How India’s ‘bulldozer justice’ is targeting Muslims who say ‘I love Muhammad’
Across BJP-ruled states, peaceful religious expression is met with arrests and home demolitions, raising serious concerns about shrinking space for Muslim identity and religious freedom in India.
Indian authorities are prosecuting and arresting Muslims who display "I Love Muhammad" signage or participate in related rallies. Police and right-wing groups claim that these displays are intended to provoke, incite communal disharmony, or introduce unapproved customs in mixed-faith neighborhoods. For more context on these prosecutions, read this Al Jazeera report. The controversy over the phrase stems from a specific series of events and escalating tensions: The Trigger: In September 2025, Muslims in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, put up an illuminated signboard reading "I love Muhammad" during religious festivities. Backlash: Local Hindu groups criticized the sign as a provocative new addition to traditional celebrations.
The boards were allegedly vandalized in some areas. Police Crackdown: Rather than punishing the vandals, authorities filed First Information Reports (FIRs) against Muslim organizers. Police accused them of disrupting public order and promoting enmity between different religious groups. Widespread Arrests: The backlash quickly spread across several states—primarily in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Rights groups report that thousands have been booked and hundreds arrested under harsh sections of Indian law. Human rights organizations state that this crackdown highlights a shrinking space for Muslim religious expression in India. To learn more about the details of this government crackdown, check out this additional coverage from Al Jazeera.
In several Indian states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), authorities have in the last month arrested Muslim men, raided, and in some cases, bulldozed their homes.
The trigger?
Simple expressions like writing or posting "I love Muhammad" on posters, T-shirts and social media.
It all started after a banner, reading "I love Muhammad", meant to be a routine decoration, was displayed prominently during Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi processions marking the Prophet Muhammad's birthday, in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
That banner triggered objections, FIRs, and an aggressive state response: arrests under Indian Penal Code sections including 153A (promoting enmity), and house demolitions justified by claims of illegal encroachment or riot prevention. The backlash rippled to many other states.
As per the nonprofit Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), as of September 23, at least 21 FIRs had been registered against more than 1,300 Muslims, and at least 38 arrests had been made across multiple states governed by the BJP.
APCR said the arrests highlight a concerning trend of criminalization of peaceful protest.
In Uttar Pradesh (UP) alone, 16 FIRs and over 1,000 people have been accused across multiple districts (Unnao, Baghpat, Kaiserganj, Shahjahanpur, Kaushambi) under these cases, Indian media outlets reported.
In Uttarakhand's Kashipur, one FIR listed 401 accused, with seven arrests.
Beyond UP, states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana have seen cases, too.
"Targeting people for expressing their love and respect for the Prophet is a gross violation of fundamental rights. Peaceful religious expression should never be criminalised," Nadeem Khan, national secretary of APCR told Maktoob Media.
Across several incidents, videos showed young Muslim men holding placards and chanting the slogan peacefully. In response, local police filed FIRs, citing the potential to incite communal tension, although no violence was recorded at the events themselves.
"It is absurd that the state should target people for saying 'I love Muhammad', which is a peaceful expression and devoid of any incitement or threat," Aakar Patel, the chair of the board of Amnesty International India, told TRT World.
"It does not meet the threshold for criminal restriction under either Indian constitutional law or international human rights law. Public order concerns must be addressed proportionately and cannot justify blanket suppression of religious identity or expression, as is happening here."
Demolitions and 'bulldozer justice'
In Bareilly, UP, following clashes during a protest over the "I Love Muhammad" slogan on September 26, local authorities targeted several buildings tied to the accused. Some were bulldozed, including a banquet hall owned by Dr Nafees, a close aide of Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, the leader of a regional UP party, Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC).
Officials claim that these demolitions are part of a "routine, legal procedure", but the aggrieved families say it is deliberate.
"If the authorities had given us a notice we would have removed the furniture from inside the banquet hall. We suffered losses worth crores of rupees," a caretaker of the now-demolished banquet hall told Times of India. Critics say many of these demolitions took place without prior notice, violating legal norms and court judgments. A plea has been filed in a human rights commission, claiming that no demolition notices were issued in Bareilly before properties were razed.
