Hindu deities subjected to derogatory remarks on Facebook post by Bangladeshi Muslim student
Dhaka Division, Bangladesh 
25 August, 2026
Case Summary
In Bangladesh, Hindu deities were deliberately mocked and insulted in a Facebook post shared by a Muslim youth, Mohammad Abdullah Al Shamim. According to reports, the accused, Mohammad Abdullah Al Shamim, was a student of the 51st batch of the Fabric Engineering Department, Bangladesh University of Textiles (BUTEX), and a resident of Shahid Aziz Hall. He made a Facebook post containing derogatory and offensive content concerning Sanatan Dharma and several Hindu gods and goddesses. The post contained misinformation and disparaging comments about Hindu religious beliefs and deities, prompting anger among Hindu students at the university. On 26th August 2026, the offensive post was seen on Shamim’s personal Facebook profile, following which the university’s Sanatani students expressed their anger. Subsequently, the hall administration checked Shamim’s mobile phone and found offensive pictures in its gallery. As instructed by the hall administration, Shamim left Shahid Aziz Hall that night and went to his home. In the wake of the incident, the university’s Sanatani students submitted an application to the hall administration demanding his permanent expulsion from the hall and a one-year suspension from academic activities. On 27th August 2026, an office order signed by Shahid Aziz Hall Provost Professor Dr Md Ahsan Habib stated that, in response to the students’ demands, Shamim had been expelled from the hall for six months under Section 8(a) of the Hall Discipline Regulations 2019. The order also stated that Shamim knowingly admitted the offence during questioning. Sujoy Ray, a student of the 50th batch of the Textile Engineering Management Department and one of the Hindu students, said that the punishment order was not satisfactory at all. He said that from the beginning, they had informed the administration about all matters and had carried out everything in the presence of the administration so that no unpleasant situation or disorder could arise. In the presence of the hall administration, Shamim’s video confession regarding sharing the post had been recorded, and screenshots of this kind had been found in his mobile phone gallery. He said that they believed in communal harmony and that, so that Shamim would not be able to commit such an act in the future in a non-communal Bangladesh, permanent expulsion from the hall and a one-year suspension from academic activities would be an appropriate punishment for him. Shamim claimed that he had saved the post on his phone six days earlier so that he could view it later. He had saved some questions related to such matters in his phone gallery and had tried to learn about them through ChatGPT. However, he alleged he had not been aware that the post had been shared from his profile, as he had not seen it on his timeline and had not received any notification about the post. Shahid Aziz Hall Provost Professor Dr Ahsan Habib said that Shamim had been expelled from the hall for six months for hurting religious sentiments. He said that the punishment had been imposed in accordance with the hall’s administrative law. He stated that Shamim had not carried out the act with the intention of achieving any objective, but had shared it to save it on his own profile. Shamim had admitted his mistake and applied to the Provost for forgiveness. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of the administrative law concerning the previous religious insult, the expulsion order had been issued. Shamim subsequently applied to the Hall Provost for reconsideration of the expulsion order and permission to stay in the hall again. In the application, he admitted his mistake and promised to be more careful when using social media in the future. This incident occurred against the backdrop of continuing violence and insecurity faced by the Hindu minority community in Bangladesh. This escalation of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh has unfolded in three distinct phases: first, following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina's government in August 2024; second, after the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi in December 2025; and third, in the immediate aftermath of the 13th National Parliamentary Election 2026. Following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, multiple reports documented attacks on Hindu homes, temples, and religious institutions, alongside intimidation campaigns, arson, and mob assaults targeting minority neighbourhoods. The Hinduphobia Tracker has recorded 336 such incidents against the Hindu minority, underscoring the scale and persistence of anti-Hindu violence during this period. A further escalation occurred following the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, a Muslim political activist and student leader known for his anti-Hindu and anti-India rhetoric. Hadi had been involved in political unrest after the fall of the Hasina government and was killed in Dhaka on 18th December 2025 during clashes. In the aftermath of his death, Hindu communities were blamed and subsequently targeted in retaliatory violence. Hindu homes were selectively set ablaze in multiple localities, forcing families to flee and leaving many displaced. The attacks appeared patterned rather than sporadic, with Muslim mobs focusing on Hindu neighbourhoods, properties, and religious symbols. Among the victims was Dipu Chandra Das, who was lynched to death and his body was set ablaze by a Muslim mob over false blasphemy allegations. The Hinduphobia Tracker documented 51 incidents of anti-Hindu violence in the period following Hadi's death alone. Such incidents underscore the vulnerability of the Hindu minority amid rising communal hostility and the weaponisation of religious accusations. Reports further indicated that posters and written materials calling for the extermination of Hindus were displayed in public spaces, signalling an alarming normalisation of genocidal rhetoric. When combined with acts of arson, vandalism, assault, and targeted intimidation, these developments suggest a coordinated environment of hostility aimed at terrorising the Hindu community and reinforcing majoritarian dominance. The third phase of violence was unleashed after the 13th National Parliamentary Election 2026. Within days of the announcement of results, Hindu families in districts such as Noakhali, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Sylhet, Thakurgaon, and Dinajpur reported coordinated attacks involving arson, looting, assault, and vandalism of temples and homes. In several instances, Hindu homes were selectively targeted, looted, and families were threatened with displacement.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is: Hate speech against Hindus. Within this, the subcategory selected is: Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs, since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus, with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation that cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to be used as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem from inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith; therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case has been added to the tracker because the Facebook post by the Bangladeshi Muslim student went beyond ordinary social media activity and contained religiously offensive content targeting Hinduism, including mockery of multiple Hindu deities, misinformation and offensive comments about Sanatan religion, as well as offensive religious images found on his phone. Taken together, the content reflected hostility towards Hindu religious identity and symbols rather than a non-religious or incidental matter. Hindu deities held a central and sacred place in the religious beliefs and devotional practices of Hindus. Gods and goddesses were not merely cultural or symbolic figures but were objects of worship, prayer and religious reverence, with their stories, attributes and representations forming an important part of Hindu religious life. Consequently, derogatory portrayals of Hindu deities had a direct religious dimension because they demeaned figures that Hindus regarded as sacred. Mocking or disrespecting such deities therefore went beyond criticism of an idea, institution or public figure and subjected objects of religious devotion to contemptuous treatment, making the conduct specifically offensive to Hindu religious identity and beliefs. Firstly, the Facebook content mocked multiple Hindu deities and subjected sacred Hindu figures to derogatory and disrespectful treatment. Hindu gods and goddesses were not merely mentioned or discussed; they were presented through material that demeaned them and treated them without the reverence attached to them within Hindu religious tradition. Since deities formed the central objects of worship and devotion for Hindus, mocking them had directly attacked an important part of Hindu religious identity. The conduct therefore affected Hinduism at the level of its sacred figures and conveyed contempt towards beliefs and personalities that were deeply significant to Hindu worshippers. Secondly, the post contained misinformation concerning multiple Hindu deities. The material presented false or misleading information about Hindu religious figures, thereby distorting the way those deities and their significance were understood. This was particularly religiously offensive because the misinformation did not concern an unrelated historical or political subject; it specifically concerned Hindu gods and goddesses. By associating sacred Hindu figures with inaccurate and disparaging representations, the material contributed to a demeaning portrayal of Hindu beliefs and undermined the dignity accorded to those figures within Hinduism. Moreover, offensive religious images and screenshots were found in the perpetrator's mobile-phone gallery. These images provided a further dimension to the material connected with the incident, extending the offensive content beyond the Facebook post itself. Their presence reinforced the pattern of material concerning Hindu religious subjects that was regarded as objectionable by the university’s Hindu students and hall administration. The religious significance of this material arose from its connection with Hindu religious figures, beliefs and subject matter, rather than from its being merely offensive imagery unrelated to religion. Taken together, the conduct had involved multiple forms of religiously offensive treatment directed specifically at Hinduism. This exposed the purported intention behind the act rather than diminishing the fact that the material itself had targeted Hindu religious figures, beliefs and identity in a derogatory manner. Accordingly, this case has been documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker's Hate Crime Database as an instance of religiously motivated hostility directed against Hinduism and the religious identity of the Hindu community. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that the media report covering this case has not specified the exact date when the perpetrator shared the offensive Facebook post. As per the media article, the post was discovered on 26th August 2026. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was discovered, that is, 26th August 2026.
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
