Hindus targeted and Hindu leader mocked by Muslim man on social media, threatens with Islamisation of the world
Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India 
30 August, 2025
Case Summary
In Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, Hindus were targeted, and Hindu leader Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, was mocked by a Muslim man named Rashid on social media. According to reports, the accused had posted a series of objectionable WhatsApp status updates targeting Hindus and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Rashid shared a morphed image of CM Yogi, calling him “Takla Jahil”, meaning bald and uneducated. He also uploaded a message threatening the Islamisation of the world, including India. He declared, “Insha Allah, one day the whole world will have Islam.” Himanshu Patel, president of Hindu Jagran Manch Yuva Morcha, drew attention to Rashid’s repeated offensive posts on X. Acting on the complaint, Bareilly police responded immediately, arresting the accused Rashid within a short time of receiving the report. Himanshu Patel described Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as 'Hindu Hriday Samrat' and said that during his tenure, Hindus had been completely safe and illegal encroachments had been removed from many temples. Therefore, some Muslim fundamentalists were upset and carried out such acts, but the Uttar Pradesh Police were giving them a fitting response.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Hate speech against Hindus. The subcategory under this category 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 subcategory under this is: Mocking/denigrating Hindu leaders. 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. Religious leaders are often seen as representatives of the community, especially, the community’s religious faith and beliefs. Mocking or denigrating a religious leader specifically owing to his religious identity and/or the religious rituals he observes can be considered hate speech because the motivating factor of the speech is animosity and/or dislike for what he represents – the religious beliefs and faith of the community. It is important to note that mere insulting words against an individual do not constitute hate speech. It is entirely possible that insulting words are used for an individual, however, the specific speech is not the result of religious hate and/or animosity towards the professed faith of the religious leader, but the individual himself. For the speech to be considered hate speech, the speech itself or the motivating factor behind the speech has to be religious in nature. Such speech which denigrates Hindu religious leaders specifically owing to animosity towards the faith they profess and the community faith they represent will be treated as hate speech under this category. This incident qualifies as a hate crime against Hindus because the content of Rashid’s WhatsApp status was explicitly rooted in religious animosity and Islamist supremacist ideology. This aligns with a broader framework of Islamic supremacist thought, which divides territories into Darul Islam (land of Muslims) and Darul Harb (land of non-believers), with the stated objective of converting non-Muslim regions into Darul Islam. Rashid’s proclamation that ''Islam would dominate the world'' echoes this ideology, making his speech not merely provocative but a declaration of religious supremacy. His actions, therefore, cannot be dismissed as casual mockery or personal dislike; they carry an implicit threat against Hindus and their leaders, normalising the idea of erasing Hindu identity. Such actions are rooted in religious hostility towards Hindus and their faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. The accused also denigrated a Hindu leader, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. This was not a personal insult but an attack on a prominent leader who promotes Hindu faith and identity in public life. By calling him “Takla Jahil” and pairing it with a message proclaiming that one day “the whole world will have Islam,” Rashid demonstrated hostility toward Hinduism as a religion, portraying it as inferior to Islam and envisioning its eventual eradication through conversion. In this instance, the targeting of a religious leader like Yogi Adityanath, who is widely recognised as a representative of Hindu beliefs, indicates a direct attack on the Hindu community and their faith. The statement serves to undermine Hinduism and create an atmosphere of fear and subjugation among the Hindu community. By combining insults, supremacist rhetoric, and calls for religious domination, this act falls squarely under hate speech and represents a broader hostility towards Hindus as a religious group. Since this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated hate speech, it is being added to the hate crime database in the Hinduphobia Tracker.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
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