“Audacious, Hypocritical”: International Politicians, Lawyers, Human Rights Defenders Slam Targeting of Indian Muslim Activist & Fact-Checker in Criminal Cases

Washington, D.C. (December 6, 2024) – At an online event held today, politicians, lawyers, human rights defenders, and academics from the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, and India strongly condemned far-right Indian authorities’ targeting of prominent Muslim activist Nadeem Khan and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair through “audacious, hypocritical, and mean-spirited” criminal charges.

On November 30, Nadeem Khan, General Secretary of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), was booked by Delhi police for “portraying a particular community as oppressed” after APCR uploaded a YouTube video on the nationwide oppression of Indian minorities under the Modi regime. Police entered a private residence in Bengaluru where Khan was staying and intimidated him for several hours, attempting to coerce him to go to Delhi for questioning.  

On December 3, Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of the fact-checking website Alt News, was booked in a criminal case by Uttar Pradesh police, accused of “endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India” for criticizing hate speeches made by prominent Hindu supremacist monk Yati Narsinghanand. Zubair has been previously targeted in legal cases for his work in fact-checking government propaganda and spreading awareness about anti-minority hate crimes. 

“[Mohammed] Zubair and Nadeem Khan are among the most prominent and the fearless campaigners against the hate campaign and systematic victimization of Muslims in India,” said Prashant Bhushan, a Senior Advocate for the Supreme Court of India. “What we are seeing today is this ghastly spectacle… those people who are exposing this hate are being accused, in these FIRs, of promoting hate.”

“There are a string of cases like [Khan’s and Zubair’s] that reflect a broader pattern of state machinery being used by the BJP administration to target their critics and journalists in particular,” said David Shoebridge, State Senator from New South Wales, Australia. “We must, as a global community, speak out against these actions… we stand behind our friends, particularly those from minority communities, when they are being challenged by the gross abuse of state power.”

“It really is hard to digest and hard to fully grasp the audacity, the absurdity and the hypocrisy and the mean spiritedness of these misuses and abuses of law to go after critics [in India],” said John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch. “If Prime Minister Modi himself as a person is challenged and embarrassed on the world stage by the media, by other leaders, by other legislators about these misuses and abuses of law.. then it may have a tempering impact and lead to slightly fewer cases.”

“Hindu nationalism as a political ideology is structurally anti Muslim… And so when we see the targeting of Mohammed Zubair and Nadeem Khan, what we’re seeing is them targeted as part of a representative class en route to creating this sort of vicious, exclusionary, highly politicized version of Hindu identity,” said Dr. Audrey Truschke, a prominent scholar of South Asia and Associate Professor at Rutgers University. 

“What is chilling about these specific cases is the targeting of two people who are exposing these violations [against Indian Muslims],” said Safoora Zargar, Indian Human Rights Defender and former political prisoner. “Nadeem Khan, Mohammed Zubair, and organizations like APCR and Alt News need to be protected at any cost.”

“Zubair has been charged with threatening the sovereignty of the nation. Why? Because he called out hate speech… One cannot miss out the absurdity of the situation,” said Anuradha Bhasin, Managing Editor of the Kashmir Times. “While hate speech is being overlooked, even being rejoiced, criticizing it has become a crime. And this absurdity and irony, it plays out almost every day in today’s India, where the rule of law has been turned on its head and it operates in alignment with [Hindu nationalist ideology].” 

“Praying in public, posting on social media, buying or selling certain foods, running businesses in specific areas, having interfaith relationships, protesting against injustice, or simply existing as a Muslim—all of this has been criminalized [in Modi’s India]. It only follows that Muslims who expose or challenge these atrocities would also become targets,” said Safa Ahmed, Associate Director, Indian American Muslim Council. 

“Today I call for the release of [Khan and Zubair] and the many other brave human rights defenders and truth tellers that are unjustly incarcerated in India today: Umar Khalid, Sanjeev Bhatt, Khurram Parvez, and many, many others,” said Sunita Viswanath, Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights. “As a Hindu, I reject the hate project of the Hindutva regime and say, loud and clear: Not in my name.”

“Over the past 10 years, the Modi regime has ramped up its suppression and oppression of every Indian voice of freedom,” said author and journalist Pieter Friedrich. “As we stand in solidarity with Nadeem Khan and Mohammed Zubair and others, we must be willing to endure what it is they are enduring. Hindutva has gone global, and it demands a global coalition to fight it.”

“Old and new allies who have previously closely monitored the situations in India, held bilateral and trilateral dialogs not just with the government, but also with the Indian civil society on these issues, [must] continue to do that and continue to stand in solidarity with our human rights defenders, journalists, and political dissenters in India,” said Ritumbra Manuvie, Executive Director of the London Story.

“Hate cannot be prolonged forever,” said Faisal Khan, National Convenor of the modern-day Khudai Khidmatgar movement.

On December 5, global human rights groups released a joint statement urging Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police to immediately drop the cases against both Khan and Zubair. The statement was signed by the Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA), Justice For All (Save India From Fascism campaign), Foundation The London Story, India Labour Solidarity (UK), International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India), Association of Indian Muslims of America, and World Without Genocide.