Delivering Hate Speech While Smiling Is Not Criminal, Says Delhi High Court Judge 

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh of the Delhi High Court claimed that hate speeches against minorities have “no criminality” if the person giving the hate speech does so while smiling.

The judge made his blatantly Islamophobic comment while dismissing a plea for action against lawmakers of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whose anti-Muslim hate speech had triggered anti-Muslim violence by Hindu extremist mobs in 2020.

“If you’re saying something with a smile then there is no criminality, if you’re saying something offensively then criminality. You have to check and balance. Otherwise, I think 1,000 FIRs may be lodged against all politicians during elections,” Singh claimed during the court’s hearing of a petition to register a police report against senior BJP parliamentarians Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma for hate speeches.

Singh further claimed that hate speech is protected under free speech during elections, saying, “You also have the right to speech… what was the intention? Only intention to win the election, or intention to instigate the public to do the crime?”

The court also denied that the hate speeches made by BJP leaders against Muslims were targeting a minority community, despite the fact that the Delhi 2020 violence was triggered by hate speeches given by senior politicians.

Witnesses report that Thakur had called on Hindu extremists to “shoot the traitors to the nation,” refrring to Muslims, while Verma had told an audience that Muslims protesting the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act would enter Hindu homes to “rape their sisters and daughters and kill them.” Neither has faced any consequences for instigating the violence that killed 53 people, the majority of them Muslims.

Muslim Student Offers Prayers In Madhya Pradesh College, Probe Ordered

After the Hindu extremist group Hindu Jagran Manch took issue with a video of a hijabi Muslim student praying quietly in a classroom at a college in Madhya Pradesh state, the college has ordered a probe into the inconsequential incident.

“A committee has been formed to investigate this. Along with this, students have been told to keep religious worship at home. The university is for studying,” Vice Chancellor Neelima Gupta said, despite the fact that Hindu religious practices are incorporated into nearly all Indian public schools.

The Hindu Jagran Manch’s Sagar unit chief Umesh Saraf took offense to the idea of a Muslim woman attending the university while choosing to wear the hijab and exercising her constitutional right to religious expression.

“Such religious activities should not be allowed in educational institutions. She has been coming in hijab for a long [time], but she was seen offering namaz inside the classroom on Friday afternoon. This is objectionable as educational institutions are a place for every religion,” said Saraf.

Hindu Extremist Youth Says It Is The Right Of Hindus To Rape, Kill Muslim Women

Vipul Singh, a Hindu extremist youth from Delhi, added to the dangerously common trend of making graphic threats against Muslim women on social media in an Instagram comment, saying, “It is the right of our Hindus to rape and then kill Muslim women and girls.”

Activist Nabiya Khan called on the Delhi police to take immediate action.

“This man called Vipul Singh is giving calls for rape & murder of Muslim women. He is from Najafgarh as per his Instagram… pls take action. His vehicle registration is from Delhi,” she said in a tweet.

Hindu extremists have grown increasingly bold in making threats against Muslim women on social media. In the past year, two apps have been created to “auction” vocal Muslim women as prostitutes, and Reddit threads with thousands of users have been filled with Hindu men posting graphic rape fantasies against Muslim women.

Woman Jailed For Wishing Pakistanis Happy Republic Day, Praying For Peace

Kuthma Sheikh, a 25-year-old Muslim woman from Karnataka state, was arrested for wishing Pakistanis a happy Republic Day through her WhatsApp status by writing, “May God bless every nation with peace, unity and harmony.”

A Hindu extremist who saw her tweet demanded that she be “arrested for treason,” leading police to arrest Sheikh for “promoting enmity between different groups” and making “statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes.”

“Her post could be interpreted as if it was meant to commemorate Pakistan’s Republic Day. It could lead to unrest and protests and counter-protests if we had not acted in time,” said a senior police officer, ignoring the fact that the hatred of Hindu extremists is leading to a crackdown on free speech for Muslims.

In response to the arrest, India-based Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub posted on her Instagram: “To each and every Hindu in India, who is reveling in this everyday hate against Muslims, who is neutral, who claims to be apolitical, who is too scared to speak up, who wants us to suffer this humiliation in silence. This injustice, this tyranny is on YOU.”

Miss Universe 2021 Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu Tells Hindu Extremists To Stop Targeting Muslim Women

After being asked about her thoughts on the Karnataka High Court’s discriminatory ban on hijabs in schools, Miss Universe 2021 Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu slammed the reporter who asked the question as well as Hindu extremists who target women for wearing the hijab.

“Honestly, why do you always target girls? Even now you are targeting me. Like, even on the issue of hijab the girls are being targeted. Let them (girls) live the way they choose to, let her reach her destination, let her fly. Those are her wings, don’t cut them. If you must (cut someone’s wings), cut your own,” Sandhu said.