Case Summary

Hindu public figures in the United States, including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, were targeted with racial and religious slurs on social media after sharing greetings wishing people a “Happy Diwali”. Several users responded to their festive greetings by ridiculing Hinduism, vilifying Hindu deities as “demons” and “false gods”, and describing Diwali as a “demonic pagan ritual”. The incident came to light after Patel and Gabbard shared Diwali greetings on their respective X accounts. Patel posted a simple “Happy Diwali” greeting with a festive image, while Gabbard wished everyone celebrating a joyful Diwali and described the festival as a reminder of God's love, light, peace and joy. Their posts were followed by a series of derogatory comments targeting Hinduism, its deities and the festival itself. One X user, operating under the username '@XCkyro', display name Nick, wrote: “We don't celebrate demon holidays”. While another user, @scotchandbbq, display name Mike, wrote, "Feel free to worship demons if you want, but know the one true God has nothing to do with Diwali", directly equating Diwali with the worship of demons. Another user, '@WarriorWitness', dismissed Hindu deities as “false gods” and shared screenshots depicting several Hindu deities and religious celebrations, including Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Ganesha, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, while describing them as false gods. Other users ridiculed Hindu deities as “silly Gods” and described Hindu religious traditions as “pagan” and associated with darkness. The hostility also extended to the two public figures who had shared the greetings. One user, @rantsofmadman display name MadMan directed a sexually derogatory slur at Tulsi Gabbard, calling her a “cunt” for celebrating Diwali and worshipping Hindu deities. The same user described the festival as a “demonic pagan ritual”. Several others, like J.B.Durham @JB_Durham80 and Hevel @JipSinTN, insisted that “Christ is the only King” and that only Christ should be worshipped in America, thereby rejecting the public celebration and recognition of Hindu religious traditions. The online hostility was not confined to the comments beneath these greetings. Several users also demanded Patel's removal from office, describing him and other Hindus as “demon worshippers” who “must go”. One user explicitly wrote: “Not in America, go to India for Diwali”, suggesting that Hindus celebrating their religious festival did not belong in the United States. Notably, this was not limited to a handful of derogatory remarks. The comment section was filled with hundreds of similar anti-Hindu comments, in which users expressed open prejudice towards Hindu religious beliefs, the festival of Diwali, and the Hindu community. These included comments describing Hindu deities as 'demonic', referring to religious offerings as 'pagan ', and spreading grotesque falsehoods about Hindu traditions and the Hindu community. The hostility was not limited to social media. The Hinduphobia tracker had previously recorded an incident in which a Diwali celebration in Seattle was disrupted by activist Jake Lang and other Christian activists on 07 November 2026. The protesters displayed placards bearing slogans such as “Deport All Dot Heads” and “Stop Hindu Replacement of Christians”. The protest targeted an event where Hindus gathered to celebrate Diwali, with children also participating. The incident drew criticism from American lawmakers, including Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. In another incident, following the disruption of a Diwali celebration in Seattle, several social media accounts hurled communal slurs at Hindus and denigrated the Hindu faith. They targeted Hindu deities such as Lord Vishnu and Lord Ganesha through abuse, mockery, and offensive iconoclastic imagery. The accounts also ridiculed Hindu reverence for cows, which are considered sacred in Hinduism, through degrading and offensive imagery.

Case Images

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category: Hate Speech against Hindus. 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 where 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 the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use 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 out of 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. The other category is: Attack not resulting in death. Within this, the subcategory is: Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. This incident was a blatant manifestation of Hinduphobia because Hindu public figures Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard were subjected to vicious religious abuse and personal attacks for publicly celebrating Diwali. Their greetings triggered a barrage of comments that branded Hindu deities as “demons” and “false gods”, denounced Diwali as a “demonic pagan ritual” and demanded that Hindus leave America. The hostility went beyond contempt for Hindu beliefs. Gabbard was personally targeted with a sexually degrading slur specifically for worshipping Hindu festivals and deities. The comments thus exposed a deep-seated hostility towards both Hindu faith and those who openly practised it. Diwali is a major Hindu festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. Its observances include prayers to Hindu deities, religious rituals, the lighting of diyas and the sharing of festive offerings. For Hindus, it is an expression of faith, devotion and religious heritage. Branding it a “demon holiday” or a “demonic pagan ritual” was an outright vilification of a sacred Hindu observance, deliberately associating Hindu worship with evil. Calling Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Ganesha, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna “false gods” was an equally contemptuous attack on the deities Hindus revere. The language used was not an expression of ordinary religious disagreement. It was steeped in religious bigotry, with Hindu worship portrayed as evil, illegitimate and worthy of ridicule. The repeated labels “demon worshippers”, “pagan” and “false gods” reduced a deeply rooted faith to a sinister practice and cast its followers as people devoted to evil. Such language amounted to an aggressive denigration of Hindu religious beliefs and an attempt to strip Hindu worship of its legitimacy and dignity. The attack on Tulsi Gabbard made the personal nature of this hatred unmistakable. A user called her a “cunt” specifically because she was Hindu, worshipped Hindu deities and celebrated Diwali. This was a viciously misogynistic insult deployed to humiliate her for her religious identity. Her faith, rather than any political decision or official conduct, was made the target of the abuse. The incident demonstrated how openly expressing Hindu beliefs invited not merely ridicule but degrading and gendered hostility. Further, the remark that “Christ is the only King” and that only Christ should be worshipped in America exposed a religious superiority complex, in which Christianity was treated as the only legitimate or supreme faith, while Hindu religious beliefs and practices were dismissed as inferior and unwelcome. The Christian faith, by its theological foundations, places strong emphasis on worshipping Jesus Christ as the one true Lord and rejecting other gods. However, the personal belief in the supremacy of one's faith does not justify denigrating other religions, denying their legitimacy, or treating their followers as unwelcome. By insisting that only Christ should be worshipped in America, the speaker moved beyond expressing personal religious conviction and into rejecting the religious freedom of others, including Hindus, to practise and profess their faith. Moreover, the declaration “Not in America, go to India for Diwali” was particularly xenophobic, portraying a Hindu festival as incompatible with American identity and implying that Hindus had no rightful place in the country. This exclusionary hostility was further evident in the demands for Patel's removal from office, with users describing him and other Hindus as “demon worshippers” who “must go”. His Hindu identity and expression of faith were thus used to question his legitimacy as an American public official. Notably, as the Hinduphobia Tracker had previously documented, this was not an isolated incident. Anti-Hindu hostility was erupting in repeated incidents, with Hindu religious celebrations and public expressions of faith facing recurring intimidation, racial abuse and organised disruption. The Seattle incident was another manifestation of this continuing pattern of hostility towards Hindus and their right to practise and celebrate their faith openly. Overall, these incidents exposed a sustained pattern of anti-Hindu hostility. Hindu deities were demonised, sacred practices were vilified, Hindu individuals were subjected to degrading abuse, and Hindu Americans were told that their faith did not belong in public life. This hostility sought to portray Hinduism as evil and its followers as unwelcome in American society. Such blatant religious denigration and exclusion of Hindus formed the basis for including the incident in the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when it occurred, not when it was reported in the media or gained traction on social media. In this instance, the incident began on 7 November 2026, when Tulsi Gabbard posted Diwali greetings. This incident includes six perpetrator accounts, corresponding to the six anti-Hindu comments highlighted in this entry. Although hundreds of additional anti-Hindu comments were posted, the perpetrator count has been restricted to the six accounts specifically documented by the Hinduphobia Tracker. Although the hateful comments targeted the Hindu community as a whole, the victim count has been recorded as two, since Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard were the two individuals primarily targeted in this incident. The religious identity of all six perpetrators has been recorded as ‘Christian’ because most of the documented accounts explicitly stated that Christ was the only one to be worshipped in America, indicating their Christian religious affiliation.