Against Hatred. Against Lies.

One truth must be spoken aloud: human dignity does not depend on nationality, religion, or place of birth.

The attacks on immigrants across Western societies are not random outbursts of anger. They are symptoms—clear, disturbing symptoms—of the growth of right-wing extremist ideologies. These are ideologies that cannot survive without enemies. Hatred is their oxygen.

Over the past months, a grave pattern has unfolded across Europe and beyond. We see it in Britain and Ireland, as well as in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. What once existed as scattered, fringe groups has now been welded into larger, louder, and far more dangerous coalitions of hate.

In Britain, more than 100,000 people marched in protests against immigrants. Groups that once targeted Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, or Jews separately have learned to unify their prejudices into a single, all-encompassing intolerance—hostility not toward a religion alone, but toward the very idea of immigration itself.

Anti-immigrant rally in Britain

In Ireland, protests that began under the banner of opposing “illegal migration” rapidly turned against legal immigrants as well—including Indians who had entered and settled lawfully. Before long, these movements were commandeered by far-right extremists and violent gangs, energising groups that view all foreigners as enemies, all differences as a threat.

In New Zealand, Christian fundamentalists initially marched, claiming the country as exclusively Christian, demanding that Muslims “go back.” Soon their fury shifted to Sikhs, and then to Hindus. In grotesque distortion, they even borrowed the haka—the sacred war dance of the Māori people—chanting that all non-Christians must leave the land.

It was the Māori themselves who finally rose against this nationalist-religious extremism, reminding the world of an inconvenient truth: the old European settlers who now preach “purity” were themselves colonisers and occupiers. The irony was devastating.

New Zealand is widely known as one of the world’s most tolerant, multicultural societies. And yet, even there, extremist religious nationalism has found fertile ground.

Anti-immigrant protest with Haka dance in New Zealand

Let us be absolutely clear: what we are witnessing is not debate, not policy disagreement, not democratic dissent. These are attacks. Human lives are being bargained away.

In several European cities, immigrants wake up to find hateful slogans smeared across their walls—“Go back,” painted in venomous strokes. Many of those targeted were born in these very countries. They grew up there. They belong there.

Elsewhere, refugee centres have been attacked. Windows smashed. Threats screamed. Sometimes, even arson is attempted. These acts are not responses to crimes. They are punishments for identity.

And this is happening not in failed states, but in societies that proudly call themselves democratic and civilised.

We must recognise this for what it is. These are not spontaneous expressions of “public anger.” They are deliberately manufactured. Behind them stand organised far-right nationalist extremist groups.

They begin with slogans.

“They are taking over.”

“They are breeding too fast.”

“They marry our women.”

“They steal our jobs.”

“Our culture is under threat.”

Soon, words harden into actions. Immigrants face abuse and humiliation on public transport. In some places, physical assaults target anyone who “looks foreign.” Places of worship and immigrant neighbourhoods receive threats.

History has seen this before. And history has taught us how it ends.

When people are attacked for who they are, it is not politics. It is the collapse of moral reason.

This danger deepens when such events are cynically weaponised elsewhere—particularly in India. Certain groups amplify news of these attacks, shouting: “Look—Muslims are hated everywhere!” They then use this distortion to justify their own anti-Muslim propaganda at home.

This is discrimination. This is incitement. This is the grotesque twisting of reality.

Hate crimes in Western countries are not evidence that Muslims are universally rejected because of their faith. They are evidence of the hatred and dangerous expansion of right-wing extremism.

Such ideologies cannot exist without enemies. In one country, they target immigrants. In another, religious minorities. Elsewhere, journalists, atheists, dissenters. The targets change. The mindset does not.

Racial hatred in the West and communal hatred in India are not opposites. They are different expressions of the same fear-driven, authoritarian impulse.

This is where rationalists and free thinkers must pause—and be precise.

There is a fundamental difference between legal immigration and illegal migration. Legal immigrants enter through lawful processes: work visas, student visas, refugee protections, and family reunification. They work. They pay taxes. They strengthen healthcare, science, industry, and culture.

Illegal migration does pose real administrative challenges for governments—border management, resource allocation, and governance. These are genuine policy issues. But no administrative problem can justify hatred toward an entire community.

Western governments have not declared immigrants to be less than human. Their stated concern is unregulated migration. Extremists deliberately erase this distinction, transforming policy debates into mob hostility. When that happens, reason and common sense vanish.

No policy disagreement can ever justify attacking families, threatening children, or turning neighbours into enemies.

Nationalists claim that hostility toward immigrants “protects society.” In reality, it poisons it. No civilisation has ever advanced through isolation or exclusion.

Human progress has always depended on human movement—on the exchange of ideas, the mingling of cultures. Science, medicine, technology, art—every field of human achievement bears the imprint of migration.

Those who attack immigrants while shouting that they are “defending civilisation” are, in truth, destroying its moral foundations.

The position of rationalists, free thinkers, and humanists must be unambiguous. We oppose hate-based crimes everywhere. We reject extremist nationalist propaganda built on fear and falsehood. We support the rule of law—but we refuse to allow it to be used as a weapon against communities.

One truth must be spoken aloud: human dignity does not depend on nationality, religion, or place of birth.

The world today does not need more hatred. It needs more reason. Not narrower identities, but broader humanism. Not fear of difference, but confidence in coexistence.

A civilised world must be multicultural, plural, and humane. Anything less is not civilisation at all.