Muslims in Modi’s India: Response to Hindutva zealots irked by Iran Leader’s remarks

By Atefeh Rezaei

Earlier this week, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei met with a delegation of Iranian Sunni scholars to mark the beginning of ‘Islamic Unity Week’, which is observed every year on the birth anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

During the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that the identity of the Islamic Ummah is “a fundamental issue beyond nationality” and that “geographical boundaries do not alter the truth and identity of the Islamic Ummah."

He further stressed that it goes against Islamic teachings for Muslims to remain indifferent to the suffering of fellow Muslims anywhere in the world, from Myanmar to Gaza to India.

Some of his remarks from the speech were later posted on his English X page, formerly Twitter.

“The enemies of Islam have always sought to make us indifferent to our shared identity as an Islamic Ummah. We cannot call ourselves Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering endured by Muslims in Myanmar, Gaza, India, or anywhere else,” read one of the tweets.

It didn’t go down well with the Indian government. Indian external affairs ministry issued a statement “strongly” condemning the statement made by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

The statement termed Ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks "misinformed and unacceptable."

The run-of-the-mill news channels in India also jumped on the bandwagon to “condemn” the remarks and millions of active social media users in the world’s most-populated country followed suit, using it as a pretext to fan Islamophobia and Iranophobia.

However, many supported the Iranian leader’s remarks based on the documented cases of how members of the minority Muslim community in India have been unfairly treated, especially under the incumbent Narendra Modi government.

Straight from the horse's mouth

Earlier this year, in an election speech, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to India's 200 million Muslims as “infiltrators.” It didn’t come as a surprise as ruling party leaders have since 2014 normalized the vilification of minority Muslims in secular democratic India.

Research by India Hate Lab, a US-based NGO, revealed that in the first half of 2023, there were 255 documented hate speech rallies targeting Muslims across 17 Indian states.

"Approximately 52% of these hate speech gatherings took place in states ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and were orchestrated by entities linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal, and BJP," reported the group, referring to the ruling party and its parent organizations.

A 2018 media report found that there had been a 500% increase in communal hate speech by senior Indian government officials, leading to a rise in anti-minority violence in the country between 2014 and 2018.

According to ‘Act Now for Harmony and Democracy’ (ANHAD), a Delhi-based socio-cultural organization, there has been a significant increase in hate speech and hate crimes against religious minorities since 2014, when the Modi-led BJP rose to power.

In his book ‘Being Muslim in Hindu India’, Indian author and journalist Ziya Us Salam notes that Muslims have become “second-class citizens, an invisible minority in their own country.”

“My Muslim community stands orphaned, not only abandoned by the ruling BJP but repeatedly marked as responsible for the supposed ills of the nation. There is an overwhelming sense of being part of a group under siege,” writes the veteran journalist who works for The Hindu.

Since Modi's first term in 2014, nearly 50 lynchings of Muslim men related to cow protection have been reported. The BJP’s campaign has empowered vigilante groups, who in some cases have operated with the tacit support of state authorities.

Mainstreaming of ‘bulldozer justice’

Another reprehensible tactic used to target Indian Muslims is what has come to be known as the "bulldozer justice" method.

There have been hundreds of cases where authorities have used bulldozers to demolish Muslim homes, businesses, and places of worship in different parts of the country.

Reports indicate that authorities in five Indian states—Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi—carried out such demolitions as "punishment" following incidents of religious violence or protests by Muslims.

A 2019 report by the Indian NGO ‘Common Cause’ found that half of the police surveyed demonstrated an overt anti-Muslim bias, making law enforcement less likely to intervene in crimes committed against minority Muslims.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has also officially condemned the rising number of violent attacks against Muslims and their properties in India.

In 2022, the OIC denounced the derogatory remarks made about the Prophet Muhammad by a BJP official, which also led to widespread protests by Muslims in the country.

"These incidents of defamation are part of a growing wave of Islamophobia in India, alongside systematic practices against Indian Muslims, including the hijab ban in some educational institutions, demolitions of Muslim properties, and escalating violence," the OIC said.

Recent documented instances of violence against Muslims in India

September 2024

On September 8, a right-wing Hindutva mob vandalized several Muslim-owned shops and a local Eidgah in the Kathlal-Balasinor area of Gujarat, a state situated on the western coast of India.

The violence erupted after a minor road accident and escalated quickly as the Hindutva mob went on a rampage, targeting properties associated with minority Muslims.

A vehicle was set ablaze in broad daylight. Social media footage showed mobs ransacking Muslim-owned shops while vociferously chanting "Jai Shri Ram," stoking the flames of communal violence.

According to reports in Indian media, the targeted violence took place in the presence of law enforcement agencies, with little to no intervention.

September 2024

Ashraf Ali Sayyed Hussain, 72, was on a routine journey from Jalgaon to Kalyan in Maharashtra, western India, when a group of young men heading to Mumbai for a police recruitment exam accused him of carrying "cow meat."

They suddenly turned into cow vigilantes, punching Hussain in the face, chest, and stomach, while hurling choicest abuses. They also snatched his phone and recorded the assault, which they later posted on social media pages without any fear of consequences.

Despite clear video evidence of the brutal attack, the Indian police charged the mob under bailable sections of the law, releasing them on bail within a day, triggering anger and outrage.

August 2024

In a case of "beef lynching" reported from Haryana, northern India, a 22-year-old migrant laborer, Sabir Malik, was beaten to death by cow vigilantes on August 27.

Malik, a rag picker from West Bengal, had been residing in Haryana with his wife and two-year-old child, doing menial work to make ends meet.

Cow vigilante groups raided migrant worker settlements, searching for beef dishes. Malik was killed before the police could even confirm if the meat in question was beef or anything else.

June 2024

In a nondescript village in the BJP-governed state of Madhya Pradesh, central India, authorities demolished the homes of at least 11 Muslim families on suspicion of storing beef in refrigerators.

The crackdown occurred ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha, and five Muslim men were arrested in connection with the case and brutally roughed up in custody.

June 2024

Three Muslim construction workers, Nasirul Haque, Mohammed Samiruddin, and Mohammed Nasir, were beaten to death by a right-wing Hindu mob in West Bengal, a state in eastern India, on unsubstantiated charges of stealing a cow.

June 2024

Fifteen-year-old Junaid Khan was stabbed to death on a train in Haryana, a state in northern India, following an argument over seating arrangements, according to media reports.

The confrontation escalated into a religiously motivated attack on the teenage Muslim man, during which Junaid was called a "Mulla" and "beef-eater."

The mob threw away his skull cap, and his brother was severely injured in the attack.

June 2024

A viral video showed Muhammad Farid, 35, being beaten to death with iron rods in Aligarh, a city in Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state in the country that the BJP rules.

A group of hardline Hindus attacked him after confirming his Muslim identity. Farid’s brother, Muhammad Zaki, filed a police complaint describing the incident as a "mob lynching."

"We were unable to give him a ghusl (full ablution) due to the extent of his injuries," Farid's sister, Zakia Wali, was later quoted as saying by local media.

May 2024

Ghulam Mohammed, 65, was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh after a Muslim man and a Hindu woman reportedly eloped from a village in the Meerut district.

The attackers, allegedly members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a right-wing Hindu group, viewed the incident as part of the so-called "love jihad"—a conspiracy theory that claims Muslim men seduce Hindu women to convert them to Islam.

April 2024

A right-wing Hindu mob lynched to death Abu Hanifa and Riazuddin Ali in Assam, a state in northeast India, on suspicion of cow theft. The case was later shelved to protect the perpetrators.

April 2024

Fifty-five-year-old Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer, along with four other Muslim men, was ruthlessly assaulted by a Hindu mob in Rajasthan, a state in northwestern India. Khan died two days later.

The mob falsely accused them of cow smuggling. Following the killing, the Rajasthan home minister justified the lynching, falsely claiming that Khan belonged to a family of cow smugglers.

January 2024

Following the opening of the Ram temple by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bulldozers demolished 15 Muslim-owned shops in the Mira-Bhayandar area of Maharashtra, western India.

Afterward, Hindutva mobs rallied in the area, targeting more Muslim shops and vehicles.

January 2024

On January 24, Muhammad Tariq Chaudhary, along with two other Muslim workers, was driving a tempo through a Mumbai neighborhood when a far-right Hindutva mob stopped them.

The mob assaulted the three men, demanding they chant “Jai Shri Ram,” a Hindu religious slogan. Tariq was dragged out of the tempo and brutally beaten.

The workers accompanying Tariq, Matiullah Shah, 21, and Deen Ali Shaikh, 45, were injured on the head. Shah confirmed that the mob demanded that they chant the “Jai Shri Ram” slogan.

Tariq, Shah, and Shaikh managed to run away, leaving the tempo behind.

Videos that went viral on social media showed Hindutva supporters carrying out several rallies in the area. The mob could be seen assaulting Muslims, attacking their vehicles, and ransacking property.

September 2023

In the early hours of September 26, 2023, a mob tied Ishaq to an iron pole and bashed him mercilessly, accusing him of stealing a banana, which was considered "prasad" (a religious offering for Hindus) being distributed at a prayer event to observe a Hindu festival.

His father, Wajid, stated that his son was killed “because he ate prasad.” “Those who killed my son found it offensive that a Muslim touched their prasad,” he stated.

Ishaq's sister added that her brother was lynched to death simply for touching the prasad. “His nails were broken, some taken out and his fingers had cuts. He was brutally beaten because he was a Muslim,” she said.

Ishaq’s neighbors remembered him as a simple boy who could not harm anyone.

September 2023

Nurul Hassan, a Muslim engineer, was killed after a Hindu mob attacked a mosque in Pusesavali, Maharashtra, western India.

Hassan, 31, left his home for the evening prayers at a nearby mosque. A Hindu mob surrounded the mosque, chanting anti-Muslim slogans and making derogatory remarks about Islam.

“Around 150-200 Hindu men gathered outside the masjid and started throwing stones, damaging some parked vehicles,” an eyewitness was quoted as saying.

The mob finally broke the mosque’s door and barged into it. According to eyewitnesses, the mob carried sharp weapons, iron rods, and batons.

“After entering the mosque, they began assaulting everyone present. Hassan was hit on his head with an iron rod multiple times. He collapsed on the ground. He was already dead when we lifted him from the spot,” the eyewitness added.

August 2023

A mosque was set on fire, and 22-year-old Muhammad Saad was killed by a Hindu mob when violence erupted during a procession by Hindu nationalist groups Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad in the northern state of Haryana.

The violence, which lasted for several hours, soon spread to the neighboring areas of Faridabad, Palwal, and Gurugram on the outskirts of the capital Delhi.

Following the incident, more than 300 Muslim properties were demolished in an act of collective punishment for Muslims.

February 2023

Two Muslim men, Nasir Hussain, 28, and Junaid Khan, 35, were abducted and burned alive in their car by a group of Hindu cow vigilantes in the northern state of Haryana.

The charred skeletons of the two young men were discovered inside an SUV. The main accused, 28-year-old Mohit Yadav, became a poster boy of cow vigilantism in India.

Atefeh Rezaei is a Tehran-based strategic affairs analyst who specializes in South Asian affairs

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