New Delhi, India – For the final month, Indian police have raided a number of markets and houses, arresting Muslim males in states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist get together. A few of their houses have been bulldozed.
The genesis of their alleged crime is widespread: writing, “I Love Muhammad”, a reference to Prophet Muhammad, on posters, t-shirts, or in social media posts. The authorities say the expression is threatening “public order”.
To date, not less than 22 circumstances have been registered in opposition to greater than 2,500 Muslims. No less than 40 folks have been arrested throughout a number of states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP), in response to the nonprofit Affiliation for Safety of Civil Rights (APCR).
So, what is going on? How and the place did this begin? And is it unlawful to say ‘I Love Muhammad’ in India?
What’s taking place?
On September 4, Muslims residing in Kanpur metropolis of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have been observing Eid al-Milad al-Nabi, the celebration of the start of Prophet Muhammad, when a neighbourhood put up an illuminated board saying, “I really like Muhammad”.
However the board, mimicking the favored “I Love New York” signage that has been copied everywhere in the world, drew criticism from some native Hindus. Initially, their grievance alleged that the illuminated board was a brand new introduction to conventional festivities on the event, when Uttar Pradesh’s legal guidelines bar new additions to public spiritual celebrations. About 20 p.c of Kanpur’s inhabitants is Muslim.
Nevertheless, primarily based on complaints, the police filed a case in opposition to two dozen folks on rather more critical prices: selling enmity on the grounds of faith. The cost carries a punishment of as much as 5 years in jail if the accused particular person is convicted.
The Kanpur episode drew widespread criticism from Muslim political leaders, and protests in opposition to the police motion unfold to different states, together with Telangana in southern India, Gujarat and Maharashtra within the west, and in Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir within the north. The “I really like Muhammad” hoardings and writings got here up throughout the nation – from folks’s social media handles to t-shirts.
Practically 270km (168 miles) away from Kanpur, in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, a bunch of individuals collaborating in an indication referred to as by a neighborhood imam in opposition to the Kanpur arrests, violently clashed with the police on September 26.
The police hit again with a crackdown, arresting 75 folks, together with the imam, Tauqeer Raza, his family members and his aides. No less than 4 buildings belonging to the accused people have been bulldozed by the native authorities.
Lately, a whole lot of Indian Muslims have misplaced their houses to such demolitions, which are sometimes carried out with none discover issued by authorities, or any courtroom order. India’s Supreme Courtroom has noticed that demolitions can’t be used as a type of extra-legal punishment, warning that state authorities should give prior discover earlier than razing any property. But, on the bottom, that order is usually not adopted, say activists.
In the meantime, dozens of different Muslims have been arrested in several states – together with some in Modi’s residence state of Gujarat – for social media posts and movies carrying the “I really like Muhammad” slogan.
Is it unlawful?
India’s structure ensures the liberty of faith and the precise to precise it. Article 25 protects each particular person’s freedom to practise their faith. Residents are additionally protected underneath Article 19(1)(a), which ensures the precise to freedom of speech and expression, except it straight incites violence or hatred.
Within the circumstances of individuals arrested as a part of the “I Love Muhammad” crackdown, the police have largely charged them underneath authorized provisions that bar giant gatherings geared toward committing “mischief”, or for acts that allegedly provoke spiritual tensions. Nevertheless, these provisions have been utilized in opposition to these arrested for social media posts, or carrying t-shirts with “I Love Muhammad” emblazoned on them.
Nadeem Khan, the nationwide coordinator of APCR, the nonprofit that has been monitoring these circumstances, has fought earlier lawsuits in opposition to authorities officers for equally focusing on Muslims for social media expressions, or when their houses have been bulldozed.
Khan instructed Al Jazeera that authorities have been fastidiously utilizing authorized provisions that focus not on the “I Love Muhammad” expression itself, however on alleged offences carried out by those that used the expression or protested in opposition to associated police crackdowns.
“They know that there isn’t a legislation that criminalises simply the mere expression of ‘I Love Muhammad’,” Khan stated.
Khan famous that throughout India, photographs of Hindu gods wielding their conventional weapons have lengthy been commonplace. “These photographs are at each nook of the nation; ought to it additionally offend or threaten all Muslims then?” he requested. “Everybody ought to perceive that the federal government can not criminalise a faith like this,” he added, referring to Islam.
Since 2014, when Modi took over the facility in New Delhi, India has persistently slid in a spread of worldwide democratic indices.
Criminalising folks’s proper to freedom of expression and spiritual perception units a deeply troubling precedent, stated Aakar Patel, the chair of Amnesty Worldwide India’s board.
“Focusing on folks for slogans reminiscent of ‘I Love Muhammad’, which is peaceable and devoid of any incitement or menace, doesn’t meet the brink for prison restriction underneath both Indian constitutional legislation or worldwide human rights legislation,” Patel instructed Al Jazeera.
“Public order issues have to be addressed proportionately and can’t justify the blanket suppression of non secular id or expression,” he added.
“The function of the state is to safeguard rights equally, to not police expressions of perception,” stated Amnesty’s Patel. “Upholding constitutional and worldwide commitments is just not non-obligatory; it’s a authorized obligation.”
Is there a sample?
Critics say that the crackdown is just the most recent occasion of Indian Muslims dealing with marginalisation, violence or the focused brunt of the legislation since Modi got here to energy in 2014.
Up to now 11 years, the incidents of hate speech focusing on spiritual minorities have skyrocketed. Documented situations of hate speech jumped from 668 in 2023 to 1,165 final yr, an increase of about 74 p.c. A major majority of those incidents occurred in BJP-governed states, or locations the place elections have been upcoming.
More and more, native Hindu-Muslim disputes now quickly remodel into nationwide points, stated Asim Ali, a political analyst primarily based in Delhi.
“There may be a whole ecosystem in place, from pliant media to social media organisation, to unfold this hate quickly,” stated Ali. “And the legislation is learn in such a approach that any expression of non secular id, particularly of Muslims, may be seen as inciting spiritual hatred,” he added.
After the “I Love Muhammad” episode in Kanpur, BJP leaders in Modi’s personal constituency, Varanasi, put up posters saying, “I Love Bulldozer” at main intersections of town, in a reference to the bulldozing of homes of the accused.
How does it have an effect on younger Muslims?
Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst, stated that the row over “I Love Muhammad” is “overtly very political, and never spiritual”.
And in India, there’s rising frustration amongst Muslims, particularly youth, the place they see that one algorithm is just not utilized for all, in terms of issues of cultural id and consuming habits, stated Kidwai.
A number of of the accused, or arrested, as a part of the “I Love Muhammad” crackdown, embody younger grownup Muslims, in response to knowledge from APCR, together with those that have been arrested for social media posts.
The crackdown on “I Love Muhammad” expression dangers alienating younger Muslim adults much more, stated Ali. “In idea, everyone seems to be already responsible and might face motion for simply being,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
“It’s getting troublesome to think about what the long run could maintain now,” he stated. “The tempo of hate is growing day-to-day.”
