Hindu religious sentiments insulted; Muslim man shares video of YouTuber reciting kalma in front of Hindu deity
Hubli, Karnataka, India 
5 February, 2026
Case Summary
In Hubballi, Karnataka, Hindu religious sentiments were insulted after a Muslim youth named Dadapir Hebballi shared a video in which a Muslim man was reciting kalma (Islamic declaration of faith) in front of a Hindu deity. According to reports, the accused, Dadapir Hebballi (27), was a resident of Noorani Flats and an auto driver by profession. He deliberately posted a WhatsApp status featuring a video of a YouTuber reciting the kalma in front of a Hindu deity. The content was widely circulated and caused public outrage due to its desecration and mockery of Hindu religious beliefs. Taking suo motu cognisance of the incident, the Old Hubballi police registered a case and arrested the accused. The police produced him before a court, which remanded him to judicial custody. Authorities stated that the action was taken to curb communal tension, particularly in light of Hubballi’s prior history of unrest linked to inflammatory social media posts, including a 2022 incident involving a morphed image that triggered large-scale violence, damage to public property, injuries to police personnel, the arrest of forty individuals, and the imposition of a four-day curfew.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Hate Speech against Hindus. Within it, the sub-category 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 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. The other primary category selected here is - Attack on Hindu religious representations. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Abrahamic religious chanting outside Hindu religious places and/or during Hindu activities. In Hinduism, a temple is the abode of the Deity. The Deity in the Temple is consecrated, thereby, making it a real, breathing entity. Hindus believe that not just the Deity but the temple premises itself are sacred to Hindus since Hindus hold the faith that the entire Temple space is an amalgamation of the divine energy of the deity. Similarly, religious activities hold deep significance for Hindus, as they are intricately connected to their spiritual, cultural, and social lives. These practices encompass rituals, festivals, prayers, and pilgrimages that celebrate and honour various deities, fostering a sense of spiritual connection, community, and cultural continuity. Given the central significance of Temples and religious activities in Hindu Dharma, any aggressive Abrahamic chanting outside Temples or during religious activities negates the divinity of the religious space because the chanting itself negates the existence of any other God other than the God of the Abrahamic faith. Such chanting is specifically done to negate the faith of Hindus, establish religious supremacy, intimidate the devotees and mock the faith. Besides temples, such Abrahamic chanting outside any Hindu place of worship or religious structure or during any religious activity has the same effect. Since such acts are rooted in an inherent religious supremacist mentality driven by religious animosity, such crimes would be considered religiously motivated hate crimes under this category. This case was added to the Hinduphobia Tracker because it involved the deliberate circulation of content that demeaned and disrespected a Hindu deity on social media, thereby hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindu community. The accused shared a WhatsApp status featuring a video in which the Kalma, a core Islamic declaration of faith affirming "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger", was recited in front of a Hindu deity, an act that directly targeted a central and sacred element of Hindu religious belief. The YouTuber recited the Kalma, an Islamic religious chant, in front of a Hindu deity. This was not a neutral act but functioned as a religious provocation, intended to assert dominance of Islamic identity over the Hindu deity and Hindu faith. Reciting the Kalma, which demands exclusive devotion to Allah and rejection of other deities, in front of a Hindu god was inherently anti-Hindu, as it symbolically invalidated and mocked Hindu polytheism and worship practices, equating them with idolatry to be supplanted. It was an intentional attempt to ridicule and undermine Hindu faith and worship. Hindu deities occupy a foundational and deeply revered position within Hinduism, and any act that seeks to mock, trivialise, or symbolically overwrite their sanctity constitutes an expression of religious hostility. In this case, the act of sharing such content with the intention to mock and demean the Hindu community on a social media platform makes it a collective affront to Hindu religious sentiments. The deliberate choice to circulate the video as a status ensured visibility, signalling awareness of its provocative nature and its potential to offend and humiliate the Hindu community. Such actions are not isolated; they form part of a persistent pattern aimed at disrespecting the Hindu faith, driven by entrenched hostility and contempt for Hindus and their beliefs. Hindu deities reside in temples, which serve as their sacred abodes and focal points for devotion, rituals, and community worship. Chanting Islamic slogans like the Kalma near temples, or in front of deities, as in this case, amounts to a hate crime, as it invades these holy spaces with declarations that explicitly deny the divinity of Hindu gods, asserting monotheistic supremacy. This desecrates the spiritual sanctity of temples, provokes religious outrage, and signals intent to humiliate and erase Hindu sacred sites, mirroring historical patterns of iconoclasm driven by religious animosity. In recent times, social media has increasingly become a platform for anti-Hindu hate, with derogatory memes, videos, and messages targeting Hindu religious symbols, practices, and deities. Such content is recognised as part of a broader pattern of Hinduphobia and religious hate crimes online. This deliberate targeting of the Hindu deity firmly establishes this act as a hate-driven offence. For these reasons, the case is recorded in the Hate Crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of incidents based on when a crime occurs rather than when it is reported by the media. In this particular case, media reports did not specify the exact date when the crime occurred or when the accused posted the video. Therefore, 6 February 2026, the date when the media reported this incident, is selected as the indicative incident date. This is recorded for documentation purposes only.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
