Muslim man harasses minor girls in Aligarh, threatens them to convert to Islam; Islamist websites potray Muslim perpetrator as the victim
Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India 
6 July, 2024
Case Summary
On June 3, a Muslim man named Arvaaz was arrested by Aligarh police for harassing a minor Hindu girl and her friends. They were threatened with pistols and pressured to convert to Islam. The girls' screams alerted one of their fathers, who, with public assistance, captured Arvaaz. He was beaten by the crowd and handed over to the police. The police confirmed the complaint and arrested Arvaaz. On July 7, the Islamist website Siasat Daily reported the incident, however, by giving it a spin. It claimed Arvaaz was beaten and stripped in Aligarh on June 3 for talking to a Hindu girl. The report further claimed that the attack was due to allegations of "love jihad," suggesting that Hindu groups targeted Arvaaz unjustly. This narrative was echoed by other media outlets and social media posts, framing the incident as an example of Hindus assaulting Muslims. A video of the incident was shared by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) on its social media handles. IAMC wrote, “In #Aligarh, a Muslim youth was stripped and beaten by #Hindutva groups, accusing him of “#LoveJihad” for talking to a Hindu girl. BJP Mayor Shakuntala Bharti warned officials to curb such cases or face direct action. Subsequently, the police arrested Nazim on charges of harassment.”
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under two prime categories of the tracker. The first is- Predatory Proselytisation and under this, the sub-category selected is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats in this case find their root on discriminatory grounds which have the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion and forceful circumcision. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment in an attempt to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. In this sub-category, we would include cases where the non-Hindu perpetrator harassed, threatened or coerced the victim to convert, however, the Hindu victim did not convert to another faith. Cases where the victim was converted owing to the harassment and threats would be documented in another sub-category. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The second prime category relevant here is- Hate speech against Hindus, and within this, the sub-category under which this case has been placed is- Anti-Hindu subversion and prejudice. Hate speech is defined as any speech, gesture, conduct, writing, or display that is prejudicial against a specific individual and/or group of people, which is leading to or may lead to violence, prejudicial action or hate against that individual and/or group. Media plays a specific and overarching reach in perpetuating prejudicial attitudes towards a community owing to unfair, untrue coverage and/or misrepresentation/misinterpretation, selective coverage and/or omission of facts of/pertaining to issues affecting a specific religious group. This type of bias can dehumanise the victim group, making it easier for others to justify harmful actions against them, which aligns with the objectives of hate speech laws aimed at preventing such harm. It is often observed that the media takes a prejudicial stand against the Hindu community driven by their need to shield the aggressor community which happens to be a numeric minority, however, is the one perpetrating violence against Hindus. For example, the media is often quick to contextualise religiously motivated crimes against Hindus, omit or misrepresent facts that point towards religiously motivated hate crimes, justify and/or downplay religiously motivated hate crimes or simply present fake news to stereotype Hindus. Such media bias leads to the denial of persecution and is often used to dehumanise Hindus, leading to justification for violence against them. For example, the media covered several fake allegations of Hindus targeting Muslims and forcing them to chant Jai Shree Ram. Most of these cases were proved false and fabricated after the police investigation. These fake news reports were subsequently never retracted or clarified. Such fake news led to the justification of violence and dehumanisation of Hindus based on the argument that since Hindus targeted Muslims and forced them to chant Jai Shree Ram, the dehumanisation of Hindus and violence against them was par for the course and merely a retaliation. Such media bias leads to prejudicial portrayal of Hindus and offers a justification for violence against them and therefore, is considered hate speech under this category. In this case, the Muslim man, Arvaaz, targeted minor Hindu girls with the intention of forcibly converting them to Islam, using threats and harassment to instil fear. This act reveals a deep animosity towards the religion of the victims, as conversion through coercion signifies a fundamental disrespect for their faith and beliefs. By using a pistol to intimidate the girls and pressuring them to convert, Arvaaz's actions highlight a disregard for their autonomy and an aggressive attempt to impose his religious ideology. Such behaviour is not just criminal but also reflects a broader pattern of religious intolerance, where the perpetrator seeks to undermine the Hindu identity of the victims. This targeted harassment, rooted in hostility towards their faith, is emblematic of a larger issue of religiously motivated hate crimes, where violence or coercion is used to subjugate individuals of different beliefs. It is also important to highlight here that the Hindu victims, in this case, were minors which essentially means that the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Since the underlying offence in this case is against children of a specific faith and involves coercion for conversion to Islam, which obviously stems from a bias against the Hindu faith, this case has been documented as a hate crime. Secondly, this case illustrates clear media bias, where certain Islamist websites attempted to shield the perpetrator, Arvaaz, due to his Muslim identity. Despite the serious nature of his crime—harassing a minor Hindu girl, threatening her and her friends with a pistol, and pressuring them to convert to Islam—media platforms like Siasat Daily spun the narrative to depict Arvaaz as a victim. Instead of focusing on the harassment and threats faced by the minor, these outlets falsely framed the incident as an unjust attack by Hindutva groups accusing Arvaaz of "love jihad" for simply talking to a Hindu girl. By downplaying the criminal behaviour and shifting attention away from the allegations of forced conversion and intimidation, the media outlets attempted to portray the Muslim man as the aggrieved party, disregarding the victim's plight. This distortion reflects a broader trend of selective reporting, where the severity of religiously motivated crimes is overshadowed by efforts to protect the accused based on their religious identity. Such biased narratives undermine the reality of religiously motivated hate crimes while deflecting blame onto the victim's community. Since such callous behaviour can only stem from a profound contempt for the Hindu religion, this case deserves to be recorded in this hate tracker.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
