Hindu supremacists push false claims of Muslims responsible for Odisha train accident
A verified Hindu supremacist Twitter account used the tragic Odisha train collision, which has left 275 dead and over 1,000 injured, to further anti-Muslim hatred by falsely claiming that Muslims were responsible for the deadly accident.
The account posted an aerial image of the train crash with an arrow pointing towards a domed structure that resembles a mosque.
“Just Saying… Yesterday Was Friday,” the tweet read, referring to Muslims’ day of congregational worship.
The hateful tweet garnered 4.2 million views and was retweeted 4,592 times, with Hindu extremists on social media tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanding that authorities “demolish all mosques that were in close proximity to the railway lines.”
However, Muslim journalist and fact-checker Mohammad Zubair debunked the tweet as a “conspiracy,” providing journalist-backed evidence that the structure labeled in the image is actually a temple.
Odisha police also slammed the conspiracy theory, calling it “highly unfortunate” that “some social media handles are mischievously giving communal color to the tragic train accident.”
The tweet has since been deleted.
Director announces upcoming anti-Muslim film
As the anti-Muslim film “The Kerala Story” continues to be praised by leaders from the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindu militant groups, a film director has announced a preview of yet another anti-Muslim movie.
The teaser of the film, “72 Hoorain,” opens with chants of “Allahu Akbar,” along with images of terrorist attacks and the faces of their perpetrators, including Osama bin Laden and several Indian Muslims convicted of terrorism.
“What if you end up dying a brutal death instead of meeting 72 virgins, as assured by terrorist mentors?” tweeted the film’s co-director, Ashoke Pandit, along with the teaser.
The film follows close behind two other anti-Muslim propaganda films, “The Kerala Story” and “The Kashmir Files,” both of which falsely depict Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.
Top Indian cricketer shares cartoon depicting Muslim men as violent, predatory
A cricket player has sparked outrage after he shared a hateful anti-Muslim cartoon on his Instagram story, which depicts Muslim men as predatory and violent towards Hindu women.
Fans and activists have slammed Gujarat Titans player Yash Dayal for promoting a Hindu extremist propaganda theory known as “love jihad,” which falsely claims Muslim men have an agenda to increase conversions to Islam by seducing Hindu women.
The image shared by Dayal shows a Muslim man holding a knife behind his back, convincing a blindfolded Hindu woman that “there is no love jihad, this is all propaganda” while surrounded by the graves of Hindu women.
After outrage from social media users, Dayal apologized for the offensive image, claiming he had posted it “by mistake.”
Social media users have pointed out that while Muslims are often booked and harassed by law enforcement for posting any content that criticizes Hindu extremists, hate speech posted by Hindus is rarely punished.
