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 celebration. A few of their properties 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 towards greater than 2,500 Muslims. At the least 40 individuals have been arrested throughout a number of states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP), in keeping with 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 like Muhammad”.
However the board, mimicking the favored “I Love New York” signage that has been copied all around 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, based mostly on complaints, the police filed a case towards two dozen individuals on way more severe expenses: 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 towards 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 like Muhammad” hoardings and writings got here up throughout the nation – from individuals’s social media handles to t-shirts.
Almost 270km (168 miles) away from Kanpur, in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, a bunch of individuals taking part in an illustration referred to as by a neighborhood imam towards the Kanpur arrests, violently clashed with the police on September 26.
The police hit again with a crackdown, arresting 75 individuals, together with the imam, Tauqeer Raza, his kin and his aides. At the least 4 buildings belonging to the accused people have been bulldozed by the native authorities.
In recent times, lots of of Indian Muslims have misplaced their properties to such demolitions, which are sometimes carried out with none discover issued by authorities, or any courtroom order. India’s Supreme Court docket 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 commonly not adopted, say activists.
In the meantime, dozens of different Muslims have been arrested in numerous states – together with some in Modi’s residence state of Gujarat – for social media posts and movies carrying the “I like Muhammad” slogan.
Is it unlawful?
India’s structure ensures the liberty of faith and the fitting to specific 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 fitting to freedom of speech and expression, until it straight incites violence or hatred.
Within the circumstances of individuals arrested as a part of the “I Love Muhammad” crackdown, the police have principally 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 towards 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 towards authorities officers for equally focusing on Muslims for social media expressions, or when their properties 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 towards associated police crackdowns.
“They know that there is no such thing as a legislation that criminalises simply the mere expression of ‘I Love Muhammad’,” Khan mentioned.
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’t 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 individuals’s proper to freedom of expression and spiritual perception units a deeply troubling precedent, mentioned Aakar Patel, the chair of Amnesty Worldwide India’s board.
“Concentrating on individuals for slogans resembling ‘I Love Muhammad’, which is peaceable and devoid of any incitement or menace, doesn’t meet the edge for legal restriction underneath both Indian constitutional legislation or worldwide human rights legislation,” Patel instructed Al Jazeera.
“Public order issues should be addressed proportionately and can’t justify the blanket suppression of non secular identification or expression,” he added.
“The position of the state is to safeguard rights equally, to not police expressions of perception,” mentioned Amnesty’s Patel. “Upholding constitutional and worldwide commitments isn’t non-compulsory; it’s a authorized obligation.”
Is there a sample?
Critics say that the crackdown is just the most recent occasion of Indian Muslims going through marginalisation, violence or the focused brunt of the legislation since Modi got here to energy in 2014.
Prior 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 big 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 rework into nationwide points, mentioned Asim Ali, a political analyst based mostly in Delhi.
“There may be a complete ecosystem in place, from pliant media to social media organisation, to unfold this hate quickly,” mentioned Ali. “And the legislation is learn in such a method that any expression of non secular identification, particularly of Muslims, could 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 the 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, mentioned that the row over “I Love Muhammad” is “overtly very political, and never spiritual”.
And in India, there may be rising frustration amongst Muslims, particularly youth, the place they see that one algorithm isn’t utilized for all, on the subject of issues of cultural identification and consuming habits, mentioned Kidwai.
A number of of the accused, or arrested, as a part of the “I Love Muhammad” crackdown, embody younger grownup Muslims, in keeping with information 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, mentioned 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 longer term could maintain now,” he mentioned. “The tempo of hate is rising day-to-day.”
