Hindu extremists force Muslim cleric’s son to wear saffron cloth around his neck

A group of Hindu extremists pointed a pistol at an imam on his way back from offering prayers at a mosque in Uttar Pradesh state, forced him to chant Hindu religious slogans, and then forced him to wear a saffron cloth around his neck.

The victim was beaten and threatened with death when he protested. Police have arrested two of the extremists accused in the attack. 

Muslim men arrested, paraded by police over social media post

At least three Muslim men were arrested, bound, and paraded through the streets in Gujarat state after violence broke out in Patan municipality over a social media post on the anti-Muslim propaganda film “The Kerala Story.”

In a video of the incident, the men can be seen being led by ropes tied to their arms by police officers while flanked by ununiformed individuals carrying long, heavy sticks as weapons. 

Dalit teen beaten, humiliated in Uttar Pradesh 

A Dalit teen and his aunt were beaten in Uttar Pradesh state after the teen relieved himself in a field belonging to an upper-caste Hindu. 

The man who owned the field,  Jagram Yadav, hurled casteist abuses at the minor, beat him, and forced him to remove his excreta from the field manually. Yadav also attacked the minor’s aunt when she attempted to save him. 

USCIRF official calls religious hatred in India “frightening”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), has called the rising religious hatred and intolerance in India “frightening,” stating that the nation is on a “downward spiral.”

“Religious discrimination should not be a matter of national pride,” he said.

USCIRF has been calling on the US State Department for the past four years to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), a label reserved for the world’s worst violators of religious freedom.