praise for the tweet and her action against hate speech.
But who is Princess Hend Al Qassimi and when did she become famous?
Growing up years:
Her father is a doctor and her mother, a school principal in the United Arab Emirates.
Multiple qualifications:
According to her Wikipedia page, Princess Hend Al Qassimi studied architecture, project management, entrepreneurship, Management, Marketing, Communications & Media, and etiquette across various institutions across the world.
Career as a journalist:
She has written for various publications and is also the editor-in-chief of a lifestyle magazine. She has written a book titled ‘The Black Book of Arabia’.
Marriage and separation:
She was married to Prince Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar in 2006. They even had a son, but later separated amicably. In an interview, she said that Prince Al Thani. She was told that if she left him, she would have no rights. She agreed and surrendered everything that was part of dowry given to him during the wedding. She then moved back to UAE with her son.
Return to Qatar:
The Princess moved back to Qatar after she alleged that the Emir took her son away from her. She has been in Doha since, and has been in a constant struggle to get custody of her son. She had even put out a video on social media with an appeal. Currently, the Qatari administration is yet to issue a passport for her son so he can return to UAE with her.
Anti-meat eater?:
On April 8, she shared a video of a woman eating a live turtle saying, “Anything that crawls, flows, walks, slither, barks, howls, meows, calls, wails, lives or moves is edible according to some.” See her Tweet, below.
She even retweeted similar videos of other people agreeing that these people (,Who are eating sea creature alive) are not normal.