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New Delhi, India \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0For the last month, Indian police have raided multiple markets and homes, arresting Muslim men in states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist party. Some of their homes have been bulldozed.<\/p>\n The genesis of their alleged crime is common: writing, \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d, a reference to Prophet Muhammad, on posters, t-shirts, or in social media posts. The authorities say the expression is threatening \u201cpublic order\u201d.<\/p>\n So far, at least 22 cases have been registered against more than 2,500 Muslims. At least 40 people have been arrested across multiple states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to the nonprofit Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR).<\/p>\n So, what is happening? How and where did this start? And is it illegal to say \u2018I Love Muhammad\u2019 in India?<\/p>\n On September 4, Muslims living in Kanpur city of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh were observing Eid al-Milad al-Nabi, the celebration of the birth of Prophet Muhammad, when a neighbourhood put up an illuminated board saying, \u201cI love Muhammad\u201d.<\/p>\n But the board, mimicking the popular \u201cI Love New York\u201d signage that has been copied all over the world, drew criticism from some local Hindus. Initially, their complaint alleged that the illuminated board was a new introduction to traditional festivities on the occasion, when Uttar Pradesh\u2019s laws bar new additions to public religious celebrations. About 20 percent of Kanpur\u2019s population is Muslim.<\/p>\n However, based on complaints, the police filed a case against two dozen people on much more serious charges: promoting enmity on the grounds of religion. The charge carries a punishment of up to five years in jail if the accused individual is convicted.<\/p>\n The Kanpur episode drew widespread criticism from Muslim political leaders, and protests against the police action spread to other states, including Telangana in southern India, Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west, and in Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir in the north. The\u00a0 \u201cI love Muhammad\u201d hoardings and writings came up across the country \u2013 from people\u2019s social media handles to t-shirts.<\/p>\n Nearly 270km (168 miles) away from Kanpur, in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Bareilly, a group of people participating in a demonstration called by a local imam against the Kanpur arrests, violently clashed with the police on September 26.<\/p>\n The police hit back with a crackdown, arresting 75 people, including the imam, Tauqeer Raza, his relatives and his aides. At least four buildings belonging to the accused individuals have been bulldozed by the local authorities.<\/p>\n In recent years, hundreds of Indian Muslims have lost their homes to such demolitions, which are often carried out without any notice issued by authorities, or any court order. India\u2019s Supreme Court has observed that demolitions cannot be used as a form of extra-legal punishment, warning that state authorities must give prior notice before razing any property. Yet, on the ground, that order is often not followed, say activists.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, dozens of other Muslims have been arrested in different states \u2013 including some in Modi\u2019s home state of Gujarat \u2013 for social media posts and videos carrying the \u201cI love Muhammad\u201d slogan.<\/p>\n A bulldozer demolishes the house of a Muslim man in Prayagraj, India, June 12, 2022. Authorities claim the house was illegally built [Ritesh Shukla\/Reuters]<\/p>\n India\u2019s constitution guarantees the freedom of religion and the right to express it. Article 25 protects every individual\u2019s freedom to practise their religion. Citizens are also protected under Article 19(1)(a), which guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression, unless it directly incites violence or hatred.<\/p>\n In the cases of people arrested as part of the \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d crackdown, the police have mostly charged them under legal provisions that bar large gatherings aimed at committing \u201cmischief\u201d, or for acts that allegedly provoke religious tensions. However, these provisions have been applied against those arrested for social media posts, or wearing t-shirts with \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d emblazoned on them.<\/p>\n Nadeem Khan, the national coordinator of APCR, the nonprofit that has been tracking these cases, has fought previous lawsuits against government officials for similarly targeting Muslims for social media expressions, or when their homes have been bulldozed.<\/p>\n Khan told Al Jazeera that authorities were carefully using legal provisions that focus not on the \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d expression itself, but on alleged offences carried out by those who used the expression or protested against related police crackdowns.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know that there is no law that criminalises just the mere expression of \u2018I Love Muhammad\u2019,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n Khan noted that across India, images of Hindu gods wielding their traditional weapons have long been commonplace. \u201cThese images are at every corner of the country; should it also offend or threaten all Muslims then?\u201d he asked. \u201cEveryone should understand that the government cannot criminalise a religion like this,\u201d he added, referring to Islam.<\/p>\n Since 2014, when Modi took over the power in New Delhi, India has consistently slid in a range of international democratic indices.<\/p>\n Criminalising people\u2019s right to freedom of expression and religious belief sets a deeply troubling precedent, said Aakar Patel, the chair of Amnesty International India\u2019s board.<\/p>\n \u201cTargeting people for slogans such as \u2018I Love Muhammad\u2019, which is peaceful and devoid of any incitement or threat, does not meet the threshold for criminal restriction under either Indian constitutional law or international human rights law,\u201d Patel told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic order concerns must be addressed proportionately and cannot justify the blanket suppression of religious identity or expression,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe role of the state is to safeguard rights equally, not to police expressions of belief,\u201d said Amnesty\u2019s Patel. \u201cUpholding constitutional and international commitments is not optional; it is a legal obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n People carrying \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d posters after the Friday prayer) outside a Mosque near Mumbra railway Station on September 25, 2025 in Thane in the western Indian state of Maharashtra [Praful Gangurde\/Hindustan Times via Getty Images]<\/p>\n Critics say that the crackdown is only the latest instance of Indian Muslims facing marginalisation, violence or the targeted brunt of the law since Modi came to power in 2014.<\/p>\n In the past 11 years, the incidents of hate speech targeting religious minorities have skyrocketed. Documented instances of hate speech jumped from 668 in 2023 to 1,165 last year, a rise of about 74 percent. A significant majority of these incidents happened in BJP-governed states, or places where elections were upcoming.<\/p>\n Increasingly, local Hindu-Muslim disputes now rapidly transform into national issues, said Asim Ali, a political analyst based in Delhi.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an entire ecosystem in place, from pliant media to social media organisation, to spread this hate rapidly,\u201d said Ali. \u201cAnd the law is read in such a way that any expression of religious identity, especially of Muslims, can be seen as inciting religious hatred,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n After the \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d episode in Kanpur, BJP leaders in Modi\u2019s own constituency, Varanasi, put up posters saying, \u201cI Love Bulldozer\u201d at major intersections of the city, in a reference to the bulldozing of houses of the accused.<\/p>\n Protesters take part in a demonstration against India\u2019s controversial amendments to citizenship rules in New Delhi on January, 29, 2020. The rules have widely been criticised as discriminatory against Muslim asylum seekers [Sajjad Hussein\/AFP]<\/p>\n Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst, said that the row over \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d is \u201covertly very political, and not religious\u201d.<\/p>\n And in India, there is growing frustration among Muslims, especially youth, where they see that one set of rules is not applied for all, when it comes to matters of cultural identity and eating habits, said Kidwai.<\/p>\n Several of the accused, or arrested, as part of the \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d crackdown, include young adult Muslims, according to data from APCR, including those who were arrested for social media posts.<\/p>\n The crackdown on \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d expression risks alienating young Muslim adults even more, said Ali. \u201cIn theory, everyone is already guilty and can face action for just being,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is getting difficult to imagine what the future may hold now,\u201d he said. \u201cThe tempo of hate is increasing day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Delhi, India \u2013\u00a0For the last month, Indian police have raided multiple markets and homes, arresting Muslim men in states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist party. Some of their homes have been bulldozed. The genesis of their alleged crime is common: writing, \u201cI Love Muhammad\u201d, a reference to Prophet Muhammad, on posters,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[426,16614,1253,13940,16613,150,10985],"class_list":{"0":"post-27905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-india","9":"tag-islamophobia","10":"tag-love","11":"tag-muhammad","12":"tag-muslims","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-prosecuting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What\u2019s happening?<\/h2>\n
Is it illegal?<\/h2>\n
Is there a pattern?<\/h2>\n
How does it affect young Muslims?<\/h2>\n