{"id":185771,"date":"2025-10-16T14:13:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=185771"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:13:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:13:59","slug":"india-prosecuting-muslims-for-saying-i-love-muhammad-sparks-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2025\/10\/16\/india-prosecuting-muslims-for-saying-i-love-muhammad-sparks-outrage.html","title":{"rendered":"India prosecuting Muslims for saying \u2018I Love Muhammad\u2019 sparks outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-185780\" src=\"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/download-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"184\" \/><\/p>\n<p>New Delhi: The Modi-led BJP regime in India has launched a sweeping crackdown on Muslims across several states for displaying or posting the slogan \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d in honour of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), with more than 2,500 people charged and dozens arrested, reported Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kashmir Media Service, police in BJP-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttarakhand and occupied Jammu and Kashmir, have raided homes and markets, arrested Muslim men, and even bulldozed their houses \u2014 all for expressing devotion to the Prophet through posters, t-shirts, or social media posts.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign began in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, when Muslims displayed illuminated \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d boards during Eid Milad-un-Nabi. On the complaints of Hindutva goons, police registered cases on charges of \u201cpromoting enmity on religious grounds,\u201d which carry up to five years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>Protests soon spread to several other states after the arrests, leading to violent police crackdowns and further detentions. In Bareilly, police arrested 75 people, including prominent cleric Tauqeer Raza, and demolished several houses without court orders.<\/p>\n<p>Legal experts and rights defenders cited by Al Jazeera said the expression \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d is not illegal under India\u2019s constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion and expression under Articles 25 and 19(1)(a). The Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) said authorities were misusing laws to criminalise Muslim identity.<\/p>\n<p>Amnesty International described the campaign as \u201ca deeply troubling precedent,\u201d warning that India\u2019s targeting of peaceful religious expression violates both constitutional and international human rights standards.<\/p>\n<p>Critics said the crackdown reflects the BJP\u2019s long-running pattern of weaponizing law against Muslims since Narendra Modi took power in 2014, while promoting majoritarian narratives that equate Islamic devotion with public disorder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: The Modi-led BJP regime in India has launched a sweeping crackdown on Muslims across several states for displaying or posting the slogan \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d in honour of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), with more than 2,500 people charged and dozens arrested, reported Al Jazeera. According to Kashmir Media Service, police in &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":185780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-185771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/10\/download-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185781,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185771\/revisions\/185781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}