Giving derogatory name to religious minority

22-6-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. I am from Bangladesh, where a low percentage of Hindu Bangalis reside. Some of the Muslims here call all the Hindus 'Malawun', which comes from the Arabic 'Mal'un', which means cursed. As far as I know about the word 'La'nah', it means going out of Allaah's mercy. I fear that by calling them by this derogatory term, they are increasing Hindu-Muslim tensions in this country without any reason. So what should I do?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger. 

We believe that this conduct must be forbidden for two reasons:

Firstly, if they find out that this name is an insult, it might happen that they would respond by insulting Allah, The Exalted, or Islam or the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. For more information, please refer to fatwa 30761.

Secondly, this may cause grave evils for Muslims in your country or in other countries with Muslim minorities and Hindu majorities, and reality best testifies to this.

Allah knows best.